Our Story
Great Blue (a/k/a Shirl Lawrence and Steve Kaplan) is an acoustic folk duo with eclectic tastes. We are happy to welcome you to our website. You can listen to our music, view our videos, or download our tunes. Go directly to our music →
Songs to Warm the Heart and Feed the Soul
We started singing with friends while living in Boulder more than three decades ago. We first (literally) “sang for our supper” the very first night we moved to New York State. For 35 years, we’ve been heard at coffeehouses within the Hudson River Valley. We sang at Clearwater festivals for more than a decade as members of the Walkabout Chorus and the Hudson River Sloopsingers. Our musical sources are rather eclectic: they include Kate Wolf’s haunting ballads and songs echoing Clearwater’s environmental message. One Woody Guthrie sailor who ought to know said Steve’s “We’ll Make It to Coxsackie” truly described how it felt to be in a Hudson River storm. Listeners often comment about the beautiful sounds Shirl’s voice has graced them with, and the harmonies we craft together. We are now called “Great Blue” after the observant heron we often find during our kayak trips. Now that our day jobs are behind us, Great Blue has flown to our permanent nest in the Colorado Rockies. Check the “Events” page to see if we’ll be singing near you. Look at the “Our Music” section to listen or download our tunes.