Okay, I admit it - I'm a Ditty Bops fanatic and yes, this is a gush piece.

From the moment I first heard these two angelic beauties' album, with it's swinging bluegrass folk pop sound, witty lyrics and "I just can't stop dancing" beat, I have been hooked. Actually, I have been in love.

I recently recently became aware that they had embarked on a cross-country live tour - by bicycle. Yes, they're actually riding their bikes, two-wheelers with pedals, coast to coast, playing live dates along the way. When I heard that they would be wheeling through Northern California before heading East, I just had to go.

Winding through the mountains outside of Nevada City, California we reach our destination, a really old schoolhouse in the middle of the sticks. Filled with Fat Tire beer and peanut butter cookies, I sit in anxious awe. Then suddenly there they are. Only three feet away, The Ditty Bops! They are singing and playing a variety of eclectic instruments. I can't stop dancing, crying, and freaking out like some 12-year-old girl at a New Kids on the Block concert circa 1990!

Then just when I think this can't get any better, they pick me out of the audience and bring me onstage to tell a story on the topic of "an obsessive crush." Well, of course that's easy, I have an obsessive crush on the Ditty Bops. It's not a long story I tell, but it brings a smile to Amanda's face and she gives me a huge hug. I melt like butter on a stack of hot cakes and slide off the stage back into the crowd.

After the show, the girls are total sweethearts, taking pictures with us and signing all the memorabilia we just bought. They even give me another hug, and say they have an obsessive crush on me too. I'm thinking I must have died and gone to heaven. The next day, when I see they have actually mentioned me in their blog, I am certain.

It's three days later, and by now they have pedaled their way all the way to Reno, Nevada for their next show. Of course, being only 100 miles away, I wouldn't miss it for the world. Once again, I am down front, dancing my ass off. Abby and Amanda who were dressed as vampires for the last show are now in sassy cabaret dresses they borrowed from the Magic Underground, looking even hotter than before. At one point Amanda recognizes me from the other night and calls me by name to the stage to sing and dance along with them. Heaven is really so cool.

In my 30 years on this planet, these are the best shows I have ever been to. Abby and Amanda's talent as musicians and stage performers is unsurpassed. Please enjoy reading the questions below as much as I did asking them.

Amanda, I hear you eat fire, do you ever eat fire at shows?
I have never eaten fire at a show. I haven't even done it since I was 18. I've been a bit scared to do it again. Although my Dad has a standing offer to remind me how to do it. He thought it would be cool to attach a torch to my mandolin and eat fire off that. I agree, it would be cool. Don't know if I have the guts.

Abby, you love and fear sharks, were you worried about great whites when you were riding your bikes in the ocean?
At that time I was not concerned by the sharks because I was close to the shore. However, there are times when I am swimming out there that I start to think about sharks and I freak myself out and I have to swim back to shore. Especially if something touches my leg like seaweed or a piece of floating trash. It's highly unlikely great white sharks would be in Los Angeles area from what I know.

How fast can you fix a flat tire?
AMANDA: Not fast enough.

Can you do a wheelie?
ABBY: No. I try and fail again and again.

What are some of your plans for the rest of the trip? Any cool costumes we should look for?
ABBY: We plan to do a bikini ride in the Nevada desert and a Wizard of Oz ride in Kansas. I'm going to be Dorothy.

What can people expect to see at your shows? What can they expect NOT to see?
AMANDA: They should come with no expectations and hopefully they will not be disappointed.

I have read your blog and you like to eat healthy yummy food... do you have any particular views on food (raw, vegi, vegan, macro, etc.)?
ABBY: In Los Angeles we like to cook macrobiotic food at home and eat at our favorite macro restaurant. But we are not strictly vegan or macro. We are mostly vegetarians who eat fish occasionally.

How much water do you drink every day?
ABBY: Not enough.

Do you ride on the days of your shows?
AMANDA: Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. It just depends on how far we are from the towns and cities we are playing in. On the West Coast leg of the trip we played impromptu gigs in Santa Barbara, Big Sur, and Davis. It was a lot of fun to do these last minute performances.

How are your knees holding up?
ABBY: My left knee bothered me at times during training. Now it feels fine but my right knee is starting to give me trouble.

Do you actually strap your instruments to your bikes as you go from show to show?
AMANDA: We have a van that carries our gear, camping equipment, food, etc..., in our trunk bags we carry our gear for the ride, like bike pump, extra water, tools, food bars, snacks, rain gear....

