I am impressed with the Younger Sister Band... a great band

-- Pete Seeger

One of the weirdest, funnest, most creative, and original cross pollinations of talent that you can imagine in a show.

-- The Deli Magazine

Bluegrass, Amercana and folk music lovers looking for something a bit more edgy will love The Younger Sister Band

--The Knoxville Journal

OK, all together now, just like in the Pace commercials -- "New York City?!" The Big Apple is the home base for the Younger Sister Band, whose easygoing Americana sound would be more likely to have come out of, say, the Carter Family fold in western Virginia. Like the Mammals or Donna the Buffalo, the Younger Sister Band takes traditional fare and spices it up with modern energy and enthusiasm on its new debut album, No Desire. The band is a regular on the NYC club scene and has toured as far as Europe and South Africa. The Plowboys and Petrillo Relents will play acoustic opening sets for this show, which is being held at the house of Bill Stevens, bassist for both local groups.

-- Free Times - Columbia's Free Alternative Weekly

The Younger Sister Band: Jessica Segall and Fletcher Boote have been singing together for around ten years -- including artist-in-residency programs in Italy and South Africa -- but even that hasn't isolated them from the influence of the supporting musicians in the Brooklyn-based Younger Sister Band they formed two years ago. Segall says drummer David Beauchamp, in particular, has influenced her vision for their contemporary folk: "I was into playing bluegrass-influenced music and blues; working with a drummer is a very different influence," she says, "He's more geared toward getting the audience dancing." She says they're a responsive live act as a result, able to deliver whatever the audience is hungry for. "We try to kind of play to the room," says Segall Some of our best shows in New York have been playing large parties where everyone can dance, but we can also play acoustic rooms and focus more on the singing." So what's it gonna be, Tea House?

--The Hook - Charlotte

Surpise! Surprise! Surprise!! Sometimes we just get lucky. Every once and a while will get a treat for all you club goers, a last minute booking for Monday. The Younger Sister Band is just that! A treat! From NYC, this band has an Americana consciousness. Borrowing, blending, and reinventing the sounds of our past, they create original songs rooted in traditional American music. They are sure to become a Cave favorite.

--The Cave, Chapel Hill

By Steve Wildsmith of The Daily Times Staff

For six months while she traveled the Indian subcontinent, exploring out-of-the-way villages and studying yoga and meditation, Jessica Segall kept returning in her mind to the band that formed at her going-away party.

It began at the behest of Brian Sakonchick, who grew up on the same block as Segall and whom she had known since they were 2 years old. Over the years, their paths continued to cross as they migrated to the Big Apple and its underground roots and folk music scene, and as she prepared to leave for India, he suggested putting a group together to perform.

"We played a couple of times before I left, and the whole time I was there, I kept thinking about it," Segall told The Daily Times this week. "I think it was something about being in India. Artwork in India has a completely different context — it's based on spiritual and communal life and not on ego. In New York, art is based much more on individual ego. The music scene is a much more communal experience, so in that sense, when I knew it was time to come back and do more personal work, I kept thinking about music."

Thus began Segall's journey from the visual to the musical arts. Exposed to old blues and bluegrass by her folk musician father, she grew up in upstate New York, home to a healthy bluegrass scene and appreciative of traditional country and roots-oriented folk. For Southerners, the idea of rootsy, Appalachian-style Old Time music being made in the concrete jungles of New York City may seem like an oxymoron, but for Segall, it's all about connecting with something real.

"I feel like music is universal, and I feel like I'm attracted to good music," she said. "In another sense, I feel like my attraction comes from listening to early American music when it wasn't so processed. It's a sound that's authentic and nutritious for everybody, and that's the attraction for me."

Until three years ago, Segall studied painting, but her travels to India led her back to the folk music she used to play with her father and the rest of her family. Upon her return to the States, she and Sakonchick tapped a number of other musicians with whom they had crossed paths over the years, and the Younger Sister Band was born.

"It was a gradual thing, something we all put effort into," she said. "Everyone has their own individual artistic pursuits, but we all remain committed to music."

The band recently released "No Desire," its debut album. Of the 20 songs the members had chosen from their repertoire, 16 made it on — and with a combination of folk, jazz, swing, Old Time and bluegrass in the mix, it's a rollicking affair that should motivate dancers when the band performs Saturday at Patrick Sullivan's Saloon in Knoxville's Old City.

"With four songwriters, it's still a very communal process in deciding what to record," she said. "One of us will bring in a song, and everyone will add their own individual elements to it. That's what makes it so unique."

Copyright © 2005-2007 Jessica Segall. All Rights Reserved.