3Sirens

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Discovering new music of quality is always exciting, perhaps even more so when it comes from an unexpected source. 3Sirens is a kind of East Nashville collective set up by music duo The Grahams (Alissa and Doug Graham). Initially a studio and meeting space environment for like-minded singers and musicians, it has now developed into a fully-fledged record label. Following on from the release earlier this year of the multi-artist WITH LOVE: Part 1, which featured Caitlin Rose, Dylan LeBlanc, Andrew Combs, and the Grahams, covering some of their favourite songs from the 1980s and 1990s, comes this delightful second instalment. The format is the same, with a band comprising some of Nashville’s finest musicians including Robert Kearns, Audley Freed and Fred Eltringham and helmed by producer/engineer Dex Green. The six-track set features such East Nashville-based performers as Elizabeth Cook, Lilly Hiatt, Chuck Mead, Nicole Atkins, Patrick Sweany, and the Grahams, stepping out of their comfort zones to re-interpret classic songs by Tears For Fears, Talking Heads, Television, the Pretenders, the Church and DEVO.

Though the theme of the album sounds simple enough, there’s plenty of diversity within the project. That most misunderstood, term ‘diversity.’ One does not create diversity, nor is it some artificial construct. Diversity is awareness. It is being attentive to what’s going on around you; it’s acknowledgement and inclusion.

harbouring the sort of simple riffs and hooks that easily hop across the decades.

And the result is this fast, smacked-about view of pop that shows it to be far from devoured yet; a humble homage to some storied musical influences cited in the performer’s own lives … and it’s fun. 

Elizabeth Cook, originally a beacon for trad country in Nashville, shows yet again that she’s not restricted by musical boundaries with a dynamic rendition of Everybody Wants To Rule The World. A sure-footed surprise from an artist who never stops seeking new ways to engage, connect and delight. With its loping guitar figure and some rhythmic swagger this is something to blow the winter cobwebs away and make you count the days until spring arrives. Chuck Mead, founder member of BR549, delivers a deliciously country-fried version of the Talking Heads’ classic Road To Nowhere, to demonstrate that genres can be pushed as far as the imagination will allow. Country fans will hear more of a twang in his voice, while rock fans might think Chuck comes from their world. It just goes to show that his voice fits into so many styles that the song make perfect sense, even when he and this inventive band are juggling musical genres.

Nicole Atkins’ sexy, sleepy version of Television’s 1880 Or So allows her rich, crystalline vocals to shine where the listener can slightly recall Sade meets Kate Bush. It’s a captivating arrangement, with moving and sincere vocals, that give a particular zing to lines like: ‘A face that glows in a golden hue, No one in this world knows what they do.’ Patrick Sweany has always exuded sensuality in his music, but with Gates Of Steel, he slinks around in a different way as he shifts gears smoothly, slipping into his soul crooner shoes with tantalising hints of the Temptations and snippets of Otis Redding laid over a Muscle Shoals-type backdrop delivered with a defined rasp. Alissa Graham takes the lead on the Pretenders’ Don’t Get Me Wrong with an infectious enthusiasm, one that fully reflects her sheer joy and jubilation. The music is upbeat, inspired and occasionally tweaked with a fair amount of both attitude and irreverence with great guitar work and haunting harmonies on the chorus.

In this time where anxiety is high and comfort difficult to find, this warm musical embrace is just what we need about now. There’s no one scene or genre you can peg it to, which adds to the pleasantly disorienting effect. Which is a reflection of the honesty and integrity the Grahams and their compatriots invest in each of these entries.

www.3sirens.com

November 2022