There’s a lot to say about the songs of the sixties and the seventies. There’s even more to be said about the singers who sang them. As the fifties segued into the early sixties, rockabilly stars of the previous decade like the Everly Brothers, etc., still had hits, but older pop music stars began to fade as they struggled to find material that would click with a new generation. Slowly, pop music became controlled by younger vocal groups, taking their sound from a combination of performers, along with the songwriting talents of their production teams. Ultimately, rock artists wrote and produced their own songs. Consequently, they became responsible for how their records sounded. The key word is “sound.” That would have to wait for the likes of Carole King, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Lennon and McCartney and their ilk. The sixties changed many faces, in and out of the music business. Pop singing would never be the same. The baby boomers were sprouting up. Enter the Callaway sisters. Enter their tribute to that era. Enter Boom!

Celebrating the soundtrack of a generation, Boom! has that lovin’ feeling. It also happens to celebrate the coming of age of the Callaway sisters—Liz and Ann Hampton. These talented hipsters squeeze a lifetime into this live recorded hour at Birdland. Each lady is very different. Each is passionate in her delivery of a song. When they join forces on playful medleys, it’s all just wondrous—making for one to the most dynamic concept CDs to come along in ages.

Recorded in May 2011, the album features popular tunes made famous by the likes of Bob Dylan, Carole King, Stevie Wonder and The Beatles for starters. It’s all tied together around the Callaways’ childhood growing up near Chicago, with funny stories between warm duets and heartwrenching solos. At times, their voices ring out like cathedral bells, making these familiar songs sound as if they were written just for them. From romantic ballads like “The Way We Were” and “Yesterday” to upbeat romps like “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” or “I Know a Place” fused with “Downtown,” the album captures the pulse of an era that changed the face of music and gives a contemporary take on these pop standards that will live on long past whatever the Justin Biebers and Beyoncés are attempting to say. In that regard, many of these tunes sung by the Callaways are definitive. Their “Backseat-of-the-Car Medley” is a time-warp riot. As for those ballads—too hard to pick a favorite. But Ann’s gorgeous reading of Joni Mitchell’s pensive “A Case of You” and Liz’s haunting delivery on two iconic beauties by Jimmy Webb, “Didn’t We” in medley with “MacArthur Park,” renders other renditions moot—as does Boom!

John Hoglund
Cabaret Scenes
November 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org