Will Branch and David Fox make up the family-friendly folk / blues duo called Fox and Branch. They also perform a lot of Americana and Cajun tunes, and if you seen them live, there’s a good chance they’ll pull out a fiddle or a jug at some point.

Fox and Branch played at coffee shops, clubs, festivals, schools and libraries all over the Midwest and East Coast. Their music has been played on folk radio across the United States and Canada.

Fox and Branch released four self-produced CDs. "Bootlegger's Blues" and "Mama Don't Allow" have received critical acclaim in the folk music press. "Did You Hear That?" is their latest release for families and it recently won a Parents' Choice "Recommended" Award.

OnMilwaukee.com recently tracked down Will Branch to ask him to reflect on 2010 and share his goals for 2011.

OnMilwaukee.com: So, how was 2010 for Fox and Branch?

Will Branch: 2010 was a good year for Fox and Branch. We have slowly grown our audience and are really happy with how people respond to our shows and recordings. We've made a point to educate ourselves about the children's music scene: I attended both the Children's Music Network's conference in Asheville, N.C., and the second annual Kindiefest in Brooklyn over the past year or so. We're networking more with other musicians and have consultants that are working with us on booking, marketing and distribution. Our CDs are now distributed nationwide by NewSound Kids, the biggest distributor of family music in the U.S.

OMC: Wow, that’s great. Any concert that stands out from 2010?

WB: One of our best moments this past year was performing at Passim, the legendary folk club in Harvard Square. They have a Saturday family concert series and we played to a packed room.

We had a great show as well in Beacon, N.Y. We also had some great shows at Anodyne in Bay View and at the Jewish Community Center in Whitefish Bay.

OMC: What are your goals for 2011?

WB: A new CD, a live DVD and a series of videos for YouTube. We are already booked for most of the summer. We're also going to make a trip to the East Coast in April of the coming year.

OMC: How has becoming a dad affected your music?

WB: Becoming a father has just made me more aware of how important music and creativity in general is to children's development. It has definitely made me think about the future more, and about what I would like to provide for my daughter, in terms of skills and abilities that will help her live her life.

I think that music makes people smarter: it helps you coordinate the different parts of your brain and fosters a certain kind of responsiveness to life, on a moment-to-moment basis. I don't know what the world will be like when my daughter is grown, but I can give her some tools to help her deal with things.

OMC: When are your next shows?

WB: We're playing one last show at Anodyne on Dec. 19 at 11 a.m. Then we're going to work on our new CD for a few weeks before playing any more shows. If anyone wants to book us for New Year's Eve, we're still free.

OMC: What else do you do for work besides the band?

WB: I'm teaching Music Together at the Marian Center for Non-Profits, Tuesday nights and Thursday and Friday mornings. I have been teaching guitar at Top Shelf Guitar Shop in Bay View for seven or eight years now. A lot of my students are young -- 7 to early teenage years -- and the work there overlaps with everything else I'm doing, in making me glad to help get kids involved with and excited about music.