The
Lonesome Sisters, Debra Clifford & Sarah Hawker.
Photo by Maria Camillo.
For a high resolution press photo of this pic for print, Click
Here.
"Crystalline
harmonies and mournful tunes..." -The Boston Globe
The
Lonesome Sisters were voted Best Acoustic Duo
of 2006 by Gibson
Guitars
Lonesome
Sister "Backstage Pass" Gibson Guitar Article
NEWS: "Follow Me Down" voted best original
song in the Clifftop
WV Appalachian Stringband Festival Songwriting Contest. August 2006.
The Lonesome Sisters, Sarah Hawker and Debra Clifford, are known for their hard hitting high old time country and mountain harmonies and their love of singing about tragedy and heartache in all its forms. They have performed at venues such as the Newport Folk Festival and the Kaufman Center, Merkin Hall in NYC, and played with Ginny Hawker & Tracy Schwarz, Jesse Winchester, The Levon Helm Band, Hazel Dickens, Alice Gerrard, Laurie Lewis, Dudley Connell, Marshall Wilborn, Tony Trischka, Mike Marshall and Darol Anger. They were selected to perform for juried showcases at the Western Arts Alliance in Albuquerque NM, the Performing Arts Exchange in Memphis, Tennessee and the Roots & Branches Stage at IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) in Nashville, TN. At Merlefest 2004 they performed and won best country song in the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest for Sarah's song, "Forgiveness." Sarah's original song "Going Home Shoes" was included in the Fall 2004 Sing Out! magazine and compilation CD, with music & lyrics printed inside. They have recorded three CD's on their own record label, Tin Halo Music with Riley Baugus and Rayna Gellert, as well alone. "Follow Me Down" was voted best original song in the Clifftop WV Appalachian Stringband Festival Songwriting Contest. The Lonesome Sisters were voted Best Acoustic Duo of 2006 by Gibson Guitars. (Lonesome Sister "Backstage Pass" Gibson Guitar Article) In April 2007 they performed at Merlefest, and Sarah was a judge in the 2007 Chris Austin Songwriting Contest. They are currently working on CD #4 and traveling much less, but still writing and working on their next project.
LS BIOS
Sarah
Hawker learned about traditional Appalachian singing from
her aunt Ginny
Hawker,
her uncle Tracy Schwarz,
and her grandfather, Ben
Hawker, beloved Primitive Baptist singer, teacher, and teller of
tall tales. She has successfully entwined the roots of her family
heritage
with her own original work, winning the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest(Merlefest
2004) for her song "Forgiveness," and having her song "Going
Home Shoes" featured in Sing
Out! magazine (Fall
2004). Her song "Follow
me Down" was voted
best original song in the Clifftop
WV Appalachian Stringband Festival Songwriting Contest, in August
2006. In
April 2007 the Lonesome Sisters performed at Merlefest,
and Sarah was a judge in the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest. The
Lonesome Sisters were voted Best Acoustic Duo of 2006 by Gibson
Guitars. Along
with singing and songwriting, she plays guitar, clawhammer banjo and harmonium.
Sarah
lives in Woodstock, NY, in the beautiful Catskill Mountains.
Debra
Clifford has played in many bluegrass, early country and old
time bands in the northeast. She
has performed with Ginny
Hawker & Tracy
Schwarz, Mac Benford, and Alice Gerrard. She has recorded with the old time string band jimmyjohnnnyjoe with NC fiddler Joe Thrift, Jason Sypher and Mark Olitsky.
The Lonesome Sisters were voted Best Acoustic Duo of 2006 by Gibson Guitars. She plays an old Gibson
SJ acoustic guitar, old Gibson mandolin, fretless clawhammer banjo and tenor guitar
in the Lonesome Sisters. She lives in the Chatham NY/Woodstock area of the Hudson Valley. In 2009, Debra taught at Ashokan Southern Week and played guitar in the winning band "The Bailers" at Clifftop Appalachian Old Time Music Festival, watch it here on youtube. They will play a one hour concert at Clifftop 2010 in August. She also performed with Tracy Schwarz in his master workshop at Clifftop 2009 and regularily performs with Ginny and Tracy. You can reach her by email here.
*ARCHIVED RADIO SHOWS*
LISTEN TO LS ON THE RADIO THRIFT SHOP with Laura Cantrell on WFMU 91.1 FM
LISTEN TO LS ON DANCING ON THE AIR with Jay Ungar and Molly Mason on WAMC
LISTEN TO LS ON KGNU's KABARET
