Let’s go back, way back. Dana is the daughter of Vinton “Pudge” Likes, who was a drummer for the likes of Dave Dudley & the Roadrunners and the Country Squires. Matt is the son of  a realtor from eastern Pima County. I know what you’re thinking, how has this duo not burst onto the scene earlier?

Both grew up with the guitar. Dana, jamming along to the Indigo Girls in junior high, got her taste for folk music and harmonies from Amy & Emily. Matt spent his formative years feasting on a steady diet of gangster rap (west coast, thank you very much). It wasn’t until after high school that he realized that girls go for that “troubled artist” flair that an acoustic guitar seems to symbolize. Matt’s dad had picked up a 1965 Gibson J50 when he got out of the Navy in the late 60s  and generously gifted it to Matt as a graduation present.

The two didn’t form a duet right away. They spent years living and traveling in Europe while Matt plucked away at that old guitar (annoying Dana as it turned out) before finally finding their way back to Tucson, AZ. It took their participation in the church band to finally bring their love of playing music together into the light.

Matt had been playing guitar consistently for so long that he was not going to let it go. Through the gateway drug known as the banjitar, Dana stumbled into a deep love for the sound of banjo.  Against his better judgement, Matt bought her a 5 string banjo so she could try her hand at that clawhammer thing. 

For Dana, playing the banjo became an obsession, and it turned out that her favorite banjo player gave lessons. Thanks to Zoom, Dana became a student of Steve Varney. Steve’s unique style of using clawhammer banjo as a “lead guitar” and effectively pioneering “sad banjo” was the perfect fit since it seems Matt can only write sad songs. A match made in heaven. 

In September of 2023, Matt and Dana were asked to support Paul Domingue during a show at a local beer garden. Needing a name for the gig poster, they batted around possibilities before landing on a favorite sung phrase. The name ghost of Caroline jumped out of This Empty Northern Hemisphere and landed on the gig poster. 

Since then, ghost of Caroline has visited stages around Tucson and even ventured into New Mexico and Minnesota. “The journey feels like it is just beginning.”