After meeting at that initial jam session, did you ever think about putting together a band or did you always envision this project as a duo?

Chris: I think it really developed naturally over time. The most fun we had playing music together was generally when it was just the two of us. The real spark was there when we could kind of flex together and sort of twist and turn at the drop of a hat. At this point—when we play live—the arrangements can change dramatically from night to night. All it takes is a look or a gesture of the instrument or even just a musical suggestion. We can easily change everything. That’s hard to do in a setting of more than two people. It was funny: when we did these jam sessions at the Baggot Inn where we met, we put in our time with the group. The Baggot Inn has all these nooks and crannies, and we’d find one and then just play as the two of us. That was when things really would come alive. We’d get a group of people watching us and then invariably someone would join in and we’d still have fun but it’d lose a little steam with each person that joined.

Michael: It’s always been about this particular music conversation between the two of us because our experience and sensibilities wind up in a particular way that balances each other out. When you add other elements, it kind of loses the balance that there is naturally with just the two of us.

Chris: It wasn’t that we said, “We need to do a duo like the great duos of the days before.” It just ended up being the most fun and when it came time to say, “Hey, we should actually do an informal show together.” There was no question of adding anyone else to the show. What was exciting to us was playing with the other dude and that was what we wanted to do in front of people.

Michael: And just like Chris said, it’s so flexible. We rearrange things on the spot all the time, and the fact that there’s so little involved in changing course makes it fun for us.

Chris: Also, we’ve got a new rule for ourselves. If we play on Sunday, which is the Lord’s day, we shouldn’t work, so we don’t write a setlist. So we just figure out what happens on stage, and it’s very difficult to do that in front of people— especially if they’re paying for the show. But I think we had one of our best shows on the last tour that night. We completely freestyle it.

Michael: You just got to respond more to the moment.

You mentioned the idea of not playing music as if it is a museum piece. On the flipside, many fans probably know many these traditional songs from more recent covers—the Grateful Dead’s version of “Cold Rain and Snow” for instance. Did any artists’ covers in particular influence your version of the songs on this record?

Chris: Speaking just for myself, I actually had no idea that the Dead did that song until we were at the Relix office and they requested it. I actually didn’t know, when I heard Michael sing that song I was like, “That is badass, let’s record it.” I think that’s as far as our choices of material goes, it really has nothing to do with the recorded history of any of them. It‘s like, “Do you dig this song? Let’s do it!”

Michael: With the possible exception being The Louvin Brothers—we’re both very crazy for them. We’ve had to kind of put our fandom of The Louvin Brothers aside and really figure out, “Oh well, is this song really working?” “Do we like it?”

Chris: Right, exactly.

Michael: We do tend to try to force The Louvin Brothers into our setlist, with varying degrees of success. “Running Wild” seemed to work well, and this other one we do, “The First One to Love You,” I think works pretty well. We’re working on trying to get some of the faster Louvin Brothers songs into our sets but we’re having a difficult time trying to do so. We’ll figure it out.

Now that you guys have successfully built this up project from a jam session to a full album with an accompanying tour, what’s the next step? Do you plan to go back to the studio or just continue to jam informally between your other projects?

Chris Probably a new album—I think it’s coming up with another group of tunes and not making the same album with different tunes on it. We don’t want to do that. There needs to be progress, and we’ve played more together this year than we ever have. I think with every show we’re having more fun and feeling like a “two-headed being.” I anticipate the next one will be a little like this one, only more so.

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