Work samples

  • The Honey Dewdrops - "Weep" | Hear Right Now Ep. 31
    "Weep" from the album Light Behind Light (2022). Filmed at Patapsco State Park in June, 2022.
  • The Honey Dewdrops - Holy Hymn
    "Holy Hymn" from the album Light Behind Light (2022) with Nicholas Sjostrom on drums, Alex Lacquement on upright bass and Caleb Stine on keys.

About The Honey Dewdrops

Baltimore City
Virginia raised and Maryland based, Laura Wortman and Kagey Parrish of The Honey Dewdrops began touring in 2009 and have called the city of Baltimore home since 2014. With several albums and fifteen years of playing shows on the road, Laura and Kagey continue to expand their experimental folk sound while maintaining a commitment to deepening their understanding of the world through the lens of music. No Depression says of the new album, Light Behind Light, “The Honey… more

Light Behind Light (2022)

Near the end of Light Behind Light, the seventh record by the Honey Dewdrops, Laura Wortman sings about light whispering to the mind, “through the wild night, and darkened sky.” It’s an immediate image sung effortlessly, as if into a wide darkness. The feeling that ensues is like you can see in the dark, with perception suddenly possible where it wasn’t a moment before. The song, called Holy Hymn, was written in 2019 and is posed to a friend in crisis, but it could be for anyone, anywhere during the last few years.

The new album expands the sound of the Dewdrops’ previous records, with more instruments filling out the duo’s experimental folk songs. For fifteen years, Laura and Kagey have been writing music for two voices and two instruments, mostly acoustic guitars and banjo, maximizing on a minimal format. Light Behind Light invites more instruments into the mix, increasing the range of frequencies and widening the space around the music. It also allows the songs time to travel melodic and narrative distances. You feel that time in the details, rhythm and voices rippling out and then rippling back in, pulling you along in its current. In this way, the songs are invitations to respond, to move with them, to sing along. 

Credits:

Produced by Nicholas Sjostrom, Kagey Parrish & Laura Wortman 
Recording engineered and mixed by Nicholas Sjostrom with tracks 1, 3, 6, 7 mastered by Nicholas Sjostrom 
Tracks 2, 4, 5, 8, 9 mastered by Anna Frick, Airshow Mastering 
Album photograph and design by Scott Dennison 
Recorded at Clean Cuts Studio in Baltimore, MD Sept/Oct 2020 

Kagey Parrish - Guitar, Vocals

Laura Wortman - Guitar, Vocals, Banjo

Nick Sjostrom - Drums, Piano, Bass

Alex Lacquement - Upright Bass

All songs written by Kagey Parrish and Laura Wortman © ℗ 2022 The Honey Dewdrops, BMI 

Tracks:

  1. Delia

  2. Heart Wants

  3. Weep

  4. Luck

  5. Moon Pies

  6. Holy Hymn

  7. Garden

  8. Stoney

  9. Tuning To

  • Light Behind Light Album Cover Art
    Light Behind Light Album Cover Art
    Photograph and design by Scott Dennison.
  • Delia
    Delia is a retelling of the true nineteenth century tale of Stagger Lee from St Louis. It's a story that has long been in the cannon of folk music. This version brings Delia's life to the forefront where she gets revenge for the murder of her husband Billy D.
  • Heart Wants
    "My heart wants what it wants"- one of the truest and hardest sentiments we can try to live by.
  • Moon Pies
    Moon Pies is about childhood memories. The sweet and the sour of the people who helped to raise us- the first time we heard country music or watched planes in the sky or strangely heard jokes about dying.
  • Tuning To
    An ode to love and generosity.
  • The Honey Dewdrops - Garden
    Garden was filmed in the Woodberry neighborhood of Baltimore close to a place known as the Zen Garden which is captured in the lyrics.

Anyone Can See (2019)

Anyone Can See, the 6th album from Baltimore Roots-duo The Honey Dewdrops, is a testament to the decade of touring and performing that Laura and Kagey have undergone since their humble beginnings in a small-town Virginia coffeeshop. This album sees the duo returning to its origins in putting together a sonic space of their live performances with two voices and two instruments, similar to 2009’s If the Sun Will Shine and 2010’s These Old Roots. At the helm as co-producer, engineer and mixer is Nicholas Sjostrom (who also worked on 2015’s Tangled Country), capturing in detail, the lush vocals and instrumental play that has come to define The Honey Dewdrops’ sound. At its core, Anyone Can See is a snapshot of living in a time and place that is patterned with disconnection, but also reveals humanity, vulnerability, and the existence of grace.

