Features
The Secret Sisters
Laura and Lydia Rogers were singing in a Muscle Shoals, Ala., Church of Christ choir in 2009 when Laura decided to attend a Nashville “cattle call” audition on a lark. By the time she returned home, her phone was ringing off the hook with messages from prospective producers and other reps blown away by her voice.
And that was before any of them found out Laura had a sister.
Photo: Doug Seymour
In less than one year and with admirers like Jack White and producers T Bone Burnett and Dave Cobb on board, the Rogers sisters are on their way to being a secret no more.
They quickly signed with Burnett’s Beladroit imprint of Universal Republic, put together a team that includes agent Buster Phillips of CAA and manager Andrew Brightman of Brightman Music, and set out to conquer the country world and beyond.
With an authentic feel for retro 1940s and ’50s country music, The Secret Sisters wrap their pure voices around some classic tunes, as well as their own material, in harmonies that only genes can produce.
Not only do they dare to tackle country standards like George Jones’ “Why Baby Why” but cover Nancy Sinatra’s “Somethin’ Stupid.” And their own composition, “Tennessee Me,” doesn’t suffer by comparison.
“They possess that rarest quality of being able to convert their magic exactly as it comes across,” Cobb said. “We didn’t have to do anything but bring the band in.”
The Secret Sisters released their eponymous debut in October amid a whirlwind of appearances, joined onstage by some high-profile fans including Burnett, Elvis Costello and Karen Elson at Calfornia’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival and Bridge School Benefit before hitting the road with Willie Nelson.
Photo: John Davisson
The Secret Sisters just returned from Europe and will be sharing American stages from large clubs to sheds with the likes of Loretta Lynn, Amos Lee and Ray LaMontagne through the summer, including festival stops at Stagecoach and Sasquatch,