First Aid Kit's Heavenly Harmonies

How I found myself watching two Swedish sisters, backed by a pedal steel guitar and drums, performing at a National Park just outside the DC beltway is an interesting story.

But the better one is about the music created and performed by First Aid Kit.

Karla Soderberg looks like Central Casting’s version of a singer songwriter from the 1960’s; her acoustic guitar and lead voice drive the band. Her older sister, Johanna, with long strawberry blonde hair and a sylph-like resemblance to a young Mia Farrow, plays keyboards and sings harmony. Their voices are strong individually but when they harmonize, you realize why ancient sailors would steer their ships toward the rocks.

The comparisons that come to mind (Everly Brothers, Parton-Harris-Ronstadt) do not seem adequate. When they chime in, the audience seemed to do a collective jaw drop and listen in amazement.

Although their voices could sustain them as a cover band, their song writing kicks up their work to a memorable experience. Here are some examples from their latest CD, “Stay Gold.”

What if our hard work ends in despair

What if the road won’t take me there

Oh I wish for once, we could stay gold.

What if to love and be loved’s not enough

What if I fall and can’t bear to get up

Oh I wish for once, we could stay gold.

Their ability to make sharp musical turns is showcased on “Heaven Knows” which starts with this melancholy opening reverie,

You’ve spent a year staring into a mirror

Another one trying to figure out what you saw

Paid so much attention to what you’re not

You have no idea who you are.

Then they flip the switch and out bursts a rocking dance-pop song with the chorus:

Heaven knows, Heaven knows, Heaven knows you’re lying. It will stick in your head for days.

They closed their set at Wolftrap Farm Park with an earlier song, Emmylou, a tribute to country music giants:
I ‘ll be your Emmylou/ And I’ll be your June

If you’ll be my Graham and my Johnny too.

I’m not asking much of you

Just sing a little darling, sing with me.

Their show-stopper came a few moments earlier when they sang Paul Simon’s “America.”  For two young women who describe themselves as coming from the land of snow, polar bears, Ikea and Volvo, they captured the spirit of going to look for America in a sound that was haunting and beautiful.

Two footnotes: The rest of the traveling band is drummer Scott Simpson from Edinburgh and pedal steel and guitar player Melvin “The Tiger” Duffy from Brighton, England.   Stay Gold was recorded in Omaha, Nebraska, which is what happens when you get
“discovered” in Austin, Texas.

This is one of my daughter’s favorite groups and when I persisted in referring to them as The Band Aid Girls, she got me the CD and that’s how I ended up at the concert.