Little Windows

"They put the whispered moments back into the old-time landscape. In place of yee-haw instrumentals, they offer songs of sweet quietude, lulling space, and lonesome places. Their music is achingly honest, as sweeping, secluded and darkly pretty as the far places from which the songs first came." - the Boston Globe

"The duo's harmonies are unequaled..." - Bluegrass Unlimited

"Every track is a piece of perfection, vocally and instrumentally." - Irish Music Magazine

"Through these little windows that Julee and Mark have carefully arranged for us, we hear music at its best, as it was meant to be sung and played: spare, intense, eloquent and, always, stunningly beautiful. Open the window and listen."
--Si Kahn

“With Little Windows, Julee and Mark weave the golden threads of their voices into the fabric of a lovely collection of ballads.”
--Tony Ellis(Bluegrass Boy)

“Talk about synergy! When Julee and Mark perform they create something special.... a sound that is all their own. With their tight, luscious harmonies they deliver songs with a poignancy that reaches deep." --Lillie Morris, Broadstrokes Gallery Concert Series, Augusta, GA


- Assorted

What folks are Saying:

“Mark Weems is an exceptionally talented interpreter of old-time vocal and instrumental tunes. He is also a gifted composer of timeless music.” - Sing Out! Magazine

“ Mark’s elegant singing brings us closer to the ballad style that carried these old songs through the generations. He has connected with this lost tradition and recovered new beauty from it.” – John Cohen(New Lost City Ramblers)

“Mark is totally immersed in his song and dance music tradition, and this is reflected in his skillful playing and singing. He sings from the heart and is plainly 'in tune' with the tradition. [his new record is] full of atmosphere and beauty” – Irish Music Magazine

“Soulful and heartfelt-two essential qualities that in my opinion, a singer must have. Mark has them to a T. He is a voice to be reckoned with.” - Alice Gerrard

“Mark Weems combines a beautiful, unmistakable voice with a talent for phrasing unlike anyone singing country music today. He has really done his homework by finding the great old songs, and his original numbers look to be the great old songs of the future.” -Joe Newberry (of the Original Red Clay Ramblers)

“Mark has quickly become my very favorite male vocalist on the planet. His voice carries a rare tone and possesses an unusual depth, which makes each delivery of his song an event not to be missed. When Mark sings it is truly a sacred moment. “
- Julee Glaub



- Assorted

"Julee Glaub’s relaxed, thoughtful and at times contemplative delivery, is in sharp contrast to the tremendous energy and dynamism she has applied to the study of song on both sides of the Atlantic, and her long apprenticeship in mastering styles and knowledge of the songs she sings. We’re all the better for hearing her, and she joins that select group about whom I say, that if I were a song, I’d want Julee Glaub to sing me." --Aidan O’Hara, Ireland, Irish Music Magazine

"'Songbird' is a term that was often used in the 18th and 19th Centuries to describe the rare female vocalist whose singing is as natural and pleasing as the singing of a songbird. As I listen to Julee move seamlessly from the Appalachian music of her native North Carolina to the music of her Celtic roots, I realize she truly is a 'songbird.'" --Bobby Horton, Birmingham, AL

"When I first heard Julee Glaub sing, I was amazed at how her voice
sounded equally at home singing Celtic, Old Time or Gospel songs."
--Robbie O’Connell, Boston, MA

"The combination of the power that comes from having lived near the music’s sources and her clear, sweet but commanding voice stills audiences whenever she sings. She possesses a reverence and passion for the music and provides proof of the continuing viability of the tradition." --Mardi Tuminaro, Irish Arts Center, NYC - Assorted

"They put the whispered moments back into the old-time landscape. In place of yee-haw instrumentals, they offer songs of sweet quietude, lulling space, and lonesome places. Their music is achingly honest, as sweeping, secluded and darkly pretty as the far places from which the songs first came." - the Boston Globe

"The duo's harmonies are unequaled..." - Bluegrass Unlimited

"Every track is a piece of perfection, vocally and instrumentally." - Irish Music Magazine

"Through these little windows that Julee and Mark have carefully arranged for us, we hear music at its best, as it was meant to be sung and played: spare, intense, eloquent and, always, stunningly beautiful. Open the window and listen."
--Si Kahn

“With Little Windows, Julee and Mark weave the golden threads of their voices into the fabric of a lovely collection of ballads.”
--Tony Ellis(Bluegrass Boy)

“Talk about synergy! When Julee and Mark perform they create something special.... a sound that is all their own. With their tight, luscious harmonies they deliver songs with a poignancy that reaches deep." --Lillie Morris, Broadstrokes Gallery Concert Series, Augusta, GA


- Assorted

During an interview last year on Clare FM radio in Ireland, Julee Glaub and Mark Weems put their foreheads together -- as they sometimes do when singing a capella "to really hear each other" -- and sang an old-time Appalachian song.

