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"Few words can describe the gorgeous sounds and sparse complexity of Providence, RI's the Iditarod. Spacey, yet medieval,
the Iditarod suggest the past while embracing the promise of the future. Mixing lovely female vocals over an aural backdrop painted from acoustic guitar, bass and found sounds, the Iditarod craft mysterious songs that are as
elusive as they are personal. Live, the band is a wonder to behold - few can convey the honesty
and emotion that Carin & Jeffrey do while performing their songs - and their 1998
Baltimore appearance with Alastair Galbraith and the Mountain Goats still ranks as our favorite
live show of all time." - Tina and Jeff, Washington, DC The Iditarod is a musical ensemble based in Rhode Island, USA. We play quiet music which has been descibed as 'experimental folk' or 'free folk'. We are a duo: Carin Wagner (vocals, lyrical composition, acoustic guitar, tamboura, shruti, bowls, bells, visual art, texture) and Jeffrey Alexander (guitars, banjo, bass, musical composition, phonograph, ambience, electronics), although we like to perform with other artists on a rotating basis. The two of us started playing and writing music together in 1996 while living in Baltimore, MD. We relocated to New England in 1998. We've had the tremendous opportunity to travel in the last few years and repeatedly perform in Canada, Scandinavia and the US East Coast. We also originated and organized the 'Poor Minstrels Of Song' collaborative touring venture for outsider and peripheral folk types, such as ourselves. The first Poor Minstrels tour was in the Spring of 2001 and featured Drekka, the Iditarod, In Gowan Ring and Stone Breath - performing individually and as a large ensemble. The second Poor Minstrels tour we arranged took place in Northern Europe in Feb-Mar 2002. This was also a collective event featuring Drekka, the Iditarod, Ring and Peter Scion. During the Summer of 2002, we booked a collaborative tour of New England and Maritime Canada for the Iditarod and Sharron Kraus who was visiting us from Oxford, UK. Again, we performed individually and together - those shows featured Sharron's wonderful voice, banjo, clarinet and tinwhistle as well as the percussion and keyboard of William Schaff. In October 2002, we performed at the 5th Terrastock festival in Boston, MA and debuted some of our louder, more recent electric material. Our extended lineup for the festival included William Schaff on drums, Alec K. Redfearn on accordion, Tara Burke (of Fursaxa) on organ and chant vocals. We recently completed a tour of the UK with Sharron Kraus in March 2003 and also some concerts in the Northeast USA with Fursaxa in April - both of these tours featured our newest collaborator, Miriam Goldberg, on cello. We are currently working on finalizing several upcoming 2003 releases for the Last Visible Dog, Camera Obscura and Fleece Records labels. In addition to Iditarod, Jeffrey and Miriam have started a new project called Black Forest/Black Sea. Check out our new site: 
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