“This album is the purest distillation of our sound that we’ve ever captured,” says Crystal Damore, one half of the husband/wife folk duo Ordinary Elephant. “It’s just the two of us singing and performing live, losing ourselves in each other and the songs.”
Given how raw and vulnerable the results are, it’s easy to see why the band chose to self-title their stunning new collection. Recorded in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, with producer/multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell (Joan Baez, Levon Helm), Ordinary Elephant showcases the arresting chemistry shared by Crystal and her husband, Pete, whose gorgeous harmonies and mesmerizing fretwork call to mind everything from Gillian Welch and David Rawlings to Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. The songs are timeless here, rooted in rich, character-driven storytelling, and the performances are similarly transportive, fueled by delicately intertwined banjo, guitar, and octave mandolin parts that wrap like vines around the duo’s captivating vocal delivery. Though the songs were born out of a period of change and deep uncertainty, the record itself is a work of profound self-assurance, one delivered by a duo whose personal and professional lives embody the limitless possibility of honest, organic collaboration. Press play on Ordinary Elephant and you’ll hear more than just a couple singing together; you’ll hear the sound of sincerity and commitment, of patience and gratitude, of learning to let go of expectation and revel in the simple beauty of the moment.
“I think a big part of our growth on this album came from finally having a permanent place to call home,” Crystal reflects. “After years of living on the road, we settled down in Opelousas, Louisiana, about thirty minutes from where I grew up, and it really helped us slow down and feel more grounded and appreciative of the things that were right in front of us.”
When Crystal and Pete talk about living on the road, they mean it quite literally. After walking away from established careers in veterinary cardiology and computer programming, the pair moved into an RV in 2014 and began touring relentlessly, earning widespread acclaim with the kind of riveting performances that soon made fans of luminaries like Tom Paxton and Mary Gauthier. In 2017, the duo took home the International Folk Music Award for Artist of the Year on the strength of their breakout album, Before I Go. Two years later, they returned with the similarly lauded Honest, which the Associated Press hailed as “one of the best Americana albums of the year” and PopMatters called “one of the best folk duo records in recent memory.”
