Pound of Tea - eclectic acoustic - musicians

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Eric is a mild-mannered Public Advocate type by day, flat-picker by night. Musical arranger/director and baritone for Susanne and the Guys With Ties for their entire 11-year a capella run, Eric is now glad to be playing with instruments and loves the musical freedom that comes with improvisation. First song ever sung (according to Mom): "Tom Dooley".

Off stage he passes for a hardworking, if at times pompous, professor of health policy. After a hard day at the campus, he enjoys herding his various cats, dogs and chickens on his two-acre spread in South Freeport. His true identity was established in the late sixties when "Little David" played backup guitar with Lazy Bill Lucas in Minneapolis.

When she's not beautifying the webscape's business district, Elizabeth is all about the music. She splits her onstage time between Pound of Tea, gigs with NH guitarist Bob Valyou, and occasional appearances with Freeport Community Players.

Pound of Tea combines elements of bluegrass, old-time, blues, and contemporary folk into a mix we call eclectic acoustic. What else do you call a band that plays traditional fiddle tune "Blackberry Blossom" in the same set with The Beatles' "One After 909"?

Friends Eric and David met Elizabeth at the first of Eric's successful Freeport Open Stage Coffee House series. They started picking together for fun on Sunday afternoons, and after a few turns on the Open Stage decided to take their living room sessions public. Appearances include Harspwell Community TV's Live From the Sound, the 2006 Harpswell Festival, and the United Way of Portland's annual meeting. They christened the "big hall" as part of the grand opening of the Freeport Community Center and serenaded folks at Evergreen Subaru in Auburn (on a very rainy afternoon).

Sunday, October 4, 2009, 1:30pm
Pettengill Farm Day
Freeport, ME
We'll be entertaining visitors at Freeport Historical Society's annual event at Pettengill Farm. For more about the event, visit freeporthistoricalsociety.org.

Saturday, October 17, 7pm
Freeport Open Stage Coffee House
Freeport Library Community Room
Library Drive (off Main St/Rt 1), Freeport, ME
Come see us perform at the second Open Stage coffee house of 2009. Open to all performers (all styles of music, storytellers, mimes, dancers, poets, you name it). No mic, small stage...but lots of supportive people to welcome you to the stage. If you don't want to perform, come sit in the audience and enjoy the local talent. The show is free, but the yummy snacks and coffee are not. Proceeds are earmarked to keep the library's piano in tune. Donations welcome.

Here are just a few of the many tunes and songs you may hear at a Pound of Tea gig:
Whole Night Sky, Sweet Afton, Wildwood Flower, I Was A Stranger, Summertime, Bright Morning Stars, One After 909, Twisted, Beaulah Land, Blackberry Blossom, Beaumont Rag, Sheebeg Shemore, Bluegrass Stomp, Lady B. Goode, Haste to the Wedding

*rbw: rotten block of wood; an astonishingly versatile, one of a kind percussion experience