What has been the best thing, so far, that has happened to you on this journey?
AMANDA: So many all the time. Last couple days the Yuba river was the highlight. Seeing a live deer a few days ago for the first time, instead of just seeing dead deer, which is every day, was nice.

Do you like the song "Bicycle" by Queen?
ABBY: I like Queen, but I don't love that particular song. I like it okay.
AMANDA: I like it.

Who did the design and artwork for your album covers and calendar?
ABBY: Rick Whitmore did the art for our current album and a lot of the work on the website. He kicked ass on the calendar. Wait till you see 2007.
AMANDA: Don 't tell anyone, but the calendar for next year is done. There's gonna be bicycles and bikinis.... shhhhhhhh.

Will you marry me?
AMANDA: You want us both to marry you?
ABBY: Well, we are going to Utah.....

Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald started their band the Ditty Bops four years ago, but this lesbian couple will celebrate their eight-year anniversary this coming February. Perhaps that's why the musical duo's signature harmonies are as smooth and deceptively effortless as a ride on a bicycle built for two. These two know how to work well in tandem.

The Los Angeles-based band debuted in 2004 with a self-titled major-label release. They played only a handful of shows before signing with Warner Brothers and the illustrious producer Mitchell Froom (he has produced Los Lobos, Paul McCartney and Suzanne Vega, among others). The Ditty Bops' second and latest album is this year's Moon Over the Freeway.

“We like to spend a lot of time together,” says Barrett, who shares a home with DeWald in Hollywood.

The Ditty Bops just capped a four-month tour that took them from their home base in Los Angeles to New York City, and they traveled the entire route by bicycle. They averaged about 65 miles a day, sometimes riding more than 100 miles before reaching the next town and their next stop on the tour.

Barrett and DeWald generally encourage cycling over driving, even offering discounts at the door to their shows for anyone sporting a bike helmet. They also invited fans to join them on this summer's bike tour.

“Trying to ride your bike and chat is really hard, so I understand why that isn't done more often,” Barrett says. “We discovered that it's hard to climb a hill while talking to fans about your musical influences. That was something we hadn't planned on, like going up the Rockies and talking about Ricky Nelson.”

On their albums and at their live shows, the ever playful Ditty Bops transport listeners to a reimagined bygone era, melding ragtime, jazz and swing with cabaret costumes and wigs. Sometimes they even break out the puppets, skits and slide shows.

The women share a penchant for fancy dress — as comfortable in Bowler hats and ties as glamorous gowns and sequined accessories. They model an array of lavish but scanty getups in their 2006 bikini calendar, which features portrait after portrait of the pair in elaborately staged settings and classic two-piece suits.

Next up is their 2007 Vegetable Bikini Calendar, coming out at the end of this month. When pressed, the women confirm that it will feature vegetables in bikinis as well as bikinis made of vegetables.

“It will definitely involve farmer's market vegetables, recipes, fun,” says Barrett. She and DeWald both used to sell fresh pasta at the local farmer's markets in Los Angeles.

The Ditty Bops' music is experimental but rooted in the 1920s, like many of their costumes. And they manage to pull it all off with less ironic cynicism than homage to a free-spirited yesteryear.
It's an aesthetic that carries over from their music to their elaborate website — which is filled with original drawings, lace borders and sepia-toned photos of the pair in Wild West-era garb, sipping from tea cups. The site also features recipes, original artwork, music videos and footage from the band's television appearances.

“When we played the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, we had to leave all our boys behind, so we had a duo,” Barrett says, referring to their all-male backup band that includes upright bass, piano, guitar, accordion and drums. DeWald and Barrett play a variety of percussion and fretted instruments.

Both of the women grew up in California, though at opposite ends of the state. DeWald, who occasionally performs in early cowboy duds, hails from the northern county of Shasta. Barrett — with her flapperesque bob and long, often bare legs — grew up in Topanga Canyon, which is as Bohemian as Southern California gets. (It's the canyon whose ladies Joni Mitchell sang about on her 1970 album.)

Barrett got an early start singing third-part harmony at age 13 in her mother's British Isles duo. She learned to play fretted dulcimer and often plays mandolin as well as washboard for the Ditty Bops. She's a longtime performer, a former child actor and model. She also performs sketch comedy with friend Michael Lucid in their show, Pretty Things.

