Artist: The Chapin Sisters
Album: Today's Not Yesterday
Label: Lake Bottom Records
Release Date: 10/23/2015
It was wholly appropriate that the Chapin Sisters’ last album, A Date With the Everly Brothers, found them covering tunes by that other famous twosome, given that this pair of siblings possesses the same inextricable link in their bloodline that the Everly’s mined so early on. The daughters of singer/songwriter Tom Chapin and the nieces of the late, much lamented Harry, harmonize so seamlessly and assuredly that every song seems to emanate with a radiant glow. The same can be said of their latest endeavor Today’s Not Yesterday, their first album in five years and most ambitious yet. Partly produced by the Chapin Sisters themselves, along with producer/engineer/bass player Dan Horne and drummer Jesse Lee, it shimmers with a richness and purity that emanates from practically every pore. That’s especially true on songs such as “Angeleno,” “Waiting,” “Getaway” and “Sleep In,” where the combination of vibrant harmonies and the sweep of pedal steel guitar combine for a most enchanting effect. They’re lovely songs to say the least, and in their wake, the listener is left with what seems to be an ethereal glow. That’s due not only to that certain sisterly symmetry, but also a charm that’s carefully implanted within each song. No matter that there’s little to distinguish one track from another; caught up in their engaging aura, the experience alone is more than enough. When, on the final number, they promise “We will not stop singing until the world can sing along,” the effect recalls that inspiring and iconic Pepsi commercial referenced on the final episode of Mad Men. Indeed, one can only hope that optimism alone is enough to sustain.
– Lee Zimmerman
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