HOWDY PARTNER!
If you need some more information on the twins, or a photo, or a press release, or some publicity blurb ideas, you've come to the right place!
Of course you can always reach us -
Greg: greg@canote.com or 206 265-2466
Jere: jere@canote.com or 206 789-0579
My favorite blurb these days comes from the nice folks at the Sunnyvale Theater in Sunnyvale, California:
The Canote BrothersTwo-of-a-Kind Tunes
Double up with laughter when these identical twin musicians take the stage. With fiddle, banjo, ukuleles and genetically matched voices, Greg and Jere Canote bring back fun, vintage American music – including forgotten fiddle tunes, swing classics and quirky novelty songs. National Public Radio fans may remember the Canote Brothers as the affable side-kicks on Sandy Bradley's Potluck for 13 years. Longtime locals may remember the pair, too, as Cupertino High alumni. Now they return to their old stomping grounds with a Valentine's Day show the whole family will love!
Here is a nice Newspaper article supporting that concert:
Identical twins to perform in perfect harmony for Valentine's concert
By Heather Zimmerman
for Cupertino Courier
Posted: 02/11/2009 05:21:28 PM PST
Musical duo Greg and Jere Canote sing in absolutely perfect harmony: Not only are they brothers, they're identical twins. As they like to say, they have "genetically matched voices."
Sunnyvale's Evening of Cultural Arts Series puts a playful spin on St. Valentine's Day with a concert featuring the old-time music of the Canote Brothers on Feb. 14, 8 p.m. at the Sunnyvale Community Center Theatre, 550 E. Remington Drive, Sunnyvale.
The Canote Brothers' old-timey sound includes folk, jazz and novelty tunes from the`20s and`30s, as well as their own vintage-inspired original music.
For their Valentine's Day concert, the pair will play selections from their usual repertoire, but Cupid will definitely get a nod. "We love quirky novelty numbers," Greg Canote says, "We're going to sprinkle the show liberally with love songs, but they'll still be in the quirky corner."
Such quirky love songs might include "That's My Weakness Now," a 1920s hit about how love has persuaded a man to like just about everything he once disliked. "When you first hear the verse, it doesn't sound like a love song, but it turns into a love song," Canote says of the tune. "Another one we might do is "Double Talk" — Merle Travis recorded it in the`40s. It's a declaration of love that turns into a tongue twister. He keeps changing the words, and it gets all confused by the end."
The brothers' twangy banjo and fast fiddling may call to mind the old
down-home tunes of the South, ˆala "O Brother, Where Art Thou," but actually the Canotes developed their sound as young musicians right here in Silicon Valley. The twins were born in Stockton but moved to the Bay Area while they were in elementary school. They are 1969 graduates of Cupertino High School, and it was at De Anza College that they began to find their musical style. "We found people who were discovering some old fiddle music," Canote says of their time at De Anza, "and we had friends who went back to West Virginia and North Carolina and were discovering what is traditionally called`old-time' music, which is the music that bluegrass came from."
In the early '70s, the Canote brothers honed their banjo-picking and fiddling skills in bluegrass bands that played weekly at Straw Hat Pizza restaurants in Sunnyvale and San Jose. "That was a great thing because having a regular gig really makes you study your music and get better at it," Canote says.
The brothers grew up with a strong musical influence. Their father was an avid piano player. "We learned from him that music was fun, through his example. He would come home from work and sit at the piano and make up songs," Canote recalls. "He'd hear songs on the radio and he would play them. Anything he heard he could play. So that was our introduction to the idea that music was a fun pastime that we could share with other people."
The Canote brothers moved to Seattle in 1981, although they visit the Bay Area frequently, since they still have a lot of local connections, including their mother, who lives in Saratoga, and siblings who live in Campbell and San Jose.
A few years after their move to Seattle, the duo became sidekicks on "Sandy Bradley's Potluck," a National Public Radio show. The 13 years they spent performing on the show helped expand their repertoire. "We'd do songs, plus we'd do skits and stories. It made us explore a lot of different kinds of material," Canote says. "Having to do the radio show, we found some beautiful gems of vintage jazz and swing from the`30s and`40s, just beautiful numbers that got lost, but we got to find them again."
Many of the songs they rediscovered came from old 78 rpm records, Canote says. Their material for the show also included some of their original songs written in an old-time style.
The brothers have recorded a number of albums, including Thinga Ma Jig, an album of novelty tunes and other fun songs that Canote says is akin to their greatest hits record. The Canotes are working on Thinga Ma Jig Part 2 and will likely release a CD of fiddle music this year.
In performance, the brothers play up the full effect of their sounding and looking alike, with little tricks like passing a guitar pick back and forth between their identically creased foreheads. And though the pair doesn't really tell jokes on stage, the Canote Brothers' concerts are known for their humor.
Tickets are $25 general/$20 students and seniors. For more information, call (408) 733-6611 or visit arts.inSunnyvale.com.
Download Press Photos of Greg and Jere
(note: that’s Greg on the left and Jere on the right)
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Stage Diagram and Tech Sheet :
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