You don't want me to use to you. Going to seek do you. Want to kill you. This is The World Cafe I'm Calero The Secret Sisters who yes are in fact sisters are Laura and Lydia Rogers 1st signed Universal Records in 2010 their debut was produced by Dave Cobb and the follow up was produced in 2014 by T.-Bone Burnett those are some heavy hitters in the music world Dave Cobb has made albums with some of Nashville's best artists still Simpson Jason is Bill and Chris Stapleton and T.-Bone Burnett has worked with everyone from You Tube to Alison Krauss and Robert Plant to Elvis Costello with such an early push from such talented people it was surprising to learn how the pair story took a turn it's been a rough few years for the Rodgers since their 2nd album they got dropped from their label Universal in 2015 filed for bankruptcy and hit a major songwriting block however on their recent album they teamed up with singer songwriter Brandi Carlile after she fell in love with one of their songs the new record is called You Don't Own Me Anymore an allusion to experiences in the music industry for sure but there are still universal themes for you to distil as well you'll hear their chat with David after this live performance of the song Terry me it's the Secret Sisters on World Cafe. I mean I was light. Hearted to. The fire. And. I can. Guarantee. A fire can. You know I'm. I'm like. Ok a. Bury me. Oh . Good God. Me you know. I care to. Get it. For. Her. Care of Me Oh. Yeah meeting all. Coming up to me. Live in the world can think that is the end of the unmistakable sound of the secret sisterhood slurry in linear Rogers with a song called Carry me from their 3rd album called You Don't Own Me Anymore. We're getting a chance to hear him play live Hi guys thanks a lot for being here thank you so much for having us glad you're here can we go back in time to when you actually saying a Brandi Carlile song for some folks from my Republic Records can you kind of set the scene for how your career kind of began because I think it's all about where you all are today yeah yeah it's like forever ago and it also feels like yesterday you know yeah I guess that was probably 8 years ago now Lara was brave and decided to go to an open audition in Nashville she told them that she had a younger sister that lived in Alabama and she wanted them to hear me and so I drove up and they liked my voice too and then they asked if we sang together and within 3 months of that audition we had a deal so and the 1st song that we ever sang Well the song that I auditioned with by myself was it's a brand new car last song called Same old you know and she had never recorded it on a record and I was just a diehard brainy Carlyle fan and I like that song and I had kind of found it through You Tube worm hole I thought I did a terrible job of it I never dreamed that a little song would turn into what it what it has but we eventually tracked that song as a demo and then that demo got into the hands of our 1st record label and they signed us when they heard that song and yeah a little while later we got to finally meet brandy and it came full circle and now you know here we are with the 3rd record and here we are ways with Brandi Carlile producing this 3rd and yes yes yeah you know I mean one of the 1st one that you work with that with Dave Cobb who people may know from any any number of artists nowadays in Nashville Jason Isbell and others are used by him talk a little bit about the difference between kind of working with him and you know as people are now became involved and what you're doing now on this record working with brandy. Yeah I mean I think that you know obviously every every producer brings something different to the table no matter what you know level of success or you know well if they're well known or not it doesn't really matter because they all have you know different things that they kind of like to focus on but you know we were so green when we went into the studio with they then we were just clueless about how to navigate a studio and we hadn't really kind of stepped into our own as singers and he merely kind of helped us take what what comes naturally to us which is you know roots country gospel bluegrass music and turn it into a record and then of course when we started working with T.-Bone t. Bones just this you know this sonic genius that now is so much about you know just the American songbook and so I he really just kind of helped us broaden ourselves a little bit in a way that really needed to happen but you know I think that with Brandy a lot of it had to do with just the fact that we got to work with another woman you know and not to you know slam anybody because of their you know gender of course but I think Brandy just understood what our voices were capable of and what they needed to do and where we needed to take them and so she be in a singer herself who's actually so incredible I feel like we both really needed another vocalist to kind of guide us along and teach us how to deliver the songs in a way that you know is really believe a ball and really honest and so that was a huge part of it but also just kind of feeling like we were equals in the studio was a really really big thing I mean we we admire brandy and Tim and Phil his Rob so much and look up to him a lot but you know I felt like friends it felt like we were all just a bunch of really good friends hanging out in the studio Your career is kind of been reversed pyramid from how most people's career works right you start off with small clubs and build up and you guys started out on like Major tumors and you know sort of right at that at the peak of what one can hope for in the music business in terms of support like that was overwhelming. Oh yeah it's still is overwhelming even today that it was us but yeah I mean our very 1st tour we went on with was with Livan helm and Ray Lamontagne. And we were terrified and it was just so new for us I was 20 years old I was 23 we didn't know anything about performing we'd never even played a show not a real show. And the bell is scary and of itself but then you know we kind of got our feet under his and figured it out but then when everything kind of went to went to the dark place it was like oh