Hollerback Girls

M.J. Fine does it again

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Published: Dec 31, 2007

They may now be recording and touring as Nerissa & Katryna Nields, but on their latest, Sister Holler, the singing siblings are joined by most of their old collaborators (only Nerissa's ex-husband, David Nields, is absent) and a few new players. The conceit this time is that Nerissa built new compositions with borrowed material: drinking songs and choral pieces and a lot of stuff Dylan ripped off first. And what do you know? The songs are folkier, more powerful and less self-conscious than just about anything in The Nields' back pages.

The Nields Gotta Get Over Greta (Guardian 1997)

Nerissa & Katryna Nields Sister Holler (Mercy House 2007)

"Ain't That Good News" is a satisfying blend of ragtime and spiritual, while the banjo-driven "Who Will Shoe My Pretty Foot" ought to bring square dancing to the Renaissance Faire. Even poppier songs like "Eloise," with its lively drums and "ooh la la la" backing vocals, sound timeless. Best of all, both sisters' voices soar, dip and tremble in all the right places, without the weird vowel sounds that made their earlier stuff sound quirky or cloying.

Depending on your tolerance for those idiosyncratic vocal tics, The Nields' breakthrough fourth full-length Gotta Get Over Greta either made you want to join their family or cross them off your Christmas card list. (Originally released by Razor & Tie in 1996, the disc was expanded and reissued the following year by Guardian, which promptly went bust.) The oft-repeated title of "Bullet Proof" becomes "boolette proof"; "forever" extends into "foray-aver." Somehow Katryna manages to make "said" a five-syllable word, and if there's ever an understated moment, her vibrato kills it quick.

Though Greta was the first time they emphasized the rock side of their folk-rock sensibilities, it hardly sounds organic. Every electric guitar feels tacked on; every huge drum fill seems deliberately outsized. Lyrically, Nerissa and David keep picking at the scab of unhealthy situations. She fixates on sneaky May-December relationships ("Best Black Dress," "Fountain of Youth"); he sticks to ambiguous splits ("Cowards," "Goodbye"). But the dark stuff isn't all bad. The title track captures the intensity of BFFs gone sour: "There is no marriage more sublime/ There is no divorce so final." You might wince at the gratuitous trills and ominous riff, but you feel for Katryna when she imagines running into her old pal. Because who hasn't been there?

(m_fine@citypaper.net)

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