John and Lalla are a husband and wife duo who sing traditional and contemporary folk music as well as songs of their own composition.
John learned to play guitar, like legions of others, after seeing his favorite rock groups on TV in the early ‘60s. He started playing in rock bands in junior high school and continued in that vein until his college years. He then found himself being seduced by bluegrass, folk and other acoustic music. He sold his electric gear, bought a good acoustic guitar and learned to finger-pick from a friend. He started writing songs about that time and did the usual coffee house circuit. John was also a featured guest at Bill Turpin's songwriter's showcase at The Seasons Bistro in McDonough, GA Oct. 4th, '07.
In the late ‘90s he reunited with friends he’d played with in high school. By this time they all were into progressive bluegrass, Dan Fogelberg, The Eagles and suchlike. They formed The Liberty Hill String Band and played together for the next 15 years, making one self-produced recording along the way called “Tiny Crimesâ€. Tiny Crimes was the title cut and a song John wrote. He still gets requests for it to this day.
John and Lalla met in 2002. Lalla has a formal music background. She is an accomplished piano and pipe organist and has sung choral all her life. She has served as keyboardist for a number of churches in the Atlanta area and accompanied The Atlanta Women’s Chorus. Her family can be traced back to Hot Springs, North Carolina where her maternal great-grandmother Jane Hicks Gentry was a renowned singer, story teller and collector of mountain songs. Several books have been written about Jane and she is one of the characters portrayed in the movie “The Song Catcherâ€.
Friends of John and Lalla, who had heard them sing separately, asked them to sing a duet at church one Sunday. They rehearsed a couple of songs and performed them at the service. The response was so positive that they put together enough material to start singing at coffee houses, church services and any where else they are asked.
Each time they sang, someone wanted to know if they had a CD. So late in 2006 they went into the studios of Jammates Records and recorded “open armsâ€. The CD features songs they had been singing for friends and fans. It includes one original song called “The Wind In The Kudzuâ€.
Response to the CD has been strong enough that John and Lalla will record a new CD in 2008 which will be all original songs.
We hope you enjoy “open arms†and will keep an eye out for our upcoming release.
Open Arms
(Please allow 1-2 weeks for delivery.)