well this is overwhelming to say Would you rather have like all the good exciting things that are overwhelming or would you rather be you know sitting at home worried that you're never going to make another record because you know both extremes are terrifying and hard to navigate I love it if you'd tell me a little bit about. The song Tennessee River runs low which is one of the 1st ones we heard from this album but I also understand it was kind of important in getting that Brandy involved yeah this song was it was kind of the 1st song that she heard out of our our batch of songs for the 3rd record and we just we started writing songs and you know not really anticipating that we would ever put them on a record at the time we were signed to a record label we holed up in a in a river house and one of our friends in our hometown and we were overlooking the Tennessee River and we had just come through easily the darkest period of our lives and I think a lot of our emotions and frustrations just kind of took on the characteristics of the mighty Tennessee so this song is about what we think it would be like to be a river in which one we would be if we could think. It. Was. Going. I was. I was. To meet. A. Down to I want. To see more force. Hardy how do you hold it hold. Me. Molly. Love her. Little. Bit. O. . Me. To cancel. It. Nice to. See you down here it's not easy. To. Say good sisters that's Tennessee River runs low the only song I know from the perspective of a river. Going into the. You know is you kind of alluded to this but I maybe we should sort of tell people what might happen to you kind of by being in that sort of a darker place and maybe kind of explain what happened because I have you obviously we can't you when you 1st time came out your 2nd album came out and the label wasn't particularly happy with and what happened. Well you know it was just you know the typical woes of of any artist right about the time that our 2nd record came out we got rid of some people on our business team that that we just felt like the relationship had kind of grown talks it with and so that led to an enormous lawsuit and in the lawsuit it led to bankruptcy for both of us and then right about the time that we filed bankruptcy we got dropped from the record label you know it was it was really really tough for us because at the end of the day we just had you know 0 inspiration and there were days when we were trying to you know I was trying to find housecleaning gigs and Lydia was trying to find a way to get her you know rent paid you know without having to go and play shows because we didn't have shows and so we had to kind of scramble and so at the end of the day of trying to just keep afloat financially we didn't have the energy to sit down and write a song and try to you know think about the future we kind of stopped writing for a good 9 or 10 months and then you know we just got to a place where we thought the only thing we really know how to do that has ever really brought us any comfort is to turn to music to try to you know heal ourselves and and kind of tell our story and so we started writing and of course we wrote you know the Tennessee River Song and that was our 1st kind of foray into what we wanted you know our sound to it to evolve into even though we weren't sure how we would ever find the resources to make it happen and so out of nowhere we had a couple of shows opening for Brandi Carlile and we were you know in a really really bad place and just had no plans whatsoever which was kind of stagnant and we flew up to open for her and we got ready to do soundcheck and we were you know still a little bit just kind of hesitant unsure of ourselves just because of everything we had been through and we didn't know it Brandy was sitting in the House listen to our sound check because it had been several months since we had seen one another and we had never played the Tennessee River. In front of anybody and so I looked at Liddy and I said you know why don't we just play it you know we don't have to put it on the on the set list for tonight but let's just try it out and so we played it from start to finish and Randy stood up after we finished and she said you girls better not tell me that you wrote that song and we said yeah we wrote it you know we've been trying to kind of write again and so afterwards we went out to the dressing room and we showed her a handful of the songs that we had kind of been working on and she was like you know that settles it we have to go in the studio and make a record and we want to produce it for you and you know we'll help you cut the corners financially when it gets tight and we'll you know we'll let you stay with us in our houses and we'll you know we'll play all the parts so that we don't have to hire out a bunch of expensive studio people and and they just really just kind of took us under their wing and helped put it all together and make it happen at a time when we were completely lost as to as to how to do that. I also it's funny because there are a number of kind of sad songs and a little revengeful songs all put it that way. But I read you got married and he kind fairy didn't matter you know you yeah yeah that's what we're going to have sugar daddy is. Oh well some of the songs are you know they have a little bit of a romantic slant because one thing that lady and I were pretty intentional about when we were writing is you know we had gone through these these trials that were pretty specific to us and you know of course there are people who know about a record deal gone sour or you know a bad business relationship but for the most part of the people that we're trying to share music with they don't know what it feels like to be dropped from a record label and I don't know what it feels like to go through bankruptcy because they had a you know a vengeful manager and so we knew that we had to express the emotional side of what we had gone through and what we were feeling but we also knew that it had to be broad enough that other people could understand it and kind of I guess put themselves in the stories a little bit and so. There are moments when we are very specific that in a cryptic way and I think that that had to happen as therapy for