ACL Music Fest Friday Interviews

The Secret Sisters

1:30pm, Google+ stage

The Secret Sisters are Americana's newest darlings.

Hailing from Muscle Shoals, Ala., Laura and Lydia Rogers have the sibling harmonies thing down cold. Jack White not only released the duo's debut single on his Third Man Records but assisted on guitar, and T Bone Burnett served as executive producer for the Secret Sisters' self-titled LP. Both recordings conjure modern-day Everly Brothers – equal parts country and pop – even when mining the American songbooks of Hank Williams, Frank Sinatra, George Jones, and Buck Owens.

The Sisters last visited Austin in support of Ray LaMontagne and Levon Helm a little less than a year ago, at the cusp of their newfound whirlwind.

"That was back in November," Lydia recalls, "and that was the first tour we had ever been on. It's been nonstop since, but it's been really wonderful. We've gotten to play with a lot of really incredible artists since. Got to visit some places that we never thought we'd visit."

One of those places was Germany, which seemed to fuel the Secret Sisters' quest for writing and singing their own songs.

"We wrote four new songs there," Lydia relates. "I don't know what is was about Munich, but it was inspiring. We're definitely trying to write and get prepared for the next record. We don't want to be known as a cover band for the rest of our career. We want to show that we can be songwriters, but it can be tough. Sometimes the best ideas come at 3 in the morning."

The Sisters, both on the younger side of their 20s, plan to stay on the road until December and then enter the studio. Listening to the pair's exhaustive tour schedule, I feel compelled to sigh out loud, "I wish I was young again."

"Me too," Laura responds. "This is making me old!"