Carrie Elkin & Danny Schmidt
For Keeps (Red House)
Reviewed by Jim Caligiuri, Fri., June 6, 2014
Carrie Elkin & Danny Schmidt
For Keeps (Red House)Separately, Carrie Elkin and Danny Schmidt are among Austin's most dynamic folkies. Together, they're now engaged to be married. For Keeps, their first album as a duo, celebrates that relationship but speaks of universal truths, each complementing the other in subtle yet crucial ways. It's a call-and-response that lends the set a tone of his and hers impressions on life and love. Schmidt's "Kiss Me Now," first sung to Elkin at SXSW 2013 as a marriage proposal, shows off his ability to be direct yet sophisticated. Meantime, the gentle sway of "Longing Moves the Ocean" accompanies some of Elkin's finest romantic poetry. A coterie of enablers pitch in, including Colin Brooks, Chip Dolan, Raina Rose, Paul Curreri, and Devon Sproule, adding a festive nature to For Keeps, a work that convincingly expresses the remarkably positive side of interpersonal relationships.