Announcer Cormac McConnell loved it.

"He thought that's how people sing in the mountains of North Carolina," recalled Glaub. "Later that week, we ran into folks who had heard the show. They asked, 'Are yus gonna put your foreheads together and sing us an awl song?' "

Glaub and Weems, as the duo "Little Windows," have taken their music across Ireland and the eastern U.S. Tonight they're back home to play traditional Irish and Appalachian music at the Open Eye Café, where their brand new CD "Just Beyond Me" will be available for the first time in North Carolina.

After graduating from Wake Forest, Glaub worked for seven years in Dublin with single mothers, children and street people. She didn't move to Ireland looking for Irish music -- instead, she said, "traditional Irish songs found me." Because music and stories are an important part of the daily routine in Ireland, "It's common to go to a house for dinner and end up singing and playing music."

The weather on the Emerald Isle contributes to that cultural tradition. "My first winter in Ireland, I went out and bought a guitar to make it through the dark cold days," said Glaub, "and I started to learn the traditional songs." Her teachers were older singers, particularly in the west of Ireland; and she found additional material in the Dublin Music Archives.

Learning the songs, said Glaub, meant learning the people. "There was always time for a tea and a chat. I learned how to appreciate timelessness in Ireland." She also learned to play the Irish drum called the bodhran; today, she plays flute and guitar as well.

But when she traveled through Ireland last year performing with Weems, who adds banjo, fiddle, guitar, piano, and mountain dulcimer to the instrumental mix, Glaub was sobered by certain changes: "The Ireland I knew in the '90s has changed so much," she said. "I was saddened to find it more difficult to come across a traditional music session, and to see a fast-paced Ireland that drank tea in paper cups on the go."

Seeing traditional Ireland "getting a bit lost in the success of Ireland" left Glaub more determined, she said, "to discover songs that are not being sung, and sing them and teach them." In addition to performing, Glaub teaches traditional singing both privately and publicly, in workshops throughout the states and abroad; she also has created a teaching program for lower- and middle-school children.

Just over a year ago, Glaub met duet partner Weems at the Mt. Airy Fiddlers Convention. Said Weems, "She likes to tell people she fell in love with a voice she heard in the darkness and followed the sound until she found me singing."

Weems is part of an extended family of musicians, including the Weems String Band players who recorded in the late 1920s. On the new CD's hymn "Palms of Victory," Weems' father Kelly added a bass vocal harmony, recorded at Jerry Brown's Chapel Hill studio.

Weems' old style string band music was warmly received in Ireland, where, said Glaub, he was pronounced "the real TING." And while Weems has two other very popular bands -- the Stillhouse Bottom Band (playing at the ArtsCenter March 17) and the Weems-Gerrard band -- he calls his work with Glaub "the most personally rewarding musical expression I've been a part of."

"Unlike the current trend in most acoustic music," he said, "our instrumental playing is still sparse and tasteful, always conscious of [a song's] delivery needs, which often leads us to sing a capella. Somehow, the combination of our two voices, in spite of the sparse approach, seems to affect people in a much deeper way than anything I've ever done before."

The two still put their foreheads together while singing to feel the intense vibrations created by their close harmony. "It's metaphysical, supernatural. Sometimes it scares me," said Weems. "Singing with Julee is a spiritual experience for me."

Weems is the duo’s composer; the new CD features two of his songs in addition to traditional Appalachian and old-time gospel. For his composition ‘Loneliest One,’ Weems said he “hit up a poem by Nietzsche for the words, which fit perfectly. I’ve always really liked Nietzsche, in all his difficulty—and find him, strangely, quite spiritual.”

