Laura Rogers and Lydia Slagle of The Secret Sisters have been setting the Americana scene on fire since their Grammy nominations for best folk album in 2017 and again in 2020.
The Alabama duo, kicking off a tour at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur on June 20 and 21, has found acclaim while working alongside Brandi Carlile, the renowned singer-songwriter and producer. Carlile produced the pair’s two most recent albums that earned the Grammy nods: “You Don’t Own Me Anymore” and “Saturn Return.”
Rogers and Slagle, who are sisters in real life, were raised in the Muscle Shoals area of Alabama. They are known in particular for their dedication to the craft of songwriting and their Southern fortitude tucked neatly within their lush melodies. Their music infuses the harmonic elements of The Everly Brothers with the eclectic folk ballads of The Milk Carton Kids.
The Secret Sisters released their self-titled first album in 2010. Their tracks have been featured in shows like “This Is Us,” “The Rookie” and “Motherland.” One of their biggest breaks came in 2012 when a song made it onto “The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond” album, alongside tracks from Taylor Swift, Arcade Fire, Punch Brothers, Neko Case and others.
The song on the “Hunger Games” album, “Tomorrow Will Be Kinder,” was inspired by tornadoes that ravaged Alabama in 2011. It led the band to its widest audience at the time. That and their Grammy nominations — 2017 for “You Don’t Own Me Anymore” and 2020 for “Saturn Return” — have led to more album sales and bigger audiences discovering their sound.
In a joint interview over email, Rogers and Slagle spoke of humility.
“Ultimately, we will always be two sisters from rural Alabama whose roots are in gospel and country music and who love tight harmony. If you strip all production and experimentation away, you will always have those components,” the pair said.
Despite success, the South is home to them and they have no plans to leave.
“We both feel that our being native Southern women is an enormous component of our identity and our musical style,” they said. “We write about it, we are proud of it, and we don’t want to relocate … ever. It’s the place that feels safe and familiar and offers us a rest we always want to come back to.”
From the soft soulful soundscapes in tracks like “He’s Fine” and “Carry Me” to the booming alt-rock anthems like “Late Bloomer,” The Secret Sisters lay out a path for navigating the heartbreak, success and disappointment of Southern women in a world run by men.
The songs aim for truth above all else, they said.
“As we get older, we’ve realized that the songwriters we always come back to are the ones we feel are telling the truth when they share a song,” they said. “So that’s it. Tell the truth and tell it beautifully, with poetic language sometimes and with simple conversation the rest of the time. Tell the story in a way that is believable and work on getting your vocal delivery dialed in.”
Both of them are excited about returning to Georgia to play.
“Eddie’s is easily one of our favorite venues of all time,” Rogers said. “It has always allowed us to bare our souls to a group of folks who really want to be there. You can’t hide behind anything there…. What you see and hear from someone is what they really are.”
PERFORMANCE PREVIEW
The Secret Sisters
7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, June 20-21. $27. Eddie’s Attic, 515-B North McDonough St., Decatur. 404-377-4976, eddiesattic.com.
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