DeWald is an avid cook and talented illustrator. The shorter, snarkier of the two, she usually plays guitar but grew up with piano lessons and dreaded recitals. “A lot of what you're trying to do when you're a kid is be perfect about the performance,” she says. “You have to memorize the lines and get it just right, and play the classical piece without a mistake.”

But now the stage is pure fun for both women. What changed for DeWald? “I guess the spirit of what you're trying to do,” she says. “We just made our whole thing about totally screwing up, and then it worked fine.” She explains that they had to set it up that way: “Otherwise people would realize how many mistakes we're making.”

Barrett and DeWald invite fans to snap photos and tape their shows (venue permitting). They also welcome audience participation in the form of “Wishful Thinking Karaoke” and a “Sister Kate Dance-Off” on their latest tour. The latter entailed no judging or prizes — just fans dancing on stage to the band's cover of “Sister Kate.”

“We just wanted people to come up and join us,” DeWald says. “Sister Kate” is a song she first learned to play on the ukulele. “I was pleased by the level of participation. Some shows we had everybody up dancing, and sometimes people would come up on stage and strut their stuff.”

DeWald and Barrett say they chose their original hit “Wishful Thinking” for the karaoke segment because it's one of the more familiar songs to their fans. But it's also particularly appropriate given that karaoke is so often about wishful thinking.

“It was a lot fun to see the different groupings of people: who knows the harmony and who doesn't know the words and makes up their own,” DeWald says.

Opening up the bike trip to the public opened the women up to more personal contact with their fans, for better or worse. “There's a variety of people, as you can imagine, who would be interested in riding with us,” Barrett says. “Most of the time they were really cool, but on occasion I would've preferred it to be just us.”

Some fans weren't sure whether to treat the pair like celebrities or human beings. “Sadly there's more than a few that just really have no boundaries,” DeWald says. These individuals didn't always show the keenest sense of how to behave around the women when they're living daily life as opposed to performing.

“Because we're so free with people, and we say, ‘Hey, come tape our shows, take as many pictures as you want,' that doesn't mean follow me around in a grocery store and take pictures of me when I'm picking my nose,” DeWald elaborates. “People just don't understand it's not appropriate to do that. If you want to take my picture in a grocery store, you just ask.”

Another thing the pair wasn't fully prepared for was the climate changes. “It was hard to plan on weather for four months over the entire country,” Barrett says. “It was cold in some places but then the heat took quite a toll on us at certain times. In the beginning I thought it was easier than I expected, but that changed after it got hot.”

“One of my most exhausting days was St. Louis,” Barrett recalls. “It was like a hundred miles, and I'd been chased and bit by a dog and had a spider on me going through this spider zone with all these leaves, and then arriving and going straight to the show and setting up and tearing down. It was just such a long day.”

DeWald says, “It's good and bad to be accessible to your fans. It's great to get out there and talk to them and show them you appreciate them being there.”

Barrett concurs. “It was really fun to hear people's stories and talk to people from different areas and meet lots of cyclists. I'm totally glad we did it, but I think if we do it again — or some version of it — it will be more like smaller stints of regional areas.”

The pair is considering a one-to-three-week tour in Europe or Japan. “I'd like to not have to do as many miles a day so we could relax a little more and have more energy for the performances,” Barrett says. “We were pretty zonked when we got finished.”

But now that they're home, these ladies are hardly resting their legs. Neither of them owns a car these days — which is no easy feat for residents of one of the most automobile-dependent cities in North America. These avid cyclists travel the sprawling metropolis by bike.

And those bikes are about to get makeovers. “We just ordered Extracycles, which helps you schlep large amounts of things,” Barrett says.

“It adds about a foot and a half length to the end of your bicycle, extending that bracket in back,” DeWald explains.

“It has all these panniers on it, and it allows you to go to the market without things falling out everywhere,” Barrett adds. “Yesterday I had my dry cleaning, groceries and a big pot — we went to get kitchen supplies. I was almost falling over. So life is about to get a lot easier, hopefully.”

Barrett also enthuses about the social aspect of riding bikes. “A lot of our friends have given up their cars over the summer too and are riding around, so it's not just us being the crazy ones,” she says. “Now we get to go on group bike excursions, to the market or wherever. It's nice to create an activity out of stuff because you're going by bike instead of just in your car by yourself.”

And when they're not working, walking or riding? “We like making food,” DeWald says, “and visiting our friends.”

