The Hello Strangers on Lambeth Live, June 17
The Hello Strangers will put on the June 17 edition of Lambeth Live (heard each Friday night from 8-9 on WTJU), and you are invited to be part of the studio audience for this FREE concert broadcast! You can also catch them the next night at The Garage in downtown Charlottesville (details).
350 Emmet St N, Charlottesville on ye olde GPS will get you to the large lot (do NOT use Lambeth Lane or Google Maps). Just park in the lower lot, and head up the stairs to the central building where WTJU is on the second floor.
For those unable to be part of the studio audience for this FREE concert, you can also listen around Charlottesville at 91.1 FM, 102.9 FM in the Richmond area, and on-line at wtju.net.
What does Austin-influenced, rural-Pennsylvanian, indie sister-folk and honky tonk sound like? Verbosity aside, it sounds uniquely like The Hello Strangers, a band fronted by sister duo Larissa Chace Smith and Brechyn Chace, whose haunting harmonies and original, wittingly noir songwriting style are the backbone of their sound.
The Hello Strangers were born out of the Austin, Texas music scene in 2006 when sisters Larissa Chace Smith and Brechyn Chace wrote their first song together, entitled “Pregnant in Jail.” Based on true events, it was a preamble to a string of original tunes the pair crafted in a little cottage off South Congress Avenue. Soon, however, the mountains of Pennsylvania beckoned the girls back north, and so they packed up their lives, dogs, and Larissa’s husband and returned to their two-stoplight hometown.
The move has since proven to be a boon for the duo. The sisters have created a catalogue of original music with nods to American folk traditions, modern indie rock, Texas country-folk, and roots rock, all tied together with lilting harmonies that only sisters can create. Timeless imagery and fables are at the core of each song, from tales of a boggy creek bottom where a murdered man sleeps, to a Texas roadhouse with bawdy dancers and clinking beer bottles, to more poignant reflections on the loss of winter or a man gone wrong.
In 2012, Larissa and Brechyn won AirPlay Direct’s “Win An Americana Record Deal” contest, giving them the opportunity to record their first full-length album with Steve Ivey of multi-award winning (Grammy, Emmy, Dove, Tele) IMI Records and a host of other talented industry professionals in Nashville, Tennessee. The 2014, self-titled release features 11 originals and 2 covers, including “What You Don’t Know,” written by, and featuring on vocals, Jim Lauderdale; and “Que Sera, Sera,” an homage to their grandfather, Ronald Chace, who sang with Doris Day.
The sisters are supported by a dynamic and talented trio: Spencer Pheil on lead guitar, Trent Renshaw on drums, and Tom Hoy on bass.
Praise:
“They are just – for lack of a more sophisticated term – Damn Good.” (Chuck Dauphin/Music News Nashville)
“…a quirky sense of humor and some spine-tingling harmonies.” (Stephen L. Betts/Rolling Stone)
The Hello Strangers were just named #22 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s “30 Great Country Albums You Probably Didn’t Hear!”
