Judd & Maggie Interview

I admit it. I came to the interview prepared to like Judd and Maggie. After a lovely evening spent drinking in their sparkling "Subjects" CD, it was hard not to come expectantly. Their warmly textured music led me to anticipate a certain amount of articulate wit, sprinkled with artistic expression, heavy on the intelligence. It was their sense of fun that took me by surprise.

Judd and Maggie Bolger, the brother/sister duo from Baltimore on the RCA/Victor label, are having a great time, plain and simple. And really, what's not to like about life on the road with the inimitable Derek Webb and his equally talented wife Sandra McCracken? You call that hard time? Their feeble attempts to make a case for the down side of life on the road are half-hearted.

Judd mentions the hectic moments and some flights, but Maggie laughingly admits it was the best tour ever. "We were working the whole time, of course, but it was good work, and felt good to be so productive. We had our van on the road too at times so it was us, our tour manager and Derek and Sandra. We're all very compatible, but you really need to be if you're going to be that close to people," she laughs. "You really bond with people in that setting, sharing those kinds of experiences each night."

When I ask them if they think their sibling connection helps them develop the necessary road-skills, they quickly agree. "Yes, you have to be sensitive to people's limits, to how they're feeling," Maggie says. They are two of seven siblings, so you might say they were fairly road-ready to begin with. Both come across as very down to earth, mentioning that at the time of my call they were home baby-sitting for their nieces and nephews. You gotta like artists who live in the real world with the rest of us.

Judd shares that traveling with Webb helped to keep him grounded, even through all the fun. "We both have very similar ideas about music, and about the Christian music scene, and it's nice to have a friend like that in the industry who shares your vision. We learned a lot from Derek and Sandra."

The mention of Webb gets us talking about his support of the Blood:Water Mission to aid in Africa's fight against AIDS. Both Judd and Maggie were impacted greatly by hearing Webb's eloquent pleas for support for this important work. Judd is drawn to the transcendent powers of music and of using it to communicate and inform audiences. "We enjoy doing our music, but it should lead us somewhere higher. Music is a great tool to rouse the crowds in America to listen and contribute to the plight of people on the other side of the world who lack the most basic things, things that we could really help with."

Maggie adds, "Music can bring people out of themselves, and for us it is exciting to take the focus off of ourselves and the merchandise. At the end of the night, that is success: if you can get out of yourself and on to the thing that is bigger. And that is why we do this. Music is our vocation, our way to get out there and meet people as authentic witnesses of Christ."

"We're here to promote goodness," Judd explains. "Our culture has lost some of its sense of goodness in its art. A lot that passes for art is very dark, sometimes just for shock value. It comes from a place of great darkness. God, the creator of everything, created all good, and we're trying to put ourselves in a position to bring that out. We'd like to transcend the darkness with our art."

Nobility and a good time too. Like I said, what's not to like?

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