Credits:

Produced by Nicholas Sjostrom, Kagey Parrish & Laura Wortman 
Mixed and Engineered by Nicholas Sjostrom 
Mastered by Anna Frick, Airshow Mastering 
Album artwork and design by Scott Dennison 
Recorded live at Clean Cuts Studio in Baltimore, MD July/August 2018 

All songs written by Kagey Parrish and Laura Wortman © ℗ 2018 The Honey Dewdrops, BMI 
Except "Ramblin' Man," written by Hank Williams © ℗ SONY/ATV ACUFF ROSE MUSIC

Track List:

  1. More Than You Should Say

  2. Rainy Windows

  3. Welcome To The Club

  4. Going Rate

  5. For One More

  6. Ecola

  7. Still Life

  8. Ramblin’ Man

  9. Easy

  • Anyone Can See Album Cover Art
    Anyone Can See Album Cover Art
  • More Than You Should Say
    Track 1 on Anyone Can See. A song dedicated to those with the ability to share their vulnerability.
  • Welcome to the Club
    Track 3 on Anyone Can See, this song was inspired by the changing neighborhood of Hampden in Baltimore City and how in a world of turmoil, we all have/need various coping mechanisms to get through the hard times.
  • Going Rate
    Track 5 on Anyone Can See, "Going Rate" was born out of the tumultuous time in Baltimore surrounding the protests after the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody in 2015.
  • Ecola
    Pronounced Echo-la, this is a banjo/guitar instrumental painting a picture of the Oregon coast landscape. Ecola is a state park in Oregon.
  • The Honey Dewdrops – For One More
    "For One More" is from the album "Anyone Can See" by The Honey Dewdrops. This video was filmed in 2018 at the Fayetteville Roots Festival's Headquarters by Red Barn Studio.

Tangled Country (2015)

Written, recorded, mastered and designed in Baltimore, MD- Tangled Country is the 4th studio album from roots duo, The Honey Dewdrops. Produced by Nicholas Sjostrom and featuring Baltimore musicians Dave Hadley on pedal steel, E.J. Shaull-Thompson on drums and the producer himself on bass and piano, these 10 original songs are the culmination of 3 years of constant touring, moving away from a home and settling down in another, healing from a hand injury and navigating the ups and downs of "tangled country and foreign ground."

Credits:

Produced by Nicholas Sjostrom 
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Nicholas Sjostrom 
Recorded at Clean Cuts Studio in Baltimore, MD 
Album Design by Scott Dennison 

KAGEY PARRISH- Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin 
LAURA WORTMAN- Vocals, Guitar, Banjo, Harmonica 
NICHOLAS SJOSTROM- Bass, Piano, Wurlitzer Piano 
DAVE HADLEY- Pedal Steel 
E.J. SHAULL-THOMPSON- Drums

All songs written by Kagey Parrish and Laura Wortman © ℗ 2015 The Honey Dewdrops, BMI 

Track List:

  1. Same Old

  2. Loneliest Songs

  3. Lowlands

  4. Horses

  5. Fair Share Blues

  6. Hold Love

  7. Young

  8. Numb

  9. Guitars

  10. Remington

  • Tangled Country Album Cover Art
    Tangled Country Album Cover Art
  • Same Old
    Track 1 from "Tangled Country." This song was written about how we get stuck in routines and crave change.
  • Horses
    "Horses" was initially inspired by the book title "Half-broke Horses" by Jeanette Walls. The message is for all of us to embrace our unique selves.
  • Young
    "Young" is an ode to the shifts that occur as we get older where paths change from those of our peers.
  • Remington
    A banjo/guitar/piano instrumental inspired by the soundscape of the Remington neighborhood in Baltimore- its loud moments turned to beautifully quiet moments.
  • The Honey Dewdrops - Hold Love [Live at WAMU's Bluegrass Country]
    The Honey Dewdrops perform "Hold Love" from their release "Tangled Country" live in the Washington, DC studios of WAMU's Bluegrass Country. Video: Peter Swinburne. Audio: Jayk Cherry.

Live From Folk Alley at Fayetteville Roots Festival (2014)

This EP is the Honey Dewdrops’ first live release and features 6 songs recorded by FolkAlley.com during the duo’s set at the 2013 Fayetteville Roots Festival including Ola Belle Reed’s “I’ve Endured” and a brand new tune, “Fair Share Blues.”

Plus two tracks recorded live in the studio, a cover of Lennon/McCartney’s “Across The Universe” and another new song, “Back Room” (co-written with Bryan Hembree of Smokey & The Mirror).

Credits:

LAURA WORTMAN: Voice, Acoustic Guitar, Banjo, Harmonica
KAGEY PARRISH: Voice, Acoustic Guitar, Mandolin

Tracks 1-6 recorded live at Fayetteville Roots Festival, August 2013. Produced by Linda Fahey & Beehive Productions for Folk Alley.

