Sabrina & Craig

"Folk and so much more. Yes, Sabrina & Craig can be classed as folk, but you're also going to hear some rock and roll, jazz, a little Tin Pan Alley and a night club chanteuse may show up at any time. Humor and pathos make regular appearances, so don't be surprised if your audience is laughing, crying or both at the same time.

To use a sports metaphor, saying Sabrina & Craig are a folk act is like saying Babe Ruth was a good pitcher. It's true but it misses the whole picture." - Ron Maurer - The Shannon Center for Performing Arts

"The show was an absolute delight. Lovely and well chosen songs. Their interplay was professional and full of wit, intelligence and sparkling personality. In an enlightening display of professionalism, they tailored the evening to fit my crowd and were rewarded with a well deserved encore from a full house. They made the room glow. The night was successful in every way and I look forward to having them grace my stage again. Sooner than later. I highly recommend them for an evening of music and fun." - Bob Stane, veteran booker and promoter

"From a show producer's point of reference, I'm looking for entertainers having that elusive "wow" factor. The ability to put the audience at ease with interesting pitter patter and humor. Solid instrumental ability with tight vocal harmonies. Sabrina and Craig have all these attributes in spades - they are crowd pleasers! I feel comfortable recommending any show producer book these two wonderful entertainers."
Bob Kroll
Producer, Fireside Concerts - Bob Kroll, 10-year Producer of the Fireside Concert Series

By the time I realized I wasn't listening to a Segovia record, I remembered what a masterful finger-style guitar player Craig Lincoln is. Seconds later, I remembered the beautifully tight harmonies that I have come to expect when Sabrina and Craig sing, and the opening song, Sabrina's Make You Mine demonstrates that wonderfully.

Craig's humor abounds in Little White Lies and the painfully cute Cats & Dogs, while Sabrina's shines in Help Wanted and her car song, Mine All Mine.

The title track is hauntingly melodic and the lyrics parse the Chinese symbol for love. "?" consists of a heart, inside of "accept," "feel," or "perceive," and it may also be interpreted as a hand offering ones heart to another hand. A very imaginative message as well as a beautiful composition.

Both Sabrina and Craig pay homage to their mothers with Craig's Call Your Mom and Sabrina's Mama's Hands. And I think most of our mothers, as well as the rest of the family will like this album. The excellent variety of material, the musicianship and arrangements, the great sound engineered by Ronan Chris Murphy and the solid songwriting all come together with some of the best two-part harmonies in my recollection.

I, for one can't get enough of solid finger-style guitar and Craig delivers once more in the closing ragtime tune Uncle Harold which also ends with a slick treatment of You Are My Sunshine.

With slices of soft rock, bossa nova, jazz, blues, ragtime and love songs, One Home, One Heart was, and is every time I play it, a delight in every sense of the word and should be added to the collections of all who love great, listenable, ultimately enjoyable music delivered as a joy to the ear.

Carl Gage is a singer-songwriter, musician and writer based in Simi Valley, CA. He is seldom paid but overly-active in the acoustic music community serving as a director for the Topanga Banjo«Fiddle Contest and Songmakers, Inc., managing web sites for the FAR-West Folk Alliance, Songmakers and Topanga, emceeing on the main stage at Topanga and other musical events throughout the year, and writing occasional articles for FolkWorks, The Bard Chord and other publications. http://carlgage.com - FolkWorks ~ Carl Gage

I admit to bias here as I have seen and enjoyed Sabrina and Craig play their songs for years. They are a wonderfully talented acoustic musical duo who sing in perfect harmony from the heart. They finally have produced a new CD with many of their wonderful songs. One Home..One Heart was recorded live in the studio to capture what is at the core of their music and vision. Sabrina and Craig have such smart, playful, and wonderfully poignant and warm themes in their music. Make You Mine is such a fun song – full of passion and romance – and a truly accomplished nod to Spanish Flamingo – between the masterful finger-style guitar work and the castanets. Cats and Dogs is almost a perfect folk song – a beautiful ballad with universal appeal.

On a production note, while their music and songwriting is top quality several of the songs missed the musical mark in the production – Help Wanted had their voices pulled back in the mix and could have used a stronger blues line; Both Fall or Fly and Mine All Mine had drums added which seemed to weaken the songs – the route drumming took away from the masterful guitar work which should always be the engine driving the melodies. Sabrina and Craig have such strong and sweet voices in harmony that they should be front and center – more powerful and intimate – compare the previous songs with the powerful work on One Home, One Heart, Call Your Mom, Mama’s Hands, and the instrumental Uncle Harold. In terms of sound these songs are dialed in.

Other than these few issues with the production the songs are so well crafted, so smart, and so well arranged and rendered that they are all a delight to hear over and over again. Sabrina and Craig give all the rest of us problems because they make us smile too much; listen and you’ll find yourself smiling too!

