Tuck And Patti Continue To Reach For New Heights

The negotiations took a year, but the guitar-and-voice duo Tuck and Patti finally made their major label move.

They will appear Sunday at Silver Mountain at Kellogg.

After several years and three records with the independent Windham Hill, they made the jump last year to Epic, one of the Sony labels.

“It’s a continuation of where we were going; it’s been good for us,” said singer-songwriter Patti Cathcart in a phone interview from New York, where she and her guitar-playing partner Tuck Andress were holed up for a day earlier this week.

“If we wanted to take it to another level, we had to make a move. It was a scary move, because we thought we’d have to fight to maintain our artistic freedom. But they have left us to it.”

Epic even allowed Tuck and Patti to continue their practice of recording themselves in their home studio. Their new record, “Learning How to Fly,” is now hailed as the first non-classical work to make use of the new 20-bit digital technology.

The ultra-high-tech touch may seem incongruent with the couple’s earthy sound, but Andress said the music requires it.

“Because of the spareness (of our music), we have to handle everything with a lot of delicacy.”

“Learning to Fly” also perpetuates the duo’s practice of complementing Cathcart originals with a batch of well-chosen covers. Her songs include the Brazilian-influenced, scat-heavy title track and “Heaven Down There,” a song which restates their conviction that love and hope are essential to personal and global survival.

They turn to Lennon/McCartney for “In My Life,” Jimi Hendrix for “Up From the Skies” and Joni Mitchell for “Woodstock.” But the surprise is the old pop chestnut “Tossin’ and Turnin’,” which they do once straight, with voice and guitar, and once with synthesizer, drums and saxophone.

Don’t fear, Catchcart said - this is not the beginning of the end of the duo.

“We’ve always experimented with these things; we’ve been doing them with my nephew for a long time.”

She remembered playing such a track for Windham Hill. “They said, ‘Oh, that’s nice.”’

Epic was reluctant to release the track, she said, because “they didn’t want to take the rap for being the ones to change us.”

But it’s part of Tuck and Patti’s nature to walk the tightrope, as she puts it.

“There is still stuff I would like to do. I still have a big band record in me and I would love to arrange some things for a gospel choir.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Tuck and Patti Location and time: Silver Mountain Amphitheatre, Sunday, 7 p.m. Tickets: $27.50 preferred seating, $22.50 general admission