Mestengo was born in Phoenicia NY in the winter of 2008, at a musical party where Dave and Elly found that they not only loved the same songs, but that their interpretations meshed to create exciting new versions. When their original songs took flight with the same synergy, they knew they had something worth sharing. And they have been doing just that ever since. They recently opened a show for Tom Rush where the full house confirmed that Mestengo’s music reaches audiences and makes them feel good.Dave Kearney got his first guitar, a Sears Silvertone with hula dancers on it, from his father when he was nine years old. By age fourteen he was playing at USO shows in the Maryland/Virginia/DC area. He was a founding member of “Reed Street,†opening for national acts including The Hollies, Ted Nugent, the Amboy Dukes, Steppenwolf, Seals and Croft, and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Then in 1971 he formed the alt-country band “Backslider.†This group played concerts, clubs and festivals from Delaware to Key West, opening for John Prine, Pure Prairie League, Asleep at the Wheel, and Ronnie Milsap. In both of these bands, Dave was the primary songwriter, and his songs have been recorded by Del McCoury and other Nashville artists. Dave writes and performs songs about the human condition, which he has seen plenty of, in some part due to his twenty-two year career as a police officer in the Baltimore area. Says Kearney, “I like to create a connection between the audience and the performer, so that we don’t feel so isolated.â€Elly Wininger has been called everything from a ‘folk-blues legend’ to a ‘musical explosion.’ Getting her start in the folk revival scene of the 60’s & 70’s Elly was a guitar student of David Bromberg. Elly has been writing songs and picking guitar in the Northeast clubs and coffeehouses while producing radio shows and teaching songwriting to kids. In 2007 she released her first solo CD, “Back Eddy Blues†which has been getting airplay on Americana and folk stations all over the US, Europe, and Australia. She was chosen to perform in the “Folk DJ Favorites†showcase at the 2008 Northeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference. She hosts “Catskill Cabaradio,†a live webcast variety show, for Catskill Community Radio out of Pine Hill NY. Elly’s first guitar was a half-size Harmony which her mom bought her at a yard sale in Woodstock when she was 6 years old.
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