Claudia Russell and Bruce Kaplan - Bio

California singer/songwriter Claudia Russell and her trusty sidekick Bruce Kaplan traverse a wide Americana landscape, stopping at wondrous musical landmarks along the way, tipping their hat to string bands, blues divas, jazz cats, Village folkies, Bakersfield cowboys and Laurel Canyon troubadours. Driven by Claudia’s expressive voice and distinctive guitar style, it all comes together beautifully.

Claudia has a knack for crafting tightly written songs that carry you to the sweet spots of life. Bruce’s melodic accompaniment, on mandolin and electric guitar, is spot-on. All of this is served up with a generous helping of homespun humor and shaggy dog stories, making for a heartfelt and humorous show of deeply engaging music. And audiences and critics have taken notice.

Indeed, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel wrote, "Russell has a voice that was born for folk music – she breaks hearts." Russell has won numerous other accolades including Best New Artist from WUMB FM in Boston, Best Musician in the East Bay Express Reader’s Poll, 2x Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Finalist, and high praise in Sing Out, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Boston Globe. Paul Zollo, a senior editor of American Songwriter magazine, called her latest CD, All Our Luck Is Changing, “a masterpiece.” Lovers Tree, their fifth and most recent CD, was produced by Grammy winning Berkeley Bluegrass icon Laurie Lewis and hit #5 on the national Folk DJ Charts.