There seems to be a new wave of duo acts out there now — Hymn For Her, for example — in all genres of music. The latest one to catch my attention is the modern folk twosome of Beth Wesche and Darren Guyaz, aka March to May, who hail from Seattle, Washington. They will come to Unity and Turner for shows on Oct. 7 and 13. In a phone interview from their West Coast home, the duo chatted about that Maine mini-tour, their music (including their six-song first album “The Water’s Edge”) and a surprising Maine connection.

Q: Have you guys performed in Maine before?

Wesche: We have, actually. We have played in Maine twice now over the last two years.

Guyaz: We played in Waterville. My sister arranged for us to play there.

Wesche: Yeah, it was at a community arts center, a gallery place.

Guyaz: And this time we’ll be at Unity College on Wednesday the 7th, and then on Tuesday the 13th we’re playing at Nezinscot Farm over in Turner.

Q: Excellent. In our email correspondence you alluded to a Maine connection in March to May. What is it?

Guyaz: Yeah, I grew up in Winthrop, Maine, my sister lives in Oakland, Maine, and then my parents still live in Winthrop at the same place.

Q: And you’re living on the West Coast now.

Guyaz: Yeah, I’ve been in Seattle for a little over eight years now.

Q: There’s a picture of you two on your website with you, Darren, standing and Beth sitting with rock cliffs, a tide line and water lapping. Where was that taken?

Wesche: Oh, that one. That one was actually taken up on the San Juan Islands in Washington state. We tell stories in our music, and that island has been a pretty informative place for us. When we first started playing music, we went out there to see if we could work together and learn our first couple of songs there, including “Embers,” which is on the album. It’s always a place we go back to when we really need grounding, so that picture was taken at the water’s edge on Orcas Island.

Guyaz: And there’s really that kind of strong sense of place up there as well, Lucky, I think, for both of us, even though neither of us are natives. Those islands really have a special feel to them.

Wesche: Yeah, and the funny thing is that a lot of people have taken a look at the cover art for our EP and mentioned that that looks like the San Juans and have said that it reminds them of that, which is really gratifying to us, especially seeing the artist that did the cover is actually Darren’s sister, who still lives in Maine.

Q: That’s really neat. What I like about the album is the vocal harmonies. That’s something that’s been important to me ever since I started doing this; and for just being the two of you, there’s a lot of variety in here, as well. “Georgia” pops to mind.

Wesche: Oh, thank you. That was the first time we had recorded together — and I say “the first time” only because we actually got out of the recording studio again, but those songs haven’t been released yet. So when we recorded “The Water’s Edge,” one thing that we were going for was a little bit of a sense of diversity, and I think that our writing tends to span a lot of different feelings, as far as the songs go, and we wanted to stretch it out. Oh, and thank you for calling out “Georgia.” That’s one of my favorites.

Q: Is there anything you’d like to pass on to the readers of this article?

Guyaz: Well, I’d like to highlight some of the themes in our music — how strong a sense of place is, how strong elements of water are in a lot of our songs, and how a lot of out songs have elements of love, as well.

Q: Anything you want to add, Beth?

Wesche: Well, one thing that we always say at our performances is that after a show, we love talking to people. We don’t want to be the artists that come and play a show, then disappear. Having that sort of personal connection is important to us, so if people do want to talk to us after the show, we love that. We kind of live for that.

Lucky Clark has spent more than 45 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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