“There is something magical going on in this song that’s impossible not to be moved by,” says Folk Radio UK; Sisters currently wrapping follow-up single.
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The Chapin Sisters (L-R): Lily Chapin, Abigail Chapin. Photo
credit: Adam Goldberg.
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The Chapin Sisters
“Bergen Street”
Out Now
(Lake Bottom
Records)
Streaming Link:
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“There is an enduring warmth throughout this ode to
Brooklyn. A cathartic release and a farewell, not just to a place, but to the
memories which they bring back to life here. There is something magical going
on in this song that’s impossible not to be moved by.” — Folk
Radio UK
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The Chapin Sisters | “Bergen
Street”
The Chapin Sisters were guests on episode #77 of The Great American Folk Show, airing on NPR-member station Prairie
Public Broadcasting in Fargo, ND. The
Great American Folk Show is “a
little place on the radio where we commune with you to share stories, sing
songs, and talk to some good people with great voices.”
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“Prepare to swoon. Their voices braid effortlessly
together and rise and fall with heartbreaking immediacy. Their phrasing is
precise, their delivery is heavenly and the way every syllable soars is nothing
short of spellbinding.” Listen to The
Chapin Sisters in conversation with host Alex Green on the Stereo
Embers podcast.
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The Chapin Sisters | About
The Chapin
Sisters make you long to return to a
place you may have never been before.
“Bergen
Street” is the new single (Out Now, Lake Bottom Records) from Abigail
and Lily Chapin, the sibling members
of what looks like a folk music dynasty, but in reality, is a proud family that
has been making music for decades in the most humble of traditions.
Father Tom
Chapin is a Grammy®-winning
singer-songwriter, late uncle Harry
Chapin is a legendary artist and social justice activist (his #1 hit “Cat’s In The Cradle” is a timeless
classic), and grandfather Jim Chapin
was an esteemed jazz drummer.
The sisters’ first new music since 2017’s Ferry
Boat, “Bergen
Street,” which describes a stretch of Brooklyn road with its everyday “soot
in the window ruts” and “air that smells of the tire dust” is an example of
this humble and expertly crafted music-making.
It is voiced with stirring sisterly “blood harmony” in
a way that only a family band – especially one with such a long history – can
do.
“Lily wrote
‘Bergen Street’ as she was leaving
Brooklyn to move back to the Hudson Valley village that we grew up in,” Abigail explains. “It’s a bittersweet
ode. Not a sad moment, exactly, but wistful.
“We thought we’d be city people forever, but during
the pandemic, I eventually did the same thing. We packed up our little families
and moved back to the woods and the grass and the driveways.”
“I always write songs about places I leave,” Lily confides. “When I was first
writing ‘Bergen Street,’ I was still
feeling the sting of leaving the city behind. I think it never goes away. The
first time I played it for my daughter, she cried.
“It’s hard to process feelings of loss and leaving
things behind that you love. This song allowed me to remember what was unique
and to allow the memories to become more vivid.”
Brooklyn memories that The Chapin Sisters have built over a lifetime, and for their
family, many lifetimes.
“Our family is a Brooklyn family,” Abigail says. “Our Manhattan-born grandmother
claimed she had never been to Brooklyn until she moved there at age 30, but her
kids adopted a strong identity and connection to Brooklyn Heights.
“The six boys played their first concerts there as The Chapin Brothers in the early 60s
and even though the brothers eventually drifted out of the neighborhood,
Brooklyn Heights has remained our family touchstone.”
Lily adds, “The history of Brooklyn is steeped in our
childhoods. Our Dad’s childhood, his brothers, Grace Church choirboys... Our
Uncle Steve and family friend Phil Forbes pushing a piano up and down the
street in Red Hook to play tunes at Fort Defiance.”
Even though the sisters are now building their
memories outside of Brooklyn, the familial togetherness continues, and not just
in front of the microphone.
“We recorded ‘Bergen
Street’ at Lily’s house,” Abigail says, “This was surprisingly
challenging in ways.
“We’ve got four young children between us, and with
our husbands involved in the recording process as well, we needed to rope in
grandparents to take turns watching babies, cooking meals, doing dishes, and
swinging on swings in the yard.”
This style of working is giving the new recordings by The Chapin Sisters an even more
intimate sound, and though it may slow down the process, the process benefits.
“We are slowly making our way through our recordings,
one song at a time,” Abigail says. “It’s
been interesting to approach it this way, focusing on one thing until it’s
done, instead of flitting around from song to song.
“I guess leaving the city is a theme in our lives
right now, and it is showing up heavily in this batch of songs that will become
our next album.”
Like the brothers who drifted, it is hard to imagine
the sisters leaving Brooklyn behind for good.
When I come back
Will the streets recognize my feet?
Will the wind recognize
The air that I breathe?
This thoughtful tribute to Bergen Street – the place The Chapin Sisters left – assures that
it will never leave them.
“Bergen
Street” is the new single by The Chapin Sisters, out now via Lake Bottom Records.
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The Chapin
Sisters | Links
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