Lewiston

First Single is OUT!

When we started strumming the chord pattern that would eventually become “Lewiston,” it immediately conjured a hypnotic night drive; it somehow summoned before our eyes the hundreds and hundreds of trips we’ve taken together over the years: long stretches of highway after shows, crossing borders in the middle of the night, rolling up to theatres, folk clubs, festivals, hotels, drive thru windows (yes we did order an oatmeal and three milks at 1am) and home again. Mostly it was just the two of us in a minivan, watching washed-out highway colours blur past the windows.

The song takes its name from the border town of Lewiston, New York, a place we’ve passed through countless times while travelling between Canada and the United States. The challenge in writing it was finding lyrics that wouldn’t interrupt the spell cast by the music. Sparse and haunting, the arrangement called for restraint. We recorded the song live off the studio floor in a single, complete take, built around one acoustic guitar and our intertwined harmonies. Near the end of the session, we improvised the ascending and descending overlapping vocals in the bridge almost as an afterthought, and they ended up becoming one of our favourite moments on the entire album.

photo by Jen Squires

After more than two decades of touring together, it's become clear that much of our lives have unfolded in transit, in the spaces “in between”. We’ve been lucky enough to meet people from every walk of life, played in tiny rooms and beautiful halls, travelled on buses and ferries and through snowstorms, and spent long lost quiet hours simply moving through the dark together towards our next destination. For us, “Lewiston” captures it all: friendship, memory, gratitude, and the beauty of building a life side by side.

Here’s to all the roads that got us here, and all the miles still left to go. We hope you enjoy this, the first single from our new album, and that it sparks a new adventure for you and yours.

xo Sheila & Amanda