“We've been cooking a lot since we got back,” Barrett says. “Abby has, anyway. I've been eating a lot. And doing art projects.”

The Ditty Bops' current projects also include music for an upcoming comedy film from Sony as well as a guest performance on the third season of The L Word. They flew to Vancouver in September to record a song written for them to perform on the Showtime series, and the episode will be shot at the end of this month. “When we were at the studio we got to see Jennifer Beals,” DeWald enthuses.

“Jenny's gonna be in it. That's all I'm gonna say,” Barrett teases regarding their L Word scene. Jenny's gonna be there. Tina's gonna be there. And I think the rest is probably top secret.” Stay tuned.

A former model who's posed for Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren and Comme des Garcons, among others, Barrett styles the Dittys' cheeky cabaret-style act. "When we come up for a theme for a show, it's often based on an outfit in our closet that we really want to wear," explains DeWald, who worked as a fashion-show dresser during New York Fashion Week in 2001. "We pretty much try to keep ourselves entertained." Which means plenty of shopping. "On one tour, I don't think we wore the same outfit twice," she continues. "We had a lot of stuff, and we'd combine different things. It wasn't like we were Cher, changing our outfits six times a show---not that I don't appreciate that."

The touring duo finds bliss in a well-tuned bike, a windless road,
and their Summer Squash Attack Succotash

by Sheba White

Listening to the Ditty Bops' second release, Moon Over the Freeway, odds are that you'd want to leave town, too. The self proclaimed "pagan-vaudeville" duo's album is full of movement: whistling trains, late-night cruises,and crowded buses breeze by to a jig-inducing banjo, a boogie-woogie piano, and a field-romping guitar. so it's no surprise that the Ditty Bops' Abby DeWald and Amanda Barrett decided to escape their home base of Los Angeles in a big way.

When we talked to the Ditty Bops in early June, they had left their Hollywood home a few weeks prior and were in the thick of their voyage to New York, where they arrived in August. The two are still traveling with their bassist, Ian Walker, and are followed close behind by an instrument-loaded biodiesel van, which is driven by pianist Greg Rutledge and his wife, Boo. The tour concludes in late September in Flagstaff, Arizona. Along the way, they will play at least one concert in every state they hit.

And though it will take four months to complete the bicycle journey, DeWald and Barrett agreed that they are contemplating touring by bike, rather than van, for the release of their future albums. "Being in a van, to me, is very draining," DeWald said. "Sometimes it's really hard after you've just been sitting in the back of a van. You're all grumpy and all you want to do is walk around. But you can't, because you have to go to sound check and play a show. That, to me, is actually pretty difficult."

Because the Ditties are biking an average of 80 miles for six to eight hours a day, food is always a priority. The majority of their meals consist of energy bars. But during estaraunt stops and at day's end when they reach their hotels, they make certain to eat lots of fruits, vegetables, and some fatty foods. "Abby and I ate like pigs before this, but now it's crazy. We're like mega-pigs," Barrett said. "I get sooooo hungry."

Barrett and DeWald agreed that they've been lucky to find excellent meals at most stops. But just like every tour, there are things you do back home that you miss. "I miss cooking already," said DeWald, the main cook of the foodie pair, and who, along with Barrett, can be found chronicling their meals and road recipes on their tour blog (thedittybopsbiketour.blogspot.com). "I miss being in my kitchen and cooking anything I want."

Before the tour is over, Barrett and DeWald plan to pull out their cook stove, which has been buried in the van. But for now, they're enjoying what they find along the roadside and dreaming up road recipes. Here's their suggestion for a fast dish that can be prepared with the cook stove using produce easily found at farm stands along the route.

THE DITTY BOPS' SUMMER SQUASH ATTACK SUCCOTASH

This makes a small side dish. If you want more or you're cooking for a lot of people, double or triple the recipe. Also, you'll need a pan or a piece of foil.

3 small-sized zucchinis, thinly sliced
1 large ear of corn, cut from cob
a few green onions
a handful of basil (or parsley works)
salt
pepper
olive oil

1. Put enough olive oil in the pan to cook the green onions for a few minutes.
Then add the zucchini and the corn.

2. Cook over medium heat for about five minutes or until the zucchini's texture is to your liking.

3. Meanwhile, chop up the basil or parsley and add it to the skillet. Cook just long enough to heat it through, and add salt and pepper to taste.

