The Chapin Sisters make you long to return to a place you may have never been before.
 
“Bergen Street” is the new single (March 31, Lake Bottom Records) from Abigail and Lily Chapin, the sibling members of what looks like a folk music dynasty, but in reality, is a proud family that has been making music for decades in the most humble of traditions.
 
Father Tom Chapin is a Grammy®-winning singer-songwriter, late uncle Harry Chapin is a legendary artist and social justice activist (his #1 hit “Cat’s In The Cradle” is a timeless classic), and grandfather Jim Chapin was an esteemed jazz drummer.
 
The sisters’ first new music since 2017’s Ferry Boat, “Bergen Street,” which describes a stretch of Brooklyn road with its everyday “soot in the window ruts” and “air that smells of the tire dust” is an example of this humble and expertly crafted music-making.
 
It is voiced with stirring sisterly “blood harmony” in a way that only a family band – especially one with such a long history – can do.
 
“Lily wrote ‘Bergen Street’ as she was leaving Brooklyn to move back to the Hudson Valley village that we grew up in,” Abigail explains. “It’s a bittersweet ode. Not a sad moment, exactly, but wistful.
 
“We thought we’d be city people forever, but during the pandemic, I eventually did the same thing. We packed up our little families and moved back to the woods and the grass and the driveways.”
 
“I always write songs about places I leave,” Lily confides. “When I was first writing ‘Bergen Street,’ I was still feeling the sting of leaving the city behind. I think it never goes away. The first time I played it for my daughter, she cried.
 
“It’s hard to process feelings of loss and leaving things behind that you love. This song allowed me to remember what was unique and to allow the memories to become more vivid.”
 
Brooklyn memories that The Chapin Sisters have built over a lifetime, and for their family, many lifetimes.
 
“Our family is a Brooklyn family,” Abigail says. “Our Manhattan-born grandmother claimed she had never been to Brooklyn until she moved there at age 30, but her kids adopted a strong identity and connection to Brooklyn Heights.
 
“The six boys played their first concerts there as The Chapin Brothers in the early 60s and even though the brothers eventually drifted out of the neighborhood, Brooklyn Heights has remained our family touchstone.”
 
Lily adds, “The history of Brooklyn is steeped in our childhoods. Our Dad’s childhood, his brothers, Grace Church choirboys... Our Uncle Steve and family friend Phil Forbes pushing a piano up and down the street in Red Hook to play tunes at Fort Defiance.”
 
Even though the sisters are now building their memories outside of Brooklyn, the familial togetherness continues, and not just in front of the microphone.
 
“We recorded ‘Bergen Street’ at Lily’s house,” Abigail says, “This was surprisingly challenging in ways.
 
“We’ve got four young children between us, and with our husbands involved in the recording process as well, we needed to rope in grandparents to take turns watching babies, cooking meals, doing dishes, and swinging on swings in the yard.”
 
This style of working is giving the new recordings by The Chapin Sisters an even more intimate sound, and though it may slow down the process, the process benefits.
 
“We are slowly making our way through our recordings, one song at a time,” Abigail says. “It’s been interesting to approach it this way, focusing on one thing until it’s done, instead of flitting around from song to song.
 
“I guess leaving the city is a theme in our lives right now, and it is showing up heavily in this batch of songs that will become our next album.”
 
Like the brothers who drifted, it is hard to imagine the sisters leaving Brooklyn behind for good.
 
When I come back
Will the streets recognize my feet?
Will the wind recognize
The air that I breathe?
 
This thoughtful tribute to Bergen Street – the place The Chapin Sisters left – assures that it will never leave them.
 
“Bergen Street” is the upcoming single and video by The Chapin Sisters, out March 31 via Lake Bottom Records.

The Chapin Sisters make you long to return to a place you may have never been before.
 
“Bergen Street” is the new single (Out Now, Lake Bottom Records) from Abigail and Lily Chapin, the sibling members of what looks like a folk music dynasty, but in reality, is a proud family that has been making music for decades in the most humble of traditions.

Father Tom Chapin is a Grammy®-winning singer-songwriter, late uncle Harry Chapin is a legendary artist and social justice activist (his #1 hit “Cat’s In The Cradle” is a timeless classic), and grandfather Jim Chapin was an esteemed jazz drummer.

The sisters’ first new music since 2017’s Ferry Boat, “Bergen Street,” which describes a stretch of Brooklyn road with its everyday “soot in the window ruts” and “air that smells of the tire dust” is an example of this humble and expertly crafted music-making.

It is voiced with stirring sisterly “blood harmony” in a way that only a family band – especially one with such a long history – can do.

“Lily wrote ‘Bergen Street’ as she was leaving Brooklyn to move back to the Hudson Valley village that we grew up in,” Abigail explains. “It’s a bittersweet ode. Not a sad moment, exactly, but wistful.
 
“We thought we’d be city people forever, but during the pandemic, I eventually did the same thing. We packed up our little families and moved back to the woods and the grass and the driveways.”
 
