The Stephen Sisters
A long distance writing process was a know challenge for the Stephen sisters, who blew audience members away during their 3 hour concert at the Free Times Cafe. This exceptional musical performance featured solo songs as well as collaborative tunes from sisters Carling and Caitlin, who planned and practiced this show from two different cities. The reasoning behind this unique and difficult writing process was simple, Carling and Caitlin wanted to play a show together but struggled with the idea because Caitlin currently lives in Toronto and Carling resides in Peterborough. To overcome this geographical problem, the two shared songs and ideas over the phone and the internet. This made it possible for them to make full use of their practice time together, which took place on random weekends, when one of the sisters had time to commute. What was also interesting about this writing process was that, it made it possible for both artists to keep their own specific style, even when playing together. This was more than evident throughout the show and can be demonstrated perfectly by comparing the sister’s solo performances to their collaborative songs.
Carling Stephen
From the moment Carling Stephen took the stage, it was clear that her signature style revolved around a warm bluesy sound with a lot of soul. Throughout her performance, Carling engaged the audience with her soft, sweet voice, flowing over a range of high notes in songs such as “The Red Boots” and “Baby Don’t Go”. To compliment her voice Carling lightly strummed a shallow Beaver Creek Guitar, creating a light sounding rhythm that engaged the audience while leaving the main focus of their attention on the lyrics.
Interestingly enough, when watching Caitlin perform it seemed as if her sound was the opposing opposite to her sisters. Caitlin’s style was heavily focused on deep melodic sounds that would burst into momentary high notes at certain times throughout the songs. To further accent her sound Caitlin used intricate and timely piano riffs to highlight her passionate voice in songs like “Spirit in the Night”. This use of key moments made it possible for Caitlin to sing songs that were enriched with lyrics and intensely poetic.
Caitlin Stephen
When the two sisters combined their talent the mixture was explosive. It was as if all the low-end melodies and deep grooves were completely covered by Caitlin, while Carling explored the high end moments of each song. An amazing example of this was a cover of Alicia Keys song “Falling” which showed the two sisters in there true elements. The passion and power of Caitlin’s voice combined with the shear soul in Carling’s gave listeners a chill, and had them begging for more! In all of their collaborative songs both Carling and Caitlin clearly demonstrated their own signature style, and together exemplified how two styles from two cities can be mixed perfectly. Although no one will know for certain if this long distance writing process is a contributor to the Stephen sister’s sound, one thing is for sure, whatever these two are doing it’s working! Their performance was flawless and whether they are together or apart, both Caitlin and Carling Stephen are a must see performance!