The quirky musical couple explains why your grandmother in Tulsa has pictures of swimsuit-clad, bike-riding lesbians on her wall.

"Now's the time to take off our shoes and dance that cartoon dance..."

These lyrics from the Ditty Bops' "Waking Up in the City" could just as easily be a disclaimer on the cover of their new record - i.e., if you suddenly find yourself barefoot and animated, don't say we didn't warn you. A shiny brew of vaudeville, ragtime, jug band and 1940s radio dolls, the Ditty Bops' music is heartily thirst quenching and not quite like anything else out there. The Los Angeles duo's methods of self-promotion are equally refreshing: to support their second album, Moon Over the Freeway (Warner Bros.), and planet Earth, Amanda Barrett and AbbyDeWald hit the road this summer for a cross-country bicycle tour.

The Ditty Bops are pedaling their way through a dozen states and two-dozen performances ending with a show at New York's South Street Seaport on August 30th. "We both commute by bikes every day, and the idea came to us because we want to do something different with this album," says DeWald, the pair's guitarist. "We were really excited about the album, but not getting in a van for a few weeks." Not crazy to haul their concert gear in handlebar baskets, the Ditty Bops van support from piano and accordion player Greg Rutledge, who quit his day job to be their tour manager. "When we toured in the past, we couldn't wait to get back to our lives," says Barrett, who plays mandolin and washboard on Moon Over the Freeway. "Doing the tour this way means it is our lives. We're having the best time."

Partners in life as well as in song, DeWald and Barret knew each other for five years before a friend heard them sing and encouraged them to make music together. "We were looking for a lost cat in our neighborhood, and it ran into our neighbor Marty's backyard, so Amanda knocked on his door," says DeWald. "When she ran through his house, she saw that he had more than a dozen guitars hanging on the wall, and she was like, 'wow'. He always had musicians around, so we started hanging out at his place and experimenting with music, and it kind of took off from there. Somehow we just trusted him." The same neighbor is responsible for the band's name, which frankly couldn't be a more perfect fit. "Marty started jokingly calling us the Ditty Bops, and we were like "whatever, there's no way we're going to call ourselves that," says DeWald. "But then everyone started calling us that, and at some point we decided it was too late and we had to just go with it."

It's easy to see how the girls' neighbor took special note of their musical chemistry. The blend of DeWald and Barret's voices is sunny and unique, conjuring an image of the Andrews Sisters lying in hammocks, sucking on popsicles. This isn't to say that all of the Ditty Bops tunes are entirely carefree---their lyrics take on privacy and polution as often as pancakes and clear night skies. But more than anything, listening to the Bops feels like being in a speakeasy or on a riverboat with the Muppets. Really hot Muppets.

That's right, it can't be denied that part of the Ditty Bops' appeal is their overall aesthetic, which includes a profound cuteness that they've exploited with irresistible originality. Thanks to the girls' own artistic leanings and the talents of friends, an arsenal of photographs, drawings, comic strips and swag has created an offbeat and adorable Ditty Bops' "brand" to match their music. Visiting their website is a picnic of nostalgia, silliness, and DIY glam. Their latest visual project is a 2006 Bicycle Bikini Calendar, in which DeWald and Barrett pose for 12 captivating tableaus involving creative uses of sexy retro bathing suits and bikes.

"We came up with ideas for scenes, and our friend Rick Whitmore executed them," says Barrett, whose calendar poses include a ruler-brandishing, purple lingerie-clad schoolteacher. "For example, we wanted to do one with an English garden theme, and he took the same idea and dropped us in Africa." Barrett says the calendar has sold well, even in unlikely places. "We brought them on a tour last fall and sold a lot in the Midwest. All these little old ladies, even people at Christian colleges, were coming up to us and saying 'this is so cute!' It was pretty funny."

In addition to audio, lyrics and eye candy, the Ditty Bops' website includes a bike tour log where fans can follow the ladies' daily adventures. The log incorporates a series of hand-drawn comics called "Rumble Strips" depicting choice tour encounters, named for the roadside grooves intended to awaken drowsy drivers who swerve out of their lane. Fans with bikes are invited to ride with the Ditty Bops for any stretch of the trip, and if you happen to play the saw, the band is looking for hardware-inclined musicians to join them on stage at various tour stops. "We have a song where I imitate a saw," says Barrett, "but we thought it would be fun to have an actual saw."

