Culture
After playing with their heroes, SistaStrings gear up to record their own album with Americana stars
By: Ian Saint
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WOUB) — Since winning Instrumentalist Of the Year at last year’s Americana Honors, SistaStrings have played alongside Joni Mitchell, Elton John, and Ed Sheeran (to name a few). At the 2024 Americana Honors, airing on WOUB-TV at 10 p.m. EST Saturday, they performed with Song Of The Year winner Brandy Clark.
Sisters Monique (cello) and Chauntee Ross (violin) were born in Milwaukee, WI, and raised by pastor parents. Their formal education in classical music, combined with an improvisational ease they’d refined by performing gospel in church, made them a popular hire by rock and folk musicians for both live performances and studio sessions — including Americana artist, Peter Mulvey, who recommended the sisters to his Nashville peers.
In late 2020, the sisters relocated to Music City. Allison Russell soon hired them to play with her, beginning at Newport Folk Festival; and this led to them joining Brandi Carlile’s touring band. Meanwhile, Carlile hosted Joni Mitchell’s surprise return to performing concerts since her 2015 brain aneurysm — paving the way for SistaStrings to play with the likes of Mitchell, Elton John, and Annie Lennox.
Three years after their Nashville relocation, SistaStrings won Instrumentalist Of The Year at the 2023 Americana Music Honors & Awards. They returned to this year’s Americana Honors to perform with Brandy Clark, Song Of The Year winner for Dear Insecurity — whose dramatic opening boasts the Ross sisters’ isolated strings arrangement. The SistaStrings-led track won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Americana Performance.
SistaStrings spoke with WOUB’s Ian Saint during the Americana Music Honors’ Red Carpet ceremony, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, prior to the show. A transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.
IAN SAINT:
You’ve performed with Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Annie Lennox, and Ed Sheeran. Does anyone remain on your bucket list?
MONIQUE:
Oh, my. Well, we’re working on our own project, so that is a huge bucket list thing for us — having our own project out, and being able to tour that. We have so much fun playing everybody else’s music, we want to play our own.
CHAUNTEE:
Playing the Hollywood Bowl is definitely on my list. I remember recording with Allison Russell in LA, driving past it while going to the studio every day, and thinking “I’d like to play the Hollywood Bowl.” Next month, we’re playing the Hollywood Bowl two nights in a row with Joni Mitchell. (Editor’s note: these performances took place on October 19 & 20.)
What was your first encounter with Joni like?
CHAUNTEE:
We were onstage at Newport (Folk Festival) and I saw there was one extra seat (for the Joni Jam band), so I was going to sneak up and claim it, but the stage manager — who’s a buddy of mine — was like, “nope,” and I was so embarrassed. I turn around in shame swiftly, and I run right into Joni Mitchell. I almost ran her over, and I say “oh, I’m so sorry! You’re incredible!” And she replied “you’re incredible.” My laugh was immortalized on that live album (Joni Mitchell At Newport).
(Editor’s note: Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides, Now performance at Newport Folk Festival, and Allison Russell & Brandi Carlile’s You’re Not Alone featuring SistaStrings, were selected by WOUB’s Ian Saint as two of 25 Music Highlights in 2022)
Tell us more about the new album you have in the works.
MONIQUE:
We’ve been writing, writing, writing, a lot, a lot, a lot. Our lovely friend and mentor, Brandi Carlile, will be producing it along with our darling friend, Shooter Jennings. Oh, gosh, I can’t wait to put music out. Everyone gets to see our weird selves mixed with our classical selves, mixed with, I don’t know — it’s going to be real fun and interesting to hear what comes out.
You won Instrumentalist Of The Year, but you two can also sing. When you played with Annie Lennox, I saw that you set your instruments aside and sang No More ‘I Love You’s with her.
MONIQUE:
Yes, and we had our choreography, (gestures and sings) “AHH-ahh-AHH.” She’s one of my favorite humans.
CHAUNTEE:
Annie is an absolute angel, hilarious, so badass, one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. If she wasn’t (the celebrity) Annie Lennox, she would still be the most special, powerful being that anyone ever met.
So many genres intertwine in your music. How do you feel about being classified as “Americana?”
MONIQUE:
Moving to Nashville, people were saying “you’re Americana.” And we were like, “hmm, are we?”
CHAUNTEE:
Yeah, we had no idea. (laugh)
MONIQUE:
But seeing how vast that Americana umbrella is, it totally makes sense. Because we grew up where our parents would say, “embrace your classical, embrace your gospel”; and as we got in college, we embraced R&B and pop. All those things influence our sound, so I guess we fit under the umbrella that we were like, “huh?”
What’s your proudest achievement so far?
CHAUNTEE:
Oh, man. I’d say, sticking together and staying true to ourselves. It’s been a really crazy journey. I remember when we first moved to Nashville, I thought everybody was name-dropping like crazy. We’re from Milwaukee, Wisconsin — okay, listen, there ain’t nobody famous around. So staying grounded and sticking together, making sure that we don’t let all the shiny things take over.
It’s hard for duos; even Hall & Oates are now at loggerheads. Maybe they should call you, to help them settle their lawsuit.
CHAUNTEE:
It helps that we’re sisters.
MONIQUE:
It helps that we’re sisters. You know how to fight and resolve it. My mom is like, “get it together!”
ACL Presents: 23rd Annual Americana Honors airs on WOUB-TV this Saturday, November 23 at 10 PM EST.