My guest this week on Folk Roots/Folk Branches is James Leva of Jones & Leva. We'll be talking about his partnership with Carol Elizabeth Jones and premiering songs from "Vertie's Dream," the brand new Jones & Leva album.

In a review in the Montreal Gazette of "Journey Home," a Jones & Leva album from 1998, I wrote that "Jones and Leva are contemporary songwriters whose material is informed by centuries of Appalachian mountain musical traditions and by early commercial country and bluegrass music. There is an utterly timeless quality to almost every one of these songs."

In the liner notes to "Vertie's Dream," Suzanne Thomas said, "To my ears,Jones & Leva are the very best vocal duet on the scene today."

The segment with James Leva will be heard after 10 am. Before and after, there'll be lots of other great music on the show.

Folk Roots/Folk Branches can be heard over the air on Thursday from 9-11:30 am on CKUT, 90.3 FM in Montreal. Or, from anywhere in RealAudio. The CKUT RealAudio feed is available from the Folk Roots/Folk Branches website.

BTW, I'm posting this notice early this week because my computer is having an upgrade tomorrow and I'll be off-line temporarily. I'm hoping to be up and running again by Wednesday, but you never know.

Mike Regenstreif