"More and more zany ideas come to us all the time," explains Amanda Barrett, one of the utterly charming, highly talented, and ultimately captivating Ditty Bops. The California-based duo, which features Amanda and Abby DeWald, bring their 1920s and '30s-flavored swing and ragtime music to our stage tonight for a "pagan-vaudeville" extravaganza that no Freightgoer ought to miss. In performance, Amanda and Abby apply their sweet-as-honey harmonies, mandolin, guitar, and eco-friendly humor to a heady blend of ragtime, western swing, and folk, with plenty of wild costume changes to spice things up.

Tonight the pair regales us with choice selections from their recent CD, Moon Over The Freeway (Warner Bros), which they supported last year by undertaking a 4,502-mile gig tour from Los Angeles to New York on their bicycles, to promote ecologically sound transportation.

This summer, having just completed a new EP disc, Pack Rat, the duo will once again tour from west to east on their "farm tour." Performing in clubs, concert halls, and at family farms, raising money for local farm organizations, and two leading national organizations, The Growing Connection and FARM AID. Join us as the tour stops in Berkeley shortly after its inaugural show at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles.