I heard them first on The World Cafe, and thought they were pretty darn cool, and then I heard them on an entirely different program (don’t remember which–got into the car after the first intro, arrived at my destination before they’d mentioned the program’s name!) and then caught a couple more of their tunes on a local folk show, and I was really stuck on them.
I missed the opportunity to see them Live and In Person and totally free by stupidly going out of town for a wedding, but I just got Tanglewood Tree and Drum Hat Buddha as (very belated) birthday presents.
Yowza. What a great variety of different styles, all done really well. Well, heck, I don’t really follow folk music, so maybe all folk albums are this good, with this kind of range, but these CDs really knocked my socks off.
I love “Crocodile Man” and “Tanglewood Tree” and all the “Fairwells” off Tanglewood Tree, and “Ordinary Town” and “Tillman County” and . . . well, hell, it might be easier to just name the ones I don’t like, which will probably grow on me eventually anyway. 
Oh Heavens Yes!
I’m lucky enough to live within transmission range of WXPN, which hosts the World Cafe that you are talking about. We got our fill of Carter/Grammer a while ago. They played songs from these albums all day.
The song TangleWood Tree still enchants me.
And I love how they describe themselves. “Postmodern Mythic American Music”, or better yet “The first Buddhist Country-Western Duet”.
I can’t think of anyone else to compare them to. But highly recommend them to anyone who likes to really listen to their music.
I’m glad someone else responded. Having obscure musical tastes is no fun if you don’t have any company.
If you know of any other similar artists, or if you just have some faves in folk music that you’d like to recommend, I’d be much obliged. Do you know anything about Tracy or Dave’s solo work? (And is it presumptuous of me to use first names? )
And of course if anyone reading this thread is intrigued, let me urge you to check out their work. You can find samples at Amazon.
I’ve always heard them referred to as “Carter/Grammer”, but their web site is http://www.daveandtracy.com
As for other suggestions, if you listen to World Cafe, You’ll likely already know most of my favorites: Cheryl Wheeler and Dar Williams are the first to come to mind.
But there’s nothing out there like Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer.
ThunderBunny. I too, live within, as you say, transmission range of WXPN. Some days I forget how lucky we are. Dave and Tracy are just a few of so many that often I can’t even remember them all. I’m a member now.
I saw them at Falcon Ridge and more recently at the Boston Folk Festival. They really are very good. I’d have to say that I like Tanglewood Tree a bit better than Drum, Hat, Buddha, but the latter has some strong songs on it. “Ordinary Town” just creeps me out.
I’m sort of at a loss as to who might be similar to them.
If you ignore the vocal qualities, Jimmy Dale Gilmore and Jack Hardy have similar lyrical complexity. And I guess Salamander Crossing might appeal to anyone who likes DC & TG.
Some very sad news – Dave Carter passed away Friday the 19th while preparing to perform at the Green River Festival in Greenfield Mass. Apparently he’d gone out jogging and had a heart attack after returning to his hotel.
This is a terrible shame – he and Tracy Grammar were gaining a lot of recognition in folk music circles. Reading the tributes to him in the Yahoo message list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Dave-and-Tracy/) makes it clear what a loss this is.
He DIED? Oh, wow… I loved their music.
He will be missed. 
I heard about Dave’s death yesterday afternoon–was actually heading over here to start up a Dave Tribute Thread. I’m just now coming out of denial… I spent all day yesterday waiting for the “it’s all a joke” message… took me a while to really understand that it would not be coming. I was lucky enough to know Dave a little. I loved talking with him–he’s one of the only people I’ve met who just intuitively grasped the inner workings of my odd little mind.
Tracy is an absolute sweetheart: every bit as intelligent, charming, and gracious offstage as on. What an unfathomable loss for her.
Dave was a very prolific songwriter; D&T once told me that they have an enormous back catalogue. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to see some of it someday.
sigh The world’s a meaner place without him.
–Nightsky