Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno (The Onlies) are young up-and-coming Americana talents who have joined forces as a duo. With this collaboration, the duo brings seamless harmonies and the ability to shift effortlessly between old-timey ballads, traditional country, and contemporary Americana, all while exploring themes of love, heartbreak, regret, passing time, and self-reflection with intense emotions. Vivian Leva is from Lexington, Virginia, coming from a musical family and childhood – father James is a well-respected multi-instrumentalist and her mother Carol Elizabeth recorded with Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, and by the age of nine Leva was performing original songs. Riley Calcagno is a multi-instrumentalist prodigy from Washington state and known best as a member of The Onlies. The self-titled album was produced by Grammy-winning Cajun roots musician Joel Savoy (The Red Stick Ramblers) with all the songs written by the duo while paying homage to the traditional American music they grew up listening and performing. Album highlights include: the self-reflective opening track “Will You”; the beautiful love ballad “On the Line”; the hopeful traditional country tune “Biding all my Time”; the bittersweet “Leaving on Our Minds”; the mournful track “You Don’t See Me”; the toe-tapper “On Account of You”; and the traditional country-styled song “My Teardrops Say.” Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno’s self-titled debut is an exceptionally strong album, a great collection of traditionally styled Americana/roots music with the high standard of thoughtful songwriting and musicianship. – Written by JFelton
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