The Milk Carton Kids

The Milk Carton Kids, a harmonizing, minimalist duo, use two guitars and two voices to create a new combination of back-porch Americana and classic folk. Relying on compelling narrative, the seamless interplay between their 1950's acoustics, well-constructed harmony lines which play more like counterpoint melodies, and their natural stage chemistry, TMCK have drawn in and excited sold out crowds across North America since their formation in early 2011. The serendipitous meeting between the two (Kenneth Pattengale & Joey Ryan) led quickly to a shelving of the solo careers each had been pursuing. While neither had been compelled to such a collaboration with any of his peers before, an effortless musical complement, fast personal fondness, and like-minded view toward how to present the collaboration to their fans influenced the duo's formation and, almost immediately, began drawing praise from varied sources. While early press has indeed been kind to the duo, their spirit of independence compels them to release all of their music on their own label directly to their fans first, for free, forever.

"gorgeous contemporary folk"
- NPR

"Bittersweet and beautiful"
- San Francisco Chronicle

"The young, wise and sincere Los Angeles, California duo dish out Appalachian folk-tinged Americana with harmonizing, classical guitars on their first proper studio recording."
- AOL Spinner

"We're excited about the new Americana duo The Milk Carton Kids, and we're not the only ones."
- American Songwriter

"They fit extremely well together, so much so you might forget that their confluence was more or less accidental."
- No Depression

"Their harmonies are simple yet gorgeous. Their two voices combine effortlessly as one and the songs are intimate and engaging. And the more you listen to [Prologue], the more powerful the songs become."
- Bruce Warren, WXPN

"exceedingly tender and unassumingly spellbinding"
- Buzzbands LA

"Do yourself a favor and pick up The Milk Carton Kids's new record. Wow."
- Sara Bareilles (Twitter)

"There’s a richness [to Prologue] where on the tenth listen, something new becomes apparent"
- Radio Free Silverlake

"The duo...blended their sibling-like harmonies seamlessly and Pattengale, who I guarantee you is the hottest, fastest picker you’ve never heard of, took the first of several blazing, country-inflected solos. But rather than being just a vehicle for hot fretwork, these guys are all about the songs. And the gorgeous lyrics and melodies of “No Hammer To Hold,” “Queen Jane,” and “Permanent,” were all bittersweet highlights that received delighted yells and applause from the crowd, which stood in sweaty silence throughout the duo’s 65-minute set."
- Salt Lake Magazine

"The clarity of 'Retrospect' extends to the material, which doesn't show the obvious fingerprints of one songwriter or the other."
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel