by Chad Campbell, senior producer
(l-r) Madeleine and Lily JurkiewiczWhen I get pitched musicians for the show, I typically look for names that I recognize…or for an interesting perspective the artist might have. Then I might eventually get around to actually checking out the music. When the promotional CD by two teenaged sisters named Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz was delivered to my desk many months ago, it met both of my criteria so I hung on to it. I had certainly never heard of these sisters from Indianapolis but I was very impressed that the package included a glowing preview of the music from our favorite music critic Anthony DeCurtis, a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine. Here’s a portion of what he wrote:
“These two young women sing with a spare elegance that’s all the more breathtaking for seeming to come to them so naturally. Both Lily and Madeleine can sing powerfully, but you will find no show-off pyrotechnics here. They are not afraid of fragility or vulnerability. As with all the best family bands, their harmonies sound effortless, two distinct expressions of the same idea or emotion. It’s a style of harmony that is so subtle that it could almost be singing in unison, so entwined are the voices. It’s a sound that only blood relations can deliver. Lily and Madeleine treat their voices as instruments that are in service to their songs. They are vehicles of feeling and meaning. They do what they need to do to reach your heart. No more, no less.”
Anthony has heard a lot of musicians during his decades at Rolling Stone. He was impressed by Lily and Madeleine’s music and so were we. The sisters were coming through town last month so we invited them to stop by our performance studio. They were doing a stripped down mini tour without their backing band so it was just the two sisters – 19-year-old Madeleine on piano and 16-year-old Lily on guitar. I prepared pages and pages of questions for Bob since I wasn’t sure how much these teenagers would have to say. You can hear them lapse into teenspeak here and there but I think they also shared some good stories and insights into their budding music career. I hope you enjoy the conversation and music as much I have. The sisters’ full-length, debut album is titled Lily & Madeleine.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes video for their first single “Devil We Know.”
To see more, click here for videos of Lily and Madeleine’s beautiful acoustic performances.
12-22-13 1 pm
I was really annoyed with your hour-long attention to Randy Poe talking about and playing the "music" of Buck Owens.
Radio, television and the internet are already saturated with the self-pitying, self-absorbed moaning of country music.
Thank you