John and Rachel Nicholas

Artist Information

Biography

"Not only are your voices great but your songs are great ...and your presentation is magic!" Debra Cowan, performing artist

From one coast to another, from cover bands to Latin fusion, to original rock and acoustic; from day jobs and child rearing - John and Rachel have been through it all together. Add time, love, tears, laughter and the result is a musical alchemy all their own. Their lyrical songs are an eclectic brew of Americana highlighted by soulful singing and harmonies that attain a rare synergy.

They have shared the stage with Chris Smither, Barbara Kessler, Les Sampou, Mary Gauthier, Aztec Two Step, Paul Sullivan of the Paul Winter Consort, Ronnie Gilbert, Rod MacDonald and many others.
John's song "America, Its You" was a finalist in the 2010 Great American Song Contest.

Quotes

"They sing with one voice." Tom O'Donovan, Blue Angel Cafe, ME

"The best harmonies I've heard in years!" John Sares, Hardware Cafe, MA

Past Performances:

Northeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference Showcase Artists 1998
1998 Boston Folk Festival
Passim - Cambridge, MA
Falcon Ridge Folk Festival - Fast Folk Stage, Hillsdale, NY
Off the Common CH - Bridgewater, MA
Art Barn Songwriter Series - Cotuit, MA
No Place Special House Concerts - Mashpee, MA
First Encounter CH - Eastham, MA
The Hardware Cafe - Marion, MA
Stone Soup CH - Providence, RI
Blue Angel Cafe - Camden, ME
Wintertide CH - Martha`s Vineyard, MA
Coffeehouse On the Corner - Braintree, MA
Harbor Square Gallery - Rockland, ME
Southshore Folk Music Club - Kingston, MA
Nameless Coffeehouse - Cambridge, MA
Linden Tree CH - Wakefield, MA
Benefit CH - Marstons Mills, MA
Jumping Mouse CH - Cataumet, MA
WBNERR Earth Day CH -Waquoit, MA
New Alchemy Reunion, New Alchemy Institute - Hatchville, MA
Ocean Arks International - Falmouth, MA
Community Care Services PACT Program Retreats
Marine Biological Laboratory Elderhostels
Strand Theater - Rockland, Maine
Lily Auditorium - Woods Hole, MA
Navigator Coffeehouse – East Falmouth, MA
Sweet Chariot South Music Festival – Boston, MA

Instrumentation

John Nicholas- Vocals & Acoustic Guitar
Rachel Nicholas- Vocals & Percussion

Discography

HERE YOU ARE (CD -available on CD Baby, iTunes, DigStation, and others)

THE ROAD HOME (CD)
WHEN MYSTERY CALLS (cassette)

Official Website

http://www.JohnandRachelNicholas.com

Links

• YouTube
• Facebook
• FaceBook

Audio

• People Like Us
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• America It's You
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• Everything I Need
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• Hold On
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• At The Crossroads
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• Hole in This House
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• What Were We High On?
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• Here You Are
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• Brand New Heart
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• Time Moves On
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Lyrics

• Hold On
• People Like Us
• America, Its You

Video

LIVE "Worry Worry" & "People Like Us"

Photo Gallery

Press

• Golden Flash Web Radio [+ Show ]
  

  ‘Here You Are’ (CD) has no weak moments and fits perfectly in my show. John and Rachel Nicholas remi...‘Here You Are’ (CD) has no weak moments and fits perfectly in my show. John and Rachel Nicholas remind me of other duo's like Buddy & Julie Miller - and yes - also Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris. Each has a very beautiful voice and together they bring that special close harmony. The songs are strong and diverse, and the whole CD is a nice piece of American roots music.
  Ray Pieters
  
  
  
  
  
  

• The Alternate Root [+ Show ]
  

