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My coverage of music often lies within the realm of the Reader’s distribution (approximately a two hour drive radius around the Twin Ports) but on occasion I do write up on acts from the Twin Cities and beyond. While Sarah Pray does come from the Minneapolis area, she does have ties back to Lake Superior, particularly the South Shore of Northern Wisconsin. It doesn’t take too much guess work to see that Pray along with her partner, Thomas Kivi, make a shout out to the area seeing as how they named their latest album “Cornucopia.” Cornucopia is a small isolated town on the edge of the Chequamegon National Forest and Lake Superior in Wisconsin. The town received some recognition last winter because it lies just a few miles away from the ice caves that brought in thousands of visitors. For a few short months in the summer the small fishing village is a more or less a northern paradise and quite memorable if the weather is favorable.
Pray is originally a native of Wisconsin coming from Madison and moved to Minneapolis in 2007 after attending college. She started playing regularly as a solo act at venues such as the 400 Bar and occasionally has travelled up to the Twin Ports to play shows over the years. In the last four years she began working with Thomas Kivi and this will mark their first album together besides a live EP. “This album is a duo album with the band name ‘Kivi & Pray.’ Half the songs are his except for the first track was co-written in Cornucopia. We’ll continue to have solo albums too but we wanted to represent what we have been doing for live shows over the past four years while accompanying each other on our songs and easing the woes of solo travel,” stated Pray.
While Kivi and Pray met each other out of this area they both have ties to Northern Wisconsin. “My grandfather grew up going to this cabin in Cornucopia. They lived in Ashland but they had a cabin that’s been in the family for quite awhile and we’d go there a lot in the summer…also Thomas’ family has connections to Ashland too, which is a complete coincidence, we just met in the Cities playing. It’s a place that we have in common,” said Pray. The duo has toured both nationally and in Europe. They will be playing a couple of shows in the Twin Ports in the coming week and visiting the small town on the South Shore.
The album doesn’t really have any specific references to Cornucopia or the area per se but it does range from pretty, upbeat to somewhat sad and reflective. Kivi and Pray split the album practically in half as far as vocal duties and there are tracks that primarily feature one or the other and also plenty of tracks that combine the harmonies of their vocals. The balance of instruments that include acoustic guitar, , mandolin, harmonica as well as other instruments and their vocals are well constructed between the two.
The first track on the album, “Love Song of the Common Loon,” features soothing finger picked guitar work along with a short piano part. There are no vocals in the song, just harmonies. Make no mistake about it, this is a combination of two singer-songwriters working together on an indie-folk project and they are equally talented. As far as style, the two have a similar feel and it works out well.
The album touches on a number of topics but a common theme is yearning and the delicate nature of relationships. The song, “Just Not in That Way,” displays some sort of disconnectedness within a relationship. The song primarily features Kivi. “But your lips they’d only kiss me any time I’d start to say I needed to love me but just not in that way.” The track, “When I Come Home,” by Pray has a similar theme. “I was just trying to make you understand that every time I shared your bed I was just trying to hold your hand.”    
The town of Cornucopia exemplifies the extremes of nature through its seasons ranging from desolate and brutal winters to beautiful summers filled with visitors. The track, “Natures Law,” touches on seasons and although it has some deeper connotations, I found it a fitting song for an album titled “Cornucopia.”
Check out this duo at one of their upcoming shows at Canal Park Brewing on Sunday, July 13 or on Thursday, July 17 at Fitger’s Brewhouse. Both shows will be free and there should be new albums available.