Summary: MILKDRIVE is an Alt-folk-progressive acoustic string band that is generating quite a buzz in the Austin music scene. The band features several award winning musicians. Dennis Ludiker, who has toured with Asleep at the Wheel, won the 2009 RockyGrass Mandolin Contest and holds titles as the 2010 World Fiddle Champion, 2009 and 2008 Texas State-Fiddlers Frolics and 2002 Walnut Valley Music Festival Winner. Brian Beken was 2004 Texas Flatpick Guitar Champion. Noah Jeffries won a Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival Jazz Guitar Competition. With the addition of bass player Matt Mefford, who was in South Austin Jug Band with Ludiker and Beken, the band was complete and became MilkDrive two years ago. The band has put the finishing touches on its debut studio album, ROAD FROM HOME. BETTYSOO & DOUG COX might seem an unlikely pair. One hails from songwriter's heaven in Austin, Texas, the other from the paradisaical reaches of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The two musicians met while teaching at Acoustic Alaska Guitar Camp, where they discovered a shared fondness for good songs. They decided to create a project built around the stories and work of their mostly-unsung heroes. With two voices, a guitar and a Dobro, their CD "Across the Borderline" gathers different places and sounds: low and high, north and south, hope and heartbreak.