Weems added, “I’m always struck by how I can write a song about some obscure thing or idea that personally interests me—and then have a large audience make a connection to it somehow, and be touched by it.”
- Rebecca Bailey, The Herald-Sun (Chapel Hill)

During an interview last year on Clare FM radio in Ireland, Julee Glaub and Mark Weems put their foreheads together -- as they sometimes do when singing a capella "to really hear each other" -- and sang an old-time Appalachian song.

Announcer Cormac McConnell loved it.

"He thought that's how people sing in the mountains of North Carolina," recalled Glaub. "Later that week, we ran into folks who had heard the show. They asked, 'Are yus gonna put your foreheads together and sing us an awl song?' "

Glaub and Weems, as the duo "Little Windows," have taken their music across Ireland and the eastern U.S. Tonight they're back home to play traditional Irish and Appalachian music at the Open Eye Café, where their brand new CD "Just Beyond Me" will be available for the first time in North Carolina.

After graduating from Wake Forest, Glaub worked for seven years in Dublin with single mothers, children and street people. She didn't move to Ireland looking for Irish music -- instead, she said, "traditional Irish songs found me." Because music and stories are an important part of the daily routine in Ireland, "It's common to go to a house for dinner and end up singing and playing music."

The weather on the Emerald Isle contributes to that cultural tradition. "My first winter in Ireland, I went out and bought a guitar to make it through the dark cold days," said Glaub, "and I started to learn the traditional songs." Her teachers were older singers, particularly in the west of Ireland; and she found additional material in the Dublin Music Archives.

Learning the songs, said Glaub, meant learning the people. "There was always time for a tea and a chat. I learned how to appreciate timelessness in Ireland." She also learned to play the Irish drum called the bodhran; today, she plays flute and guitar as well.

But when she traveled through Ireland last year performing with Weems, who adds banjo, fiddle, guitar, piano, and mountain dulcimer to the instrumental mix, Glaub was sobered by certain changes: "The Ireland I knew in the '90s has changed so much," she said. "I was saddened to find it more difficult to come across a traditional music session, and to see a fast-paced Ireland that drank tea in paper cups on the go."

Seeing traditional Ireland "getting a bit lost in the success of Ireland" left Glaub more determined, she said, "to discover songs that are not being sung, and sing them and teach them." In addition to performing, Glaub teaches traditional singing both privately and publicly, in workshops throughout the states and abroad; she also has created a teaching program for lower- and middle-school children.

Just over a year ago, Glaub met duet partner Weems at the Mt. Airy Fiddlers Convention. Said Weems, "She likes to tell people she fell in love with a voice she heard in the darkness and followed the sound until she found me singing."

Weems is part of an extended family of musicians, including the Weems String Band players who recorded in the late 1920s. On the new CD's hymn "Palms of Victory," Weems' father Kelly added a bass vocal harmony, recorded at Jerry Brown's Chapel Hill studio.

Weems' old style string band music was warmly received in Ireland, where, said Glaub, he was pronounced "the real TING." And while Weems has two other very popular bands -- the Stillhouse Bottom Band (playing at the ArtsCenter March 17) and the Weems-Gerrard band -- he calls his work with Glaub "the most personally rewarding musical expression I've been a part of."

"Unlike the current trend in most acoustic music," he said, "our instrumental playing is still sparse and tasteful, always conscious of [a song's] delivery needs, which often leads us to sing a capella. Somehow, the combination of our two voices, in spite of the sparse approach, seems to affect people in a much deeper way than anything I've ever done before."

The two still put their foreheads together while singing to feel the intense vibrations created by their close harmony. "It's metaphysical, supernatural. Sometimes it scares me," said Weems. "Singing with Julee is a spiritual experience for me."

Weems is the duo’s composer; the new CD features two of his songs in addition to traditional Appalachian and old-time gospel. For his composition ‘Loneliest One,’ Weems said he “hit up a poem by Nietzsche for the words, which fit perfectly. I’ve always really liked Nietzsche, in all his difficulty—and find him, strangely, quite spiritual.”

Weems added, “I’m always struck by how I can write a song about some obscure thing or idea that personally interests me—and then have a large audience make a connection to it somehow, and be touched by it.”
- Rebecca Bailey, The Herald-Sun (Chapel Hill)