(Self-released, CD, digital)
The Charlotte duo of Julia Beerworth and Anna Pepin started playing music together almost 15 years ago. The two — who are sisters in the legal sense, as Pepin is married to Beerworth’s brother — began performing at holiday parties and soon moved on to gigging around the Burlington area.
Well-received albums such as 2020’s Another Year helped establish them as a refreshingly original folk act with sweet harmonies and introspective songwriting. They even enjoyed some out-of-state success; their music has appeared on the Netflix sitcom “The Ranch,” as well on Kenny Chesney’s “No Shoes Radio” show.
Yet the Sisters have never put much energy into promoting their music or establishing a consistent live presence in the local scene. Most of that is down to real life: Both Beerworth and Pepin are mothers and teachers, so their music career often takes a back seat.
And while their promo might not be top notch, their latest LP, Someday Soon, is their strongest work to date. A collection of soft folk and country-tinged ballads, Someday Soon finds the duo at their songwriting best. The two arrange stripped-down compositions with just the barest studio flourishes, but their writing delves into the complexities of modern adult life.
Take the gentle ballad “Someday Soon.” Pepin wrote the album’s title track for her son as she watched him approach the cusp of adulthood. “Not a boy much longer with time on his side,” she sings. “You spend your days waiting on a change, hoping you are going to fly.” Her lyrics capture the sense of knowing she doesn’t have much longer with her child like this, that the complications of the world and adulthood will soon encroach. But hope for her son’s future is the underlying feeling of the song.
Peppin and Beerworth both write with that sense of American myth that permeates the work of their heroes, such as Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris. They weave in mentions of old churches and conflicted men, dogs and Hickory trees, tangible imagery and characters that give Someday Soon a thoroughly rustic heart.
Though the songwriters kept their arrangements pretty sparse on the new LP, they brought in plenty of talent to help color in their songs. Phish drummer Jon Fishman plays on four tracks, indie singer-songwriter Joshua Glass handles keys on half the record, and Thomas Bryce and Matt Saraca join in on banjo and pedal steel, respectively.
Their real not-so-secret weapon is Colin McCaffrey, who produced the record at his Greenroom studio in East Montpelier. As is often the case with records he helps craft, McCaffrey is all over Someday Soon, playing a little bit of everything. As the liner notes point out, he “shaped every song on this album.”
Peppin’s and Beerworth’s voices, while strong and clear, do have a tendency to blend together, to the point where it’s difficult to tell who is taking the lead. But that sort of melting-into-each-other feels fitting for a duo that, while not related by blood, has clearly forged something just as deep.
Someday Soon is available for purchase at thebeerworthsisters.bandcamp.com and is streaming on major platforms. The Beerworth Sisters play Hotel Vermont in Burlington on Friday, June 27.