While the Ditty Bops are not yet a household name, the tour and album are bound to expand their cult following to at least a much larger cult. The Ditty Bops co-produced Moon Over the Freeway with Mitchell Froom, who has worked with Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega and Los Lobos, among others. Between scheduled tour appearances and impromptu performances along their route, the Ditty Bops are poised to inspire a grassroots uprising of admirers. After this bike tour, Barret says they're thinking about how to do it again for regional tours. "We don't have overseas distribution yet, but we'd love to ride through Europe or Japan and do shows," she says. When the duo gets to that level, Puffy AmiYumi might want to start worrying about their time slot on Cartoon Network, because everyone's going to be doing the Ditty Bops' cartoon dance.

By Chris Azzopardi

It doesn't matter that Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald of The Ditty Bops indulged in one vanilla-mint and three peanut butter-chocolate-soycream smoothies at a Salt Lake City, Utah, pit-stop.

"Ah! It was even better than it looked," Amanda says about the peanut butter concoction. Although scrumptious, the girls didn't suck 'em down in one day, Amanda says, laughing.

But the girls of The Ditty Bops could've easily chugged all four smoothies in one sitting and they would've burned off the calories within days as they toured the country on their Surly road bikes, riding for six hours a day.

"We do tend to eat a lot," Amanda says as she sits alongside the edge of a stream in Colorado with Abby, her partner of seven years. "When we get to a town for a little while we have a couple of days off. It's usually our binge time when we stock up on calories. You can't really eat enough when you're on your bike."

As they break from pedaling, The Ditty Bops will perform at an eclectic mix of venues: theaters, clubs, farms and bike shops. "You get a more attentive audience when you don't play a club," she says.

Abby and Amanda, who met at a California playground eight years ago and don't label themselves as gay or straight, have also played Christian colleges. Amanda says, "Gay folks will be coming out of the woodworks, [saying] like, 'I saw you on Logo.'"

The Ditty Bops' current tour supports their new release "Moon Over the Freeway," which echoes the duo's signature live sound.

"We had been touring for a year and a half with a lot of the songs and picking out what arrangements we liked with the band and we went in (to the recording studio) and did it like that," she says.

In between concert stops, the Bops also make a little time for themselves. Hence, the deliberate booking of Colorado venues.

"We decided to book it 'cause this is a resort town," Amanda says, laughing. Earlier in the day, before basking in the sun near the stream, Amanda and Abby pampered themselves at a natural hot spring, where they bathed in a 102-degree mineral water spa.

"(There's) a lot of exertion, exhilaration and emotions," Amanda says about their trip. "All the 'E' things."

To their dismay, there wasn't a mud bath, but Amanda's been there, done that.

She laughs, "I've rolled around in the mud before." Of course, the trip doesn't come minus flat tires (Amanda had three on the first day) and misguided detours. Not long into their trek, The Ditty Bops missed a Nevada highway sign and made the wrong turn. "We ended up doing a 20-mile detour," Amanda says. "It was supposed to be a nice, easy 60-mile day, and it turned into an 83-mile day."

With this being the Bops' first time on a long-distance biking expedition, they made certain preparations, like lugging around spare tires in their tour van, which carries their equipment and serves as their refuge should they encounter a twister, or
another natural disaster.

Riding on bikes, though, is less stuffy than a van and allows the girls to explore the country, Amanda says. "Seeing a town by car and by bike is very different. I really appreciate a lot of the cities, even ones that I thought I didn't like, I've seen a lot of the better sides of them."

It's been a long time since the Andrews Sisters' brand of swinging jazz enjoyed a pop vogue.

Thirty years to be exact.

Back in the early seventies, Bette Midler and the Pointer Sisters had improbable hits with songs alluding to that antique sound. At the same time, Benny Goodman toured rock halls. And acts like Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks drew cults.

Now that submerged style is again poking through in the music of the Ditty Bops. This whimsical female duo mixes sounds from the 20's and 30's----Western swing, jazz, even a dab of Gershwin---into their own impish acoustic tunes. Again, on their second album, the results keep skirting the precious. The phrase "novelty act" occasionally creeps into mind. But the women's high voices braid beautifully, their melodies twist their own way, and in the end you have to admire any act that finds earnest inspiration in music nobody else bothers with anymore.

Get on the bike
Aug. 24-30 2006
For their current tour, the Ditty Bops have abandoned the humdrum van for a pair of bicycles.

