Green and Root

Artist Information

Biography

GREEN AND ROOT

Green and Root have had a good year. They have sold over 1000 copies of “Down That Road”, single handedly just this past summer. “Down That Road” is a 50/50 dish of autobiographical pep talks and break your heart-openers done with an intimate yet spirited mix of Folk, Pop, and Americana. The earthy yet smooth sounding production cradles masterful original songs, sung by innocent voiced Green and alto crooner Root blending in lush harmony. From the first song to the last, the album seduces the heart of the listener, leaving them shaky and euphoric. With fans writing things like “these songs are the most inspiring piece of humanity that I have encountered in ages,” they must be doing something right!

“Down That Road” has been know to cause goosebumps and tears. The more exuberant “Multiheaded Heart” (1999) is Green’s debut solo album. “Multiheaded Heart,” produced expertly by prodigious jazz guitarist Mimi Fox, contains world, jazz, folk and rock elements. It paints a colorful symphony of “a goddess on fire” (Reclaiming Quarterly). IndieMusic.com called ”Multiheaded Heart” “a masterpiece” and Green a “great singer-songwriter… one that not only makes you hear, but one that makes you desire and feel."

Green and Root have toured the West Coast extensively, performing at Festivals, Colleges, Conferences, Radio Stations and Venues like the Freight and Salvage (Berkeley, CA), The Capitol Steps (Washington DC), the Michigan Women’s Music Festival Closing Ceremony, The Elbo Room (San Francisco, CA), Stanford University, the University of Hawaii, and UC Berkeley. They have shared the stage with artists such as Julie Wolf (Ani DiFranco’s band), Mimi Fox, Shelley Doty, Rebecca Riots, Lucy Blu Trombley, Alice DiMicele, Nedra Johnson, Kindness, Gwen Avery, Julia Butterfly Hill, Copperwimmen and Rachel Garlin.

TV – CSpan, QTelevision Network, OutoftheClosetTV.com

PRINT – The Advocate, Curve Magazine, The Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Guardian, East Bay Express, Bay Times, Indie-music.com

RADIO – KPFA (Berkeley, CA), Amazon Radio (Washington DC), KBIG (Hilo, HI), KSER (Seattle, WA), and many more

CONTESTS - Best song for “Down That Road” at the
West Coast Songwriter’s Association Competition Runner up for “Thinking Like This” from the Recording Academy’s Unplugged Unsigned song contest (2000).

For more about 'Down That Road', visit www.greenandroot.com
For more about 'Multiheaded Heart', visit
www.greenhuse.com

THE ARTISTS

Green has always had music in her life. Singing before she spoke, she grew up dancing or with headphones on her head, awed and amazed by such masterpieces as Hey Jude and Bridge Over Troubled Water. Armed with 12 years of piano lessons from age 5, clarinet with the school band at 9 and guitar at 10, she learned pop, rock, classical, then focused on flamenco and folk guitar and singing in college. A studio art major, she focused as well on painting. Cover art for both CD’s are original Green paintings, as well as most of the artwork in the CD booklets. She began writing her own songs when she escaped from her hometown of Los Angeles to the mountains of Oregon, where she healed the city haze in a very rustic cabin in the woods in her early 20’s. Not able to lug her piano up the mountain path, her guitar became her companion. Her first collection of songs, documenting the multiple sides of love and loss, was released in 1999 as “Multiheaded Heart.”

Root first joined forces with Green co-writing First Time Again, a sultry ballad from Multiheaded Heart. Together they worked on the booking and promotion for the first Multiheaded Heart Tour. Starting out as the sound engineer, Root soon took her prior musical experience as a singer and guitarist onto the stage, harmonizing with Green whenever possible. The two soulmates produced “Down That Road” together, and now perform together regularly.

Root refers to herself as a desert baby uprooted to the east coast, where soggy gray winters nearly ruined her before her 1996 escape. Craving big skies and open road, she embarked on a life altering, solo cross-country journey aboard her motorcycle. Equipped with a backpack, camping gear, a guitar and a dream, she set off in search of herself. She found some huge pieces in a reflection of the Rio Grande a few miles from her New Mexico birthplace and collected the rest in bits and pieces along the 8000-mile trail. Inexplicable magnetic forces drew her to Berkeley where she finally met her match – geographically, musically and personally.

