The Origins of Comfort Food

The thing that caught my attention about Vicki when I first saw her at the Two Way Street Coffee House open mike, five years ago, was her announcement that she was going to sing a Jim Reeves tune.  That struck a chord with me because I was raised on classic country. My earliest musical memories are of Johnny Cash Sun singles and Hank Williams records as I went to sleep at night.  After Vicki and I met we started comparing musical notes and I discovered that her father had been a country singer from Texas and once had a radio show in Waterloo, Iowa. She also had a heart in the country.

We also discovered we had another musical interest in common: the blues. Though our tastes vary, we always find common ground and find ourselves drawing on influences as diverse as Jimi Hendrix, Tom Waits, Frank Sinatra, Bonnie Raitt, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emmy Lou Harris, Nancy Griffith and legends such as Muddy Waters and Billie Holiday.

Three weeks after we met, we performed together for the first time in Sandwich, Illinois at the Village Square open mike and that night Comfort Food was born. We’ve spent the last five years practicing, writing songs and performing together. 

We’d been threatening to start work on our first album for the last couple years and after I started getting the hang of playing a little lead guitar we felt we were ready. Before we even began recording we got a surprise Christmas gift from Allan Shaw when he asked us if we’d be interested in having Wind River Records release our album. Of course you can guess the answer.

In February of this year we finally started recording in our home studio and in a couple months had the recording part finished. Vicki discovered a great studio just blocks from our house (Horse-Drawn Productions) where we had the CD mixed and mastered. We decided to go with five original songs each and four covers, including a Michael Smith song (Restless Love). Including a Michael Smith tune is a tradition I established with my first two CDs and one we intend to continue.

So, our first album, self-titled, is to be released in September.  We hope you enjoy it and find your way to one of our concerts sometime – we’d love to see you.  Bon appetite!     

Rich Ingle