  From “The Alternate Root” online magazine published 3/5/10 written by Danny McCloskey The m...From “The Alternate Root” online magazine
  published 3/5/10
  
  written by Danny McCloskey
  
  The music of husband/wife duo John and Rachel Nicholas is planted in a comfortable acoustic sound. Folk music is a welcoming style, however, so sonic friends drop in. Lap steel, concertina, electric guitar and keyboards all make an appearance on “Here You Are”. The album’s title multi-tasks as opening song with a story that marries fact and judgment in the narrators observations. The blending of John and Rachel’s vocals intertwine nicely. Rachel’s husky voice is grounding. It thrusts into each note with a commanding presence. John’s voice lends tenderness and warmth. The result is a force that commands the songs and their tales with ease. The song topics are based in modern life. ‘People Like Us” (our free download) is a great overview of how intention is overshadowed by reality. Without succumbing to complaints, the tale sketches a picture of real people living real lives. The companion tales that come together as ‘Here You Are’, the album, fall in line with that form. The topics are a clear telling of how life is lived with two. The couple comes through in the story lines as strongly as in the harmonies. Whether discussing the ups (‘Everything I Need’) and downs (‘What Were We High On’), advice as a promise (‘Hold On’) or a regret (‘Time Moves On’), the songs offer clear views and honest words.
  John and Rachel Nicholas describe their style as soulful acoustic music. The nickname fits. Their voices come from the passion of truth and move atop arrangements that rarely stray from their openings but provide a strong cornerstones from which the tales can build.
  

• John and Rachel Nicholas "Here You Are" [+ Show ]
  

  By Marilyn Rowland “Here You Are,” John and Rachel Nicholas’s new CD, which John recorded himself...By Marilyn Rowland
  
