Search - Stairwell Sisters :: Get Off Your Money

A 21st Century Version of Hazel and Alice.

Steven I. Ramm | Phila, PA USA | 09/06/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Stairwell Sisters - Get off the Money



This third release by a quintet of woman (none named Stairwell, I might add) was produced by Lloyd Maines, who knows a thing or two about female groups, as the father of the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines. With the usual string band instruments - a Hawaiian slide guitar and a harmonica thrown in the mix - these women mix both traditional "old timey" instrumentals with newly composed songs, often with social or political comment included.



Their vocal style is much like that of Appalachian singers like Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerard who made records for small labels like Folk Legacy and Folkways in the 1960s, though with 3 more musicians in the group, their sound is fuller. Still, if you enjoyed Hazel and Alice, you'll probably like the Stairwells.



No this is not "country" in the Dixie Chicks sense and though there is a sentence about each of the 17 tracks in the CD's holder, a lyric sheet would have been helpful.



So if you like your "mountain music" with a social consciousness bent, you should find the Stairwells right up your alley.



Steve Ramm

"Anything Phonographic"

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