By Jay Ruttenberg

The Ditty Bops are a singing duo from Los Angeles whose music draws from pop and jazz of the 1920s and conveys the breeziness of that era: Moon Over the Freeway, their recent second album, has all the solemnity of a Jay Gatsby party. Whether Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald will maintain such a blithe comportment by summer’s end, however, is subject to debate. On May 23, they began a cross-country tour, setting out from California not in a bus but rather on a pair of bicycles. The band pedals into New York for the tour’s final show, at the Spiegeltent, on Wednesday 30.

“We’re completely disheveled,” says Barrett, 27, who plays the mandolin and washboard. “We’re sweaty and filthy, with four layers of sunscreen and hair sticking to our faces.”

“It would be a lot easier if it wasn’t the summer of a heat wave,” adds guitarist DeWald, 28. “I got heat exhaustion last week. My skin started to feel chills—I should have stopped, but I didn’t listen to my body.”

“The big problem in the Midwest has been getting chased by farm dogs,” says Barrett, speaking from Springfield, Illinois. “A couple of days ago, this dog couldn’t decide whether to lick me or bite me. He bit me.”

Sticky hair and angry dogs aside, the sweaty musicians, a romantic couple as well as bandmates, insist they’re happy in their pedaling. Though neither had done much long-distance biking prior to the tour, the six or seven daily hours of riding has proved more feasible than it had at first seemed. (It helps that the pair is trailed by a van filled with such important items as instruments, props and bass players.) The journey befits the Ditty Bops, who have always stretched the parameters of their band to incorporate everything from cartoons to bikini calendars—the 2006 edition features the pair posing with bicycles. Perhaps more conspicuously, the trip resonates with Barrett’s heritage. “Before I was born, my mom and dad were both in a traveling circus,” she says. “My dad’s been a variety entertainer for over 30 years: clown, mime, fire-eater, stilt walker. He’s such a fool! When I was little, my birthday entertainment was always covered.”

Given that the price-per-gallon of gasoline is rapidly approaching that of Dom Perignon, will the band’s approach to the road lead other artists to dust off their banana seats? “The Rolling Stones seem to have things figured out, but I’m convinced they could do this,” DeWald says. “It just might take [Keith] a while—he’d have to go at his own pace.”

The Ditty Bops play the Spiegeltent Wednesday 30. Moon Over the Freeway is out now on Warner Bros.Get on the bike Aug. 24-30 2006 For their current tour, the Ditty Bops have abandoned the humdrum van for a pair of bicycles. By Jay Ruttenberg The Ditty Bops are a singing duo from Los Angeles whose music draws from pop and jazz of the 1920s and conveys the breeziness of that era: Moon Over the Freeway, their recent second album, has all the solemnity of a Jay Gatsby party. Whether Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald will maintain such a blithe comportment by summer’s end, however, is subject to debate. On May 23, they began a cross-country tour, setting out from California not in a bus but rather on a pair of bicycles. The band pedals into New York for the tour’s final show, at the Spiegeltent, on Wednesday 30. “We’re completely disheveled,” says Barrett, 27, who plays the mandolin and washboard. “We’re sweaty and filthy, with four layers of sunscreen and hair sticking to our faces.” “It would be a lot easier if it wasn’t the summer of a heat wave,” adds guitarist DeWald, 28. “I got heat exhaustion last week. My skin started to feel chills—I should have stopped, but I didn’t listen to my body.” “The big problem in the Midwest has been getting chased by farm dogs,” says Barrett, speaking from Springfield, Illinois. “A couple of days ago, this dog couldn’t decide whether to lick me or bite me. He bit me.” Sticky hair and angry dogs aside, the sweaty musicians, a romantic couple as well as bandmates, insist they’re happy in their pedaling. Though neither had done much long-distance biking prior to the tour, the six or seven daily hours of riding has proved more feasible than it had at first seemed. (It helps that the pair is trailed by a van filled with such important items as instruments, props and bass players.) The journey befits the Ditty Bops, who have always stretched the parameters of their band to incorporate everything from cartoons to bikini calendars—the 2006 edition features the pair posing with bicycles. Perhaps more conspicuously, the trip resonates with Barrett’s heritage. “Before I was born, my mom and dad were both in a traveling circus,” she says. “My dad’s been a variety entertainer for over 30 years: clown, mime, fire-eater, stilt walker. He’s such a fool! When I was little, my birthday entertainment was always covered.” Given that the price-per-gallon of gasoline is rapidly approaching that of Dom Perignon, will the band’s approach to the road lead other artists to dust off their banana seats? “The Rolling Stones seem to have things figured out, but I’m convinced they could do this,” DeWald says. “It just might take [Keith] a while—he’d have to go at his own pace.” The Ditty Bops play the Spiegeltent Wednesday 30. Moon Over the Freeway is out now on Warner Bros.