THE ALBUM

Down That Road is a storybook of diverse subject matter expressed with delicate mastery. The sometimes spare, sometimes full production cradles themes of creativity, marriage, spirituality and death. The album plays earthy and intimate, sometimes vulnerable with Green’s own unique rhythmic guitar style as the foundation. The album is impressively self produced with a variety of mainly acoustic instruments, including cello, piano, harmonium, slide guitar, accordion, pedal steel, flugelhorn, wurlitzer, stand up bass and drums. Each song features Green’s unforgettable soprano voice which navigates through the thoughtful and heartbreaking lyrics with Root’s lush harmonies filling out the sound.

When conceiving this album, Green and Root wanted to make a CD that spoke to the issues which concerned them, things they talked about late at night or on the road, the things that made them crazy. They wanted to make a difference in the world somehow with their music. They strove to move away from songs about love and heartbreak, but what emerged taught them that love and heartbreak are inseparable from the human journey. The new songs broaden the notion of who we are in relationship with. Now the relationships are not just with a lover, but with oneself, one’s mother, the muse, a friend, a neighbor, the natural environment and its spirit.

Little did they know that in the middle of this project, the most traumatic and difficult thing Green had yet faced in her life would occur: her fit and active mother was diagnosed with and eventually taken by cancer. Through this awful tragedy, they recorded two new songs about Green’s experience with her Mom’s illness and death, “Lift My Head” and “Down That Road.”

The line “I told you that I’d be ok, I’ll take my first step down that road” popped out and seemed to speak for many of the experiences Green and Root have been through, leading “Down That Road” to become the title track. These include their experience of 9/11, the steady decline of the environment, and their own personal journeys of healing through grief, as well as through love and marriage.

The writing on this album is credited to Green yet Root’s feedback and editing are essential to Green’s writing process. They describe their songs as “biographical pep talks” because “that’s what it feels like when we’re singing them.” These songs are born from an aching place in the heart making them an accessible expression of the collective universal experience. With its potent blend of fresh and memorable songs, this album forges a path that gives us some insight into the struggles and triumphs of our lives. The going is not always easy or the path clear, but take a first step we must, Down That Road.

Instrumentation

Green: lead vocals, guitar, piano
Root: harmony vocals, guitar, penny whistle, boron

Discography

DownThat Road (2004)

1. Down That Road
2. Home
3. Marrying You
4. Cottonwood
5. Lift My Head
6. Lavender Bowers
7. Ronnie's Song
8. When We Cry
9. Not So Thick
10. Naivete

Multiheaded Heart (1999)

1. Pele's Body
2. Thinking Like This
3. Kitchen Table
4. Leather and Chrome
5. Beautiful Angel
6. Jumping Into The Sun
7. Reel You In
8. First Time Again
9. Train
10. Catch Me Falling

Official Website

http://www.greenandroot.com

Links

• MySpace
• Last.fm
• Facebook
• Twitter

Audio

Lyrics

• Down That Road
• Home
• Thinking Like This
• Marrying You
• Enough!
• Enough!

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Down That Road Reviews [+ Show ]
  

  "Beyond the professional craftsmanship of Green's poetic songs and the angelic blend of her and Root..."Beyond the professional craftsmanship of Green's poetic songs and the angelic blend of her and Root's harmonies is an innocent, idealistic, joyful and optimistic world-view. All this perseveres within the context of the tough life issues they confront in the songs. A beautiful and thought-provoking album."
  John Braheny
  Author - The Craft and Business of Songwriting
  
  "On “Down That Road,” the two voices sound as if they were destined to find each other. Green takes the lead with her pristine soprano vocals and Root adds masterfully restrained alto harmonies."
  Jim Harrington
  Oakland Tribune 2004
  
  "Luxuriant vocals range effortlessly, yet these songs pack a wallop of brutally clear insight. Green and Root get the balance just right."
  Reclaiming Quarterly
  
  "These songs are the most inspiring piece of humanity that I have encountered in ages!"
  Fan Brittany Ceres
  
  “I put your album on today and I just started crying. It is so freakin’ good! You guys are incredible! I can’t say enough about so great your album is! It’s freakin’ incredible. You guys are gonna be giant!”
  Singer-songwriter and software programmer Charlie Cheney
  
  “I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new record!! it's just gorgeous - on every level”
  Singer-songwriter Kym Tuvim
  
  "You two are living examples of artists who use music to help change the world! We will do this together."
  Molly McKay
  Associate Executive Director of MECA Marriage Equality California

• Multiheaded Heart Reviews [+ Show ]
  

