Pleasantly aggressive folk with dead-on harmony roots plus heart-warming charm and wit.

17 MP3 Songs in this album (54:46) !
Related styles: FOLK: Folk Pop, FOLK: Political Folk

People who are interested in Ani DiFranco Indigo Girls Patty Griffin should consider this download.


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âKate and Sarah deliver high-quality, intelligent tunes with the skill and passion of legendary folksingers in the making.â - Off Our Backs Feminist News Journal

â...blending progressive politics, sharp wit, and deep introspection with nuanced harmonies...â
-Curve Magazine


{home}spun is the essence of nervous but excited: live, alive and lively. recorded in an old wooden house in ann arbor, michigan, with a select, intimate crowd, this 54 minute collection of songs and stories captures songwriters kate peterson and sarah cleaver at their most comfortable. their charming and funny qualities shine throughout the dead-on harmonies, finely-crafted songwriting and diverse instrumental arrangements. this is a live album like you havenât heard yet. it will leave you feeling like a part of it all.

{home spun} includes 3 brand new originals, several fan favorites, and 2 highly demanded covers (Libby Kirkpatricks Crying and Wycelf Jeanâs Sweetest Girl)

Nervous but Excited plays what they have termed as Pleasantly Aggressive Folk.. two songwriters, two singers, two guitars, a mandolin, a violin, a few harmonicas, serious harmony, some vaguely choreographed dancing and lots of laughter. Theyâve been touring semi-nationally for nearly four years, and have released 7 CDs in that time, including their first full-length studio album Once More⦠With Feeling. Nervous but Excited has shared stages with many other established artists, including Utah Phillips, Melissa Ferrick, Ferron, Jim Post, Toshi Reagon, The Butchies, Alix Olson, Tret Fure, Bitch, Julie Wolf, Natalia Zukerman, Ember Swift and Pamela Means.




Published August 28, 2008
Review: Nervous But Excited finds their footing with latest "{home}spun" CD
Chris Rietz For the Lansing State Journal

Sarah Cleaver and Kate Peterson - aka Nervous But Excited - have been singing, writing and touring hard since 2004, and "{home}spun" - just released this month - is no less than their fifth album.

Kate sings and plays acoustic and electric guitars here, and Sarah sings and plays guitar, harmonica, mandolin and violin, and her hard-edged, just-this-side-of-strident voice may remind listeners of Amy Ray, especially when she plays the mandolin.

But comparisons to the Indigo Girls end there. If Cleaver's voice is a shiny beam, Peterson's is a blue spotlight, all warmth and atmosphere, and the blend of the two has become an NBE success story. It played more like a forced mismatch in their earlier work, but they've since found their footing, and the spark of their vocal interplay - sometimes harmonizing, sometimes bouncing against each other in gleeful contrariness - lights up the CD.

Note how Kate sings lead in her own "Coffee Stained" with Sarah singing a lower harmony, then on "Slow and Steady" the parts are reversed, with Sarah singing lead and Kate a third above. This easygoing departure from formula is pretty unheard of for a harmony duo, and that, along with Cleaver's multi-instrumental skills, adds a palette of color that wouldn't otherwise be there.

"{Home}spun" is also a live album, but again this is a departure. NBE staked out an unnamed old house in Ann Arbor, brought in engineer Ian Gorman (who seems to be everybody's first choice for remote recording) and 20 or so invited guests.

The result is that the "audience" is part of the show in a way that's simply unlike other live albums, and that's the CD's other winning quality. These 11 ruminative, introspective songs - nine originals, four of which they've recorded before - blossom here in a way they otherwise wouldn't, because we feel the presence not just of Kate and Sarah but of the listeners too.

The patently rehearsed part singing on "Smaller Taller," the giddy laughter at their surprise take on hip-hip world citizen Wyclef Jean's "Sweetest Girl (Dolla Bill)" - even their decidedly unslick patter, which may have sounded inept in a more typical live album, comes across as human and charming here. They sound nervous, but not ill at ease, just ... well, excited.