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Joe Lawlor and Kristen Rae Bowden have been building a musical romance since they met onstage in 2016. As a duo they combine Joe’s driving electric guitar with Kristen’s intimate singing and rhythmic piano, melding classic rock musicality to highly personal emotional explorations. It’s a refreshingly eclectic aesthetic with contrasts that fit cohesively together, much like their relationship off the stage.
Joe Lawlor was born into a creative family from the Washington DC area. He began playing guitar at age 10 and attended the Berklee College of Music after high school. As a founding member of the Washington DC – based band Egypt, Joe’s notoriety grew as his guitar playing bloomed. With influences ranging from his guitar heroes (Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen) to Delta slide blues, New Orleans stomp, and the ethnic modes found in Sitar and Qawwali music, Joe has developed his own signature style. For the last two decades he has traveled the globe with the Dave Matthews Band as their live recording archivist, thrilling audiences when he guests with the band on his guitar.
Within singer-songwriter Kristen Rae Bowden is the spirit of the mountains and a wild streak of wanderlust. Kristen was born and raised in Boone, North Carolina into a musical family with a lightning-in-a-bottle charismatic musical father who passed away when she was 18. Her 11-song debut, Language And Mirrors, snapshots nostalgic moments of rugged rural life and bracing jolts of adventure. It’s an electrifying yin yang collection of roots rock and stately orchestral rock that lyrically reveals the singer-songwriter’s fiery blend of sensitivity and strength. Kristen’s voice conjures the smell of damp earth and bucolic comforts with tinges of country, folk, and singer songwriter intimacy.
Most recently Joe & Kristen joined TR3 featuring Tim Reynolds (Dave Matthews Band) for a leg of their December 2022 tour, armed with co-written tunes soon to be released in 2023.