  "FRESH, ORIGINAL AND ADDICTIVE…" --Dinah Urall, Hipfish , Northcoast, OR "Enjoyably rooted in ...
  "FRESH, ORIGINAL AND ADDICTIVE…"
  --Dinah Urall, Hipfish , Northcoast, OR
  
  "Enjoyably rooted in early Joni Mitchell and Shawn Colvin's confessional styles, Green's lovely voice and appealing melodies show A BRIGHT FUTURE ahead."
  --Dirty Linen
  
  "Completely refreshing songwriter… vocals that drip with passion and presence."
  --Howard Mint, San Francisco Bay Guardian
  
  "No ordinary folksinger and no ordinary CD, (Multiheaded Heart) is A MASTERPIECE. Green is comfortable as a singer; her voice caresses and cradles her words, pushing them into the deep, feeling parts of your mind. That's just what a GREAT SINGER-SONGWRITER does: not only make you hear, but make you desire and feel."
  --Les Reynolds, Indie-Music.com
  
  "delicate and brutally honest at the same time… poetic."
  --Tom Leopold, Marin Scope
  
  "A TALENT TO WATCH: ambitious, inclusive, and such a solid musician, one never doubts she'll hit any note she's aiming for."
  --Larry Kelp, East Bay Express, Berkeley, CA
  
  "Green's voice is clear and honest, fearlessly going for the high notes and sailing through wordy phrases and lyrics that are refreshingly void of cliches."
  --Mare Wakefield, Eugene Weekly, OR
  
  "…MULTI-DIMENSIONAL… Green doesn't attempt to wrap (her music) in a pretty pop bow… If you've ever felt torn, burned, ecstatic or demanding- and you like the sound of a GODDESS ON FIRE- you'll let (Multiheaded Heart) squeeze you until you're breathless… and love it."
  --Elka Eastly, Reclaiming Quarterly

• Two Of A Kind [+ Show ]
  

  OAKLAND TRIBUNE INTERVIEW MAY 28, 2004 TWO OF A KIND Green and Root enjoying success both pe...OAKLAND TRIBUNE INTERVIEW
  MAY 28, 2004
  
  TWO OF A KIND
  
  Green and Root enjoying success both personally and professionally
  By Jim Harrington
  
  Green and Root changed their names. They changed their lives. Now, they’ve changed their music.
  
  In1999, the Berkeley-based singer-songwriter Green released her debut record, “Multiheaded Heart,” and began making her mark as a solo artist on the West Coast folk scene. The Southern California native, who was born Anne Huse, was new at the game but she learned quickly.
  
  “I didn’t know anything about it,” Green says. “Was someone going to call me in two weeks and say “Hey, you’re rich”? Was anybody going to even listen to it?
  
  A few years earlier, Root, born Anna Musco, left the East Coast and settled in the East Bay. Shortly thereafter she began singing in a local folk duo. “I found myself not really fitting in in Pittsburgh,” Root says. “So I bought a motorcycle and drove around the country. I moved to Berkeley in 1997.”
  
  The two musicians met just days after Root arrived in the East Bay, but it would be a year or more before they would join forces – personally and professionally. The duo got married in front of 100 family members and friends in the fall of 2001 and they officially reconfirmed those vows earlier this year at San Francisco City Hall.
  
  Nearly as significant, Green and Root would become musical partners. The result of that collaboration can be heard on the recently released “Down That Road.”
  
  In a way, the album, credited to both artists, just makes official what has been taking place for years. Root was a big part of Green’s solo career. She encouraged Green to cut “Multiheaded Heart.” She also helped book a tour that followed the record’s release and traveled with Green from city to city.
  
  As the months progressed, Root’s involvement grew. Although Green wrote all the lyrics, Root helped edit and polish the words. She also took an increasingly important role in the live show, adding harmony vocals and helping the painfully shy Green deal with crowds.
  
  When it came time to record “Down That Road,” they both stepped up to the project. Their different backgrounds are part of the reason Green and Root works.
  
  Green always knew that she wanted to be a performer and readied herself with piano and guitar lessons at an early age. When she moved to the Bay Area in the early 90’s, it was with the intent of making it as a singer-songwriter.
  
  Root “grew up in an Irish family singing Irish songs,” but her path was less clear. She went to college on an athletic scholarship, worked as an electrician and dabbled in music. Still, as Green was embarking on a performance career in the mid-90’s, Root still had a lot to learn about music.
  
  “I had never heard of the Indigo Girls. I had never heard of Sarah McLachlan.” Root says. “When I heard the Indigo Girls, I was so impressed with them that it wasn’t enough to just listen to their songs, I wanted to play them. So I took the guitar out from under the my bed and dusted it off.”
  
