Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart at Coffeehouse

Mark Stuart and Stacey Earle

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PRINCETON — The husband and wife team of Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart will appear at the Princeton Coffeehouse at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, with doors opening at 7 p.m.

Both Earle and Stuart are songwriters, as well as performers, and for several years after their marriage in 1992 each pursued a separate solo career. They formed independent record label Gearle Records in 1998 and under that label issued several solo performances by each. By 2001 they had released their first duet recording in a double live CD titled “Must Be Live”.

Earle has for years been under the shadow of her better-known brother, Steve Earle, and for a period of time in the early ‘90s played rhythm guitar in his band The Dukes. She has come out from underneath her brother’s shadow and has established a well-recognized folk/blues/rock-a-billy identity of her own.

Stuart was influenced early in his life by his uncle’s guitar playing and his father’s fiddling. He also focused on the talents of Chet Atkins, Merle Travis and John Fogerty. He began playing in honky tonks and beer joints around Nashville, Tenn., at age 15 with his dad’s band and by his early 20s was playing lead guitar with vocals for acts like Freddy Fender. He also spent some time with Steve Earle’s band The Dukes in the early ‘90s and recalls the glamour of appearing on the Tonight Show and doing gigs with Neil Young.

The duo continues to play around the country at various size festivals, workshops, theatres and clubs and have opened for bands such as Joan Baez, Willie Nelson, Ralph Stanley and Richard Thompson.

About a recent CD issuance by the duo, one commentator had quote, “With modern country stars shilling glitz and patriotism, Earle and husband Mark Stuart create the kind of smart, intimate, lived-in version of Americana that’s an endangered pleasure these days.”

Their third album together, “S&M Communion Bread,” seamlessly blends folk, country and a hint of gospel. Ranging from a traditional tear-jerker, “The Old Watch” to a stomping folk/bluegrass tune in the vein of Billy Bragg called “Up In Annie’s Room” to “Around The Back”, a sly, suggestive blues song reminiscent of elder Earle mentor Townes Van Zandt.

The coffeehouse is located at the Open Prairie UCC Church, 25 E. Marion St., Princeton (just behind the movie theatre on South Main Street). The new cover charge is $8 at the door. As usual, the coffeehouse will have coffee, teas and soft drinks as well as homemade desserts available. The venue is fully handicapped accessible and there is substantial parking next to the building and nearby. For more information, call (815) 875-4455.