Biography

Deering and Down pair sturdy, sweet female vocals with clang-and-twang guitar textures. One can imagine the rich vocals, reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks and Margo Timmins of the “Cowboy Junkies,” paired with classic strings of Ike Turner, Keith Richards, and Hubert Sumlin.

Had Deering and Down only been looking for the most expedient route to stardom, they most likely would have never set up headquarters in a small town in Alaska.

As fate would have it, at the age of sixteen, Canadian-born Lahna Deering found her way up north, where she met and befriended rock and roll journeyman Rev Neil Down. Based in the town of 300 residents, Deering and Down wrapped up a winter’s worth of work even further north at remote studio in the Yukon Territory. There they recorded their first album together, “Coupe de Villa”.

The merging of Deering’s strong belt-it-out voice, and Down’s “left of center” guitar playing was just the beginning of their creative kinship.

They traipsed the Streets of Baltimore after the release of their debut album “Coupe de Villa”, and ended up with a song from this release on the soundtrack to an award-winning Indie film. They then absorbed the greens of Ireland and collaborated with legendary sideman Henry McCullough in creating ‘When A Wrong Turns Right’ - which garnered enough notice from Public Radio International to earn a feature on their highly regarded music series.

This last couple of years have found Deering and Down immersed in the muddy browns and Blues of Memphis and the Mighty Mississippi River. This, along with the occasional forays back to Alaska and Canada has allowed them to expand their experience while remaining in touch with their original roots where they had the whole Aurora Borealis palate to work with. All this makes for a blend of smoky Memphis flavor cast in a glow of shimmering light.