  On “Down That Road,” the two voices sound as if they were destined to find each other. Green takes the lead with her pristine soprano vocals and Root adds masterfully restrained alto harmonies.
  
  Beyond the addition of Root’s harmony vocals, other aspects separate the lovelorn “Multiheaded Heart” from the diversely appealing “Down That Road.” As the name suggests, “Multiheaded Heart” focused almost exclusively on diary-friendly heartache material. “Down That Road” takes a broader approach, tackling such themes as creativity, marriage, spirituality, the environment and death.
  
  “To me, it feels like an album of short stories,” Green says of her new record. “The first album was more like a novel about one topic with a bunch of chapters.” Two of the most touching chapters, “Lift My Head” and the title track, deal with the death of Green’s mother after a painful battle with cancer.
  
  The song that is likely to garner the most attention is “Marrying You,” a celebration of the couple’s happy union and a defiant charge against members of both the straight and gay communities who were less than supportive of the marriage. The duo has even produded a video for the song, which mixes footage of their own wedding and those of others at city hall.
  
  Green and Root are aware that “Marrying You,” as well as their very “out” relationship, could make them poster children for gay marriage. They aren’t looking to champion a type of lifestyle. But they do think that being open about their union could help generate greater understanding among people who might now know any gay couples. “Every single time somebody comes out I think it helps,” Root says. “Because all of a sudden they have a real person to connect with the issues of gay rights.”
  
  Living and touring together, spending days in the studio and nights at home, can test even the strongest bond. Luckily, Green and Root have their priorities in order. “Our marriage comes first,” Green says. “It’s really important to us that the music doesn’t get in the way of that.”
  
  The immediate future calls for the duo to support the new album with numerous live shows. Beyond that, things are wide open. “Maybe the next album will be solo,” Green says. “Who knows?” “We will see how this goes,” Root agrees. “But,” Green adds with a smile, “so far this is going pretty good.”
  

• Indie-Music.com [+ Show ]
  

  by Les Reynolds CD: Multiheaded Heart Right away, the incredibly crisp, clean and sharp sounds...by Les Reynolds
  
  CD: Multiheaded Heart
  
  Right away, the incredibly crisp, clean and sharp sounds penetrate and Green's soprano-alto voice wafts over and around the lyrics. Right away, you know she's no ordinary folk singer, this is no ordinary CD.
  
  Producer Mimi Fox has engineered a masterpiece. Built around the Berkeley, California singer-songwriter's silken vocals, piano and clever lyrics, she has assembled a top-notch core team: Marc Van Wageningen on bass; the percussion/drumming of Kelly Fastman, backing vocals from Helen Chaya and Fox's own amazing guitar licks.
  
  Green herself has also created masterpieces with her words. Vivid imagery is used in descriptive, realistic slice-of-life vignettes. On one of the prettiest melodies ("Your Kitchen Table"), Green's piano-driven lyrics give a perfect example: "Your kitchen table is under the window yellow light on plums and apples Sometimes we sat there, the air carved our bodies out of space while you wished I were more powerful..."
  
  or, from "Leather and Chrome," "I'm thinking of you flying, riding on your bike cutting through the blackness, flesh, leather and chrome I think of how well I fit in your clothes and I think of how well my hand fits in you."
  
  No matter how the phrases are crafted, it's that voice and Mimi Fox's wonderful guitar that really ice the cake on this 10-song release. Green's comfortable as a singer. Her voice caresses and cradles her words -- and her sound caresses the listener's ears.
  
  Overall, there are several great tunes: the opener "Pele's Body," the previously-mentioned "Kitchen Table," "Thinking Like This" (Mimi's guitar!!!!!!!) "Jumping Into the Sun," (one of the few up-tempo songs) and "Train" -- a slow, sensual, jazzy/bluesy bass-and piano-driven tune. Here, Green lets her voice go. "Oh do you see those birds a flyin' on the horizon, oh can't you see, can't you hear, can't you feel them weave and hum.." Her voice pushes the lines of music into the deep, feeling parts of your mind.
  
  That's just what a great singer-songwriter does: not only make you hear, but make you desire and feel.

