KEYSTONE CROSSING COMES HOME 

Former Pennsylvanians perform in King of Prussia 

by Gary Puleo of The Times Herald 

July 14, 2000

If one of the Everly Brothers had been a female, the famous duo probably would have sounded a lot like Keystone Crossing.

That may seem like a curious and ultimately useless piece of conjecture, but the comparisons won't surprise anyone familiar with the music of Larry Carlin and Claudia Hampe.

As Keystone Crossing the couple--opening for the Nields at Concerts Under the Stars, King of Prussia, Sunday--play guitars and sing songs from the days of classic brother acts.

And we're not talking Hanson, for those with short-fused memories.

Carlin and Hampe have been flipping through the Everly Brothers songbook for inspiration since hooking up five years ago, also dipping into forgotten tunes by other brotherly partnerships like the Delmore and Louvin Brothers.

 And no, the irony of a male and female who aren't even siblings nailing the familial persuasion of a brother duo so effectively isn't lost on Carlin.

 "Well, none of my brothers can sing, so I was never going to be a part of a real brother duo," he says, laughing, from his San Francisco home.

"There's something unexplainable about brother duos when they get this harmony thing going.  There's something magical about it, I'm not sure what it is, but I do think we've captured that sound that real brothers do. When people ask us what we do all we have to do is mention the Everly Brothers and they get an idea of what we sound like. There's not too many people doing this kind of thing, and the female harmony adds a real sweetness--we've created a real niche for ourselves. "

It's those niche songs that make up Keystone Crossing's first CD, "Crossing Paths" (available at Sunday's performance and from the duo's Web site, www.carltone.com), which includes the Everly chestnut "Devoted to You" and the more obscure "So Sad To Watch Good Love Go Bad." It's plainsong country with a rockabilly-bluegrass pedigree, a song cycle built on pure back-porch guilelessness that never seems so simple as to dull its message or emotional impact.

Carlin graduated from Upper Merion High School in 1972, left the area a year later, and eventually moved out west in 1979 to pursue his musical ambitions. He met Hampe at a San Francisco-area coffeehouse in 1995.

"We were both there to see Peter Rowan play, so we obviously had something in common," he says. "It turned out we loved all of the same music, including Emmylou Harris. When I was a kid I discovered Gram Parsons, and I was always looking for my own Emmylou Harris--who was his singing partner. I just loved the sound of the male-female harmonies. As a matter of fact, Harris and Parsons did a lot of the brother-duo material and actually revived the Louvin brothers career by doing a bunch of their songs."

Musical tastes weren't the only common ground the couple shared. Not only were they both transplants from Pennsylvania, they had gone to the same grade school in 1959.

When Keystone Crossing performed at Concerts Under The Stars two years ago it had been the first time Carlin played in the area in 25 years.

"I get back there once a year and it's usually in July because most of my family still lives around the area. I don't really pursue getting other gigs in the east because of my job--I can't get off three weeks to do a tour."

His job as a full-time chauffeur for an executive honcho at an investment firm allows him freedom that another day job might not, he allows.

"It's great job for me because I'm only beholden to one guy, so I drive him to work and I have the whole day to myself to work on the music career thing or whatever."

Though the homecoming will be all too short-lived, Carlin admits he's looking forward to playing in his hometown again for family and friends.

 "King of Prussia has changed so much since I hung out at the mall in the '60s and early '70s," he says. "But it's always great to come back.”