Artists of the Week: Judd and Maggie

Members: Judd Bolger (vocals, guitar, piano), Maggie Bolger (vocals, bass)
Hometown: Baltimore, Md.
Why they’re worth checking out: Judd and Maggie’s new album features simple, endearing songs with excellent production by Lenny Waronker (Randy Newman, James Taylor) and his son Joey Waronker (Beck, Smashing Pumpkins).
For fans of: James Taylor, Nickel Creek

Brother/sister act Judd and Maggie started making music in a living room on the outskirts of Baltimore. “It was kind of a family thing,” says Judd, at 25, the eldest member of the duo. While their parents never forced them to play instruments or sing, it came naturally—particularly because their father, a musician himself, often wrote songs for his kids. “He would always tell me to get the harmony when he was playing songs in the living room,” Maggie reflects, “and Judd would just play along on the piano.” With their parents and three other siblings, Judd and Maggie would listen to Paul Simon, James Taylor and Randy Newman records together.

Years later, these influences are evident on their folky, low-key debut, Subjects. But it didn’t happen right away—Maggie was an actress during high school and college, starring in musicals like The Sound Of Music, Fiddler On The Roof and The Wizard Of Oz. And Judd was in several bands during school. Other than a rendition of LeAnn Rimes’ “On The Side of Angels” at their high-school talent show (“We’re trying to erase that from our memory,” jokes Maggie,) Judd and Maggie seemed to be headed in different directions.

Then one day, Judd was practicing in the family’s music room, and Maggie started to sing along and develop vocal arrangements that went with the music. “My parents said ‘You know, you guys sound really good together,’” Maggie remembers. “So we started singing together.” Little did they know, just a few years later, their kids would be signed to a major label, recording an album produced by Beck’s hand-me-down drummer, and playing to crowded venues all over the States.

As for the album title, “It’s kind of about the difference between a subject and an object,” says Judd. “All of our songs are about people—our relationships with them, and the dignity that they require as being people, rather than treating them as an object.” Subjects is a no-frills collection of accessible songs with an unmistakable theme… love. Says Judd, “I think all art should try to speak of that.”