In the April 2008 issue of Bluegrass Now Magazine

On My Mind: The Persimmon Sisters’ Debut Album!
Local Bands, Producing your own CD & Setting Realistic Goals
By Nancy Cardwell

For even the biggest stars, it’s difficult to listen to your own recording and not be too critical, and it’s even harder to write about a band you play in---but I’m so excited about The Persimmon Sisters debut CD that I just have to tell you all about it.  If you want a little background music while you’re reading, go to http://www.myspace.com/thepersimmonsisters. I wrote the title cut, “Green Persimmon Trees,” when I was a junior at NWMSU in Maryville, Mo.—300 miles from the front yard you see in the photo and feeling a bit homesick.

By the time you read this, www.persimmonsisters.com will be up and running. My brilliant daughter, Erin Faith (who appears with us occasionally, contributing vocals and hot breaks on the bluegrass flute) designed the free MySpace page.

The Persimmons are friends who formed a bluegrass band several years ago in Owensboro.  What started out as a demo recorded in Scott Partridge’s Savona South studio in Mt. Juliet, Tenn. last winter has evolved into an album, and we’re pleased to invite you into the circle for a listen.

Besides yours truly on acoustic bass and vocals, the band includes Cathy Rogier on the Kenny Baker-style fiddle.  She’s a junior high science teacher, an avid bird watcher and the only member of our band who has a Geiger Counter in her home.  When vocalist Martha Gipson, who works as a teacher’s assistant in Owensboro, sings a gospel song if you don’t feel led to shout and testify about the Lord’s goodness, then something’s probably wrong with you. Guitarist/vocalist Anita Owens supervises nurses for the Daviess County Health Department. Growing up in a Fordsville, Ky.-based family bluegrass band, Anita has accompanied her brother, Joel Whittinghill—also known as “The Bearded Persimmon Sister”—at a fiddle contests for several years, and they usually win. You may have seen Joel onstage with the Roland White Band, Curtis & Ruth Burch, The Jim Hurst Band or Timberline Drive.

We often invite a sixth persimmon to perform with us—Jennifer Kennedy on Dobro, or Casey Henry on banjo.  The legendary Vic Jordan, (formerly with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, Jim & Jesse and Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys), sat in on banjo for the album. I met Vic in Branson in the early ‘90s, when he came to town with Wayne Newton.  We played a theme park gig together with a group called Pure Heart, and over endless cups of coffee in the break room, Vic taught us how to read chord charts and regaled us with road stories. 

Although we don’t have plans to quit our day jobs, jump on a bus and tour full-time, The Persimmon Sisters take pride in our music and enjoy playing part-time.

It’s fine to record at a friend’s home studio, but make sure he/she has good equipment and knows how to use it. You may also be able to trade your services as a back-up singer or instrumentalist for studio time.  After the session, we spent the extra money to have our album mastered, we planned a photo session in Cathy’s backyard and hired a graphic designer to come up with an album cover we could all live with. Karen Simon at Progress Commercial Printing laid out the CD booklet, and Wax Works in Owensboro made our first 300 copies. 

Although we did include a few public domain and original songs, we made the effort to license the others and set up a payment system to publishers—something I feel very strongly about.  Songs are the intellectual property of their writers. Too many bands in bluegrass are at best un-informed and at worst dishonest when they never pay mechanical royalties (9.1 cents/album sold). If you don’t want to do the research and bookkeeping yourself, there’s a company called The Harry Fox Agency who would love to do it for you, for a small fee.  (www.harryfox.com)

We asked some broadcaster and event producer friends to listen to the album and give us a few quotes for the liner notes, so we wouldn’t have to resort to making up our own hype or asking our parents to brag on us in print!

We picked a release date, informed the local press and planned an reception at the Bluegrass Museum Gift Shop in Owensboro in conjunction with one of their weekly jams. 

Although we plan to sign up with CDBaby.com and we may have some on consignment at gift shops in Owensboro, we mainly plan to sell CDs at our shows. We may enlist the services of a radio single service like Prime Cuts of Bluegrass, to help get a single out. When we perform, we’ll make sure to get a copy of the CD to local bluegrass radio DJs and also contact local bluegrass association newsletter editors in advance.     

Give us a listen and remember—we don’t all have to sound like Alison Krauss & Union Station.  Alison already has that pretty well covered!  Just work on your craft and make your band sound as good as your can, while representing yourselves in a unique, professional way. The size of your market share doesn’t have a lot to do with quality of music or personal satisfaction as an artist.