No more Nashville Turning down the advice of industry reps, Ennis makes heartfelt folk album ASHLEY FITZPATRICK The Telegram

Home and happy, Karen and Maureen Ennis have no problem heading into a November rain for a photo in downtown St. John's. The sisters will launch the tour for their new CD "Lessons Learned" Nov. 25 in Carbonear. - Photo by Ashley Fitzpatrick/The Telegram

At a coffee shop table in downtown St. John's, Ennis sisters Karen and Maureen sat down with The Telegram to talk about changes that have come to their music.

That includes their younger sister going solo, their venture into American country and their subsequent rediscovery of their Newfoundland folk roots.

The journey has led to the creation of a new band, a new sound and their Ennis debut CD, "Lessons Learned."

Losing a bandmate, not a sister

The pair has performed as Ennis since Teresa, the youngest member of The Ennis Sisters, moved to a solo career.

The three sisters had shot to provincial star status following the release of songs such as "Out From St. Leonard's" and "Red is the Rose" in the 1990s.

They toured with Jann Arden and rang in the new millennium with Great Big Sea in front of a crowd of 50,000 at the St. John's harbourfront in 1999/2000. There was a Juno and ECMAs for 2003's "It's Not About You," and in 2007, "Be Here for a While."

Then, Teresa decided to go it alone.

"When we started (performing together) in the Kiwanis music festival," said Maureen, turning to Karen, "she was what, nine?"

The two older sisters said with that, the decision by their sister to write and perform her own work, as opposed to sharing the input, was understood. "I would have done the same thing myself," said Maureen, who wrote the bulk of the lyrics on Ennis' first release.

"She made a tough decision to become an individual in a formula that wasn't individual," said the dark-haired songwriter.

As sisters, but also as former bandmates, both Karen and Maureen watched Teresa perform on her own during the 2009 East Coast Music Awards in Corner Brook. Simply put, they said, they were proud.

Ch-ch-changes ...

Still that left a noticible gap in the group. They went looking for a new voice to fit into Maureen's harmonies, but this time a male, so as not to subject a female to the feeling of being the odd woman out.

Mark Murphy joined the band, appearing on all but one of the 12 tracks on the new recording. (Alan Doyle drops in on the other, titled "Still Single(s).")

In addition to using Murphy and a series of local musicians, the sisters pushed the trio of traditional instruments: whistle, fiddle, accordion.

The entire CD, in fact, stands as a tribute to the Irish-Newfoundland folk tradition.

It is also a 180-degree turn from the polished country sound and primped image the sisters were encouraged to adopt while living in the United States for a brief period in 2008.

In the heart of music-centric Nashville, Tenn. from September to July, with a short visit home last Christmas, the sisters sat time and again at table after table to talk music.

It was one suit and another, a series of people who tried to set the sisters in the country music mould, they said.

"You just kind of trust that they know what they're talking about," Karen said of the industry representatives.

Yet, when it came to Ennis, Maureen says, they didn't.

... and changing back

"(The music) never fit on country radio because there was way too much of our folk Newfoundland colouring," she said.

In addition to trying to change the sound, the sisters said they have encountered image doctors who have asked them to lose weight, puff their hair and lips and be more marketable.

By July, they had had enough. Suffering homesickness, they packed up to return home.

"It really made me appreciate life for the number of Newfoundlanders who are forced to just pick up and go," Maureen said. "I'll never again pick up my life in a U-Haul and set down roots other than in Newfoundland."

Only one song on "Lessons Learned" centres on the Nashville country sound. Titled "I'm Leaving," country twangs and curls, with an added tenor banjo from Billy Sutton, scream of the south.

The lyrics, however, are all about the sweetness of the return to Newfoundland. "I'm leaving with lessons I've learned/about what bridge to build/and what bridge to burn."

While Karen said the creative energy in Nashville was worth noting and there were lessons in the business the sisters picked up, the decision to make a traditional Irish-Newfoundland CD brought with it creative freedoms and a feeling of having meaning and of being "right."

"We didn't have to write your 'typical love song' so it can play on the radio," said Karen. "Each song is about something."

"I think this, from a music standpoint, is what we always wanted to make," said Maureen. "It was deliberately crafted that people will sing along."

In touring the island to support their new album, Ennis will be adding in holiday songs from The Ennis Sister's 1998 release "Christmas on Ennis Road." It is an album the sisters never toured with, Maureen said.

The songs will fit with the Ennis Christmas fundraiser for food banks. For their upcoming tour, said the sisters, $2 from every ticket and $5 from every CD sold will go to food banks. Currently, half the proceeds (50 cents) from online sales of the single "Cecelia" will be donated to the CBC Turkey Drive.

afitzpatrick@thetelegram.com

discography

Recording

Starting as The Ennis Sisters in 1997, the group released seven discs before reinventing itself as Ennis for its latest self-titled record.

1997: Red is the Rose

1998: Christmas on Ennis Road

2000: Three

2001: The Ennis Sisters

(It's Not About You, 2003 U.S.)

2003: Can't Be the Same

2007: Be Here for a While

2009: Lessons Learned

Schedule

Tickets for the cross-island tour are available through Arts and Culture Centre box offices.

Nov. 25: Princess Sheila NaGeira Theatre, Carbonear

Nov. 29: Arts and Culture Centre, Gander

Nov. 30: Gordon Pinsent Centre, Grand Falls-Windsor

Dec. 1: Arts and Culture Centre, Corner Brook

Dec. 2: Arts and Culture Centre, Stephenville

Dec. 6: Arts and Culture Centre, St. John's

Jan. 23 to Jan. 30: The 19th Annual Irish Festival Cruise (www.irishtours.com). Sailing the Caribbean with a dozen traditional acts, including Tommy Sands, Johnny McEvoy and The Karan Casey Band.

- Schedule source: www.ennismusic.com