Bode and Miller started singing together in the Montpelier-based choir Northern Harmony. While performing an eclectic repertoire of shape-note hymns and eastern European harmonies, the two discovered a mutual love of good old American country music. They moved to Brooklyn, NY, reeled in an all-star cast of back-up musicians, and started playing in venues up and down the East Coast. Their repertoire includes 1940s- and, ‘50s-era country music, complete with close harmony singing and solid old-time country picking. Although the band was born in Brooklyn, its members hail from all over the eastern United States, as far south as Elkins, WV, and as far north as Brattleboro.
The Sweetback Sisters’ high-energy stage show reveals the players’ deep roots in traditional American music while at the same time betraying their youth. The band’s lineup includes some of the rising young talent in today’s old-time and traditional country music scenes: Stefan Amidon, of Brattleboro’s Amidon Family; two-time West Virginia state fiddle champion Jesse Milnes; Ross Bellenoit, who recently finished a tour with Amos Lee, opening for Bob Dylan; and Bridget Kearny, of Joy Kills Sorrow and several other cutting edge bands.
The band was chosen as one of six finalists to play on “A Prairie Home Companion” as part of the program’s 2007 “People in Their Twenties” talent contest, and more recently began a partnership with independent record label Signature Sounds. Their brand new CD, “Chicken Ain’t Chicken,” mixes country classics with a handful of new songs, all topped with a healthy dash of winking irreverence and freewheeling enthusiasm.
Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery is located at 139 Main Street. Tickets for this show are $17 general admission and $15 for students and seniors. For ticket reservations and information call (802) 254-9276. For more information visit www.thesweetbacksisters.com and www.hookerdunham.org.
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