Lydia and Laura Rogers, The Secret Sisters, have some of the best vocal harmonies in contemporary music. Their harmonies are complemented with engaging melodies and gorgeous lyrics, which have drawn the attention of fellow musicians like T-Bone Burnett and Brandi Carlile, who have produced records for them, and Ray LaMontagne, who has taken them on tour. Their beautiful songs have made them favorites of critics and gotten them nominations for Grammy Awards. They are beloved by their fans, and sold out The Birchmere for the first the time in their recent performance there.

The Rogers sisters hail from a small town outside of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, which is famous as a hub for soul music in the ’70s and ’80s. Their music, which combines elements of classic folk and country with more contemporary influences, draws on a heritage of Southern sounds. During their not-an-encore at The Birchmere on August 18, they sang Fiona Apple’s “Heavy Balloon,” which they recorded on an EP a few years ago. Their most recent album, Mind, Man, Medicine, which they released earlier this year, is their most stylistically diverse record. The Sister coproduced the album, working with John Paul White (The Civil Wars) and Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes).

The Birchmere set included the “radio single” from the album, “All The Ways.” “We’re not really on big radio stations,” the Sisters said, “we’re on cool ones.” (I wish DC had AAA station!) They added, “We don’t feel super cool most of the time.” The song is a departure for them, being more “steamy” and “romantic” than their work usually gets. To bring out this quality, Ray LaMontagne sings the second verse on them. Their was a funny bit where one of the sisters described Ray’s voice as a biscuit with a melting pat of butter, then just kept going, describing dripping butter to the point it just got weird.

More typical of the Sisters’ work was the previous song, “Mississippi,” a murder ballad. “That’s how we diffuse the awkward,” they said, “with a ballad about homicide.” They added, “Most of our favorite songwriters had a song where everyone died.”

Watch The Secret Sisters perform “Mississippi” live for The Bluegrass Situation on YouTube:

Mind, Man, Medicine is the Rogers’ first album in four years. “We put our fourth record, Saturn Return, with impeccable timing,” they said, referring to how it came out just before the Covid pandemic. “We’ll always feel like we’re making up for lost time.” It’s an excellent album; they were nominated for a Grammy for it, but lost to the late John Prine. “We didn’t get a shiny statue, but this song means a lot to us, especially now that we’re mothers,” they said, introducing “Cabin.” (They each have two children.) The song is about the ways we hurt each other, both intentionally and unintentionally, and “how, sometimes, we need to work all our lives to overcome it.”

The Sisters opened their the set with “Paperweight,” followed by “Space.” “Spacey,” they said, is about “making sense of what it means to be grown-up in this world.” It expresses “a real longing for empathy.” Deep down, they said, they think “we all want the same things.”

After “All the Ways,” the band left the stage, and Lydia and Laura came together around a single old mic with a guitar. “It’s nice to come back to the most basic form of what we do.” They then played a song which, although they’ve had it a while, only recently made it onto an album, “Planted;” sometimes, they said, the songs don’t fit an album right away. 

“It’s really difficult when you have children,” they said, ” to write songs that don’t relate to them.” They originally wrote “Got Your Back” about supporting their children as mothers, but they told the audience that, as they’ve performed the song for audiences, it’s taken on a different meaning, one about how their fans have supported them through the ups and downs of their career.” The next song, “I Can Never Be Without you Anymore,” was about their kids.” There is nowhere on Earth where you’re not thinking of them.”

Watch The Secret Sisters perform “I Can Never Be Without You Anymore” live for The Current on YouTube:

The band came back, and they played “Same Water” and “If the World Was a House.” The latter, they said, was the first song written when they could get together with people again after the pandemic; it was cowritten with some friends in Nashville. They eschewed leaving the stage, moving directly into their non-encore. “He’s Fine,” they noted, was picked up by a Nashville radio station and became their biggest hit. It was written following a breakup, and they said they don’t recommend singing about a past relationship night after night, but they have to do it. (The advantage of being a prose writer is, once the story is done, you don’t have to relive it night after night.)  After the Fiona Apple cover, they wrapped things up with “Never Walk Away.”

Jon Muq played an opening set to start the evening. He’s from Uganda, and currently lives in Austin, where he worked with refugees before launching his music career. (He sang for homeless children; “these kids had no choice,” he said.) He started the evening off with the first song he wrote in English, followed by “Silver,” which is about “how music changed my life.” He noted how difficult it was to get exposed to music in Uganda. Next up was “Flying Away From Home,” and he rounded things out with “Fall Asleep” and “Hello, Sunshine.”

Jon had some great songs, and he was highly entertaining and charismatic. His quirkiness and humor fit well The Secret Sisters, who have the same qualities. And, of course, their music is absolutely gorgeous — a piece of an earlier era updated for the modern day.

Here are photos of Jon Muq opening The Secret Sisters at The Birchmere on August 18, 2024. All pictures copyright and courtesy of James Todd Miller.

 

Here are photos of The Secret Sisters performing at The Birchmere on August 18, 2024. All pictures copyright and courtesy of James Todd Miller.