The soul of the Inlaw Sisters

‘It’s as if you’re in the midst of the Appalachian Mountains when you hear The Inlaw Sisters on their first CD Robbing The Devil, said Jan Donkers before he played one of their numbers on Radio 6. But believe it or not these are two Dutch women, who have cast their spell over you.

The repertoire of their debut CD is Old Time Music from the U.S.A. Traditional songs about the hard, isolated existence in the Appalachian Mountains, which reduce life to the essentials of faith, hope and love. They belong to a branch of American folk music which, thanks to the music of T-Bone Burnett in the film, O Brother Where Art Thou’

(directed by Joel and Ethan Coen) is now enjoying a new lease of life.

Anneke van der Poll (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, banjo-uke) and Monique Neuteboom (vocals, guitar, banjo) once sang a couple of American folk songs together at a party of Anneke’s father. At that time Monique was exploring the Cajun repertoire and Anneke was singing mainly classical and contemporary music, as well as Balkan Music. But from that moment on they were captured by the depth and purity of American Old Time Music, with its songs of an almost mantra-like cadence, its heart-rending harmonies and whining fiddle. Fired with enthusiasm and determined to touch the core of this music, they attended workshops in England, Brittany and the U.S.A. where

they had lessons in Appalachian singing from Ginny Hawker, Tracy Schwarz and Dwight Diller.

Wherever The Inlaw Sisters had lessons they also took part in jams and performances. It was during a jam with Sam Broussard (Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys) that they got the idea to ask Sam to play with them on their debut album. In Louisiana they gave a lunch concert during the Dewey Balfa Heritage Week and in South Africa they had the opportunity to take part in the Voorkamerfest in Darling.

Whenever they began to play, a rapt silence fell over the audience and there were times when the response was overwhelming...