The Lovell Sisters | Musician Jessica Lovell

June 9, 2009

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. On the four part of each show I like to feature an author of sounds. This group the Lovell Sisters really impressed me the first time I saw I heard them and that was on Garrison Keillor’s Show “A Prairie Home Companion”. They were pretty young when they were on the show. And I was blown away by their sound. This group is just come back from Sweden. They were on about a week tour in Sweden and now they are back in the Midwest and their going to go down south pretty soon and out east. They’re going all over the place so now I have Jessica on the line from the Lovell Sisters. Welcome to the show.

Jessica: Hello. Thank you so much for having me. How are you doing?

Dr. Kent: Very Good. So you just come back from Sweden I see.

Jessica: Yes we actually just got off the plan not long ago and then drove Atlanta where we flew in up to we are now in Middleton Wisconsin and we’re doing a show here tonight. So it’s been a good time. Everybody had a fantastic time in Europe, we were in Norway and Sweden for almost three weeks and now we are going on another 10 day run. Kind of in Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and down to Maryland and gong back home. We live in Callhoun Georgia. But our mother and father, we have a little brother who is 6 years old. His name is Thomas are very much anticipating out return home. But we’re having a good time.

Dr. Kent: Now your three sisters. Tell me about the family a little bit you told me you got a little brother and parents but tell me about the Lovell Sisters.

Jessica: Well my name is Jessica, I’m the oldest. I play fiddle. The middle sister, her name is Megan. She plays the Dobro. Our youngest sister Rebecca plays mandolin and also plays finger style guitar. That’s the three of us we’re also touring with two guys in our bank who are fantastic instrumentalists. Daniel Kimbro playing the bass and Matt Twingate playing guitar. So we really have fun on the road. It’s been really a great band. The band is really tight and of course we’re very excited about the new CD in our lives we’re playing the new songs and so it’s been awesome.

Dr. Kent: So how about without further a do I’d love to play the title track from the album were going to play the whole track so you can put me on speaker and chill out a bit. Its called “Time to Grow” the title track from the Lovell Sisters new album. When’s it come out?

Jessica: I think over the summer date not exact the release date not been quite set. That is should literally know that in the next couple days here. We’re really excited about that and I think its going to be released a little sooner but kind of more information TBA later on that.

Dr. Kent: Cool.

Jessica: The record we just finished recording in Nashville.

Dr. Kent: We’ll talk to you in a minute after this tune is done.

Jessica: Ok Thank You so much.

Music Playing

Dr. Kent: That’s a beautiful tune from the Lovell Sisters “Time to Grow.” It’s the title track of their album that’s going to be released this summer. Jessica promising us that there be a digital version to released before that. So welcome back to the show again Jessica.

Jessica: Thank you so much.

Dr. Kent: Tell us about tack

Jessica: Sorry one more time?

Dr. Kent: Tell us about that track a little bit.

Jessica: That track we had some fun making this record. I think for us the last couple years have been a real learning experience for us. WE basically have decided to keep creative control and through make the record the way we wanted to. Just play the music that inspired us and this is a song that Rebecca out baby sister and she’s playing finger style guitar on this track and Megan playing Dobro and I’m playing fiddle. So we went into the studio and were able to create the sound that we wanted I think that not being on a label is really giving us the able to do that and so “Time to Grow” I think is also kind of what this whole record really means for us. WE put out our debut CD in 2005 after going on Prairie Home Companion. Which was an awesome experience for us going on Prairie home Companion. We put out that first CD and so now it’s been awhile since we put out a CD. That time for us to learn a whole lot and find out own voice. I think this record really is a good snap shot of what we are over the last couple years. We’ve toured a lot and had the opportunity to meet a lot of really really cool people and artists and just to have a lot of experiences. We certainly wouldn’t have otherwise had except for just having people supporting us and going out on the road. Rebecca was 25-26 when that first record come out and she just turned 18. So getting involved with songwriting as well that all those different things floating around the creation of into this CD and which that was the title track.

Dr. Kent: I was listening to the show that night the Prairie Home Companion and that was my first introduction your group and you did a bang up job on that show. I remember going to your website that same day because I was so struck by it wasn’t only you guys have great sound and a great song style but I was blown away by your instrumental talent as a trio.

Jessica: Wow! Thank You so much. That’s really cool, I mean that was actually out 2nd official; gig we been involved in classical music and like sing in our church choir prior to that so we heard bluegrass and just started messing around more like at home on weekend and we played this little place called the Sigoneon Opry on Friday nights and that’s where we heard Bluegrass for the first time. That acoustic music that how we landed that one and found out the same time we were going to be playing on Prairie Home Companion. We sent in a demo and so we were so nervous to go on that program but it went well and that opened a lot of doors that we didn’t’ even know existed and its been am amazing ride since then. Now we’re making music which is just a great blessing it’s an opportunity for us to be touring around especially us sisters as well.

