The Woodshed Podcast 30 featuring The Lied To's

THE LIED TO’SOn his very last record, Leonard Cohen utters the words, “You Want It Darker.” The Lied To's can relate.The duo, Susan Levine and Doug Kwartler, who are set to release their new record The Lesser of Two Evils on May 11, 2018, have reason to connect with Cohen's sentiment. Both weathered bitter divorces and were left to pick up the physical, financial and emotional pieces. They met at a folk festival and after the dust settled, started working together. Soon a musical partnership evolved into a personal one.Both Kwartler and Levine are single parents to two kids each. While juggling family life, music, and their relationship can fuel inspiration for songwriting, it can also be a struggle. “Like everyone else is feeling right now, except maybe the 1%, you just go about your day looking straight ahead trying to get things done,” Kwartler says, adding, “You work, pay bills, take care of your kids, have a relationship, and deal with your past…oh, and we also try to make music. The new record covers all that.” Levine continues, “While the songs are not purely autobiographical, the emotional truths definitely come from everything we've been through.”Despite the challenges, The Lied To's have made solid headway as an Americana duo in a very crowded Americana duo scene. Their 2015, self-titled debut album made waves in Americana and Folk radio and rose to #3 on the roots music charts. They landed in the top 100 on the prestigious No Depression readers’ poll and they were called, “…one of the finest contemporary guy/gal duos on the scene today,” by Boston’s Metronome Magazine, who also picked their CD as a top 20 of the year. Add in successful shows at the legendary Bluebird Café in Nashville, the renowned Club Passim in Cambridge, MA and many top folk-coffeehouses in the area, and The Lied To’s forged their own way and made a name for themselves