Tracks 7 & 8 recorded live in Saranac Lake, NY, June & December 2013. Produced by Beehive Productions & The Honey Dewdrops.

All songs written by Kagey Parrish and Laura Wortman © ℗ 2014 The Honey Dewdrops, BMI 

Except “I’ve Endured” written by Ola Belle Reed and David Reed / Midstream Music, BMI.
“Across the Universe” written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney / Sony / ATV Music Publishing, LLC.
“Back Room” written by Bryan Hembree (BMI) & The Honey Dewdrops (BMI)

Track List:

  1. No More Trouble

  2. Fair Share Blues

  3. Don’t Leave Me Here

  4. I’ve Endured

  5. It’s Hard to Pray

  6. Let Me Sing

  7. Across the Universe

  8. Back Room

  • Live From Folk Alley Cover Art
    Live From Folk Alley Cover Art
  • The Honey Dewdrops- Back Room
    "Back Room" performed by The Honey Dewdrops and featured on their live EP, Live From Folk Alley at Fayetteville Roots Festival. Filmed and recorded by Beehive Productions in Saranac Lake, NY, December, 2013, captured with Peluso Microphones.
  • The Honey Dewdrops- Across the Universe
    The Honey Dewdrops - "Across the Universe" (Lennon-McCartney), recorded in Saranac Lake, NY - June 2013. Filmed and multi-tracked by Beehive Productions and captured with Peluso Microphones.
  • The Honey Dewdrops - Fair Share Blues
    The Honey Dewdrops perform "Fair Share Blues" Live from the Fayetteville Roots Festival - August, 2013. Filmed and recorded by Beehive Productions in collaboration FolkAlley.com.
  • The Honey Dewdrops - Let Me Sing
    The Honey Dewdrops perform "Let Me Sing" Live from the Fayetteville Roots Festival - August, 2013. Filmed and recorded by Beehive Productions in collaboration FolkAlley.com.
  • The Honey Dewdrops - No More Trouble
    The Honey Dewdrops perform "No More Trouble" Live from the Fayetteville Roots Festival - August, 2013.

Silver Lining (2012)

For Silver Lining, the third album from The Honey Dewdrops (released June, 2012), Laura and Kagey set up shop on an old farm in Catawba, VA and invited their friends over to help tune guitars, craft songs, keep the creativity flowing, and uncork the wine. The result is a remarkably intense recording that sounds much larger than the two people at the center of the music. Beautiful harmonies flow together effortlessly, as quick as a second thought, and the acoustic instruments drift along the back roads of the music, between hills clouded with wood smoke. It’s music made in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, beholden not to ancient tradition, but to the spirit of the hills, to the handmade, community music that came before.

Credits:

Produced by Jeff Oehler, 
Caleb Stine & The Honey Dewdrops 

Engineered & mixed by Jeff Oehler 

Mastered by Nicholas Sjostrom in Baltimore, MD 

Recorded in Catawba, VA and Saranac Lake, NY 

Photography by Jack Looney

Album Design by Susan Bibeau

KAGEY PARRISH - Vocals, Guitar 
LAURA WORTMAN - Vocals, Banjo, Guitar 
BARRY LAWSON - Bass, Mandolin, Octave Mandolin 
CALEB STINE - Guitar on “Happiness” 

All songs written by Kagey Parrish and Laura Wortman © ℗ 2012 The Honey Dewdrops, BMI 

Except “Bright Morning Stars”- Traditional

This recording was made entirely with microphones from Peluso Microphone Lab in Willis, VA.

Track List:

  1. One Kind Word

  2. Hills of My Home

  3. No More Trouble

  4. Let Me Sing

  5. Catawba

  6. Silver Lining

  7. Happiness

  8. Together Tied

  9. It’s Hard To Pray

  10. Somerset

  11. Bright Morning Stars

  • Silver Lining Album Cover Art
    Silver Lining Album Cover Art
  • One Kind Word
  • Hills of My Home
    "Hills of My Home" is about the destruction of the coal mining industry and its irrevocable damage to our mountains in the east- specifically West Virginia. Inspired by traveling these landscapes and the writings of Wendell Berry.
  • Silver Lining
    A love song.
  • Bright Morning Stars
    "Bright Morning Stars" is a traditional, gospel song, performed here a cappella.
  • The Honey Dewdrops- Together Tied
    The Honey Dewdrops perform "Together Tied" from their album "Silver Lining" at Folk Haus in Baltimore in August 2012. Video by BMOREhush.

