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TESTIMONIALS

Tom Lehrer:
- Rhymes that rhyme! I love your material,
and if I were still performing, I'd steal it!
Tom Paxton:
- When it comes to being funny, I think
I've spent the first thirty years trying to be as funny as Tom
Lehrer and the last part will be trying to be as funny as the
Berrymans. They don't come any funnier than that.
Pete Seeger:
- Lou & Peter Berryman! Long may they
wave! Their song "A Chat with your Mother" is one of
the great American folksongs of the 20th century.
Christine Lavin:
- Lou & Peter Berryman are the funniest
thing on four legs and brilliant songwriters.
Matt Watroba, Sing Out! Magazine:
- Every new recording is full of material
that stretches and explodes with original ideas and fresh musical
wordplay. It is that distinctive mosaic of melody and lyric that
keeps their fans hanging on every line and sometimes every word.
Scott Alarik, The Boston Globe:
- Wisconsin songwriters Lou and Peter Berryman
do to Midwestern sensibilities what Christine Lavin does to stressful
New York, and what Tom Lehrer so long ago did to the intellectual
pomposities of Cambridge: hoist the norms of everyday culture
hilariously on their own petards. Their satires are at once bitingly
funny and endearing, wildly absurdist and vividly human. They
have the rare ability to make us simultaneously laugh at and
care about the people they lampoon.
The San Francisco Bay Chronicle:
- Once in a while a song comes along that
so successfully crystallizes familiar thoughts that you feel
you could have written it yourself...Alot of people feel that
way about [Lou & Peter's] "Why Am I Painting the Living
Room"
Victoria Times Colonist:
- Quirky, wry, ironic humor. Peter's highly
literate lyrics and skewed perspective are unique. When enhanced
by Lou's soundscapes, the duo makes magic. By the time the Berrymans
encored with their wistful, fumbling love song "We Strolled
On the Beach" I was in love too. I'm a fan of this clever
duo now.
Grassroots Concerts, Brainerd, MN:
- Peter and Lou Berryman just have to be
the funnybones of the Midwest. Public radio listeners know that
this Madison-based duo is pure entertainment. Their huge bag
of comic music is filled with gems sung daily by dozens of well-known
entertainers, but never done better than by themselves. CHRONIC
LAUGHTER ALERT: persons with recent rib injuries should wear
their braces or prepare to leave the show early.
10# Fiddle, Lansing, MI:
- Their songs and performances are unfailingly
wacky, and just as dependably 100% right. No one writes songs
like Peter and Lou, but everyone recognizes the truth and the
clear vision behind them .
Folklore Society of Greater Washington:
- Folkdom's favorite funny folks...
The Freight & Salvage, Berkeley,
CA:
- This once-married duo from the upper midwest
is among the most entertaining acts we've ever had at the Freight.
Their songs are crafted from often unpromising raw material (sports
headlines, mother love, state pride) but invariably as the lyrics
unroll the audience begins to roll on the floor...
Art Wojtowicz, musicHound Folk; The
Essential Album Guide:
- The professional accomplishments of Lou
and Peter Berryman are numerous, not the least of which is continuing
to produce original, highly creative music following their divorce
in 1974...the musical chemistry only gets better with time. The
Berrymans offer refreshing observations on the human condition
in a style blending folk music with musical comedy. And they
manage to translate it all into hilarious songs that have become
folk classics, including "Double Yodel," "A Chat
with your Mother," "Your State's Name Here," and
"Cow Imagination." The humor draws on Lou's gifts as
a melody writer, accordion player, and vocal comedienne, as well
as Peter's guitar and vocal skills and extraordinary lyric writing...
Few can resist laughing out loud by the middle of the second
song; this stuff grows on you... These two delightfully twisted
imaginations continue in full bloom..."
Mike Agranoff, The Folk Project, Morristown,
NJ:
- Peter & Lou Berryman, when first introduced
to us through the singing of Michael Cooney, might have been
considered a sort of clever novelty act. They wrote and sang
their own songs, mostly humorous, Peter on 12 string guitar and
Lou on accordion on a pogo stick. Now, however, looking at over
a decade of producing more maturing, sophisticated and wickedly
funny material, they have obviously achieved a classic level
of comedic songwriting in the ranks of Tom Lehrer or Flanders
& Swann. Responsible for such gems as "A Chat with your
Mother" (the "F"-word song), "The Speculator",
"Why Am I Painting the Living Room?" and dozens more,
they have identified the exact point where the English language
meets the funny bone, with a special flair for songs in which
two voices singing entirely different things somehow manage to
mesh into one cacophonic, yet clear, message.

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