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Press Quotes/Reviews
Washington Post (10/5/07)
NERISSA AND KATRYNA NIELDS "Sister Holler" Mercy House
NERISSA AND KATRYNA NIELDS plead guilty to grand theft on "Sister Holler," a celebration of endlessly recycled folk traditions and the notion that good artists borrow, great artists steal.
Long before the sisters made a living making music, they discovered that folk singers, or at least the ones worth emulating, had one thing in common: sticky fingers. Their songbooks were packed with tunes old, borrowed and blue, and precisely who wrote what couplet or melody begged questions seldom resolved. So it is with "Sister Holler": The 13 songs may be credited to the Nieldses (Nerissa wrote most of them), but each performance is linked in some way to an older refrain or tune.
Not surprisingly, Bob Dylan, a musical magpie himself, figures prominently here, as anyone who listens to "Abington Sea Fair," with its echoes of "Girl From the North Country" via "Scarborough Fair," will soon discover. But the Nieldses cast their nets wide enough to take in bits and pieces of spirituals, sea chanteys and even Pachelbel's Canon in D. More important, the siblings sound genuinely inspired by the process of reprocessing. Their harmonies are tight and soulful, their spirits unflagging. In fact, when these sisters are indeed hollering – on the banjo and brass-propelled "Ain't That Good News," for example – they sound like they're ready to pound out their own version of "The Seeger Sessions." — Mike Joyce
Sunday Republican
Nerissa and Katryna Nields, "Sister Holler"
On the back cover of the booklet inside this album, there's a great photo of sisters Nerissa and Katryna Nields, arm in arm, looking out at a beautiful field. The words underneath them put the theme of this disc into simple terms: "Good artists borrow; Great artists Steal."
At last someone's willing to admit that a lot of their work was heavily influenced by their predecessors, without worrying about things like copyright infringement and all that nasty side of the music business. "Sister Holler" offers a musical version of recycling and it's completely refreshing.
Here, two of Western Massachusetts' brightest voices just let it fly on this very folk-flavored disc of original material with plenty of nods and winks to the past. Yes those are traces of "Scarborough Fair" in "Abington Sea Fair." Yes, that's a lot of Pete Seeger influence heard in "This Train," And yes, that's a modern-day response to "The Water is Wide," in "We'll Plant an Oak."
Banjos and mandolins dominate much of the musical backing and the sisters' familial harmonies are typically delightful, especially on the ballads "Give Me a Clean Heart" and "Moonlighter."— Kevin O'Hare
more quotes/reviews to come!
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