PUTNEY — The Sweetback Sisters Country Christmas Sing-Along will appear at Next Stage on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Led by Zara Bode and Emily Miller, the New York alternative country swing band will perform a wide range of holiday music, from well-loved Christmas carols to classic winter-themed songs to lesser-known country Christmas gems.
All the songs are presented with the Sweetback Sisters' signature mix of harmony singing, telecaster, and twin fiddling.
Words are provided so that everyone can sing along with Bode, Miller, Stefan Amidon (drums), Jesse Milnes (fiddle, guitar), Ross “Rolling Thunder” Bellenoit (guitar, lap steel), and Peter Bitenc (acoustic bass).
Bode and Miller started singing together in the Montpelier-based choir Northern Harmony. While performing an eclectic repertoire of shape-note hymns and eastern European harmonies, the two discovered a mutual love of American country music.
They moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., reeled in an all-star cast of back-up musicians, and started playing in venues up and down the eastern United States.
Their repertoire includes 1940s and 1950s-era country music, swing, honky tonk, and old-time music, complete with close harmony singing, solid old-time country picking, and freewheeling enthusiasm.
Although the band was born in Brooklyn, its members hail from all over the eastern United States, as far south as Elkins, W.Va., and as far north as Brattleboro.
The band was chosen as one of six finalists to play on A Prairie Home Companion as part of the program's 2007 People in Their Twenties talent contest and, more recently, began a partnership with independent record label Signature Sounds.
The Sweetback Sisters have released a CD, Looking for a Fight.
The concert is presented in conjunction with Next Stage Arts Project, in the former United Church at 15 Kimball Hill. Tickets are $17 or $15 for students and seniors. For reservations and information, call 802-254-9276.
For more information, visit www.thesweetbacksisters.com and www.twilightmusic.org.