Pete and Maura Kennedy first met at the Continental Club, a roots rock mecca on the South side of Austin, Texas.  Maura lived just a few blocks away, and was gigging all around town as a rhythm guitarist and singer with an unusually wide pallet of influences.  By the time she had hit town, she was already a seasoned veteran of the upstate NY club circuit, having played in bands that focused on Ramones style punk, British folk/rock a la Fairport, and Everly influenced rock 'n' roll.  As a teen, she jumpstarted her career by landing the bass gig with youth-center faves The Antics.  "I was the only one old enough to drive!" She was happy living the Austin life, which mostly involved clubhopping along Congress Avenue, Guadalupe, and Sixth Streets, gigging and checking out other bands.  Still, she was looking for something that could combine her diverse tastes, especially under the friendly umbrella of jangly, guitar based pop.

Pete cites "Eight Miles High" as his formative tune.  "It combines Merseybeat pop, hardcore modal folk, Coltrane style jazz, Indian raga, and great harmonies all in one song.  Plus it's got a killer guitar solo!" The impressionable young guitarist took all this to heart and created his own eclectic style from this gumbo.  After a number of years under the casual tutelage of his late friend and mentor, Danny Gatton,  Pete graduated from the DC club scene and hit the road, as a band guy with Mary Chapin Carpenter and Nanci Griffith, and on his own, writing songs and doing solo gigs wherever the road led.

It was on one such trip that the duo first met at the aforementioned Continental Club, and their musical and personal chemistry was there right from the start.  "We had the same tastes, the same instincts--we knew it was meant to be, and all we had to do was get started." The opportunity came when Griffith offered them the opening slot on a two month tour of Europe.  The Kennedys wrote songs, woodshedded, and learned to be themselves onstage across the British Isles, and came home with a guitar case full of unusual songs--part Yeats, part Rubber Soul, and part Buddy Holly (their first date was a road trip to the bespectacled rockers grave in Lubbock, Texas).  These songs became their first cd, "River of Fallen Stars".

Several years on the road hardened them into a more organic, rocking unit--a change reflected on their next cd, "Life is Large".  This time around their love of pure pop was front and center, and they gave props to some major influences--Roger McGuinn, Steve Earle, Nils Lofgren, Peter Holsapple--by featuring them on the record.

"Life is Large" established the Kennedys as a hard-touring road act with a respectable cult following.  Their next project, "Angel Fire" was a more acoustic, lyric-centered portrait of the duo's musical and literary tastes.  "It's a very personal record, probably the closest thing to a snapshot of what we're like during our infrequent breaks from the road".

Now, with "Evolver", the Kennedys return to their first love--upbeat, jangly pop.  The album is classic Kennedys, with bell-like Rickenbackers and soaring harmonies, but the songwriting and production take bold steps where no Kennedy has gone before.  Snatches of hiphop meld with moptop pop, and jangling Rickenbackers ride a fresh groove--tauter and funkier.  The title "Evolver" suggests that they've broken new ground, staked new territory for themselves, and they have.  It's a new century, and pop doesn't sound the same as it did last century.  Neither do the Kennedys.  Check it out.