“I always write songs about places I leave,” Lily confides. “When I was first writing ‘Bergen Street,’ I was still feeling the sting of leaving the city behind. I think it never goes away. The first time I played it for my daughter, she cried.
 
“It’s hard to process feelings of loss and leaving things behind that you love. This song allowed me to remember what was unique and to allow the memories to become more vivid.”
 
Brooklyn memories that The Chapin Sisters have built over a lifetime, and for their family, many lifetimes.
 
“Our family is a Brooklyn family,” Abigail says. “Our Manhattan-born grandmother claimed she had never been to Brooklyn until she moved there at age 30, but her kids adopted a strong identity and connection to Brooklyn Heights.
 
“The six boys played their first concerts there as The Chapin Brothers in the early 60s and even though the brothers eventually drifted out of the neighborhood, Brooklyn Heights has remained our family touchstone.”

Lily adds, “The history of Brooklyn is steeped in our childhoods. Our Dad’s childhood, his brothers, Grace Church choirboys... Our Uncle Steve and family friend Phil Forbes pushing a piano up and down the street in Red Hook to play tunes at Fort Defiance.”

Even though the sisters are now building their memories outside of Brooklyn, the familial togetherness continues, and not just in front of the microphone.
 
“We recorded ‘Bergen Street’ at Lily’s house,” Abigail says, “This was surprisingly challenging in ways.
 
“We’ve got four young children between us, and with our husbands involved in the recording process as well, we needed to rope in grandparents to take turns watching babies, cooking meals, doing dishes, and swinging on swings in the yard.”
 
This style of working is giving the new recordings by The Chapin Sisters an even more intimate sound, and though it may slow down the process, the process benefits.
 
“We are slowly making our way through our recordings, one song at a time,” Abigail says. “It’s been interesting to approach it this way, focusing on one thing until it’s done, instead of flitting around from song to song.
 
“I guess leaving the city is a theme in our lives right now, and it is showing up heavily in this batch of songs that will become our next album.”
 
Like the brothers who drifted, it is hard to imagine the sisters leaving Brooklyn behind for good.
 
When I come back
Will the streets recognize my feet?
Will the wind recognize
The air that I breathe?
 
This thoughtful tribute to Bergen Street – the place The Chapin Sisters left – assures that it will never leave them.
 
“Bergen Street” is the new single by The Chapin Sisters, out now via Lake Bottom Records.

Milly Raccoon stands, fiddle in hand, on the shoulders of Patsy Cline, not only as an inspiration but also for the grounded emotional support lent by Patsy’s powerful legacy.

Milly’s own take on Nashville is all over the upcoming Frankincense and Myrrh, arriving July 7. The album exists in the Nashville of now where messages of spirituality and liberation are more vital than ever. Milly delivers her songs with a gauzy, dream-like, and poignant touch that is so easy on the ears (think Nora Jones or Iris DeMent) that it is easy to forget that Milly is telling us something we need to hear.
 
They used to beat me up for always
Makin the highest grade
Now they just pretend a smile
and turn the other way
 
The lyric comes from Frankincense and Myrrh’s upcoming single “That Girl I Left Behind Me,” in which Milly couples her words with a “melody that traces back to Elizabethan England when it was sung by British soldiers.”
 
The result is a prime example of Milly’s ability to weave the stark reality of modern life over historical toe-tappers. Milly’s catalog of influences, and experiences in general, is a vast blueprint for the music she makes today.
 
“I played classical violin as a kid, and I became a big fan of 90s rock and pop, early 20th-century musical theater, traditional Irish music, and zydeco.
 
Vast, yes. But Milly must have been going with the crowd during those all-important, trying-to-fit-in teen years, right?

“I briefly had a Grateful Dead cover band in high school.”

Milly’s eclecticism followed her to Seattle after college where she discovered the bluegrass scene.

“After my first tavern bluegrass jam, I was enchanted by the musical style and fellowship. I dove into teaching myself bluegrass fiddle, mandolin, and ukulele.”

In addition to busking regularly, Milly tested her burgeoning abilities by performing as often as possible, playing in several bands at a time.

An all-female bluegrass band. A honky tonk band. A band that played Turkish and Egyptian music for a belly dance troupe. An Irish band. A band that played the traditional music of Mexico and South America.
 
And many more.
 
“I’d play every bluegrass festival I could, sometimes traveling for days by bus to get to out-of-state gatherings,” Milly remembers.
 
Soon, Milly started writing her own songs.
 
Encouraged by the approval of the songwriting heroes in her musical community, and after losing two of her closest friends to tragedy, Milly decided that life on the road without a destination was a life that spoke to her.
 
“I didn’t have a home for about a year and a half and just went from town to town, making a living by busking,” she says.
 
Naturally, Milly became a more prolific songwriter during this time.
 
“Eventually it seemed like the next step was to move to Nashville where I quickly learned that instead of busking, I would have to focus on more structured realms of performance work.”
 
It was a tough adjustment. Milly found that her new peers saw her as “strange and woo-woo,” and that the standards of musicianship in Nashville were daunting.
 
