06/08/2007

Duo sings the change they want to be

By GARRET ELLISON

gellison@record-eagle.com

Special to the Record-Eagle
Seth Bernard and Daisy May Erlewine continue to build a following as they work on a new album and get ready for summer festival appearances.

LAKE CITY — Looking at an undated picture of Seth Bernard and Daisy May Erlewine, you might guess it to be decades old. But this acoustic folk duo's place is squarely in the present, with the future always on their minds.

"We're hoping that we can carve a new path,” said the 25-year-old Erlewine, who, with fellow singer/songwriter Seth Bernard and the backing of their Earthwork Music Collective, are trying to plant the seeds of change in what can be a cutthroat industry, and create some truly inspiring music along the way.

"We're not in any hurry and were not trying to push our way to the top,” said Bernard, 27. "We're in this for the long haul, and trying to write true songs is more of a priority — to put our hearts into our events.”

Their collective, named for the farm where Seth grew up, is a statewide network of like-minded musicians trying to be the change they wish to see in the world.

The two are fresh off an April 21 appearance on Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion” radio talent show — where they took third out of over 700 entries — and are working on an upcoming album and readying for a fistful of summer festival appearances.

With the help of noted folk singer Greg Brown, they are also grabbing some international attention while throwing their weight into musical advocacy projects like the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve in the Upper Peninsula — currently under threat of mining.

Events like the upcoming Water Festival in Grand Rapids on June 16, will try to spotlight causes like Great Lakes stewardship and regional land management.

"When you throw an event where there's music, food and art, it doesn't become so much of an 'us and them' thing,” Bernard said. "It's like, here we are together, enjoying each other and we share a vision for the future.”

Each springs from a musical family where creativity was top priority. Bernard received scholarships to, and briefly attended, both Interlochen Arts Academy and the University of Michigan. Erlewine was home-schooled and hitchhiked across the United States from age 16 to 20.

She returned to Michigan after her travels, ready to call the state home. They met each other at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival about four years ago.

"He was really inspiring to me,” she said. "I'd been writing songs and playing music for a long time, but I had never really considered making it a career. Seeing him play really inspired me to go for that.”

It didn't take long to fold her into the growing music collective.

"I realized how much amazing stuff was going on, how much talent there was and the music scene just felt like home to me,” she said. "I really felt welcomed into it. And meeting Seth was a catalyst for that.”

The travels come across in her music "in a deep way, probably more than I even realize,” she said. They also provided her with a new name.

When a kind gentleman with a school bus rescued her and a couple friends from the chills of a blizzard, she spent several days cooking and playing music for his family. The man's father just wouldn't stop calling her 'Daisy,' either.

"I told him my name was 'May,' but he kept saying 'Play another one, Daisy',” she said. "And so it just kind of stuck.”

Bernard and Erlewine both have three solo albums and released "Seth Bernard & Daisy May” in February 2006, featuring the Copper Country Quintet. They have played together as partners for the past 3½ years.

They tour nationally every year, but mostly keep it in the Great Lakes basin. Bernard called the collective similar to a record label — a work in progress, with some infrastructure.

"In some ways we're trying to build a new model,” he said. In the music business, "there's cannibalism. It's a sea of piranhas in a lot of ways out there. People try and make a lot of money however they can. Not necessarily musicians, but the business itself.”

On the Web: Earthwork Music Collective: www.earthworkmusic.com