Hope For Agoldensummer

"A Sister's Bond Beyond Music"
By: Carole Perkins
Published by: Go Triad
Thursday, November 12 2009

From the deep Southern roots of Athens, Ga., where resurrected bottles of Milk of Magnesia line weathered porch railings and rocking chairs sway with the cadence of katydids, comes a band whose music is as enchanting as their name.

Hope For Agoldensummer is a folk trio comprised of sisters Claire and Page Campbell and friend Deb Davis. While the acoustic guitar is the center of their music, whimsical instruments ring and whistle, from xylophone to singing saw to slide whistle and some occasional knee-slapping. Claire's and Page's harmonies float together effortlessly as they conjure images of the South: drinking on rooftops and dancing with the moon, shooting Coke bottles and driving I-85, and writing goodbye love letters.

"Page and I are very close," Claire said. "We don't have to communicate with words much on stage. Part of that is because we are sisters, but it's also partly because we've been playing together for eight years. After a while, you don't have to say things on stage. You can just look at each other and know where you want the harmony to go."

The Campbells' father played in various bands in Georgia and encouraged the girls to play guitar early. Page started playing guitar about age 14 and Claire, at 16. Claire says she "finally picked up a guitar when my dad stopped trying to get me to play." She eventually put a solo album out, "Golden Summer."

"I was having a terrible summer, so I guess the name was sort of sarcastic. I formed another band for a couple of years and when it broke up I started Hope For Agoldensummer. At that point is wasn't about being sarcastic; it was about real hope."

In addition to making her own lye soap and swinging on low-flying trapezes for strength and flexibility, Claire's favorite activity is being a doula, a "precursor" to a midwife who helps women during and after childbirth.

Claire writes songs only about three or four times a year when "real inspiration strikes like major events that are tragic or happy," she says. "Or, I'll hear someone else's story and be inspired by that. I do a lot of plagiarizing from my friend's letters. I'll take phrases and turn them into songs. I consider anything anybody says to be fair game."

Claire is 32 years old, a six-year difference between younger sister Page, who idolized Claire growing up and wanted to do everything she did, including playing the guitar.

"It's great working with my sister," Page says. "I can't imagine what my life would be without her because she's always been there. I think I kind of took her for granted until we started making music together, and then it all happened so naturally."

When Page isn't working her day job at a coffee shop, swinging with Claire on trapezes, or baking vegan cookies, she plays in two other bands, Creepy and Sea of Dogs. She is also working on a musical project tentatively called Rising Sign with her "man," Dan Donahue.

Despite Page's musical gifts, she says her proudest accomplishment is creating a video called, "Katelina," soon after leaving art video school in Chicago. In the video, quasi-psychedelic images paint the story of the sisters' close relationship.

"I never intended to do anything with that video when I wrote it," Page says. "Then some years later, a friend said he wanted to make a video of us so we pulled it out and made it into a music video.

"I think it's about finding ways to take care of each other and being women who need each other."

I addition to their two other albums, this month Hope For Agoldensummer will release a live CD, "Hours in the Attic," recorded mostly in Claire's attic.

"We had friends come over to act as a studio audience," Claire says. "It has 16 songs, mainly the ones most requested in our shows plus a couple of new ones."

In the spring, the band will tour extensively to promote a studio CD.