The Strangelings Bio

The Strangelings

The Strangelings are Maura and Pete Kennedy, Chris Thompson, Rebecca Hall, Ken Anderson, with Cheryl Prashker and Eric Lee.

"Exhilarating songs of myth and magic featuring three women's voices in high-flying harmony backed by driving guitars and a buzzing electric sitar. The mix is exciting and energetic, and, in the best folk-rock tradition, it combines songs and stories that are both ancient and modern." -Tom Nelligan, Dirty Linen Magazine, Apr/May 2008

Maura Kennedy, who centers the band with her resonant vocals and powerful guitar, is, like her husband Pete Kennedy, a veteran of the folk and pop scenes. They both toured the United States and the British Isles as members of Nanci Griffith’s Blue Moon Orchestra, performing at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall and London’s Royal Albert Hall. They are featured on a number of Nanci’s CDs, including the Grammy-winning “Other Voices, Other Rooms”. In New York City, they were regulars at the legendary Bottom Line, and in 1999 they proudly accepted an invitation to become Artists-in-Residence at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. When they’re not on the road, Maura and Pete reside in a century-old schoolhouse in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Chris Thompson, vocalist and guitarist, has been an exciting fixture on the Boston scene for a number of years, performing at the city’s top venues, including the Somerville Theatre and historic Club Passim. Her songs are a regular fixture on WUMB, the folk powerhouse station of New England, and her song “Clearwater” is one of the anthems of the annual Clearwater Festival on the Hudson River. Blessed with a strong, soulful voice and a dynamic stage presence, Chris brings her early training as a gospel singer to the Strangelings powerful vocal mix.

Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson are, like the Kennedys, a husband-and-wife duo, who have devoted their lives to their music, touring the nation from coast to cast, delighting audiences with their own brand of self-described “retro-folk”. They share with the other Strangelings a love for the haunting, ancient ballads of the British Isles. Rebecca has a knack for writing songs that sound like legends, handed down for generations, and Ken’s bass provides a solid foundation for the group’s danceable grooves. When they’re not on the road, Rebecca and Ken relax and write in a tiny farmhouse on the slopes of Windham Hill in Southern Vermont.

At the prestigious Falcon Ridge Festival in 2007, the group made a dramatic move, surprising the audience with a new, expanded lineup. The addition of master percussionist Cheryl Prashker and young violin sensation Eric Lee launched the band into a larger arena, with a big, stage-filling sound that reaches to the far corners of the biggest festival site. The band discovered Eric in a jam session at a Falcon Ridge campsite, and plucked him off the hillside to join them on the main stage. Under a full moon, thousands of fans danced and rocked to his incendiary solos, cheering wildly for the extra-sensory chemistry between the scorching fiddle and Pete’s other-worldly electric sitar. In the final sum, however, it all comes down to the luminous blend of the three women, singing in harmony…Falcon Ridge Producer and Creative Director Anne Saunders had this to say: “SENSATIONAL, transcendent, beautiful, the perfect Saturday night closer in every way. Truly astonishing!