A review by David Vinopal

Country music historian,

Author of the Country  and Bluegrass chapters of the All Music Guide  

Ann and Eldon Whitford, performing as “The Whitfords”, are the contemporary embodiments of a glorious American tradition: the “close harmony” duet.  Their impressive repertoire showcases facts-of-life music, roots music, home and family hopes and dreams, human failings and fears, broken love, and, of course, gospel.

The songs they perform show the common threads that are in each of us, and they weave their own unmistakable music using these threads.  When Ann and Eldon perform you can hear the echoes of the Louvin Brothers and the Stanleys, repeating the golden era of country music.

But this husband and wife duo is equally at ease with the best of modern adherence to traditional sound from Gillian Welch to Steve Earle.  They go beyond their influences and create their own comfortable style, putting down their own roots with unerring harmonies, intricate yet simple, at the same time supported by rock-solid accompaniment on guitars, bass, and mandolin.  

While their covers of well known recordings show a passionate reverence for the country/folk traditions, Ann and Eldon always put their own mark on their songs, making them uniquely their own.