Classic Clip: John Paul White and The Secret Sisters “In My Room” – National Sawdust, Brooklyn, 2016

Is there a more beautiful and emotional male voice in the world of Americana than John Paul White’s? Combine it with The Secret Sisters on the Beach Boys’ ‘In My Room’, and you have a truly magical performance, all done in a few seconds over 2 minutes. One half of the much-fetched but ultimately ill-fated duo The Civil Wars, with Joy Williams, John Paul White has followed a solo career since their demise in 2014, with album releases ‘Beulah’ in 2016 followed by ‘The Hurting Kind’ in 2019. A native of Alabama, White is co-owner and founder of Single Lock Records, with an artist roster including Dylan LeBlanc, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Erin Rae and St Paul and the Broken Bones.

And are there more beautiful sibling harmonies than The Secret Sisters (Laura Rogers and Lydia Slagle – nee Rogers)? Their first album, self-titled, was a mix of new and old songs and covers, that alerted the world to their harmonies (a little in the style of The Everly Brothers). Producers du jour Dave Cobb and T-Bone Burnett produced, and then later produced their sophomore “Put Your Needle Down”. But it was the move to Brandi Carlile as producer that set critics really talking about their songwriting talent as well as their harmonies, with “Saturn Return”, leading to “Mind, Man, Medicine”, released this year to huge critical acclaim, produced by the girls themselves and co-produced by Ben Tanner and the afore-mentioned John Paul White.

And so to this little gem – enjoy.