CD Review By Dave Harvey - Songsalive

Mine All Mine

Show Num: 201034
Date of Show: August 21, 2010
Artist: Sabrina & Craig
Album: One Home...One Heart
Publisher: Lioness Music (SESAC)
Length: 00:53
Comments: www.SabrinaandCraig.com
- NPR's CarTalk

Not many musical duos begin at a business seminar.

But then, not many duos comprise a dog trainer-actress and an Olympic dive medalist, either. Add pleasant voices, strong guitar and skilled performances, and you have Sabrina Schneppat and Craig Lincoln with their debut album, One Home ... One Heart.

Sabrina is a singer, actress and, reportedly, one of the most sought-after dog trainers in Los Angeles. Craig won a bronze as a diver in the 1972 Olympics and a silver the same year in the Pan Am Games. And, yes, the two did meet at a business seminar.

That meeting led to a musical partnership and this album, featuring 11 tracks, seven of which were written by Craig. The other four are original compositions by Sabrina. The collection ranges from romantic ballads like the title track to humorous ditties such as "Cats & Dogs," and from the jazzy "Same Old Song & Dance" to "Mine All Mine," a paean reminiscent of the Beach Boys about a girl's desire for a particular car.

Craig has been playing guitar since his early teens and also put out a solo album, Cats & Dogs. Sabrina has been a featured soloist with a number of choirs, worked as a jazz soloist and had lead roles in musicals and plays. Together they have a chemistry guaranteed to provide hours of listening pleasure.

In addition to Craig on guitar and Sabrina playing ukulele, the couple is backed by Chad Watson, bass; Arthur Raymond, drums; Robbie Gillman, keyboard; Frank Marroco, accordion; Jessica Catron, cello; Luke Halpin, mandolin; and Adam Gilbert, recorder.

- Rambles.NET by John R. Lindermuth

Craig Lincoln has released two CDs in a short period of time. His solo debut, Cats & Dogs, received a nice writeup from Bloggerhythms a few weeks back. He has also teamed up with another singer-songwriter, Sabrina Schneppat, and together they just issued One Home......One Heart. Much of this CD has the same personality as Lincoln's work that features just his voice and acoustic guitar. However, the band they use on most tracks adds fullness to the duo's music, giving it some color missing from his solo disc.

Schneppat, who wrote four of the eleven songs, has a really nice voice that blends well with Lincoln's. Her partner, a multi-instrumentalist who wrote everything else, includes four holdovers from Cats & Dogs: its title track, the title track from this CD, "Fall or Fly," and "Little White Lies."

Lincoln conjured up another tribute to his parents. "Call Your Mom" is a perfect companion piece to "My Father's Son" from his solo album. Schneppat takes the lead on Lincoln's "Help Wanted." She uses economic terms and the working world to describe her need for a lover. The song opens with the line "There's been a big recession in my emotional economy" and the song takes off from there. "Fall or Fly" is hook laden enough for radio and "Mine All Mine" is a girl's tribute to a '58 Cadillac that she's just "gotta have." The latter is as close as these sessions got to rock 'n roll territory.

Writers frequently overuse the word "intimate" in their reviews but it easily applies here. As the CD liner notes say, "In an effort to capture the authenticity and natural quality that we love so much, the core of this album...... was recorded nose to nose, LIVE in the studio."

My goal isn't to compare the two CDs but I find that task inevitable. If you are looking for something sightly edgier you may prefer Lincoln on his own. If you want the softening that often comes from a female perspective you may prefer Sabrina & Craig together. Either way you can't go wrong. - BloggerRhythms

Sabrina & Craig - One Home...One Heart (Independently released CD, Folk/pop)
Sabrina & Craig is the duo comprised of Bronze medalist Craig Lincoln and singer/songwriter Sabrina Schneppat. One Home...One Heart has a nice warm organic sound...and it comes across as one of those albums that was created as a labor of love. The songs are presented simply, driven mainly by a gentle strummed acoustic guitar. These songs were recorded live in the studio which may explain the nice sparse open sound. Sabrina and Craig are obviously creating music for all the right reasons. Some of these tunes remind us of Paul Simon at times. Eleven cuts here including "Make You Mine," "Cats and Dogs," "Little White Lies," and "Uncle Harold." www.babysue.com - LMNOP - babysue (R)

Thursday, May 06, 2010
Craig Lincoln - Cats & Dogs (2010)
Singing, acoustic guitar soloists normally aren't my thing. I'm more of a rocker at heart. I like the sound of a full band and it takes a lot for a singer with nothing more than his unamplified ax to grab my attention. Fortunately for Craig Lincoln, Cats & Dogs, his brand new CD, is one that stands out among the coffee house crowd.

First, a little biography. Lincoln began playing guitar at age thirteen and, as this disc shows, he became quite a master at it. He recently teamed up with another singer-songwriter, Sabrina Schneppat, and they just released their debut CD together as a duo. Long ago, Lincoln became one of the first multi-taskers. While studying his instrument he also worked hard enough to win an Olympic bronze medal in men's springboard diving for the United States at the Munich Summer games in 1972. He's quite a talented guy.

