Mary Flower & Leon Cotter - Chants Of Rain CD

There is something pure and special about a musical duet. There is the opportunity for conversation, for an intimate exchange. There is room for improvisation and variation at the same time that the two musicians explore the given structure.

Mary Flower is a brilliant fingerpicking guitarist in the roots blues/ragtime/early jazz tradition. She is a prodigious talent whose seasoned skills earned her the Far West Folk Alliance “Best of the West” award in 2025. She is a long-time teacher who recently celebrated twelve years of “Blues in the Gorge,” her own guitar intensive. She’s made thirteen recordings that document her profound command and love for blues guitar. It’s entirely appropriate that Jorma Kaukonen called her “a national treasure in your own backyard.”

A few years back she was on an airplane returning from tour, and a young musician named Leon Cotter recognized her. They ended up chatting about music – what else? – and connected. Later they were both featured at the Montavilla Jazz Festival in Portland in 2025 and then met again at a backyard fundraiser, and Leon suggested putting together a duo show. “Before I knew it, Mary had something booked at a little local venue.” Playing together formed an instant and magical bond between them, and before they knew it, they were performing regularly around Portland and beyond.

Leon is the younger partner, but he’s already a veteran internationally touring reed player with the much-loved California Honeydrops. When he’s not out on the road, Leon maintains a strong presence in the Portland music scene, performing regularly as a bandleader and as a sideman with a variety of jazz and jazz adjacent groups. Over the years, he’s shared the stage with luminaries like Bonnie Raitt, Del McCoury, Charlie Hunter and played everywhere from Australia’s Byron Bay Bluesfest to Red Rocks to New Orleans’s legendary Tipitina’s.

Chants of Rain (very Portland, no?) is their first album, on Little Village. You will hear their extraordinary musical bond from the first note. Blues, jazz, old-time New Orleans music; it has all of that and more — there’s a pinch of elegant magic, too.