We're very excited to have Peter and Lou Berryman as the centerpieces of this year's dinner and concert.   They're great fun and homegrown in the Fox Valley, too!   They met in highschool in Appleton in the 1960s and from there began a lifetime of musical entertaining, producing 12 recordings, several songbooks, and thousands of performances across the continent.   Recently, they were featured on Prairie Home Companion.   We know you'll enjoy them.   The following quotes describe their unique style:
 

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... Matt Watroba, Sing Out!, Fall 2001: 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.  Lou and Peter Berryman win new fans everywhere they go. And the old fans? They keep coming to hear the new songs and to watch the astonished reaction of the folks hearing this delightful duo for the first time.

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...A lot of people feel that way about [Lou & Peter's] "Why Am I Painting the Living Room". 

Victoria (BC) 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. 

The Boston Globe: 

Lou & Peter Berryman write very eccentric, very funny satirical songs...delightful Wisconsin performers... If Tom Lehrer had grown up in America's Dairyland, his songs might sound like theirs. 

Pete Seeger: 

Lou and Peter Berryman!  Long may they wave. Their F-Word song "A Chat With Your Mother" is one of the great American folksongs of the 20th Century. 

Robert J. Lertsema, WGBH, Boston: 

It is very rare that I ever put on a recording for the 1st time and actually break out in audible laughter. I thought Lou & Peter's DOUBLE YODEL was fantastic. 

The Winnipeg Folk Festival: 

Sharing a fascination with language and a unique perspective on the world, Lou & Peter Berryman offer refreshing observations on the human condition in a style blending folk music with musical comedy. They manage to translate it all into hilarious songs that have become instant classics. Songs that feel like they had you in mind when the  words and music came together. 

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 each one. 

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... 

Mike Agranoff, THE FOLK PROJECT, Basking Ridge, NJ: 

Peter & Lou Berryman... 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. 

Golden Link Folk Singing Society, Rochester NY: 

It is given to few songwriters to make songs that become instant classics; the Berrymans have produced dozens--'taint fair. No one writes songs like the Berrymans, but everyone recognizes the truth and the clear vision behind each one. 

Isthmus, Madison, WI: 

They're our very own post-nuclear Will Rogers and Dorothy Parker. 

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