SHeDAISY

It’s hard to believe that the sisters, all in their early ‘20s, are already veterans of the music business. But with years of training and one major label deal come and gone, their status is well documented.

The women, who grew up near Salt Lake City got their earliest musical training on family vacations to Disneyland. As kids, their parents had them harmonizing to eight-track tapes all the way there. Could it be fate that they are trusting their recording career to Disney-owned Lyric Street?

In talking with POLLSTAR from their Nashville-based label, it was obvious the Osborn sisters are tight. One will start a sentence, another will continue and another – or sometimes all three at once – will finish it.

They all agreed that Lyric Street, rather than a more established label, is a good gamble for them. For one thing, they have the benefit of the attention that a small label provides while having the muscle of a big corporation behind them. Plus, the sisters have a lot in common with the label’s staffers; they are experienced in the business and are bringing their know-how to a baby label to try some fresh ideas.

In the early days of the group’s career, SHeDAISY scored a record deal with RCA under the name The Osborn Sisters. But at the time, a young girl group in Nashville was unheard of. “We knew that they believed in what we could do; I just don’t think they knew exactly what to do with us,” Kassidy said.

The group was eventually lost amid a corporate shakeup at the label. However, the women look back on their misfortune as a blessing in disguise. “I don’t think we were ready for it. I don’t think the industry was ready for it,” Kassidy said. Plus, back then, the group wasn’t what it wanted to be. “We would have been like a country New Kids On The Block,” the sisters laughed.

There was at least one RCA executive who warned that signing the teen-age girls was a mistake. Ironically, that exec, Randy Goodman, is now Lyric Street’s president. Not knowing that SHeDAISY was the same group of singers he earlier rejected, he chose them as the first act to sign to his new label. Of course, the sisters will never let Goodman live that down.

However, they admitted that when they met with Goodman for the second time in their career, they tried to bury their past with him. “We kept thinking maybe it would change their minds or maybe he’d have a bad taste in his mouth about it,” Kristyn said. “But he didn’t. It just ended up being funny. It ended up being a big joke around here.”

With its signing to Lyric Street, SHeDAISY has started experimenting with unusual career tactics in Music City. Video director David Hogan challenged the label to do something creative to promote the group. He suggested taking advantage of Disney’s film distribution company.

Rather than doing a traditional radio station promo tour, SHeDAISY filmed a 13-minute music preview/bio. The Lyric Street promotions team then traveled from city to city, renting cinemas to showcase the act. Apparently, radio programmers didn’t need too much convincing to eat free popcorn and watch three beautiful, talented women perform on the big screen.

The promotional film tour was a resounding success. SHeDAISY’s debut single, “Little Good-Byes,” immediately shot up the charts and generated the highest first-week sales for a debut country group in the history of SoundScan.

Next on the group’s agenda is a nontraditional approach to touring. Currently, the Osborn sisters are working like crazy, crisscrossing the country with no rhyme or reason. However, they are only doing radio listener appreciation dates and are not available for purchase by promoters.

CAA agent Ron Baird told POLLSTAR the strategy is to build mystique and curiosity around the group by developing a repertoire of hit radio songs before embarking on an extensive tour.

“A common complaint which our industry hears over and over is that we’re not growing enough new headline artists to sustain the growth of the industry. This is a specific and deliberate direct plan to grow a group into headline status right from its inception,” Baird said.

As the plan stands, subject to change, SHeDAISY will have four to six hits under its belt before hitting the road. “That time frame would put them in a touring position in late 2001 or early 2002,” Baird said.

He pointed out that this plan isn’t for everyone. “It’s a rare artist who doesn’t have to go out for financial reasons.” It may also be a rare artist who flatly has the wholehearted confidence of a business team that is willing to risk an unconventional development program.

“These girls are excellent live,” Baird said. “You give them a set full of hit songs and they will knock the audience dead.”