Dr. Kent: As part of that your on the your not an easy from the outside seem oh what a blessing you get to play all these gigs but then when you describe all the nitty gritty of it you get off the plan and drive for tons of hours to the next gig and to the next one. It’s a hard life on the road.

Jessica: You know it is but I think that from a lot of that comes a lot of inspiration for the song writing itself as well and makes you feel like a step away when your away from home. It’s a different kind of reality like for instance today we flew into Atlanta driving 14 hours from Atlanta to Wisconsin, snowing for part of it, it was raining for part of it. You get your good and you meet, there’s things on the road you never expect and I think its true of everyone you want to try and plan your life as much as you can but you know a lot of times stuff happens and it maybe the best thing that ever happened and you just have to be flexible and move forward and stay close to the people around you that’s something especially for us that we realized how important people are in your life no matter what’s happening around or to you that those people are really the whole part. Kind of been the point on another track of this CD that’s called “Subway song” that Megan wrote and that really incaps that for me. Yeah we’re having such a great time. Thank you for having me on by the way this is great talking to you.

Dr. Kent: Absolutely again your music fast want to ask you one more question and we’ll play another track from the record.

Jessica: Yeah Sure.

Dr. Kent: About your instrumental ability the three of you, How did that develop?

Jessica: You know we started playing classical violin and piano when we were younger little like maybe 6 years old. Music has always been a hobby for us. So all three of us started on violin and piano we played in symphonies and quartets. We still; we still love classical music although we aren’t as involved in it as we were starting out. Then we heard bluegrass music for the first time, that’s when Megan started playing the dobro and Rebecca started playing the mandolin. We were really proud of Rebecca, she become the first woman and youngest contestant ever to win the Merlefest International Mandolin competition. I think just being able to play and there’s more and more girl pickers out there we’re meeting. I think that’s really great. There’s a lot of women in the music industry just great role models for the girls getting started like Alison Kraus to the Dixie Chicks. There’s a lot of great singer/songwriter instrumentalists that are great role models. Yeah we’ve been playing bluegrass for I guess 5 or 6 years. So that’s how long we’ve been playing the current instruments. It’s a good time and the band we have is great.

Dr. Kent: Cool. You must be pretty good at it because you sure didn’t sound like you were playing your second gig on Garrison Keillor. Ever since then this is a beautiful album. It has the sound of the Dixie Chicks they play their own instruments and you guy do the same thing. You’ve definitely developed some serious talents there. I love this new album. Tell me about this track “Take One Moment” and we’ll listen to that.

Jessica: Sure “Take One Moment” I love that track. That was written its kid of funning talking about being on the road and off the road. It was written by Megan and Rebecca. We been on the road for at least a week and had 24 hours at home. As so as we were in the house, all of a sudden the girls were gone didn’t know where they were. They disappeared and breakfast came and breakfast went still no girls and they came back downstairs, they had written this song and recorded demo that’s how heard it. Rebecca has a little studio in her room its like a one Mic and a tool rig. She really enjoys recording things and kind of experimenting and this is one of the things that came out of Rebecca’s room. So I hope people will enjoy it I really love this track.

Dr. Kent: Thank You so much for chatting with me. We’re going to listen to this track and we’re going to say Good Bye for this week. I can’t wait to talk to you again sometime and I’ll definitely keep up with what you’re doing.

Jessica: Wonderful Thank You so much.

Dr. Kent: And we can go to lovellsistersband.com and there’s a whole bunch of information about their tour, which is going on all over the place right now. We’ll talk to you again soon.

Jessica: Thank You.

Dr. Kent: We’re going to play a track called “Take One Moment” and this is from the upcoming album from the Lovell Sisters “Time to Grow.”

Music Playing

Dr. Kent: That was a beautiful tune called “Take One Moment” from the Lovell Sisters album “Time to Grow.” Check out their CD when it comes out later this year, it their second release. An amazing group of sensitive vocals and incredible instrumental skills.

Wells its been my honor today to have three authors and one musician on the show. Of course I chatted with James Bond Anthology author Raymond Benson at the beginning that was a blast. Paul Doyle who was narcotics agent and chatted with us about his book. That is already doing very well and also Jeremy Robinson, who is the author of Antarktos Rising and talked to him special worlds in fiction. And take it easy this week and pick up a good book and we’ll see you the next time.

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