These Old Roots (2010)

The Honey Dewdrops' second album, These Old Roots, may have been released in the fall of 2010, but from the sound of it, it could have been made 70 years earlier. Well, not quite. Sound fidelity wasn't nearly this good then. But Charlottesville, VA husband-and-wife team Kagey Parrish and Laura Wortman made a point of recording the old-fashioned way: tracking their guitars and Parrish's mandolin, as well as their vocals, in complete performances in the studio and issuing them that way, virtually without edits or overdubs. It's an appropriate approach given the style of music, which is old-timey mountain music sung with country harmonies and played in fingerpicking style. The great surprise is that almost all the songs are newly written originals by Parrish and Wortman; only "Can't Get a Letter from Home" is credited as "Traditional from the singing of Addie Graham from Magoffin County, Kentucky." Wortman, singing lead, personifies jilted and faithful lovers and Parrish chimes in here and there, while holding down the instrumental accompaniment with his sure-handed runs on guitar and mandolin. The Honey Dewdrops are trying to evoke a type of music that came down the mountain a long time ago as if it came down last week, and they largely succeed.
-AllMusic Review by William Ruhlmann

Credits:

Recorded live in Richmond, VA
Mixed, engineered and mastered by Kagey Parrish

LAURA WORTMAN - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar on "Can't Get a Letter from Home" and "That Good Old Way" 
KAGEY PARRISH - Harmony Vocals, Lead Guitar, Mandolin 
BARRY LAWSON - Bass on "That Good Old Way"

Album Design by Sherry Imswiler
Flourishes by Tristan Benedict-Hall
Cover photo by Gary Alter

All songs written by Kagey Parrish and Laura Wortman © ℗ 2010 The Honey Dewdrops, BMI 
Except “Can’t Get a Letter From Home”-Traditional, learned from the singing of Addie Graham from Magoffin County, Kentucky

Track List:

  1. Amaranth

  2. The Test of Time

  3. Nobody in this World

  4. Goodbye and Farewell

  5. Can’t Get a Letter From Home

  6. Sweet Heaven

  7. Waiting on You

  8. Only You Can Know

  9. Way Back When

  10. That Good Old Way

  • These Old Roots Album Cover Art
    These Old Roots Album Cover Art
  • Amaranth
    An ode to a beautiful plant known as amaranth and its specific variety called "love-lies-bleeding."
  • Nobody in This World
    "Nobody in This World" is a mandolin/guitar duet, and sung about a relationship gone awry.
  • Can't Get a Letter from Home
    With just a guitar and voice, this song came from the singing of Addie Graham from Kentucky as well as Mike Seeger from Virginia.
  • That Good Old Way
    Written for and directly inspired by the Gospel music tradition.
  • The Honey Dewdrops- Nobody in this World
    The Honey Dewdrops perform "Nobody in this World" from their release "These Old Roots" live at The Stage at KDHX in St. Louis, August 24, 2017. Audio by Joshua Melvin. Video by Ben Manhanke.

If the Sun Will Shine (2009)

If the Sun Will Shine, the debut record from The Honey Dewdrops, was released May 2009. Recorded live and mixed in a 1920's barn, the album pays homage to their live performances - full of the same energy and emotion Laura and Kagey bring to the stage. If the Sun Will Shine is made up of a collection of songs The Honey Dewdrops wrote over two years while still teaching in the Virginia public school system. There are eleven original tunes - some of which are award winners and landed Laura and Kagey plane tickets to St. Paul, Minnesota where they appeared on A Prairie Home Companion’s "People in their Twenties Talent Show" (and won first place) in March 2008. This is a record capturing "something haunting, melancholic and all-together charming" (Jeff Royer, Fly Magazine).

Credits:

Recorded live, engineered and mixed by Kagey Parrish
Mastered by Abel Okugawa at Monkeyclaus Studio in Nelson County, Virginia 
Artwork by J.J. Eisfelder
Album Design by Sherry Imswiler

All songs written by Kagey Parrish and Laura Wortman © ℗ 2009 The Honey Dewdrops, BMI 

Track List:

  1. Bluest Blue Eyes

  2. Don’t Leave Me Here

  3. Wandering Boy

  4. Stomping Ground

  5. 1918

  6. How We Used to Be

  7. Nowhere to Stand

  8. Without Tears

  9. Fly Away Free

  10. When Was the War

  11. Petals

  • If the Sun Will Shine Cover Art
    If the Sun Will Shine Cover Art
  • Bluest Blue Eyes
  • Don't Leave Me Here
    The very first song we ever penned together inspired by the photographs of Robert Frank.
  • 1918
    Mandolin/Guitar instrumental track. The title comes from the year the mandolin was made.
  • Petals
    A song about Laura's grandmother and her battle with Alzheimer's Disease.
  • The Honey Dewdrops- Wandering Boy
    "Wandering Boy" - from The Honey Dewdrops' album "If the Sun Will Shine." Cook Shack, Union Grove, NC; September 2, 2010.