YOUTH CORRESPONDENT

Any band that wants to make it big knows the importance of crossing the country to spread their sound.

But how many of them are willing to do it by bicycle?

Well, that's what the Los Angeles duo the Ditty Bops are doing this summer. The two are currently on a cross-country bicycle tour from Los Angeles to New York in support of their sophomore album, "Moon Over the Freeway."

The Ditty Bops' sound is a mix of folk, bluegrass, ragtime, jazz and just about everything else that is good and wholesome in music.

Reminiscent of the female-fronted group Eisley, the upbeat tempos and clever lyrics of this album conjure up images of flat, Midwestern plains, Old West stage shows and, of course, heartache.

Though in an April interview with The Advocate, the Ditty Bops' Abby DeWald and Amanda Barrett, who, besides being band mates, have also been lovers for the last seven years, say that "Everything we write is a love song to each other."

Perhaps that is the reason for the beauty that occupies each track on "Moon Over the Freeway."

Each song fits perfectly with the rest, and a straight-through listen of this album is recommended for the best experience. A few tracks like "Fish to Fry" and "Your Head's Too Big" really showcase the sound of the Ditty Bops.

"Moon Over the Freeway" is in stores now and the Ditty Bops are chaining their bikes up outside of Jammin' Java in Vienna on Aug. 24 for one of the last dates of their bicycle tour before heading north toward their final destination.

By Michael Machosky
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, August 17, 2006

While the Rolling Stones and Madonnas of the world are hauling freeway-clogging armadas of tractor-trailers down the road -- and don't be surprised to see that reflected in ticket prices, dear consumer -- the mysteriously inexhaustable The Ditty Bops chose to do their cross-country tour on bikes. They'll ride into Pittsburgh for a show Saturday night.

"We wanted to promote cycling -- and wanted to get in the habit -- and experience the country in a different way," says singer/mandolin player Amanda Barrett, on a stop on the road in Milwaukee. "Also, to perform at smaller places where we don't usually get to play."

At times, sounding like a hipster Andrews Sisters, Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald write jaunty songs about imperiled love and danger with a light touch and a total lack of irony. The music hearkens back to the days of smoky cabarets, where gypsy jazz, Western swing, pop novelties and vaudeville acts shared the same stages and weren't shy about fraternizing, either.

"My mom was in a British Isles sort of duet -- lots of harmonies," Barrett says. "That was influential on me growing up. We're also into 'The Muppet Show.'"

The Ditty Bops also might be the cutest band on the planet. Barrett has the smoldering beauty of a silent movie star and the tall, statuesque bearing befitting her previous career as a model. She also possesses the comic timing of a circus clown's daughter -- her father taught her how to juggle and eat fire. DeWald comes off as a restless Bohemian who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty, bursting with elaborate ideas for props, costumes, themes and theatrical interludes. That can mean anything from impromptu dance contests to shadow puppets sword fighting to the "Wizard of Oz"-themed show in Kansas City.

Of course, this is all done on the fly. Pittsburgh isn't even a shadow on the horizon yet.

"That's too far in the future," Barrett says. "I don't even know what we're doing tonight. We just wing it, and try to see what we're inspired by each town, the people we can incorporate into the shows. We never do the exact same things twice."

The Ditty Bops' cheerfully anachronistic stage show could be the perfect antidote to every serious, solemn show you ever have sat through -- you just have to be a little tolerant of spontenaiety. And sweat.

Though a van carries their instruments and supplies, biking across the country in the summer has its downsides.

"The first half of the tour we were very energized, looking for other shows to play," Barrett says. "If we didn't have a show that night, we'd try to find one. When the heat wave hit in Kansas, it was horrible. Abby experienced heat exhaustion."

But at the end of every long, hard road is a show to look forward to.

"It's all those little places in between that we'd normally pass by -- seeing the scenery change and getting to stay with people in smaller towns and spending the day riding a bike outside instead of being cooped up in a car," Barrett says. "That's a reward in itself."