Singing Sisters

THE new album, An Old Memory, by the singing Benn sisters, Carrie and Leanne, is a pleasant mixture of old and new Country songs peppered with three originals and one Country â€Ëœn' Irish track. This is the second album by the London-born but Northern Ireland-based duo whose parents come from Clare and Fermanagh. Their love of performing goes back to childhood when they were on stage in their father's band in the UK. If they were on the Irish showband scene 25 years ago they would have huge potential for success. But sadly, these talented girls are arriving on the scene at a time when the attendances at live music shows, and the sale of Country albums and DVDs, are at an all-time low. Perhaps one could say that the original tracks are the strong points about this excellently produced album while the one Country â€Ëœn' Irish track could be classed by some as the weak link. There is nothing wrong with the way that Carrie Benn sings it, indeed the arrangement of the backing music by Ray McLoughlin, formerly with Daniel O'Donnell's band, is refreshingly different, but it is just that this song has become a bit hackneyed in recent times, having been recorded by several other Irish artists. However the Benn sisters, or their record label, probably feel that the popularity of this Irish song might help with sales, and as an act such as these girls strives to become successful then perhaps for commercial reasons they needed to include a Country â€Ëœn' Irish track among the 14. For me, the track that follows this on the CD, We're On Our way to Heaven, is an original that is upbeat and somewhat funny, even though the title might suggest otherwise. This is all about people heading for heaven in a pick-up truck and, according to the lyrics, they will get the same welcome, if not a better one, at the golden gates than those who travel in Mercedes or SUVs! As the girls trained as choristers with the Royal School of Church Music until they both reached the age of 18, their love of spiritual music has always remained strong and this is obvious from the way they handle this song, which is a spiritual number with a bit of humour. Another outstanding original is the final track titled Two Sisters, which is written by well-known musician Eugene Cunningham. It is a lively number, which tells the story of two sisters getting ready to go out on the town for a night. According to the girls, the inspiration for this song came from a brief conversation they had with Eugene about all the preparations they make when going out for a night's dancing. There are a number of duets with male Country singers on this album and from a commercial point of view it seems a pity that Shaun Loughrey and Nathan Carter were not mentioned on the front cover as guest artists. It would have been a good selling point. Leanne joins Nathan for a revival of the old John Hogan hit Still Got a Crush on You while Carrie and Shaun share the vocals on Loose Talk, which was a successful song in the 1950s for Carl Smith whose other claim to fame was that he was June Carter's first husband â€â€ she subsequently married Johnny Cash. There is a nice version of Blue Kentucky Girl on this album and while nobody can sing that song like Emmylou Harris, one must admit that this is a nice version by Leanne Benn. Another Emmylou song, Beneath Still Waters, is also on this set as is the more modern Country-Rock-0sounding Gretchen Wilson song, The Earrings Song. As this is the second album by the Benn Sisters in the past two years, one can detect more confidence and greater maturity in their voices on An Old Memory than on their debut What A Beautiful Day CD. The whole packaging of this album is excellent with some very artistic photographs of the singing sisters. As this is a top-class production it deserves to sell well but it is unfortunate that the recession has hit the Country music scene so badly here that the days when albums such as this one by a new act in this genre rarely, if ever, make the Irish sales charts now. Still, it will strengthen this image of the Benn Sisters with their growing fan base.                          â€â€ TG.