Over Yonder plays beautiful music. As you can read below, how the beauty is put into genre changes but it’s moving and soothing and it was fun to hear how they make it happen. They have a number of showing coming up, including an appearance at the Red Wing Big Turn.
Please tell me about Over Yonder and your music.
Brian: Over Yonder is Martha Larson and me, Brian Johnson. Martha and I have been playing together for going on three years. Martha plays the cello and sings lead vocals, and I play acoustic guitar and sing a little as well. We’re based out of Northfield, Minnesota. We both write music.
Our style spans a pretty wide gamut. The album we just released, Valley Grove, is really a struggle to define for me, anyway.
Some words that come to mind are folk, classical, experimental, acoustic, Americana, cinematic, emotional, warm… or, if you want a ten-dollar word, ethereal.
But the word that has by far been used most often to describe our album and our music in general has been “beautiful.” I take that as a very high compliment, and, if I may say so, I also think it is a pretty accurate and appropriate description. At least, it’s what we strive to do and are inspired by; making beautiful music.
Martha: That search for beauty and an affinity for melodic arrangements is actually one of the things that initially brought us together. We are both inspired by how well the emotional depth of the cello blends with the warm familiarity of the guitar. Our instruments sit right within the human vocal range, so I think that creates a really strong sense of connection in people. Folks often come up to us after our shows simply to say how much they love either the cello or guitar as an instrument. More recently, we’ve been introducing vocal harmonies which taps even further into that desire to intertwine two melodic voices together. Although our music leans into folk and Americana, we both come from very diverse musical backgrounds. It gives us a lot of options and agility when blending bluegrass and old-time traditions with classical, jazz, rock, ambient and experimental music influences. Over time, that open-minded approach has evolved into a distinct sound that is often hard to categorize.
Valley Grove is your debut album. It is beautiful. I am listening to it as I watch the snow fall on the last day of 2025. The music is evocative with room for me to create my own reason for the feelings. What this album and why now?
Martha: Many of the pieces on Valley Grove originated in the early days of our collaboration as Brian was exploring the idea of weaving cello into his own original compositions. In a sparse duo configuration, the cello typically plays melodic lines while the guitar supports with rhythmic accompaniment. But these compositions are unique in that they weave both parts together into a melodic conversation. As we started playing out more, our original repertoire went on the shelf for awhile. But in 2025, after we became fairly established as a duo, we felt it was time to resurrect these pieces and create our first full-length album. It also offered a huge learning opportunity as we navigated the process of mixing, recording, producing and distributing it all on our own.
Brian: As we were heading into winter last year, it felt like a natural time to take on a larger project. Martha and I had just finished playing music for a Christmas play at the Guild Theater here in Northfield and our schedule was slowing down. We had both done recording before, but I didn’t feel confident in my ability to pull off recording and mixing an album on our own.
My learning style is very much “learn by doing”: make a ton of mistakes, learn some lessons, try to make fewer mistakes, wash, rinse, repeat for infinity. So it made sense to me that if I wanted us to figure out how to make an album we should spend winter 2025 getting our hands dirty making an album.
I initially set a goal to get the album done in a month, knowing it was unrealistic, but wanting to see how much we could accomplish if we pushed ourselves. One month quickly turned into two, then three, then four. Fast forward to November, and the album we started in January was ready for release.
The Day You Cease to Travel is painful and redeeming all at once. Can you talk about the inspiration?
Brian: Sure. This piece was born out of remembrance for the loss of a child in a family that is very close to me. On the anniversary of their passing I sat down with the intention of writing something as a tribute.
The piece came together very quickly. I wrote the chord progression, and the melody was a one-take improvisation.
For me, the intention going into a piece and what it becomes can be very different. I can still hear that original inspiration in the music, but since it was written, it’s come to hold different emotions and connotations for me as well.
Underwater is a song that grabbed my attention. There’s something lulling about the very low notes of the cello with the dance of the guitar. How do you create such a song (or any song) together? Is there a process or a spur of creativity?
Martha: This particular piece came to me in a flash of inspiration as I was thinking about ways to compliment deep bass resonances with vocal-range melodic lines. I had been listening to a lot of Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer collaborations where each instrument has its own distinct voice, yet they converse together in alternating, melodic phrasing similar to what you hear in “Underwater.” The instruments start their discussion with a gentle back-and-forth, which then evolves into a more animated dialogue as they talk together – or talk over one another – before resolving back to their original point. The opening theme of this piece echoes our signature Americana sound. But my classical background really came through here, creating moments when the two instruments compliment each other with different parts like two separate sections in an orchestra and moments when we play in unison with the drive and intensity of a full string section.
Where can folks see you play? Looks like Big Turn Festival might be once place.
Martha: We pop up in quite a few places – libraries, farmers markets, senior centers, private events, arts centers, concert stages, and more.
Our next public performance is on January 25, 5-7 PM at Imminent Brewing in Northfield. For this show, we’ve partnered with Pine and Pear Apothecary to create three small-batch essential oil blends inspired by songs from our album, Valley Grove. As you noted, we’re also joining the line-up at this year’s Big Turn Music Fest in Red Wing. We’ll be playing at Jimmy’s Pub in the historic St. James Hotel at 7:15 PM on Friday, February 20. Cello fans might also want to join us at the Northfield Depot at 2 PM on January 24 where some of our songs will be featured in my SEMAC grant capstone performance highlighting percussive accompaniment techniques for the cello.
We are really looking forward to expanding our audience as we continue to promote the album. Anybody who’s interested in staying up to date on our shows can find a mailing list sign-up form on our website at hotspotmusic.org/overyonder.
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