FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 24, 2020
Award-winning indie folk duo The Sweater Set to release new album, Fly on the Wall, on May 8, 2020; album recorded live in front of an audience
Award-winning Washington, DC-based duo The Sweater Set (Maureen Andary and Sara Curtin) is set to release its new album, Fly on the Wall, on May 8, 2020 on Local Woman Records. Performed live in front of an audience at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, Maryland in early 2018, the album, featuring the pair’s blend of indie folk merged with hints of Americana, was recorded and mixed by Don Godwin and mastered by Charlie Pilzer at Tonal Park.
“I think this is the album our fans have been craving,” says Curtin. “They come to our shows time and time again to witness the spark in our live performance: evidence of a decade of collaboration and friendship, and the truly unique blend of our voices together in unison and harmony. This album is just that.”
When the two songwriters recorded Fly on the Wall in 2018, they were both childless women. And what happened next in their lives completely defies logic. In the ensuing year, each artist gave birth to a set of twins, about seven months apart. “Change,” a track Curtin wrote with anticipation, highlights the moment Andary gave her the big news she was expecting: “Come on in, take a seat, I’ve got a secret for you. And I’m afraid what it might mean but I’m facing the truth: things are gonna change.” Little did they know exactly how much, and how difficult it would be to complete the process of prepping the album for release with four very small children in the mix.
“Band practice has to be a little more efficient than it was in the early days, that’s for sure,” Curtin says. “Now we get together when the clock strikes naptime and close our cases when a baby – or four – cries out over the monitor.” Says Andary, “I really hope that our story will resonate with new and expectant parents. We want others to know that you can still be an artist and be a parent. It’s been a challenge to juggle everything. Being a parent is the hardest thing. You need all the support you can get.”
Before the double sets of twins changed the landscape of their lives considerably, the duo conceived of the album as a creative way to celebrate their decade of performing together: a recording session of all new work and an audience of fifty fans who paid to be just what
the title states – a fly on the wall. The event functioned on so many levels: live show, recording session, premiere performance of new songs, and a party. Refreshments were served, the recording studio was adorned with collage: pictures spanning from their first shows in 2008 all the way to their performances at the Kennedy Center and touring days with Michelle Shocked. It was an exciting, interactive experience to connect with fans, friends, and family, inviting them into the creative process. “It was a beautiful way to celebrate our friendship,” Andary says, “and most importantly it wasn’t just a show – it was a recording of brand new works and a commitment between us to keep going.”
And the simple format is something of a return to their roots. While The Sweater Set began in 2008, Curtin and Andary’s relationship harkens back to a simpler time and place. The duo began singing together when they were young in 1996 at a Washington, DC church where their harmonies were nurtured and showcased, accompanied only by the piano playing of their choir director. And while this album has no piano and contains no biblical verse, it is comprised only of voice, guitar, and the occasional flute or tambourine, an instrumentation not unlike a folk mass. But the content is wildly different: breaking free from old ways of thinking, wrestling with disappointment, global warming, consumerism and addiction, death and the afterlife. What is a soul? What is a memory? Are they the same thing? Like these two new moms with four children under the age of 2 between them, this album has a lot going on. Listeners will be treated to stripped-down arrangements that focus on vocals and lyricism, reflective of the duo’s maturing sound and choral roots.
“The Sweater Set will pluck at your heartstrings” with “shimmering harmonies,” wrote the Washington Post, adding that The Sweater Set, “weaves through personal narratives as if Curtin and Andary are whispering juicy tidbits in your ear. …their songs are tales of self-governing women.” Brightest Young Things nominated them as “D.C.’s most endearing duo,” claiming their attraction to them in live performance was “instant and inescapable.” DC Music Review called the pair “two of the coolest, hottest, totally in-touch, and effervescently talented multi-instrumentalists.” Winners of more than a handful of Washington Area Music Awards (including one for their album Oh Visitor in 2013), The Sweater Set has been performing for over 12 years, has toured throughout Ireland, the UK, the Northeast and Southern United States, opened for Dar Williams, Aoife O’Donovan, and Michelle Shocked, served as Artists-in-Residence at the Music Center at Strathmore, and the duo is partnered with the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities as Artist Fellows in 2020.
The spirit to share their music and their joy in a live setting is set free in the album’s closing track, “In Search of a Crowd,” where they sing, “Driving dreams on country streets, thank god for the car that my dad gave me, and microphones to make us loud, a singer must go in search of a crowd, in search of a crowd.” The Sweater Set will hit the road in support of Fly on the Wall in 2020, with several dates confirmed and more to be announced soon. (See below schedule for tour dates.)
The album is being released through a projects events and festivals grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, in partnership with Howard University’s Music Therapy program. “We’re so lucky to be in a world-class city with great universities and arts organizations,” says Andary. “The DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities continues to have a big role in nurturing our local scene and connecting artist communities. We’re grateful every day for their support. And hey, government funding, does it get any more DC than that?” Students from Howard attended the mastering session, will sit for a masterclass with The Sweater Set to talk about album production, and a student performer will open their album release concert at the Mansion on O Street in Dupont Circle in Washington, DC.
The Sweater Set Tour Schedule:
April 8 – Rockwood Music Hall / New York, NY
April 10 – Monadnock Center / Peterborough NH
April 16 – Mansion on O Street / Washington DC (album release show)
…more shows to be announced soon.