• Reclaiming Quarterly [+ Show ]
  

  Review of ‘Down That Road’ Summer 2004 Avowed fans of local favorite Green's finely wrought d...
  Review of ‘Down That Road’
  Summer 2004
  
  Avowed fans of local favorite Green's finely wrought diva folk, we are now fans of Green and Root's latest CD, Down That Road. Root, Green's life partner, joins with seamless alto harmonies, providing back up in vocals and onstage at the recent release concert. Their partnering on this co-production is masterful and speaks of the marvelous Tao that shines so brightly through this acoustic food for the soul. Luxuriant vocals range effortlessly, yet these songs pack a wallop of brutally clear insight. Green and Root get the balance just right.
  
  Down That Road, the first cut (is the deepest, in a CD that cuts deep), weighs the grief and the blessing of a mother/daughter love brought into sharp focus by death. The pain of loss is tolerable only by the joy of courageous love; the heights achievable by familiarity with the depths. This is intelligent, elegant stuff.
  
  The sound quality and production are excellent, which is good because its getting a lot of play at our house. This Cozy Goat Record (Berkeley) features fine local musicians on slide and acoustic guitar, electric bass and drums with the occasional wurlitzer for good measure. A gifted lyricist, Green’s songs (she writes, sings and plays guitar) are delicious melodic musings that get under your skin and provide a balm to the soul.
  
  These songs scoop you gently forward though life passages, inspiring and encouraging as a good friend. Marrying You is the theme song (with a great video) for this decade’s civil rights battle -the right to queer marriage. Check out the website (with performances listed) and support these pagan community gems. Whether singing of the dance between urban and wild, personal and political, or despondent and ecstatic, the Tao of Green and Root’s Down That Road is a sweet nectar.
  

• Weaving Love and Connection [+ Show ]
  

  When asked to review their new CD, "Down that Road", I was so excited!:) because in the last few...
  
  When asked to review their new CD, "Down that Road", I was so excited!:) because in the last few months it has absolutely been one of my favorite musical companions. It takes the craft of songwriting and does my favorite things; it brings it home to community and family, to earth consciousness, and shares the deep revelations of soul mates. This art is made with deep purpose and meaning. It is a prayer, and an offering of spirit.
  
  Green and Root's voices and spirits offer a sanctuary for pagan and queer communities. They also offer a strong, yet gentle transition place for the more mainstream communities to begin to open to marriage between women. These are true folk songs. There is something that seems so easy and real and basic about
  their love, as if there has always been a cozy niche in the world for romantic love between women. This album is truly a healing and a revolutionary act of courage. It is graceful. It is a joyous and generous merging to witness.
  
  Green's songwriting poetically weaves love and connection, whether it be with her beloved, with the natural world, with her mother, with her relationship with muse, or with death. Root's harmonies and technical skills weave in support, foundation, and deep beauty. These melodies have emotional depth that build and change and that ebb and flow, into both darkness and light, journey into grief, mourning and fear, and then transition into hope and emergence. It is an honest human portrayal, and an intimate soul
  journey.
  
  As much as this album is about marriage, love and devotion to partnership, it is also deeply about Green's process around her mother's death. The reverence and love that Green shows in her grieving process is profound. Her love and devotion for her partner, as well as for the mourning of her mother, creates the feeling that Green has a very imminent, real, and present relationship with Goddess. That the love for the divine mother and earth mother merge and blend often for her. It is a blessing for the listener to be given this healing...
  
  The reverence for Goddess is apparent in so many ways. Green's connection to Earth mother, to the river muse,to the flowers, and with the fairy folk, is medicine for the urban witch. Her journeys are an honest and poignant portrayal of both the courage it takes and
  the heartbreak that occurs, while living in the city, and the journeys one takes to renew the spirit and to call it home. Green's songs can feel frolicy, earthy, sometimes sunny, sometimes misty, and always emotionally moving and joyfully metaphoric.
  
  This album is organically Green and Root. It's humble and powerful. It makes you feel like the heart is truly the place that you want to come home to. Green and Root's dedication to the creative soul, to renewal and transformation, and to growth within partnership, is deeply rooted and flowering in this beautifully crafted work of art.

Setlist

Usually one or two 50 minute sets

First Set

1. Catch Me Falling
2. Thinking Like This
3. Marrying You
4. Home
5. Not So Thick
6. Leather and Chrome
7. Lift My Head
8. Lavender Bower
9. Jumping Into The Sun

Second Set

1. Pele's Body
2. Your Absence
3. Down That Road
4. Right Now
5. Like The Seasons
6. Kitchen Table
7. Rise
8. Cottonwood
9. Train
10. One Hell of A Life (cover, Keinig)

Basic Requirements

Calendar