Biography

Contact: Bruce Kaplan, 310-628-9589
folkunlimited@att.net


Click here for APD’s Global Radio Showcase Volume 6 - Just Folkin’ Around


PIRATE GIRLS (4:17)
APD Just Folkin' Around featured song from "All Our Luck Is Changing:"

Songwriters: Claudia Russell and Bruce Kaplan
Publishing and PRO: Pendry Publishing, ASCAP and Riffmonster Music, BMI
Produced by Peter Case

Musicians:
Debra Dobkin: Drums
Paul Eckman: Bass
Tom Tally: Viola
Bruce Kaplan: Guitar
Claudia Russell: Guitar, vocals
Peter Case: Peter Case

Pirate Girls is an evocative, nostalgic song that reminds listeners of the simple pleasure of being a little kid, while gently hinting at the loss of innocence that is sure to follow.

As soon as we finished this song, we knew we had a good one, and it continues to be a highlight of our live show. We are especially happy with how recording turned out, and the fine work of our viola player, Tom Tally, who has recorded with Leonard Cohen and Michael Jackson. Tom and Claudia are longtime friends, having played in their first band together in high school.
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As one of the West Coast’s most popular folk duos, Claudia Russell and Bruce Kaplan traverse a wide Americana landscape, stopping at wondrous musical landmarks along the way, tipping their hat to Laurel Canyon troubadours, string bands, blues divas, jazz cats, Village folkies and Bakersfield cowboys. Not many small combos can pull that off, but driven by Russell’s expressive voice and distinctive guitar style with Kaplan’s spot on accompaniment, it all comes together beautifully.

On their brand new CD, Lovers Tree, the duo delivers 14 new songs with help from Grammy-winning Bluegrass icon Laurie Lewis. Not surpringly, the collection includes serious ballads, earnest musings and playful joy rides. As usual, Claudia demonstrates her knack for crafting tightly written songs that tackle the classic themes of love, longing and loss. Odes to Kosher delis, Interstate highways and Johnny Cash show Russell and Kaplan’s playful side. Working with producer Lewis has deepened the duo’s string band influences and given them a more rootsy musical framework to work in. Despite Lewis’s string band infusion, Russell and Kaplan continue their eclectic song explorations on this record. “There is,” Kaplan says, “more banjo and fiddle than on our previous records. But we still like to color outside the lines. We recorded a Johnny Cash send up, a Western Swing romp and a bluesy requiem. “Still,” he says, “when said and done, it’s a folk record.”

Indeed, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel wrote, “Russell has a voice that was born for folk music – she breaks hearts.” Russell has won numerous other accolades including Best New Artist from WUMB FM in Boston, Best Musician in the East Bay Express Reader’s Poll, 2nd place in the Texas Songwriters Serenade, 2x Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Finalist, and high praise in Sing Out, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Boston Globe. American Songwriter magazine, called her last CD, All Our Luck Is Changing, “a masterpiece.”

Russell and Kaplan have toured across the country, performing in barns, coffeehouses, living rooms and churches, as well as at festivals including the New Bedford Folk Festival, Boston Folk Festival, Black Hawk Folk Festival and concert appearances at major venues such as McCabe’s, Club Passim, The Turning Point, and more than a half-dozen appearances at Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage.

The duo’s many live on-air radio performances include West Coast Live, KPFA’s Dead to the World, WUMB’s Live at Noon, Folk Stage with Rich Warren, KUNI’s Live From Studio One, Roz and Howard Larman’s FolkScene, The Morning Show on Minnesota Public Radio as well as appearances on WORT, KCBX, KSUN and numerous other stations. Claudia and Bruce were interviewed by All Things Considered’s Robert Siegel on the release of a CD to celebrate what would have been her father, Val Rosing’s 100th birthday. Rosing was a British dance band singer best known as the vocalist on classic original 1930s recordings such as Teddy Bears Picnic and Try A Little Tenderness.

“Making music is our favorite thing to do, and we put a lot of love into it," says Claudia. “But playing in a band with one’s spouse is not without its hazards. Some couples argue about sex or money. We argue about song keys, set lists, and ‘who stole my capo?’ But all in all, we’re very lucky to have found each other.”