  “Here You Are,” John and Rachel Nicholas’s new CD, which John recorded himself in his home studio, has been three years in the making and is a tribute to their 32-year journey together. The ten songs on the album, all written by John, with input from Rachel, are thoughtful and bittersweet, reflecting their growth through time, geography, music, and life’s trials and tribulations; they express, above all, their love and support of each other and their family and friends. The lyrics are intelligent and poetic, and the music, in a soulful acoustic Americana folk style, with a touch of rock and showcases both of their voices and blends the two in compelling harmonies.
  Rachel has a particularly warm, resonant voice, and she sings from the heart, especially in her lament about her daughter leaving home to (“I cant get in the way as she strikes out on her own”) in “Hole in This House.” John sings about America and the common man in the Guthrie tradition, about the optimism of youth and the realities of aging, particularly in “America, It’s You” and “People Like Us” and “Time Moves On,” and together they offer beautiful harmonies and strong melodies. There is a sense of sorrow or yearning to many of their songs, but there is a hopefulness too, a kind of sadder-but-wiser outlook on life.
  They sing about love, but not about the dizzy bloom of young love. They sing of love enduring over the years, love through major and minor crises, love amid the ups and downs of daily life. And they do it eloquently, with well-chosen poetic words that reflect their warm and generous personalities.
  The title song, “Here You Are,” offers compassion and support to someone who is despondent, who cannot see how far he has come. It is dedicated to John’s brother, who died about two and a half years ago. The song is, in John’s words, “an internal dialogue confronting self-pity and depression.”
  Here you are and you’re telling stories
  About your long-ago, once-upon glories
  If you could just see that you’ve come this far,
  Oh here you are.
  Here’s where you are.
  Later in the song, John sings of “your woeful grace” and “your trunk full of what-could-have-beens,” evoking poignant images of
  Kind of a nostalgia or sad-yet-hopeful feel to the songs.
  It is a touching song that many may relate to. In “Hold On,” John asserts his willingness to help: “If troubles were stones, I’d lift yours with all my might.” “People Like Us” is upbeat and jaunty, even as it verbalizes the financial worries of everyday people. “Crossroads” reflects on the curves and bumps in the road of life. They are not your standard love songs, and all the more reason to take a listen.
  Originally from Long Island, John met Rachel after he moved out to California. Rachel, from Santa Monica, auditioned as a vocalist for his rock band Bakiste (pronounced “Back East”) in Santa Barbara, and they have been together ever since, despite Rachel’s vow not to date anyone in the band. John and Rachel became friends first, and that friendship has thrived and is manifested in their singing, their performances, and their lives together.
  After the rock band broke up, the two performed in a Latin jazz group, which opened for big names like B.B. King in the late 1970s. In 1980, John was asked to play bass on an album being recorded in New York, so they moved to Manhattan and Rachel did her senior nursing residency at Hunter College.
  By 1982, they had realized they were “not cut out to live in Manhattan,” and accepted an invitation from Chris LoCascio to “come to the Cape, paint [houses] and have a band.” They settled in East Falmouth and formed a band right away, Endgame, adding a bass player and a drummer to Chris’s piano and their guitar and vocals and played throughout the Cape.
  In 1988, John and Rachel shifted their focus to acoustic American music, and in 1989, they formed their duo, Dreamwork, and began performing in coffeehouses such the South Shore Folk Music Club in Kingston, initially on Open Mike night. They opened for Aztec Two-Step at the First Encounter Coffeehouse in Eastham, and performed last year at the Third Fret in Marstons Mills and the Navigator Coffeehouse in East Falmouth, and recently at No Place Special in Mashpee, as well as many others over the years.
  I met Rachel and John about 8 years ago, when they performed with Dreamspinners, a women’s chorus created and led by Shirley D’Estete of Mashpee. The group included both singers like me who had never sung before and singers like Rachel who clearly had. Both our teenage daughters were in the chorus too, and there were several other mother-daughter pairs in the group, which focused on songs of compassion and healing. I loved hearing Rachel’s strong and passionate voice, in solos, or as part of the chorus—she contributed not only to the overall quality of sound of the group, but to the musical education of people like me.
  “For this sleepy little town,” said Rachel, “there are so many things like that [Dreamspinners] that keep me going.”
  At that time they were still known as Dreamwork (The name of the chorus, Dreamspinners, was unrelated). After DreamWorks Pictures was created, “the name didn’t feel original any more,” and the duo decided to use their own names as their band name, which, they said, was more appropriate in the folk world.
  Their musical influences have been the Beatles (“We grew up on the Beatles. We thought folk music was ‘Rubber Soul,’” said John), the Band (“the ultimate roots band, sounding like they were coming from the Civil War”), Bruce Springstein (“We have always been Springstein fans), American fiddle music, Emmy Lou Harris, Steve Earl, and, in general, “people who sing about life and emotion,” including Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens.
  John quoted a definition he read describing folk music as “music where the story is more important than the song,” and he is proud of the fact that the words in his songs “mean something.” He credits Rachel with coming up with some of the ideas for songs. “She is a very good arranger, and she gives good editorial advice and helps create the vocal harmonies” that the duo is known for. They have been described as “singing with one voice,” and that is an apt description of their vocal harmonies.
  The realities of earning a living and day-to-day life interrupted John and Rachel’s musical journey for a few years, but, in the past three years, they have returned to active singing, recording, and performing. “It is important for music and art to be seen and heard,” said John.
  He named his recording studio Jumping Mouse Records in honor of a native American folk tale, in which a tiny, but courageous, mouse, taking a leap of faith, jumps high in the air and becomes a soaring eagle. See FirstPeople for one version of this tale.
  You can hear John and Rachel’s new CD on their MySpace page, and it can be purchased at CDBaby. For more information on John and Rachel, see their website.
  Upcoming Events
  John and Rachel Nicholas are having a CD release party on Saturday, April 10, at 7:30 PM at the Navigator Coffeehouse in East Falmouth. Tickets are $15. For more information, see John and Rachel’s site at or the Navigator Coffeehouse.
  They will help the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (WBNERR) in East Falmouth celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on Saturday, April 24, as they have every year for the past 15 years. Performing with them will be Hugh O’Doherty and Denny Jeff Schwartz, both singer/songwriters. Admission is $10, $5 if you bring your own coffee mug.
  On Saturday, May 1, you can catch them at the West Falmouth Library, where they will be performing a special fundraising concert for the library at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $10.
  In June, John and Rachel will be performing in at the Sweet Chariot South Music Festival in West Roxbury.

• Driftwood CH [+ Show ]
  

  " Intoxicating, with a rhythmic and emotional pulse, their music encompasses all that is divine." Da..." Intoxicating, with a rhythmic and emotional pulse, their music encompasses all that is divine." David Jackson, The Driftwood CH

• Geoff Bartley [+ Show ]
  

  "I'm impressed with your CD... well produced and evocative themes..." Geoff Bartley, singer-songwrit..."I'm impressed with your CD... well produced and evocative themes..." Geoff Bartley, singer-songwriter
  

• Heartsong [+ Show ]
  

  "Inspiring songs with hauntingly beautiful harmonies and a refreshing mood of hope." The Heartsong R..."Inspiring songs with hauntingly beautiful harmonies and a refreshing mood of hope." The Heartsong Review

Setlist

Typical Folk venue sets are any where between 30- 60 minutes.
We can provide up to two 45-50 minute sets of Original music with a few selected covers if appropriate.

Basic Requirements

Calendar