HOW TO GO
Who: Adelee & Gentry Gates open for The Sweetback Sisters
Where: Canal Street Tavern, 308 E. First St., Dayton
When: 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19. Doors open at 8 p.m.
Cost: $10
More info: (937) 461-9343 or www.canalstreettavern.com
Artist info: www.adeleeandgentry.com
With Taylor Swift’s recent highly successful crossover from country to pop, it is the perfect time for the rise of Adelee & Gentry. The West Alexandria duo, performing at Canal Street Tavern in Dayton on Friday, Oct. 19, has a polished folk-pop sound that is grounded by a rootsy base but elevated by the self-taught sisters’ unique yet captivating style of two-part harmonies.
Adelee Gates, 19, and Gentry, 17, recently shared their thoughts about sisterly collaboration, their breakthrough debut album, “Nice to Meet You,” which was released in March, and their latest mashup of Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and Cher Lloyd’s “Want U Back.”
SISTER ACT
Gentry: "Our relationship hasn't really changed at all. I guess we've gotten closer but even before we sang we always hung out together and did stuff. Now, since she's taught me how to sing harmony, I think we've grown closer because we work together on music."
Adelee: "Teaching her harmony was easy but weird at the same time. I was 14 and she was 12. I didn't know the technical side of singing melodies and what harmony was — I still don't, honestly — but it was just what I heard. Within a few months she was picking up on easy harmonies until it got to the point where, even in Nashville, we definitely stick out just for that one quality, the sister harmonies, and how unique her harmonies are. Now it comes so naturally to us and that's what our songs are really built around."
GAME CHANGER
Adelee: "The album has opened up all these doors. It got into the hands of the director at NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International), which got us our manager, our publicist and our digital media guy. It got us to the point where we have this big Nashville team that's getting all the puzzle pieces into play."
DIGITAL MASHUP
Adelee: "I was playing the Taylor Swift song, just messing around on my guitar, and the Cher Lloyd song popped into my head. I'm like, 'We could do a mashup.' We did it really quickly. We put it up and had almost 300 views in a day. Then it jumped to 600 and then to 1,000. We're excited because the word is spreading. Another part of our game plan is to continue putting out covers and videos while all of this is going on because they've been spreading so fast online."
Adelee & Gentry’s new holiday EP, “Waiting for Christmas, will be released Nov. 6.
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