First Church
of Christ Scientist
522 B St.
corner B and 6th
Petaluma, CA
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Tickets
$18 advance
$20 door
Ticket Info
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(707) 542-8995______________
Join us November 21 for one of the Bay Area's finest old-time bands.
The Stairwell Sisters crank out acoustic, old-time music with a punk-rock intensity. Somehow, between raising children, working and releasing records, they've taken their band to some rather well-regarded places - appearing on A Prairie Home Companion, festival stages from Hardly Strictly Bluegrass to Lincoln Center (NYC), Celtic Connections (UK), and many points in between. Their third release Get Off Your Money, produced by Lloyd Maines, covers substantial ground as well.
Maines recalls hearing The Stairwell Sisters for the first time: "I happened upon this tribe of women musicians, playing old-time string music, with the power and excitement of a great rock band." Tribe of women indeed. Evie Ladin explains what holds sway with the sisters, themes similarly found in one of their early influences, Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard: "not exactly the sweet and tender ladies, but the stand up for yourself and face the world kind of women." Which is exactly the kind of women that make up The Stairwell Sisters.
The Stairwell Sisters come from varied musical backgrounds, some from acoustic traditions, others through amped-up rock and roll. Guitarist Sue Sandlin says hearing Flatt and Scruggs brought her back to the country music her family loved, "It was akin to the hair raising excitement I felt the first time I heard The Clash as a teenager." The Sisters are all about bringing that excitement to the stage. Lauded for infectious shows that combine buckdancing with balladry and sass, these women unfailingly play their instruments hell-bent to drive the music.
There are fiddle tunes crafted decades ago from Alabama to Scotland, and from points unknown. There are old songs of trains, boats and possums. One song is translated from Swahili, an all-too familiar story learned from a street musician in Tanzania. There are new songs too - original songs of trial and work, loss and love, and all-night parties. The women run all of it through the "Sister Mill." Regardless from which era or continent the songs have traveled, The Stairwell Sisters make such heartfelt and skillfully played music that boundaries dissolve beneath the chugging force of old-time fiddle and banjo, the whomp of bass and guitar, the grit of the slide guitar, and the tight, closely interwoven harmonies.
Dobro/banjo player Lisa Berman explains the communal lure of the genre. "You can be anywhere, among friends or strangers, and jump right in - the living room, the kitchen, the woods, even a demonstration. No electrical outlets needed. It's an ever-changing music, grounded in a strong tradition." Evie Landin, who grew up clogging and playing banjo in the unlikely locale of suburban New Jersey, elaborates why old-time music is timeless. "People have always sung of their struggles, with work, love, the forces of nature. Coal mining songs, union songs, not too much has changed when you consider the common person. Either way, it's about enduring and working for a decent life."
Read more about The Stairwell Sisters.