Price Sisters

Becoming a Part of the McCoury Family

Photo by Allen Clark

With the release of their latest album Between The Lines, Lauren and Leanna Price have recorded a project that they feel truly captures where they are right now on their musical journey. With Ronnie McCoury producing, and their band with them in the studio, the Price Sisters have finally solidified their unique sound.

What is interesting about this mark in the Price Sisters’ career is that a little over a decade ago, these amazing musicians did not yet know what ‘their sound’ was all about, nor did they have a clue that they would develop their own style years later. That is because they grew up in a part of Ohio that is beautiful yet overlooked, and where bluegrass music was considered far away and in the distance. 

It was almost similar to the scientific premise known as Fermi’s Paradox, which ponders the notion, ‘If this universe and our galaxy is full of life, where are they?’ For the Price Sisters, it was a matter of vaguely knowing about bluegrass music, yet few folks near them played it.  

 When it comes to the state of Ohio, cities like Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and more towns, along with Lake Erie, get all of the press. It is a state of former prairie land that has become some of the best farmland in the world. And yet, most people do not realize that Ohio is also a part of the Appalachian Mountain chain.

In the southeast corner of the Buckeye State, you will find coal mines, natural gas wells, and beautiful rolling hills that are a part of the Appalachian Mountain range all of the way to the mighty Ohio River. Halfway across the southern edge of the state is the delineation point in Adams County where the hills to the west were created by the glaciers during the last Ice Age, and the hills to the east are a part of the second oldest mountain range on the planet.

The Price Sisters grew up east of Marietta, Ohio in Monroe County, which only holds 16,000 people. And yet, they grew up in a musical home surrounded by extended family that has lived in the same area for generations. Leanna and Lauren were well-schooled in old country music, folk music, big band music and more, yet they were not surrounded by that elusive community that played bluegrass music. 

Eventually, the Price Sisters were turned onto the sounds of the Del McCoury Band, Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas and more. Yet, even after they began to learn how to play their instruments, with Leanna studying the fiddle and Lauren playing the mandolin, they had no knowledge of the wide and cool extended world of bluegrass music until they went to a week-long music camp as teenagers. 

“We grew up along the Ohio River, in the hilly part, between Wheeling, West Virginia, and Marietta, Ohio,” said Lauren Price. “We lived in a hollow, so if it weren’t for the trees and hills, we could see the Ohio River because we only lived about a mile away from it. We would go to the bank of the river to fish all of the time with our Dad. And, our father’s parents and our mother’s parents are both from that area as well, just a few miles apart. The little community that my Mom’s family settled in the early 1800s is now called Fly, Ohio. In fact, the family started a ferry service that went across to Sisterville, West Virginia, and it still operates today as the longest-running ferry on the Ohio River.”

Both of the Price Sisters’ parents are good singers who would often play on the front porch at home and at family functions, which they still do. Their father also played the guitar, so music was always in the home.  “There was music played by them that sort of was like bluegrass music, yet it wasn’t really bluegrass as we know it to be now,” said Lauren Price. “They played mostly old country songs like Johnny Cash standards and those of the Carter Family. Mom and Dad met in high school during the 1970s, so John Denver  style music was in the mix as well. The only thing that we had in the house of a bluegrass nature was probably the song ‘Blue Moon Of Kentucky’ or ‘Uncle Pen’ that was on a Greatest Country Hits of the 20^th Century record or something similar. Otherwise, I didn’t know who Bill Monroe was, or anyone else like him, either. Our Pap on our Mom’s side, however, is probably the biggest Jimmie Rodgers fan I will ever know; that is more or less the sound we grew up with in our part of the world.”

The Price Sister’s parents never pushed music onto them, as far as learning how to play an instrument or sing, yet they also never failed to encourage their daughters when they did begin to show an interest in making music. 

Leanna and Lauren have been singing together since they could talk. Then, they were asked if they would like to learn how to play an instrument when they were older, and that is what they got for their birthday one year. The first instruments that they chose to play are the same ones they are proficient in now, with Lauren on the mandolin and Leanna on the fiddle. As it turned out, their great grandmother also played the fiddle, yet she was no longer able to play by the time Leanna and Lauren were born.

