The Peasall Sisters - First Offering (CD)

Debut album from

By redtunictroll  Feb 14, 2003

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 the...ir 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. Read more Less