Taking Root

Green and Root prove that couples who play together stay together.

Folk favorite Green recently followed up her rewarding first album, 'Multiheaded Heart', with a mature offering: 'Down That Road', recorded in collaboration with her lover, Root. Influenced by the death of Green's mother from cancer, and by their 2001 wedding ceremony, the CD offers up a folksy collection of acoustic songs.

"I feel like I've developed a lot as a songwriter," Green says. "Especially 'Down That Road'. I'm in a really different place. The first album was more about unrequited love, a younger place. The second album is more like a book of short stories: the death of my mother, our marriage, the environment, war and peace.

Root also contributed to the first album. "She was my personal support," says Green. The two had just started dating, and on 'Down That Road', in addition to singing harmony to Green's unforgettable, warm voice, Root did a lot of the sound mixing and production. "I built a home studio," Root tells me. "I was thinking about becoming a sound engineer. We started recording with an engineer and he was teaching me how to fly the ship… I wound up doing more production that I actually intended."

As anyone who's seen their video 'Marrying You' knows, Green and Root were married in October 2001, after they'd been together for about three and a half years. The weekend event in the California redwoods was "a powerful experience. It was very communal; our friends were on committees to organize it. It was awesome, really amazing," Green remembers. "It wasn't just about me and Root; it was about a whole community. "

Although most of the images on the album come from nature, the couple actually makes their home in downtown Oakland, California. Every day, they drive into the hills for an hour or two of hiking.

"That's an important part of our spirituality," Root adds. Green spends her days as a landscape designer, marking organic gardens for city people. They'd like to be more active in environmental causes, but, for now, their music is their main activity - along with their marriage, of course. "That's the most political thing we do," they note. "Being onstage, and being out."

-Gillian Rodgerson