“When we were in middle school, we didn’t dislike playing music, yet we really didn’t think that much of it, either,” said Lauren Price. “We sang together at some local talent shows. But, it wasn’t until we were in high school that we started to hear a little bit more about bluegrass music. Mom and Dad had the O Brother, Where Art Thou movie soundtrack and we all loved it, so we began to sing a lot of songs from that album so we could learn how to sing harmonies together. The artists on that record were bluegrass heavy hitters, but we didn’t really realize it at the time.  A little later on one of our Aunts actually gave our Dad the Del and The Boys album by the Del McCoury Band, and we saw them in concert when we were 14 years old.”

When the Price Sisters were teenagers, their parents leaned on them a bit to attend a week-long bluegrass instructional camp in West Virginia. At first, the Sisters did not want to go, but once they got there and met many people their own age that also played the music, that is when they realized that bluegrass music was a thing all its own, and that it contained a large group of folks ready to play and share.  

“When we were about to turn 16, they insisted a bit that we attend the Augusta Bluegrass Week in Elkins, West Virginia,” said Lauren Price. “It was our first time ever being away from home, and we did not want to go. But, we went, and were soon hooked on bluegrass music. I had a mandolin workshop with the great Mike Compton that week which was incredible as I had recognized Mike as playing on my favorite songs from the Down From the Mountain recording. Things kind of came together all at once from there; that week was also our first exposure to the jamming side of the bluegrass community, but it still took us a year or so before we got more comfortable and realized bluegrass is a serious thing that folks go and do and share. By the time we were juniors and seniors in high school, if there was a bluegrass festival even remotely nearby, our parents would take us there to see the bands and jam. By going to those workshops and festivals, we got to meet other teenagers who played the music.” 

Eventually, the Price Sisters set about making bluegrass music their career. Leanna studied the fiddle with Dan Kessinger, who is a part of the renowned Kessinger Family of West Virginia that includes Dan’s brother Robin Kessinger, a National Flatpick Guitar Champion and the organizer and founder of the West Virginia State Flatpick Guitar Championship held every July at the Fly In Festival in Huntington, West Virginia. Both Dan and Robin are direct relatives of the legendary fiddler Clark Kessinger. Leanna has also moved to the big city of Nashville where she works at Brandon Godman’s Violin Shop.

Lauren Price and her husband Scott Napier now live in Owensboro, Kentucky. Napier has become the Program Coordinator of the Bluegrass and Traditional Music Program at the Owensboro Community and Technical College while Lauren works at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Along the way, the Price Sisters met and befriended the McCoury Family and that led to this exceptional new Between The Lines album being released on the McCoury Music label.  “As our graduation present for high school, our parents enrolled us into the DelFest Academy,” said Lauren Price. “That is where we met them for the first time and since then, the McCoury Family has been very encouraging to us. They are some of the nicest people in the music business, while still being musicians at the top of the tier. In 2016, when we did our first EP with Rebel Records, Ronnie agreed to play guitar with us on the recording as well.”

By 2020, the Price Sisters had released a full-length album, formed a traveling band, had toured in Europe, and made their debut at The Station Inn. Then, of course, the pandemic hit and it stalled everything for a while. But when it came time to record a new album, the Price Sisters got brave and asked Ronnie McCoury if he would produce the new effort, and he said yes.

“I got a call to be the producer for the Price Sisters’ new album and they asked me if I would be interested, but then the pandemic hit,” said Ronnie McCoury. “I had been asked to produce recordings by quite a lot of different people but I turned them down, mostly due to no time to do it. Time was always my main reason. Now, as I get older, I just felt like, ‘If I am going to produce an album, I just need to do it.’ But again, the pandemic hit and that threw everything off for a year. That is when I enjoyed my time at home as for the past 30 years, I had been eating the road up. So, we grew a garden and relaxed. When I did get into the studio with the Price Sisters, we recorded their album in three days.”

What helped the album flow so quickly in the studio was that age-old phenomena of sibling musicians and their uncanny-connected sibling harmonies.  “They sing so good and sing in tune and together, and they played great,” said McCoury. “I added my Dad on some vocals in the studio, and I brought in Peter Rowan to do some things as well. Recording Dad and Peter’s vocals was the only thing that took some time to do. As for Lauren and Leanna, I said ‘Come to my house and let’s rehearse some songs.’ They brought some songs with them and I probably had six songs or so as well, and when I asked them if they liked them, they were ok with all of my suggestions. 

