Roots Music Report

Liner Notes:

About the Album

Memphunk. It's what happens when you roll Beale Street, Muscle Shoals and 123rd & Lennox into a magical musical hydra, and it's what Sister Lucille have created on their debut album, Alive. The band's roots run wide and deep. From lead singer Kimberly Dill's Opry debut at the Ryman Auditorium as a teenager, opening for the legendary Kitty Wells, to the band's Beale Street debut in 2014, the Springfield, MO foursome breathes funk in to the Blues, stirs it with the soul of Gospel and tints it with an air of Country to forge a sound that's distinctly American but universal in its appeal. Dill and Jamie Holdren (guitar/vocals) are both second-generation musicians, and their collective musical DNA is the fuel for Sister Lucille's fire. "We've been playing music together since we were 18," Dill notes. "We did a duo thing for a long time where Jamie played and recorded all the instruments, and we sang to it. We've had the band together for seven years now, and this album - these songs - are my first go at writing and it's the first time our music has had a female perspective in the writing." "I told Kim," adds Holdren, "you're preaching to the women and women focused and I can't write lyrics to that side of our audience, it doesn't make any sense; it's time for you to write. And she busted out with these songs and I was like 'Whoa! That's exactly what I'm talking about!'" "Reba Russell, who's become one of our close friends, was our vocal producer," Dill relates. "She really helped me find my voice for this. She held our hand and led us through everything. She's why this album is what it is." "These songs, especially 'Alive,' are about survival, and how precious life is," says Holdren. "It's about the little things; the sun, the ocean; the breeze on your face. That's kinda what the album is all about, Dill comments." Alive isn't just the debut album from Sister Lucille, it's the culmination of one journey and the beginning of another.