We know you’re awash in holiday entertainment ideas, but if you go to one it needs to be the Side-by-Side concert by sisters Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer. Forget that they’re both award winning, critically acclaimed singers-songwriters who’ve each made chart-topping music. Don’t even consider they spent some of their childhoods growing up in the area. Just know that they’re two artistically brilliant sisters who love singing together — and do so beautifully. Talk about a family friendly start to the holiday season.
“It just seemed like the right time,” said the Grammy Award-winning Lynne, whose latest album “Tears, Lies & Alibis” has received extraordinary praise since its spring release. “I think that, obviously, some practicalities made it feel like the right time … and we are both in emotional spots that made us want to do this tour. We want to be together not just for musical reasons; we just want to.”
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IF YOU GO Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer |
| » Where: The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria |
| » When: 7:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday |
| » Info: $35; ticketmaster.com |
Although the sisters have always been incredibly close, their separate careers have kept them apart professionally. Moorer — who lives on the East Coast with her multi-Grammy Award-winning husband Steve Earle and their young son John Henry — has been almost constantly recording and touring. Her last album “Crows” has been acclaimed for its stripped-down acoustic sound and R&B highlights. Lynne, who lives on the West Coast, has started Everso, her own record label, and also tours and records constantly.
Yet when Lynne last month released her first holiday album — “Merry Christmas” — the stars aligned so the sisters could tour together.
They plan to arrive together in a tour bus with only their guitars as accompaniment. The concert — during which they’ll sing songs from their catalogs as well as holiday selections — may seem a departure for the two critically acclaimed singers who generally record with full bands, but the tour is a comfortable trip back in time for the two.
Moorer said she remembers she and her sister merrily singing with their mother as she drove them to school each day.
“It’s so cool now to get to do this now in front of other people,” Moorer said. “I get chills when I think about it. It really is coming full circle for us.”
