Full Review

Sweetback Sisters - Chicken Ain’t Chicken

The market for new music that mixes vintage styles with modern sensibilities is steadily growing and finding its way to new audiences – the success of artists such as Eilen Jewell and The Be Good Tanyas being just two of the more well known. You can add the Sweetback Sisters to that list, and their take on traditional country is as infectious as it is serious, and it’s all presented with distinctive personality and charm.

The Sweetback Sisters are a dynamic band from diverse backgrounds – they may explore the roots of traditional country, but their own roots stretch from Kansas to San Francisco to Hong Kong, before the six-piece finally settled in Brooklyn.

Like Eilen Jewell, the 13 songs of ‘Chicken Ain’t Chicken’ are a heartfelt and sincere nod to the classic styles that have influenced them, but the Sweetback Sisters add a huge amount of their off-beat personalities and sense of humour to the proceedings. It’s an album that has obvious respect for this era of American music, but that also takes a few modern liberties – the results are infectious tracks that feel instantly familiar.

As you’d expect this six-piece are all exceptional musicians, and the playing across the disc is excellent; acoustic and electric guitars, fiddles, drums and upright bass looks fairly simple on paper, but the overall sound and styles are varied and memorable. The mixture of 3 girls and boys give them a good vocal mix – main vocals are handled by Zara and Emily, with excellent support from Jesse and Ross.

Those who enjoyed the vintage stylings of Gillian Welch, Eilen Jewell et al, will find the Sweetback Sisters a natural, if more upbeat and irreverent, match to these artists. An excellent album, and great fun!