Lou and Peter Berryman - $12

Friday, August 1, 2008

In this special show by Madison's Lou and Peter Berryman, masters of the formerly-married genre of original folk music, the duo will resurrect a slew of their older songs such as the Williamson Street Shuffle, Are You Drinking With Me Jesus, Do You Think it's Gonna Rain, and the Lightbulb Hat. This is all in honor of the projected release of their comprehensive 300 page songbook of original ditties, due out in the fall of this year.

Lou and Peter have been writing quirky and occasionally profound songs and performing them since the Convention Center was a yurt on the berm of a fen, all the while accompanying themselves on accordion and guitar. They began their musical partnership in high school in Appleton, Wisconsin, way back in the mid sixties. By the eighties, they had established themselves as a fixture in the acoustic songwriting underworld of Wisconsin's capital, playing every week for almost ten years in the ramshackle but beloved Club de Wash. Meanwhile they began crisscrossing the continent and gaining national attention with appearances on such shows as A Prairie Home Companion and NPR's Weekend Edition. Festivals, folk music clubs, bake-offs, and private rec rooms all across the country now serve as venues for their unique works, which have been performed by everyone from Garrison Keillor to Peggy Seeger to Peter, Paul and Mary. They have released over a dozen recordings and three original songbooks.

Lou & Peter Berryman are the funniest thing on four legs and brilliant songwriters. -- Christine Lavin

Lou & Peter Berryman! Long may they wave! Their song "A Chat with your Mother" is one of the great American folksongs of the 20th century. -- Pete Seeger

Rhymes that rhyme! I love your material, and if I were still performing, I'd steal it! -- Tom Lehrer