CD Review: Peasall Sisters "First Offering" (Varese Sarabande)

Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 18:25:00 +0000 (UTC)
Newsgroups: rec.music.reviews
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Peasall Sisters "First Offering" (Varese Sarabande)
The Peasall Sisters (Sarah-15, Hannah-12 and Leah-9) were heard, but not
seen, as the singing voices of George Clooney's daughters in the film "O
Brother Where Art Thou?" Their fame expanded with the platinum success of
the film's soundtrack, and their voices were finally mated to their bodies
on the subsequent "Down From the Mountain" tour.
Their solo debut combines a pair of Carter Family standards with a ten songs
of faith, including gospel, hymns and contemporary Christian tunes. The
sisters voices shine especially bright on the traditional tunes, backed in
acoustic arrangements by some of Nashville's finest studio players. Even
when backing themselves on the Carter Family tunes, the sisters' rudimentary
guitar (Sarah) and mandolin (Hannah) provide a rootsy, if sometimes
plodding, beauty.
Such young voices might be at odds with the heartbroken lyric of "Carter's
Blues," but their traded verses and yodels are moving and effective. Ralph
Stanley's "I'm Ready to Go" and an acapella take of Joseph Gilmore's
civil-war era, bible-inspired "He Leadeth Me," show off the sisters' years
of wood-shedding in church.
The contemporary songs don't fare quite as well. Crossing modern-day
Christian vocabulary with children's voices results in precious tunes like
Chaz Bosarge's "Jump" and "I'm That Sparrow." Still, even amidst the
treacle, the girls voices shine, both in harmony and in solos, and Lee
Domann's fiddle-based hymn, "Jesus Laughing," fits nicely with the album's
traditional selections.
While the Peasall Sisters don't exhibit the outsider naivete of other child
"folk" singers (e.g., The Langley Schools Music Project), neither are they
the fully pre-formed Nashville child product that made a brief run in LeAnn
Rimes' wake. There's an innocence in the Peasall's music, born from both the
freshness of their harmonies and the faith in their chosen lyrics, leavened
with just enough professionalism to elevate their work from novelty to
novel.
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