The duo of husband and wife Pete and Crystal Damore are “Ordinary Elephant”. They play gorgeous acoustic originals with superb vocal harmonies. Their third album,the self-titled “Ordinary Elephant” is filled with sometimes spare but haunting songs; usually avoiding “verse-chorus-verse” style and singalong hooks. But they are full of emotion and tension and don’t avoid big subject matter. Songs about death, despair, addictions and difficult family interactions are included. But the beauty of nature, love and hope keep the listener engaged. Crystal who pens much of the lyrics is accused as a ‘world class noticer” of circumstances, relationships and other fodder for songs and poems. She agrees with this assessment!

We talk about their decision to jettison their day jobs in Veterinary Cardiologist and Computer Programmer and buy an RV to take to the road. They honed their craft with countless open mics and observing an endless horizon of new places and experiences. After five years in this nomadic lifestyle (along with a pandemic) suggested finding a homeplace in Opelousas Louisiana (close to where Crystal grew up). The pair credit this feeling of “home” for this latest record which was recorded with Dirk Powell in his nearby Louisiana studio. Dirk is a multi-instrumentalist who’s toured and recorded with Joan Baez, Levon Helm and, more recently, Our Native Daughters. We open the segment with a cut from the new album, “Once Upon a Time”. The album has been nominated for Album of the Year by the International Folk Music Awards.

We talk about their song-writing process, recording vibe with Powell, their feature film of the experience and more. They will be performing a number of dates in the North East including September shows in Putney Vt (9/19) The Parlor Room (9/20) Cambridge Ma (9/21) Portland Me (9/25) and North Adams Ma (9/26).

We finish with a song introduced by Crystal as a letter to her future self called “I See You”. I finished with selections from other releases including “I Come From”, “Walk With You” and a cover of “If I Needed You”. If you need a break from the never-ending bad news cycle and frantic overload, do yourself a favor and dive into their powerful catalog of original songs. Of course, we hope you’ll catch this dynamic talented pair in person at a show in the next week.