There are several reasons Cats & Dogs should interest you. Lincoln's musicianship shines through on every song but it does not overwhelm his smooth, melodic vocals. Of course, as is always the case with folk music, none of that would matter without a batch of songs that mean something and Lincoln's most certainly do. The title track uses our beloved pets as a metaphor for human relationships. "Religious Experience," the only live track, is about making love so fine it actually becomes the name of the song. It's a hoot without being totally sacrilegious. "My Father's Son" could be a welcome replacement for Dan Fogelberg's overused and abused "Leader Of The Band."

The best songs are the two acoustic blues numbers, "Just Like Stevie Ray" and "Little White Lies." The latter may be the only song to fit the word "verisimilitude" into its lyrics. Lincoln adds a little blues harmonica to both tunes for some added color. He hints that a whole album of earthier, blues oriented material would be welcome and that maybe, just maybe, he'd like to pickup a Stratocaster, form a power trio, and do some shredding.

This is a nice debut from an already fully developed talent.

You can find out more at Sabrina and Craig's website and at Lincoln's own site that you can find here.
Posted by Charlie at 12:02 AM
Labels: Folk, Singer-Songwriters
- BloggerRhythms

Sabrina & Craig - One Home... One Heart
2010, Bronze Metal Music/SESAC

What you get when you take a Bronze Medal winning Olympic diver and an in-demand holistic dog trainer? In this case, you get one of the more exciting folk music duos you’re likely to stumble across. Sabrina Schneppat has been singing and act acting for years, earning her membership into SAG along the way and becoming one of L.A.’s most sought after dog (and owner) trainers. Craig Lincoln won a Bronze Medal in the 1972 Olympics, as well as silver in that year’s Pan Am Games. Meeting at a business seminar several years ago, the two began a musical odyssey that can be breathtakingly beautiful one moment and decidedly comical the next. Sabrina & Craig documented the trip so far with their charming debut album, One Home… One Heart.

One Home... On Heart opens with Spanish Guitar and southern European flavor of "Make You Mine". It's a song about continually getting sucked into a bad situation because the narrator is convinced she can make the perpetrator her own. The song implies the use of personal charms as a weapon amidst moderate innuendo and humor. "Cats & Dogs" sets up a humorous parallel between cats and dogs and the tendency for opposites to attract in relationships. Amusing and sweet, Sabrina & Craig infuse the song with gorgeous harmony vocals and strong guitar work. "Help Wanted" is both a want-ad and love advice for the male listeners out there. Full of good humor, Sabrina winks her way through this one while providing a lesson on the economics of love. The piano work in "Help Wanted" is amazing.

"Call Your Mom" is the first of two loving maternal tributes. Craig takes the microphone for this one, injecting the song with a personal feel that's endearing. "One Home, One Heart" might just be the perfect wedding song; a lovely tribute to love with a mature outlook that's destined for many-a-mix tape. Sabrina & Craig offer up a light and entertaining call out song in "Little White Lies", an instant classic full of gorgeous vocal harmonies. "Mama's Hand's" is the other song that pays tribute to Moms, this time from a daughter's perspective. It's a gorgeous tune, and fully alive with emotion in Sabrina's hands.

"Same Old Song & Dance" has a slight European feel to its gentle jazz arrangement, caressing the sweet and simple melody. Sabrina takes lead vocal on this one and offers up the best overall vocal performance on the album. "Mine All Mine" is a Beach Boys-esque song about the car of your dreams. The acoustic arrangement has a strong early rock feel and is an enjoyable listen. Sabrina & Craig close with the wonderful instrumental "Uncle Harold", which delivers a surprising Scott Joplin feel on guitar. The song incorporates "You Are My Sunshine" along the way, and serves as a surprisingly apt closer for One Home... One Heart.

Sabrina & Craig weaves thoughtful stories, people and moments into their songs, sprinkling each observation with intelligence and wit while wrapping them in the cloak of gorgeous, memorable melodies. One Home... On Heart is a definite keeper. This is an album you'll come back to time and time again. Both Sabrina & Craig are solid performers, but together they take on a chemistry that draws you in. One Home... One Heart is poised to make Sabrina & Craig highly desirable on the folk circuit if they aren't already.

Rating: 4.5 Stars (Out of 5)


Learn more about Sabrina & Craig at http://www.sabrinaandcraig.com/ or www.myspace.com/sabrinaandcraig. No online outlet seems to be available for One Home... One Heart, but if you contact Sabrina & Craig directly through either their website or MySpace page I am certain they'll be happy to help you out.
Posted by Wildy at 6:17 AM 0 comments
Labels: 1972 Summer Olympics, Christine Lavin, Craig Lincoln, Olympic Diving, Sabrina Schneppat, Scott Joplin, The Beach Boys - Wildy's World