The Henry Girls at home with harmonies

If proof were needed of the long shadow cast by the Everly Brothers, consider the sound of Donegal’s musical siblings: The Henry Girls.

The recent passing of the younger Everly, Phil, may have caused mourning in the town of Malin and the McLaughlin sisters may have chosen to play under their grandfather’s surname rather than their own, but the fundamental debt to the Everlys remains.

“I suppose we sort of got the music of the Everly Brothers second-hand because we heard it all through our mother and her sister.

“They were always singing in two part harmony so that’s just what we grew up with, knowing all their songs because they were singing them.

“Yeah, I think they were one of the all-time great vocal harmony groups, so it’s sad news to hear it,” says Lorna McLaughlin

However, their sweet blend of native traditional styles and Appalachian and bluegrass music indicates the influence of their Scottish mother and aunt cannot be underestimated.

“I’d say the harmonies are definitely from our mother’s side of the family,” says Lorna. “I mean there’s a sort of a traditional Irish element to what we do. We grew up playing traditional music and being taught traditional music but the harmony thing isn’t from the Irish side of the family.

“Our mum was really into the Andrew Sisters and the Boswell Sisters as well as the Everly Brothers – all those harmony groups.

“She just really seemed to love harmonies and herself and her sister then passed that on to us. I mean, it wasn’t like they planned it. It was just what we grew up with. It was very much second nature to us then whenever we started singing together. We always just loved the harmonies. It just felt stronger when you were singing in harmonies.”

If ever a reminder of the strength of that blend was needed, it comes in the form of ‘Maybe’, the recent single from The Henry Girls’ forthcoming album Louder Than Words.

The record sees them reunite with Calum Malcolm, the producer of their previous album, December Moon. ‘Maybe’ acts as something of a bridge between the two long-players.

“We had actually considered putting it on December Moon because that’s when we were writing that song.

“Karen was the main writer of that song but she hadn’t really developed it enough at that stage, so we kind of left it on the shelf. And then when we started putting together the material for our new album that was the first song that we started working on. The melody had been going around Karen’s head for a while so that got us going.”

Louder Than Words also sees the girls include another unusual cover in the shape of Bruce Springsteen’s less well-known ’Reason To Believe’.

* See www.thehenrygirls.com for tour dates.