Before joining forces in the late 1980s, Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin were mainstays of the traditional music world. Jody, a product of the vibrant New York City music scene, was well known for his soulful singing, a mastery of guitar and mandolin as well as banjo and fiddle, and for expanding the horizons of the music to include Bahaman, Cajun, and Celtic sources. Kate' s richly expressive vocals and rock-solid rhythm guitar, as well as her solo-flight kazoo and traditional banjo styles, were central to the success of two influential groups, Any Old Time and Blue Flame. The two bring traditional music to vibrant life with beautiful vocal harmony and an expressive and intensely personal brand of instrumental dialogue. Last year the duo released Songs of the Carter Family (Appleseed), an album capturing the spirit of A. P. Carter, his wife Sara, and sister-in-law Maybelle, the first commercially viable "hillbilly" musicians whose recordings, dating back to 1927, laid the groundwork for what we now call traditional folk and country music.