Petit Moineau

. Laura is also the melodymaker of the team.

Musical arrangements and instrumentation by Ron "Magic Fingers" Walker, also known to early fans as "Dr. Wong"... he'll swing you into the sunset with his incredible left-hand bass and beautiful chords.

We are featuring some of Ron's instrumental music on Soundclick. Ron wrote music for film and video for many years, and you can really hear that influence in his songs.

We're experimenting together and solo. Come fly with us, bebe!

I've been writing poetry all my life and Ron has been writing music all of his. Our collaboration was a natural outgrowth of our love and friendship, which began in August, 1993. I write, maintain a poetry blog and perform my poetry when I am able, Ron does his own thing with music, composing instrumentals and playing keyboards and piano in local bars and restaurants. He also teaches piano and flute on the faculty of our local community college and gives private lessons to children and adults. When we do come together, we have a lot of fun and come up with some pretty OFF-THE-WALL ideas. Night owls (oiseaux de nuit) we are most definitively.

We love to play live. Ron plays solo every weekend in restaurants and bars across Clatsop County, which is the northern most county on the Oregon Coast. It is situated on the majestic Columbia River separating Oregon and Washington State. He's developed a fan base at several venues.

I do a bit of poetry reading and stand-up around my poems.

Ron and I also have played the music we've written together, songs that use my poetry as a base; we then collaborate on the music, often writing and recording extemporaneously, both the music and poetry! We love it, although I am severely limited in how much I can do "live" as the result of a chronic pain and autoimmune disorder called me-cfs.

Our most special moment was simultaneously writing and recording "My Blowgun Is My Best Friend"; it was as if we were reading each others' minds. The improvisation really blew us away and subsequently led to other "live" collaborations.

Film music, romantic composers and jazz are some of Ron's passions. The late, great Alain Bashung is my all-consuming love; I've been translating all his songs from French to English to bring them to a wider audience. After that, there's Leonard Cohen, Kate Bush, Jim Morrison, Sekou Sundiata... Our theme song could well be "First We Take Manhattan, Then We Take Berlin"! Ron also loves Booker T & the MGs and Billy Larkin, anything Hammond, and Debussy and Tchaikovsky.

Voice, Native Instruments Symphonic Orchestra, Cubase SX3, Yamaha DX11 and DX21, Ensonic ESQ16, Yamaha QY70 sequencer, pedal steel guitar, electric guitar and bass, flute, vibraphone, piano, rhythm instruments.

Please come visit my blog Moineau en France at ! There is a lot of interesting French music on the site and poetry in both English and French. Something for everyone, I hope.