What do you get when you combine a Hopelessly Midwestern graphic designer, the Son of a Preacher Man, and a whole bunch of stringed instruments, season them in the Boston folk-music scene for seven years, then plop them in western New York State? You get Leslie Lee and Steve Gretz, and this is their website — welcome!

After two years of recording (when we weren't running a coffeehouse or sealing boxes) and a move to western New York, our latest CD Better Off Someday is now finished and available! With 15+ songs by some of our favorite songwriters and instrumental help from an amazing group of musicians, there's a lot packed into this little bundle. There's even artwork...on paper, with pictures and stuff. And a real poster you can hold in your hands, unfold, and read!

Returning to the helm as producer, engineer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist is Seth Connelly, captain of Humming Lake Studio in New Hampshire. On the CD, he sings, plays upright and electric bass, mandolin, banjo, guitars, dobro, autoharp, piano, accordion, and percussion. It's just too bad he doesn't play glockenspiel because that's all we really wanted.

It must have been the tranquil waters of the humming lake (which look more like the woods) that enticed many fabulous musicians to visit and contribute tracks to this recording, including Don Croad (drums), Hatrack Gallagher (harmonica), Matt Leavenworth (fiddle), Billy Novick (whistle), Eric Royer (banjo), and Valerie Thompson (cello). And we were especially honored that Grammy Award-winning guitarist Ed Gerhard played lap steel and Weissenborn guitar on two of the songs. Wow, there really is no end to the privileges granted a Grammy winner!

Most of the songs covered are ones we've liked for a long time. In fact, Leslie chose a few of them when she was just starting out because she thought they would be easy to sing. How funny. It was only after moving from Boston to Rochester that we realized how many of them are about transition...physical, emotional, and spiritual. We didn't see the writing on the wall at the time, but now it's clear. From the creepy weirdness of Down On The Riverbed to the sadness of Torn Screen Door to the optimism of I'll Be Better Off Someday to the eternal joy of I'll Not Be A Stranger...this is the best way we know how to sum up the last two years, if not in our own words, then in those of some of the best songwriters around.

We hope you enjoy Better Off Someday as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you!

We continue to hold our enthusiastically attended Old Time Music Nights on the first Sunday evening of each month. As we make new musical friends in the Rochester area, we hope to include them in these evenings of song.