Partners in song

There is a lot to be gleaned about the band Sunday Iris in the first verse of the first song on the duo’s new CD, Anywhere. To start with, the opening line is a wonderfully vivid, mysterious way to begin an album: “Down a dark road/in the blinding rain/I would go with you/I’d go insane.”

The song’s stripped-down arrangement—with Dave Elke’s pristine finger-picked acoustic guitar creating a breezy counterpoint to Lisa Langley’s rich and soulful vocals and his own quiet harmonizing—is the perfect introduction to what is the foundation for the band’s sound.

And the words, co-written by the duo, capture the themes of playing music together and being romantic partners as well. “[The song] felt like a metaphor for us going into something—our journey—as partners and musicians without knowing what will happen, but that we are just crazy enough to go for it,” said Langley.

Anywhere is the third record from Sunday Iris—following a self-titled debut and the Cross the Line EP, both released in 2017. This Friday (Sept. 27), the duo celebrates its latest with a CD-release party at the Maltese. Last week, over appetizers and drinks at downtown’s Bill’s Towne Lounge, the two talked with the CN&R about the album, songwriting and how the band came about.

“I was missing writing with just the guitar without a bunch of instruments, [and wanted to] focus on stories and stuff, instead of trying to wail all the time,” Langley explained.

Before this project, Langley made a name for herself in Chico’s music scene as Lisa Valentine—playing solo, as part of jazz combos and with her own R&B/soul crew, Lisa Valentine and the Unlovables. Her impressive pipes and bluesy, expressive style are right in line with her big influences (everything from Patsy Cline to old-school Motown singers) and make Langley suited to a wide range of genres. She’s won a Chico Area Music Award (CAMMIE) for Best Female Vocalist, and even tried out for The Voice and American Idol—she won a Chico competition that sent her to auditions for the latter.

Elke has been involved in local music since the early 1990s, when the Texas native (Langley was born in Texas as well, but grew up in Corning) moved to town for school. He’s since become one of the better-known music personalities in Chico.

“I came here in ’93 and joined a band that year, and I’ve been in probably 25 or 30 bands since then. One year at the CAMMIES I was in four or five showcases in all different styles,” said Elke (his Dave Elke Trio also won a CAMMIE for Best Jazz Artist). Some of the highlights on his résumé include playing with ’90s alt-rockers Jensing, acid-jazz crew Potluck, Latin dance band Los Papi Chulos and many jazz combos. He’s also a guitar instructor, plus teaches recording arts and music appreciation at Butte College.

Langley and Elke met as fellow local players—working together on various projects, including a couple of Langley’s solo albums, which Elke recorded—before they started dating and eventually created Sunday Iris.

“We just started writing songs, just sitting down together writing songs on the acoustic. Because we wanted to explore deeper songwriting,” Elke said. After they had a few numbers in the can, they were inspired to keep going, which led to recording, playing shows and the rest. “I don’t think we ever went, ‘We’re going to start a duo,’” Elke said.

“I feel like my voice has developed more since doing this,” Langley said. “You can’t hide behind anything, so you’re hearing yourself and you’re being more intimate.”

“This is my favorite project I’ve ever done,” Elke added. “It’s real.”

Elke recorded Anywhere himself, at the couple’s home, and the album finds them adding more extra elements to the sound than usual. Pianist Kara Gorr (a music student of Elke’s) plays on one song, and local jazz ringer Robert Delgardo adds drums to a few tracks.

But at it’s core, Sunday Iris is still a bluesy folk duo that seems to have provided an ideal venue for both of their skillsets, a notion that Elke chalks up to not having preconceived ideas going in.

“I think it’s all luck,” he said. “Two people get together and everything just works.”