Blues harp player Annie Raines gushes like a schoolgirl when she talks about her longtime musical companion Paul Rishell.
"I'm really lucky to be working with Paul," Raines said in a phone interview last week from her Massachusetts home. "He has incredibly good taste in music, and that is something that you just can't buy. He awes me every time I listen to him."
Raines speaks of Rishell with more than just platonic admiration.
After more than 13 years performing together, the musicians — who play Friday at Old Town Artisans — have fallen in love. They plan to get married in the fall.
"We are like two peas in a pod, it is ridiculous," Raines cooed. "We have so much fun playing together and being together. That has only strengthened over the years."
As performers who are constantly on the road, sharing hotel rooms and long car rides, it seems only natural that Rishell and Raines would eventually hook up.
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But that wasn't always the case. When Rishell's first wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996, Raines — then a musical accompanist — moved in to help take care of the family.
After Rishell's wife died, Raines stayed on to help raise Rishell's 9-year-old daughter, Vanessa.
"We started out raising a child and then became a couple," Raines said. "It was kind of a backwards way of approaching it."
"Annie was there when Leslie died and helped me keep it together," Rishell added. "We've gotten to know each other better in stages. We had such an intimate relationship playing music that it was sort of almost natural for us to go into other areas with it. It is such an amazing thing to have a rapport with someone the way that Annie and I do."
Amid tragedy, the added responsibilities of parenthood and a budding relationship, Rishell and Raines have managed to keep active in their music.
They have released three popular albums together, including the 2000 W.C. Handy Award-winning "Moving to the Country."
Currently, they are touring to promote their 2004 release "Goin' Home," a survey of classic Americana blues with songs like Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Black Horse Blues" and Charley Patton's "Some of These Days (I'll Be Gone)."
The 13-track release shifts effortlessly between acoustic, electric and live performance cuts.
"This album to a degree was one of my favorites to make," Rishell said. "They were all songs I like to sing, I like to play or Annie likes to sing and play."
"We were paying tribute to a lot of our favorite artists," Raines said. "A lot of times we have a lot of material and go in and see what works because the stuff that works great in the live shows doesn't always hold up in the studio. These worked."
"Goin' Home" seemed to work with critics as well.
Living Blues magazine said the release stood "rife with variety and virtuosity," and, in 2005, the album was nominated for a W.C. Handy "Acoustic Blues Album of the Year" Award.
Now that Rishell's daughter is in college, Rishell and Raines have had more time to promote this album and the next, a live CD/DVD combo due out in 2007.
"In the years since Leslie died, we've just tried to focus on raising a daughter and making sure things are OK for her because that is the most important thing," Raines said. "Now, we are finally able to get out and go on extended tours. That's our next voyage of discovery."
quick take
Paul Rishell and Annie Raines in concert
Presented by: Rhythm & Roots
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Old Town Artisans, 201 N. Court Ave., Downtown
Tickets: $17 in advance through Antigone Books, CD City and Enchanted Earthworks; $20 at the door. 297-9133.