“They also wrote two instrumentals, one on the mandolin and one on the fiddle, and that was a good thing because they are both good musicians,” continues McCoury. “I also suggested a Black Keys song called ‘Ten Cent Pistol,’ and I thought it was a good song and bluegrass radio has since played it a lot as a single. There is another songwriter named David Francey that we know, Dad has cut one of his songs, who is from Canada and he writes a lot with Kevin Welch, and he has won a Juno Award in Canada as well. We recorded one of his songs. He is actually Scottish and has a thick Scottish accent and he moved to Canada when he was young. I also found a song that Cowboy Jack Clement and Don Robertson wrote that was never recorded before, was never published or anything, and I remembered it. It is called ‘There’s A Song In There Somewhere,’ and I sung it on the demo and they liked it, and that is the cut that my Dad sang on as a guest for the album.”  

On Between The Lines, the Price Sisters decided to record the album with their band, including Conner Vlietstra on guitar, Trevor Holder on banjo, and Bobby Osborne II on upright bass. Dennis Crouch was also brought in on upright bass when Bobby had to be absent.  “They might have been somewhat nervous when we went into the studio, but I tried to make them as comfortable as I could, of course,” said McCoury. “Their banjo picker Trevor, I believe had never been in a studio before, but boy, that guy can play. Trevor is young but he is good and he knew what he liked. We had a great studio engineer in Sean Sullivan there, who sat him right in front of that microphone and said, ‘Here is where you need to be.’ We recorded the album in The Tractor Shed, which is where we record as well. The studio is in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, and it is actually located in Grandpa Jones old house.”

The Price Sisters are well-aware of their luck and accomplishments, knowing that they have spent time with and played with legends. Leanna Price, for instance, spent two years playing the fiddle for late IBMA Hall of Famer Bobby Osborne, and they have two more Hall of Famers on this new album with Del McCoury and Peter Rowan.  “The second year I went to Augusta Bluegrass Week in Elkins, my parents bought a really good fiddle for me from Byron Berline, whom I met that year,” said Leanna Price, about the great fiddler who won an IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award in 2012. “The first year I went to Augusta, I did not know who Byron was, but by the second year, I definitely knew who he was and I was super excited to meet him and work with him. Then, we ended up buying a fiddle from him, and Byron was probably the first person who told me to keep at it and to strive to be good on the fiddle. Dan Kessinger always encouraged me like that as well, but Byron inspired me so much from that point on. And, finally having a really good fiddle really made me want to play more, for sure. We kept in touch with Byron and his wife Bette; he was one of the most encouraging people that I have ever met.”

Leanna cherished her time performing with Bobby Osborne whom, like Byron Berline, has also now left this world. “We have done things in music that I never would have thought of when we were 16 and 17 years old,” said Leanna Price. “At that point as teenagers, in our junior and senior years in high school, we really got interested in the Del McCoury Band and Ronnie and Jason became huge influences on the mandolin for Lauren and the fiddle for me, respectively. I remember looking up Del’s tour dates on the computer in Monroe County, Ohio, and wondering if I’d ever be able to see them perform live or ever meet them. I never thought I’d get to know them or the Osborne Brothers or anyone like that.”

Now, there are going to be times in the near future when younger folks are going to ask the Price Sisters what it was like to get to know and to play with the legends they have befriended. Even though they are still in their 20s, they already realize the gravity of those experiences.  “Oh wow, I mean, it’s just amazing to think about,” said Leanna Price. “Those times with those people are something that I hope to never take for granted, and I don’t think I will. Those are the people that really and truly put a stamp on this music and I feel extremely lucky and blessed to have known a lot of them. Kenny Baker, one of my heroes on the fiddle, passed away in 2011 and that was before we really got into the bluegrass world, so I missed meeting him. I never got to meet Ralph Stanley, either, and I wish that had happened. But, I’ve got to spend some time with Bobby Hicks and Bobby Osborne and Jesse McReynolds, and those times have been incredible and really special.”

Not long ago, the Price Sisters got to make their debut on the Grand Ole Opry and it was a night they will remember forever. Leanna had played on the Opry before with Bobby Osborne, but this time, they did it under their own name.  “There were about 15 of our family members who got to come to the Grand Ole Opry that night, and that was the best feeling,” said Leanna Price. “We really didn’t know what time we would get done with things after the show, or when we would get to see everybody. But, even though it was late by the time we were done, they were all waiting outside and were hollering and clapping and everything. Our family has always been very supportive of us and it was really great to have them there.”

More information can be found at thepricesisters.com.