I have long been a fan of The Secret Sisters and own all three of their albums. I was amazed to discover that they were playing locally in Saltaire in a really small club. They certainly did not disappoint and their set was a masterclass in quite brilliant harmony singing and really well crafted songs. They also came over as really polished entertainers and for 75 minutes my jet laf from returning from New York wonderfully vanished as I became totally engaged by their music.
These days there are few artists and albums that really impress me and The Secret Sisters actually exceeded my high expectations. Perhaps its my years spent with Martin Simpson, because these days I think of music in a very different way than in days gone by. Often I think “Would I be happy to have written that?” I also pay a lot of attention to the live sound during gigs and The Secret Sisters produced a superb sound with just two voices and one great Collings acoustic guitar.
Crucially the quality of songs was realy high, both musically and lyrically. Often I lament lazy song writing where in my view the attention to detail is simply not there. The Secret Sisters set was all original with the exception of three songs from Simon and Garfunkal, The Everly Brothers and Graham Nash in the middle of the set. Clearly the audience loved what they heard and Laura Rogers and Lydia Slagle received a well deserved standing ovation.
In a world of cover versions, its great to hear really excellent well crafted original music, As my own producer often comments “Its ALL about the songs” and I could not agree more. After seeing Bill Frissell in New York at The Vanguard as well as Ronnie Earl at BB Kings, its rare to see and hear artists at this level. If you get the chance to see them live, I highly recommend seeing them. There’s no “quirky” cover versions or “etherial vocals” (translation = massive reverb) but instead wonderfully crafted well executed songs. This is what great music is all about.