Libby & Cal

https://www.libbyandcal.com/Ottawa-based acoustic duo Libby & Cal tackles subjects that are rarely voiced in song. Their songwriting is irreverent and poignant, and catches you off guard in a good way.They have played at various venues in Ontario and Quebec, as well as the 2025 California Autoharp Gathering. Together they have three albums and counting: Our Lady of Perpetual Hammer in 2021, If You’ve Given Up on Love, Then Let’s Call it Something Else in 2022, and The Hagstrom-Schmidt Affair in 2025.Libby bought her first autoharp - an Oscar Schmidt found through an online ad - in 2014 after many back-breaking years of lugging her electric piano to gigs. Under the name Elizabeth Bruce she released two albums of piano-based music: As We Sadden Each Other to Sleep in 2007 and The Silent I Know in 2013. She currently plays a prizim autoharp gifted to her by Loren Crowley, who originated the prizim system. Libby also teaches music and runs a monthly women-centered open mic called “Sad Girl Café”.Cal (AKA Doug Hendry) has been entertaining crowds with his musical talent since the age of four, singing in a choir in his native Scotland. As a teenager, he made his way playing street corners and folk clubs throughout Britain and Europe. Cal emigrated to Canada in 1991 and has played regularly in various bands including Odd One Out, Bruce Enloe and the Burning Sensations, Emmi Winter and the Heroic Mad Peasants, Fiddlehead Soup, Tripoly, and the Grenville Troubadours.Brian Tremblay’s Lonesome Cowboy Cowboy Podcast is a free publication. There’s no charge to subscribe. Thank you!If you would like to support my work here on Substack and my music (https://www.briantmusic.com), please click the Buy Me A Coffee logo above and donate. It is challenging to succeed in music and art, and your donation goes a long way toward helping me continue making it. Get full access to Brian Tremblay's Lonesome Cowboy Cowboy Podcast at thelonesomecowboypodcast.substack.com/subscribe