Musical Tuesdays: The Mastersons

There is something truly magical about couples that make music together.

I'm not bragging about me and the cowboy, either. This goes way back.

As for me, it goes back basically as far as I can go. Born to parents that played and sang together regularly, I took it for granted that family makes music together. Not until just recently did I realize how special it really is to play tunes with kin.


Now let's bring things to the next platform. Seeing a live performance with, say, a father and daughter is special because of the blood bond between the two. They share genes. One inherited the music from the other and one has undoubtedly cultivated the music in the next. But what about the chemistry between two musicians in love?

That, to me, is a completely different animal.

There you are watching two people make music together that are part of a family unit, but they chose one another.

Or perhaps, as I sometimes like to think, the music chose them for each other.

And I swear you can see them choose each other over and over again as they play their co-written songs. This attraction, the kind you don't typically get to see as an outsider, makes performing couples absolutely captivating.

This brings me to the show Tim and I saw this weekend at The Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, NY. We saw The Mastersons open for Steve Earle and The Dukes and Duchesses. The whole show was great, but the chemistry between The Mastersons while they strummed out their songs together was undeniably a highlight.

Just the two of them, The Mastersons played a too short set of songs off their first (and very recently released) album, Birds Fly South, which, by the way, you MUST buy as soon as possible...

The following videos unfortunately don't capture the on stage chemistry I was lucky enough to witness, but I can tell you that the connection between the two was electrifying. They looked at each other with smiles of admiration and this "let's do this" attitude that was business-like, confident, and yet tender... love, basically.

Here's a couple videos to give you a taste. If there's a show near you, don't think twice, buy tickets. If you already have some favorite musical couples in your catalog, check them out live and see if you notice this connection yourself. I'll bet you will...