Berkley Hart have found something that works. The combination of Kerrville New Folk Songwriter Award winner, Jeff Berkley, and stand-out wordsmith, Calman Hart, creates a pairing that has become one of the premier acoustic duos touring the country. Every Berkley Hart show is packed with entertainment as the duo combines their natural down-home humor with poignant, delicate, masterfully crafted lyrics delivered with stunning harmony and musicianship. Between songs, the obvious camaraderie between these two top songwriters shines as they effortlessly play off each other in what can only be called genuine comedy. Add in virtuoso playing from both Jeff Berkley (guitar, percussion) and Calman Hart (guitar, harmonica) and it’s easy to see why the two have become live favorites.

That said, the duo also delivers in their recordings. Each of their five albums to date has earned nominations or won San Diego Music Awards (SDMA) and critical acclaim. In their latest effort, “Las Vegas,” released in May, 2009, Berkley Hart explore the sonic landscape as it relates to absence, love, loss, religion, redemption, and the power of rock and roll wrapped around the duo’s unique twists of observation. Every Berkley Hart album builds on the promise of the one before.

Their previous album, 2006’s “Pocket Change,” was dubbed by the San Diego Troubadour as finding the duo “at its best, combining poignant lyrics with masterfully crafted melodies and harmonies. It captures their live sound in its purest form: two guys, two guitars, and an occasional harmonica or banjo.”

Prior to that, their third album, “Twelve,” released in 2004, was self-produced and recorded entirely in a home studio. The album received an SDMA for Best Americana Album. The All Music Guide noted, “’Twelve’... reveals that [Berkley Hart] know how to create appealing, harmony-rich country-rock songs. In fact, this disc...feels like an excellent calling card for Nashville."

In 2002, the duo released “Something To Fall Back On,” which received that year's SDMA for Best Adult Alternative Album. For that album, Relix Magazine proclaimed, "The band infuses its rich, harmony-laden songs with strains of bluegrass, folk, country and rock…while…their solid and finely-crafted songs are a good melding of yesterday and today."

And their debut album, 2000’s “Wreck ‘n’ Sow,” was a critical success out of the box that won that year’s SDMA prize for Best Local Recording, and took home the coveted Best New Artist trophy to boot. SLAMM magazine said, "Sometimes an album surfaces that is so emotionally and musically authentic that it crumbles resistance to its genre."

Both Berkley and Hart emerged from the Southern California coffeehouse circuit, each building sizeable followings of their own before joining forces. As a duo for more than ten years now, they have become fixtures on the folk circuit, making appearances at the Kerrville Folk Festival, as well as playing some of folk’s most prestigious venues including The Birchmere and The Bluebird Café. In 2005, they staged the first “O Berkley, Where Hart Thou?” a mulit-artist extravaganza that features music from the film “O Brother Where Art Thou?” and other ‘old-timey’ tunes. With a DVD of the first show now available, Berkley Hart have since presented 2 additional shows, featuring different performers, with another planned for late 2009. Additionally, the duo launched the “Berkley Hart House Concert Revolution.” They simply asked friends and fans to host shows in their homes. With a well-developed plan to help the hosts put on a show, they were able to create annual gigs in living rooms across the country.

Calman Hart was born at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Woods Cross City, Utah on Christmas Eve. He began playing guitar and writing songs while still in high school, and worked through college playing in clubs across Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho, before finally putting down roots in San Diego. There, in 1992, his first album "Red-Eyed & Blue" won him the Best New Artist honors at the San Diego Music Awards. His second album "Train in the Distance," recorded with Bil Vorndick (producer of Alison Krauss' grammy-winning "I've Got That Old Feeling") and Nashville greats Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, David Grier and Roy Husky Jr., also met with critical success. In the mid-nineties, he fell in with the emerging San Diego coffeehouse scene, making the rounds with artists such as Jewel, Steve Poltz, Gregory Page, Dave Howard and John Katchur. It was during this time that he met percussionist Jeff Berkley, whose djembe made a prominent appearance on Hart's third album "The John Boy Drum" in 1998. One of Berkley’s early supporters for his singing and songwriting, Hart joined Berkley in The Redwoods along with Dani Carroll and John Katchur. Hart & Berkley continued performing and writing together when that combination ended and the two officially joined forces as Berkley Hart.

The son of a traveling evangelist, Jeff Berkley grew up in Southern California, playing drums in alternative rock bands. After high school, he discovered the African djembe, which he combined with cymbals to create a bare-handed style of percussion that is uniquely his own. Before long, he was playing regularly in San Diego coffeehouses and clubs with the likes of Jewel, Steve Poltz, and Gregory Page. Beyond that, he was entertaining thousands alongside folk circuit fixtures like Joel Rafael, Tom Prasada-Rao, and Lowen & Navarro, as well as rock icons such as Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Bruce Cockburn, and the Indigo Girls. All the while, however, he was playing guitar and writing his own music; and in 1998 he came out from behind his drum to perform his songs in a band which included fellow singer/songwriters Dani Carroll, John Katchur, and future partner Calman Hart. In the spring of 1999, Berkley won the prestigious New Folk Songwriter Competition in Kerrville Texas, past winners of which include Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin, and Nancy Griffith. Not long after, Berkley officially teamed up with Calman Hart. Now, along with his Berkley Hart duties, he also fronts a 5-piece rock ‘n’ roll band (Citizen Band) and sits behind the controls of his own studio, Berkley Sound.