Press
ROLLING STONE COUNTRY MUSIC PICKS OF THE WEEK
Call Me Spinster - Two Hearts
Three sisters sing about a pair of hearts in this winsome ballad. An upright bass line propels it forward as flashes of steel cry out here and there, but it’s the tight, floating harmonies of the Chattanooga siblings that makes “Two Hearts” so enticing. There’s an oldies quality to the song too — something you might hear in a late-Fifties soda shop — but the siblings’ message of better days to come makes it just right for 2020.
GLIDE MAGAZINE
CALL ME SPINSTER LAY DOWN STRIKING AND SOULFUL SISTERLY HARMONIES ON SELF-TITLED EP (ALBUM REVIEW)
by Gary Schwind
The accordion often gets a bad rap. For some people, the instrument is an automatic strike against the music that includes it. Call Me Spinster, on the other hand, was inspired when three sisters found an accordion in their grandfather’s closet. That led to exploring a variety of instruments including mandolin and upright bass.
On their new self-titled EP, the band shows that the discovery of the accordion was fortuitous and that all the time spent learning instruments was well spent.
AMERICAN SONGWRITER
Call Me Spinster, Sisters are Doin’ it for Themselves
Call Me Spinster | self-titled | (Strolling Bones)
3 1/2 out of Five Stars
Sibling combos are nothing new of course. The history of popular music is littered with them, be it the Andrews Sisters, the Everly Brothers or a fractious bunch like the Kinks and Oasis. However at their best, a family band provides their listeners with an assurance of harmony, sweetness and synchronicity.
That’s what’s found with the three sisters that refer to themselves as Call Me Spinster. The trio, consisting of Rosalie Graber (vocals, bass), Rachel Graber (vocals, percussion) and Amelia Graber Jacobs (vocals, accordion, glockenspiel), create a sound that’s giddy at times, unhurried and cerebral at others, but consistently tuneful and enticing all the same. Consequently, over the course of their eponymous debut EP, the band share a pleasing variety of musical moods, whether it’s an effusive celebratory romp (“Here You Are”), a quiet caress (“Two Hearts) or a melody that falls in-between (“Morning”). Regardless of tune or tempo, it’s a sound that’s consistently satisfying and yet still seductive and sensual.
THE ALTERNATE ROOT
CALL ME SPINSTER - from the album Call Me Spinster available on Strolling Bones Records
by Bryant Liggett
They’re an Indie Rock Andrews Sisters armed with more instruments and grit. Amelia Jacobs alongside Rachel and Rosalie Graber are Call Me Spinster. The trio come loaded with the traditional guitar and bass, adding banjo, mandolin, ukulele, glockenspiel, harmonica, and “trash percussion” to zip through clever Pop, the instrumentation on their self-titled EP an exclamation point on the bright, airy, and at times Doo Wop vocals. “Here You Are” opens the record with a catchy bounce, gentle background ‘woo-woo’s’ eventually turning into call and response vocals as a twangy guitar solo introduces angelic harmonies.
“Stop, Wait” is a modern dose of soul/R&B with subtle jangle guitar that hints at Funk, the keyboards offering a slight groove and different layers of vocals flying in from all directions. The phrase ‘I’m coming home to you’ is repeated over ambient instrumentation for “Long Hard Day”, an accordion coming in mid-song giving the tune the vibe of a movie-version canal ride in a Venice-gliding gondola. “Two Hearts” begins with those gentle vocals and lightly picked guitar, a throwback dash of AM Gold where drifting pedal steel floats with the vocals. Album closer, “Morning”, features gentle keyboard touched by xylophone chimes, the melody acting as both a lullaby and gentle wake-up tune. Call Me Spinster have dipped into different decades for influence; a dash of 60’s Soul here and a dish of 70’s sunshine Pop there, all translated with soft, gentle vocal delight.