This situation inspired “That Girl I Left Behind Me,” the song mentioned previously.
 
Last night while I lay fast asleep
Everybody I know
Reflected on my shortcomings
And switched from friend to foe
 
“After that, I even felt bolder about expressing my uncommon-to-Nashville bent,” Milly says.
 
This newfound level of confidence led Milly to Grammy®–winning producer Misa Arriaga, known for work with Kasey Musgraves.
 
“The recording scene in Nashville really opened my eyes to a level of artistry and excellence I never imagined being a part of,” Milly says.
 
The product is Frankincense and Myrrh, which Milly refers to as “an ode to sacred collaborations.” The two related plants have been considered a sacred duet since before biblical times.”
 
The record also embodies the ancient process of alchemy.
 
“For example, turning lead into gold,” Milly explains. “Or turning poison into medicine.”
 
She continues, “What do people use heartbreak, challenges, tragedies, difficult emotions, religious experiences, taboo subjects, and other strong feelings for? Making compelling writing, painting, and music. Making an album is an alchemical process.”
 
With such a grounded sense of the magic of music, surely Patsy would be proud to lend Milly her shoulders.
 
Frankincense and Myrrh by Milly Raccoon arrives on July 7. The single “That Girl I Left Behind Me” is out May 19.

The Chapin Sisters make you long to return to a place you may have never been before.
 
“Bergen Street” is the new single (Out Now, Lake Bottom Records) from Abigail and Lily Chapin, the sibling members of what looks like a folk music dynasty, but in reality, is a proud family that has been making music for decades in the most humble of traditions.
 
Father Tom Chapin is a Grammy®-winning singer-songwriter, late uncle Harry Chapin is a legendary artist and social justice activist (his #1 hit “Cat’s In The Cradle” is a timeless classic), and grandfather Jim Chapin was an esteemed jazz drummer.
 
The sisters’ first new music since 2017’s Ferry Boat, “Bergen Street,” which describes a stretch of Brooklyn road with its everyday “soot in the window ruts” and “air that smells of the tire dust” is an example of this humble and expertly crafted music-making.
 
It is voiced with stirring sisterly “blood harmony” in a way that only a family band – especially one with such a long history – can do.
 
“Lily wrote ‘Bergen Street’ as she was leaving Brooklyn to move back to the Hudson Valley village that we grew up in,” Abigail explains. “It’s a bittersweet ode. Not a sad moment, exactly, but wistful.
 
“We thought we’d be city people forever, but during the pandemic, I eventually did the same thing. We packed up our little families and moved back to the woods and the grass and the driveways.”
 
“I always write songs about places I leave,” Lily confides. “When I was first writing ‘Bergen Street,’ I was still feeling the sting of leaving the city behind. I think it never goes away. The first time I played it for my daughter, she cried.
 
“It’s hard to process feelings of loss and leaving things behind that you love. This song allowed me to remember what was unique and to allow the memories to become more vivid.”
 
Brooklyn memories that The Chapin Sisters have built over a lifetime, and for their family, many lifetimes.
 
“Our family is a Brooklyn family,” Abigail says. “Our Manhattan-born grandmother claimed she had never been to Brooklyn until she moved there at age 30, but her kids adopted a strong identity and connection to Brooklyn Heights.
 
“The six boys played their first concerts there as The Chapin Brothers in the early 60s and even though the brothers eventually drifted out of the neighborhood, Brooklyn Heights has remained our family touchstone.”

Lily adds, “The history of Brooklyn is steeped in our childhoods. Our Dad’s childhood, his brothers, Grace Church choirboys... Our Uncle Steve and family friend Phil Forbes pushing a piano up and down the street in Red Hook to play tunes at Fort Defiance.”

Even though the sisters are now building their memories outside of Brooklyn, the familial togetherness continues, and not just in front of the microphone.

“We recorded ‘Bergen Street’ at Lily’s house,” Abigail says, “This was surprisingly challenging in ways.
 
“We’ve got four young children between us, and with our husbands involved in the recording process as well, we needed to rope in grandparents to take turns watching babies, cooking meals, doing dishes, and swinging on swings in the yard.”

This style of working is giving the new recordings by The Chapin Sisters an even more intimate sound, and though it may slow down the process, the process benefits.
 
“We are slowly making our way through our recordings, one song at a time,” Abigail says. “It’s been interesting to approach it this way, focusing on one thing until it’s done, instead of flitting around from song to song.

“I guess leaving the city is a theme in our lives right now, and it is showing up heavily in this batch of songs that will become our next album.”
 
Like the brothers who drifted, it is hard to imagine the sisters leaving Brooklyn behind for good.
 
When I come back
Will the streets recognize my feet?
Will the wind recognize
The air that I breathe?
 
This thoughtful tribute to Bergen Street – the place The Chapin Sisters left – assures that it will never leave them.
 
“Bergen Street” is the new single and video by The Chapin Sisters, out now via Lake Bottom Records.