It is Friday morning and I am awash in the beauty of musical DNA, that of The Vogts Sisters to be exact (You pronounce that Votes, sports fans). Listening to their new album My Own Dixie has reawakened my interest in writing a piece on DNA and music. There is something magical about familial voices, is there not? Think about it. The Blue Sky Boys. The Louvin Brothers. The Everly Brothers. The Gatlin Brothers. The Lennon and Andrews Sisters. The Whites. All thriving on love of music and those sweet, sweet harmonies which set my heart aflutter.
My Own Dixie is playing on the system as I write this, those sweet harmonies just part of what makes this young duo something special. They have roots, no doubt, and why am I not surprised that those began in church for there is a spiritual sense to the music they sing, especially the originals. Even the more lighthearted songs have a depth to them which reach deep down to my music-loving soul. They also emanate a simplicity which is mostly tossed aside these days, many musicians dispensing with the honest approach for the ear-grabbing. Oh, how nice it is to hear music produced just for the beauty of it.
There are ten originals here and you get more in these ten than you do in many albums worth of the so-called hits and even the top charters on the Americana charts. Mostly light and flowing, the songs wash over rather than accost you. Much of it, of course, can be attributed to those angelic voices, but the songs themselves are a step above the norm. The two which rip my heart out are “Guitar Man,” a hauntingly gorgeous look at heartbreak a la another of my favorite duos, Dala (if you have not heard them, it is time you have), though Dala lives in a Pop wonderland as opposed to the Vogts’ more rural and spiritual world (although the girls step seamlessly into Dala’s world with the excellent pop tune “Better Off Alone”), and “My Own Dixie,” a song lyrically and musically pretty enough to send chills down my spine and sink into myself. In terms of depth, I liken it to one of my favorite Waylon Jennings performances of “The Southland’s Bleeding” which appeared on the much-overlooked White Mansions album, for both songs are tied to the land and heartfelt and emotional.
This is not, by the way, two girls and guitar. They brought in Oklahomans’ The Eicher Family to flesh out the sound and flesh it out they did. Just enough fiddle, mandolin and bass to push the album over the top.
While there are no fancy-schmancy videos to support the Vogts yet, they have a number of exceptional live performances you should see and, lucky for you, I’m in such a good mood that I shall share a couple with you. You know what they say, a video is worth a thousand words. Before you start, though, let me state once again how really good this album is. It has to be heard to be understood. It is beautiful, beautiful stuff.