Lou and Peter Berryman Return to Camden

Lou and Peter Berryman Return to Camden Library Coffeehouse March 6

Lou and Peter Berryman sing the wittiest songs in the world. They have been performing together for forty years and will be returning the Camden area to perform at the Camden Library Coffeehouse on Thursday, March 6, at 7:00 pm. The Berrymans are authors of sixteen recordings and three songbooks; their whimsical and wonderfully accessible performances of their hilarious, quirky, yet oddly profound songs leave audiences with cheeks aching from smiling. Tickets are available at the door for $8.

The popularity of Lou and Peter Berryman — whose friendship survived a brief marriage in the seventies — is a testament to their intelligent and wickedly funny material which is never bawdy or risque but is rich with wordplay and witty images. Mostly, guitarist Peter writes the lyrics and accordionist Lou writes the music, but all their songs are collaborations. They specialize in songs that make humorous observations in such songs as “Why Am I Painting the Living Room,” “The Speculator,” “The Dupsha Dove,” “Acme Forgetting Service,” “Dem Deer,” and “Does Your Dog Agonize?”

Frequent comparisons to Tom Lehrer, Flanders and Swann, and Gilbert and Sullivan notwithstanding, these two performers are originals, blending Midwestern culture with intelligent observation in an eccentric and funny performance. Lou and Peter Berryman began their musical partnership in high school in Appleton, Wisconsin, way back in the sixties. By the late seventies, they had established themselves as a prominent feature of the songwriting subculture of Wisconsin’s capital, playing their original material every week for almost ten years in the run-down but trendy music room of Madison’s Club de Wash. Gradually expanding their circuit, they began crisscrossing the continent and gaining national attention with appearances on such programs as Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion and NPR’s Weekend Edition. Regular appearances at festivals and folk music clubs all across the country now serve as venues for the songs, which have been performed by everyone from Garrison Keillor to Peggy Seeger. This duo is not to be missed.