Emy Phelps and Darol Anger

Darol Anger helped found the David Grisman Quintet in 1975, with David Grisman, Tony Rice, and Todd Phillips. The appeal and challenge of American String music stems from the way it melds other countries' musical styles, which people are still discovering, said Anger, recounting how Grisman listened to music from around the world and wove it into the group's work. Feeling this was the music he was born to play, Anger strove for symphonic, orchestral sounds in his own compositions, writing increasingly complex and difficult music as he integrated jazz and classical elements. Anger went on to found the legendary Turtle Island String Quartet, and sold over two hundred thousand records in the 80's on the Windham Hill label with his various influential bands. He still tours and is now a professor at Berklee College. Six years ago, he encountered someone with the opposite approach while at a fiddle camp. The mother of a young cellist sat down with a guitar and sang a simple song, instantly drawing people into her music - including Anger. That woman was Emy Phelps. "My emphasis is on making music accessible to everyone, to make it inviting and fun, and to have children and adults want to participate," said Phelps, who had no formal training at that time but had been writing songs for over 30 years. "I hope people are humming before the end of the song.” Phelps soon left the West Coast and moved into a small house in Maine with Anger, where each could hear everything the other was playing. "A song has to be able to go on its own, like a child. You raise it and give it what it needs, but it's got to be able to fly on its own," Phelps said. "You want someone else to be able to pick it up and sing it." Their rich musical collaboration continues to blossom, with Anger drawing on what he called Phelps's "gold mine" of songs, and Phelps benefiting from Anger's large musical vocabulary and education. "We sit and play and talk. We cook a lot together, which is kind of the same thing," Phelps said. "We're not good at following recipes, but we start with an idea and say, 'Wouldn't it be great to add this? Let's try this. Let's toss that away.'" "People wonder where chamber music went. It's right here," Anger said, "It's our American music." A special pairing of 2 unique and deep musicians.