Sing out sisters

COUNTRY SOUNDS:Lydia and Laura Rogers, country music singing sisters from the deep American south, snapped up a recording deal with remarkable ease and are on tour supporting major acts. But they still miss home, they tell SINEAD GLEESON

LAST NEW YEAR'S EVE, on Jools Holland's annual HootenannyTV show, amid the usual roll-call of anthemic acts, two unknown girls and a guitar stepped up to the mic. Dressed like wartime starlets, The Secret Sisters sang a Bill Monroe song and promptly stole the show. Hailing from Alabama, Lydia and Laura Rogers are rooted in the traditions of country music, which runs deep in their family, and they began singing at a young age. "Our grandfather was in a group called The Happy Valley Boys growing up," Lydia says. "It was a bluegrass, gospel group and we listened to that a lot. "Music was always around," interrupts Laura. "We would listen to old records and our dad would play guitar in the living room. We'd pull out a church song book and all sing together. I can't imagine a childhood where music is not around and we've never known how not to harmonise with each other."

Despite the sizeable family bashes, there are just two Rogers sisters. They cite their extended family of cousins who live nearby as de facto brothers and sisters, who they “bounce music off”, but they always assumed that their love of music would remain a pastime.

That changed in 2009, when elder sister Laura went to a singing audition in Nashville. “Laura had stage-fright issues,” says Lydia, “and she wanted to see if she could overcome them. So she went to the audition alone, not thinking it would come to anything. I was living two hours south in Alabama, but when she said she had a younger sister they wanted to hear me too. So I drove up and sang on my own and just as we were leaving, they asked if we sang together – so we did – and within two months we had a record deal.”

The speed of their signing is prolific by any standards, but particularly in an era of music industry slow-down. The duo hadn't even played a gig and admit to feeling both blown away and guilty about their accelerated success. Their debut album was released earlier this year, having been completed in break-neck time. Two songs, Tennessee Meand Waste the Day, are originals, with the rest covers, including the father-daughter Sinatra classic, Something Stupid. "The originals were written years ago, long before we had a record deal," Laura reveals. "Our producer asked if we had any songs of our own and he really liked them. It was fun to see our own work alongside well-known country classics, but for the next record, we're really interested in growing as songwriters."

Their potential as a song-writing partnership is helped by the fact that they are obviously very close. Lydia, younger and taller, is a little more demure. Laura, the diminutive big sister, is two years older at 24, and she does much of the talking. She is demonstrably protective of her sister. They’re bubbly, with a wide-eye charm about them. Hailing from Muscle Shoals (yes, that’s a real name), Alabama, this is country music’s heartland. From dim bars and dusty roads, it’s bona fide Dixie.

The south looms over the songs and their plaintive harmonies about love, loss and country ways. “Growing up in rural Alabama, we were total tomboys who played outside all the time. We were dirty, country kids. The country music genre was something we gravitated towards because we got it, we knew it. It suited how our voices sound, and our family had instilled such a love of that kind of music in us,” says Laura.

They’ve long since shed their tomboy image and much has been made of their current look, where vintage frocks meet 1940s sweetheart hairstyles. “We love it. One thing we learned is that when we put the dresses on and do the whole hair and make-up thing, it really puts us in the mindset of being performers. When you get on that stage, you become a different person,” Laura says, “and we want to give an audience a show for their eyes, not just their ears. I’ll be honest, it’s hard to maintain . . .” They both dissolve into laughter. “These dresses, they’re hard to come by, but they’re also vintage and fragile. When you’re wearing them every night you end up ripping an underarm seam or tearing off a button. We wear them out really quickly.”

Their love of bygone days extends to the way they wanted their music to sound, and ultimately how they recorded their album. “We wanted it to be really old-style,” Lydia says, “which meant recording into one microphone and recording everything to tape so that it would sound era-specific. If there were any flaws on our vocals, we kept them, because it’s human.”

For Laura, it was important how the songs were recorded. It also happened to be the way T Bone Burnett records his songs. Celebrity endorsements can be ladder-climbing gold for unknown acts. For a country duo, they don’t come much bigger than Burnett. Not only did the legendary producer like their music, he offered to produce them and set up a separate label, Beladroit, to release their album. “When he heard it, I think he valued the authenticity of it,” Laura says. “It would have been good enough for us if he’d just said that he liked it, but he wanted to help with the record, and promote us.”

Where they in awe of him? “He was so intimidating,” laughs Lydia. “He’s so tall and such a huge legend, but he was so humble and easy to talk to. He’s been a dear friend ever since.”

Being in a band with your sister can run the whole gamut from good to bad, but while they admit it’s hard, they rely on each other. “We’ve fought a little on this tour, but she’s my sister no matter what she says to me,” Laura says with an emphatic nod. “We have our disagreements and arguments, but only when we get homesick.”

The day we meet in Dublin, the girls are battling a bout of homesickness. The only children of their parents, and from a close-knit family, the long trips away seem to be difficult all round. “We’ve been on tour for a few weeks now and it has been a blast, but we’re really missing home. Last night there was a knock at the door of our hotel room and when Lydia answered it, our parents were standing there. They flew from the States to surprise us – and our mother has never even been out of the country. It was so nice.”

The following night at Dublin’s Olympia theatre, the girls are supporting Ray LaMontagne, and have the audience in the palm of their hand. From Laura’s between-song banter to their soaring harmonies, the room is hooked. As the set draws to a close, their father walks on to the stage and they all sing a Crosby, Stills and Nash song.

How do their parents feel about their chosen career? “Our mom keeps a scrapbook of all our articles,” smiles Lydia, “and if she’s in the crowd at one of our shows, we always know where she is because of the constant camera flashing.”

The Secret Sisters play Dublin’s Academy 2 on Wednesday, May 18th