the 2 of us but you know there are some songs that on the surface may seem like romantic songs but most of them are about are about bad business they're not about our husbands you know we've got very good husbands who are very wonderful so. You know that was they make me wonder do you as well because the album is called You Don't Own Me Anymore and of course you don't own me what a Leslie Gore song yes was was that related to the title of the only no honestly I mean we knew that song of course but you know again that's that song the title track is kind of. It's a song that seems like it's about a romantic fall out but you know really and truly that's directed at a lot of a lot of our own our own demons and their loans that kind of came in our story along the way you so. Our own perceptions of ourselves you know really had to change in our our posture towards you know the way that we view our music and the way that we view relationships with people really had to change and you know and then of course there's the other side of things where you know your son to a contract that seems like it has possession of you until you finally free yourself from it so there's a lot of different layers and it's like an onion that song well you know make you cry well Ok I'm ready to cry you want to do it I was good yeah we love to make people cry. Still. For. You a liar. Staking their claim and knee taking Meyer and bringing making a. Leave a lot of. Blood on the end of the earth to do whatever it's Sheelagh beyond to you live beyond. Earth. Hour liar liar and a lesser. Love old to is Jarrell is a. Far . Yes. You know I love to do you know part of my singing. Thing the point of it from a local little fellow on the ruling was meet. My older and. You know you do Larry King Live is a shining. Light and. You. Title Dragon of the year Secret Sisters new album and you don't mean any more. Lydia Laura thank you for thank you for reconnecting after and I'm already so good good to talk to somebody that we've known for a long time and it's pretty crazy I was just thinking how many people we've talked to over the years and how specifically I remember you and I know that's really nice that's nice and I you know what I remember that and for having us there you know we're honored Secret Sisters I guess and we'll be back here in a moment on the World Cafe. Up. You're listening to the World Cafe I'm Calais a filling in for Talia Schlender thanks to David for that interview with The Secret Sisters Ok what's the coolest honor a civilian can take home I go with the Presidential Medal of Freedom 2nd best getting name checked on the president's end of the year mix tape when Barack Obama dropped his favorite songs of 2017 this one from Brandi Carlile made the cut no joke it's the joke. In Illinois. With your quote. I'm. Still. To meet. Them even in the capital of animals our. Lives lol unlearning ally Turkey. I'm going to hold your heart. 1000000 meaning. To Manc little. Unnerving. I landed in the world of. Leave. No doubt in my mind This month alone which will be good just the truth or you. Already didn't go to war with your spew. Is rattle or you 410000 or so Lou longing. For the mercy of your senses and writing long nurtured hints original's more with your. Communing with your love is watching your. It's not the way a huge often are often. Your questions like your reactions to. This knowing they're just can't go all in forever. Hardly one of us will have just been some day he's a little maybe we're good 40 years together the want to leave it all be gone done deal with illegal wrong because we were doing empires and there was a lose a job. We'd go out all so hard walk a little smaller. Laughing all the little. Plane. How would you feel the need to hold and you already. Believe you. Sorry and running carried out as you. All are a card to me in my hands should. Give the letter a 2nd complaint. And I hope it doesn't mean he's going to her. Cheeks knowing that this kid no longer the. Knowing it just can't go on forever. And rightly one of us will have to spend some money. To leave you will get 40 years together wouldn't it be good on him getting beat long. If we were vampires from Jason Isbell and the $400.00 unit also would tell Make You Feel My Love and Brandi Carlile the joke up next a band that maybe gets a bad rap for having similar sounding songs but what if they're good songs it's coming up on the World Cafe. It's. The man or are. It's World Cafe Hi I'm Calero in for Tallia there are a lot of bands that would be happy to have a sound and flavor as distinct as the war on drugs from a deeper understanding this is pain. Something. Who and Josh Ritter mind's eye on World Cafe also Death Cab for Cutie soul meets body and the war on drugs pain support for the World Cafe is provided by members of the World Cafe affiliates nationwide including w o u b Athens Ohio and w s I u. Carbondale Illinois the show is produced at w x p n from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia I'm Calero in for Tallia this is The World Cafe World Cafe is supported by visit St Petersburg Clearwater home of 35 miles of white sand beaches along Florida's Gulf Coast and a daily sunset celebration on Clearwater Beach 90 minutes west of Orlando at a visit St Pete Clearwater dot com. Thank you for listening to 89.3. Your source for n.p.r. News and music discovery. Of the world thing I'm. Incredibly influential musician share a birthday today one helped create the sound of rock n roll and was the face of it for over a decade. On. The other 3 to find what rock n roll could be going to do and that's David Bowie and before that. Those guys those 2 guys share a birthday and birthday to share Of course they were icons in and out of music they both helped shape culture sexuality in very different ways to beat a simple hip shake for the exploration of androgyny will celebrate their music in legacy with some fantastic covers and feature a band that might not exist anymore if not for the chiding of David Bowie it's all coming up on the world. Well I also listen to Japanese breakfast and it's unique style of melancholy pop you also find out what a Japanese breakfast entails quite literally but let's get started with Ricky it must be love.