Spend a wam spring evening on the backporch...with Sierra And Chase

It's springtime...almost summer. actually here today you'd say it's the dog days of August with a frankly too damn hot 35+ degrees. If we were futher south, we ould hear the crickets sing. Or, you know, we ca bring the crickets to you, together with some sweet, failiar melodies in some sweet vocal harmony. Springtime could also men hanging out on the front  or back porch, having someone pull out an acoustic guitar and just jam on some ol' songs you like. And if the person who picks up the guitar is an Eagleson, all the better. The imagined debut album of Sierra Eagleson did surprisingly strong numbers in January - and deservedly so - and the eagle-sonned eagle-eyed among you might have seen the name Chase Eagleson already in my re-imagined Kurt Cobain musical extravaganza, when I needed an Elvis impersonator (don't ask...or read about it in the write-up) and Chase's fantastic version of "Can't Help Falling In Love" fit like a glove. Yes, in the Eagleson family, talent runs deep as both siblings have their own career doing moody acoustic cover verions of popular songs, both old and new. Chase is also a bit of a handsome devil, so that's almost unfair.

 Anyway, the answer to the old question of 'What's better than an Eagleson?' is of course 'Two Eaglesons', especially if they are singing in harmony together. Beautiful stuff, as you will hear on the album of the day. The two have duetted dozens of time, but for this album I only chose songs that I really liked - covering "Hey Ya!" as a slow, downbeat, acoustic number inches a bit too close to novelty for my taste - and I also included one solo number each, Chase covering Radiohead's "Falke Plastic Trees" and Sierra Peter Gabriel's classic "Solsbury Hill" (also recorded with some birds and other beasts contributing...). Chase is indeed a bit of a Radiohead-head, also covering "High and Dry" with Sierra. On that song, as on others, Chase sings on top and Sierra takes the low harmony, to often stunning effect. 

Chase and Sierra are alternating lead vocals here in a deliberate sequencing decision. Their cover of "Landslide" has some beautiful Banjo picking, It's part of the opening trio of classic 70s hits that the Eaglesons have probably heard in the music collection of their parents, the others are Gary Wriht's "Dream Weaver" and James Taylor's "Carolina In My Mind", which opens the album. Not with an acoustic strum, but some bird chirping, as they recorded that one in a nature park of some sort, so you have the natural choir of bird voices in the background of the song. And then, to show that they (and me) are not only classic rock-retro-minded, I programmed Gorillaz' "On Memory Hill" and the aforementioned "Fake Plastic Trees" afterwards. Later a cover of indie-folkster Gregory Alan Isakov also shows up, flanked by some other 70s gold like "Your Song". And the album ends on a familiar note - at least if you have listened to Brush Fire - as Sierra goes back to her moody cover of Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark", here as a duet medley with Chase singing "I'm On Fire". 

If you were mean-spirited - which I'm sure most of my readers aren't - you could call this high quality karaoke. But I think that would do these covers a grave injustice. Chase and Sierra find notes and nuances in these songs that maybe wasn't there in the first place. When even an old, mildly hoary warhorse like "Your Song" cn be turned into a winner, we're onto something here. So, sit down on the back porch with Chae and Sierra and their guitars, let the bird and beasts around you add their ten cents and and spend a lovely evening listening to these siblings picking and harmonising...