Anna & Elizabeth

Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle sound like they could have been recorded by John Lomax in the Appalachian hills during the ’30s. Their harmonies have a heartfelt honesty born from their love and appreciation of the stories in the songs they sing, as well as the history of the people that wrote them decades ago – passing the tunes down from generation to generation in the true definition of folk music. Along with their instruments, the pair also illustrate the stories with “crankies,” a hand-cranked pictorial crafted from fabric, yarn and other colorful elements. Anna & Elizabeth were recorded for Folk Alley by Beehive Productions in Saranac Lake, New York. Anna & Elizabeth began thanks to a broke down car. Elizabeth’s. In town to see a concert, she ended up spending the night with Anna, but the two didn’t get much sleep. They shared songs and harmonized; they talked about a shared desire to inspire people with the beautiful soul of Appalachian roots music. And then came Anna’s crankies: cloth and cut-paper scrolls depicting scenes from ballads. A friendship was formed. The possibilities were seen. A unique sound was created: Elizabeth with her powerful, breath-taking voice; Anna with her sweet harmonies and mesmerizing instrumentals on fiddle, banjo and guitar. The duo started making crankies and shadow puppets together, works of art that have been heralded in folk festivals from Seattle to Chicago, from deep in the mountains of Kentucky to Uzbekistan. The pair is reviving a lost art.