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The Strangelings are (left to right):
Christina Thompson Lively, Ken Anderson,
Maura Kennedy, Pete Kennedy,
Eric Lee, Rebecca Hall, Cheryl Prashker.
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Click on the Tarot Cards or the names above for individual bios
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Maura Kennedy is The High Priestess
in the Strangelings, seeking enlightenment through singing and writing enthralling melodies and harmonies.
Maura Kennedy was born Maura Boudreau in Syracuse NY in a family of nine, all seven siblings a year apart. She was lucky enough to have been born into a creative family. Her parents -- her father a Thoreau scholar, her mother Head Nurse at the local VA Hospital -- were always supportive of her musical endeavors. As a teenager, she discovered the local original music scene, centered around Syracuse University, and started playing in bands. By the age of 19, she had already played bass in her first two bands (one heavy metal band, one punk band), but she really hit her stride when she became the singer/acoustic guitarist/keyboard player for a local British Folk Rock band called Sparse Frontiers. Their repertoire included music that Maura was first exposed to while working at a local used record shop -- exotic sounds to her young ears like Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Kate Bush and others -- plus a handful of originals. Sparse Frontiers never had a large following because the music was so obscure at that time and in that region, but she never lost her love for the repertoire, and it was only a matter of time before she revisited the music. For Maura, the Strangelings are a fulfillment of that dream: seven kindred spirits (very much like her siblings), playing music they love, for an audience that shares in the joy of rediscovering the mystery and magic in these melodies.
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Pete Kennedy is The Magician
in the Strangelings, conjuring magnificent melodies on electric sitar.
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When not Strangelings, Pete and Maura perform as The Kennedys. Even after ten years,
over a thousand gigs and 500,000 miles of touring as a married, music-making couple, singer-guitarists Pete and Maura
Kennedy haven’t killed each other. The duo savors each instant in life and in each other’s company, and it shows in
their music. The Kennedys have been charming audiences, record buyers and critics for the past decade with their
exuberant mixture of folk, rock, country, pop and their own brand of secular gospel, a philosophical depth in their
lyrics, and joyful, kinetic performances and recordings.
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Rebecca Hall is the The Queen of Pentacles in the Strangelings,
haunting all with her alto vocals and and her finely woven songs.
Rebecca has a knack for penning tunes that sound like time-tested classics. She has been dubbed "a new folk classicist" by the Boston Herald, and her composition “Hungrytown Road”
won second prize at the Minnesota Folk Festival's New Folk Songwriting Contest in 2005. That same year, legendary
Nashville songsmith David Olney, who has written for Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris and Linda Rondstadt, included his
version of Rebecca’s “O Lord” on his highly-acclaimed 2005 release, Migration. Her clear, haunting alto has prompted
Roger McGuinn to rave, “I love the sound of Rebecca Hall’s voice. There’s a sweetness, and a worldly wisdom, in
perfect balance.”
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Ken Anderson is The Fool in the Strangelings, grounding us with witty remarks revealing an underlying wisdom, and laying down the bass line.
When he's off duty from the Strangelings, Ken is the other half of Hungrytown, with his wife /Queen of Pentacles, Rebecca Hall. Born in New York City and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Ken started his muscial life as a drummer, performing in as many pop, garage and soul bands as you care to mention. Ken switched to bass in order to tour professionally with Rebecca. Their home is in the hills of southern Vermont
Ken Anderson and Rebecca Hall also perform as Hungrytown.
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Cheryl Prashker is The World in the Strangelings, creating a rhythmic environment on which the band thrives.
Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Cheryl Prashker studied classical percussion at McGill University.
She has toured Canada, US, Europe and Russia. She spent many years in NY City where she honed the skills of playing
everything from rock and roll to Klezmer to Celtic as well as Middle Eastern Music. She now uses her special style
of percussion to enhance the music of such artists as Jonathan Edwards, Pat Wictor, Charlie Zahm, Tracy Grammer,
Kim and Reggie Harris, Full Frontal Folk and her new group, The Strangelings
Cheryl is also a singer-songwriter and she teaches privately.
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Eric Lee is The Hanged Man in the Strangelings, defying laws of gravity and thermodynamics and
setting the fiddle on fire.
Eric has played fiddle from the age of six, has taught lessons and performs with the band the Thungs.
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Christina Thompson Lively is
The Empress in the Strangelings. Her domain includes singing, playing guitar, writing music,
and reigning over the website that your eyes currently feast upon.
Chris Thompson is the guitarist and lead vocalist for the duo
Chris and Meredith Thompson.
Together the Thompsons have released 6 albums and played festivals such as the Clearwater Hudson Revival,
Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, and the Boston Folk Festival. The Thompsons have been finalist in the Falcon Ridge
New Folk Contest, the South Florida Folk Fesitval Songwriting Contest, and won honorable mention
in the USA Songwriting contest in 2004 for their song "Old Man of the Mountain." The Thompsons are best known for their close
sibling harmony, and as Chris now steps out on her own, she demonstrates her powerful clear vocals and
percussive, riff driven guitar work.
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Web site design by Christina Thompson Lively.
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