About this item

The Cornshed Sisters release their second album ‘Honey & Tar’ on Memphis Industries. It was recorded and produced by Peter Brewis at Field Music’s Studio on the banks of the river Wear.

The Cornshed Sisters are Jennie Brewis, Cath Stephens, Liz Corney (moonlighting from the Field Music band) and Marie Nixon (erstwhile of 90s upstarts Kenickie); four singersongwriters based in Tyne and Wear, who weave together pop, folk, ballad and protest music into a unique and distinctive style.

The Cornshed Sisters have been away for a while (their last album, ‘Tell Tales’, was released back in 2012) but we can probably let them off as they’ve been using the time well, becoming mothers, bringing millions of pounds of funding into major Sunderland arts projects, recording and touring with Field Music and somehow making time to write songs and record this album together.

Drawing on a palette of solo and harmony vocals and a blend of acoustic and electronic instruments, they convey their stories with sensitivity and humour. Their subject matter is love, motherhood, fake happiness, friendship, family, feminism and the increasing complexities of life as you get older but no wiser. The band are proud to write about their experiences as women and their songwriting always has a stark realism to it - as Marie puts it when discussing the track ‘We Have Said This Is Impossible’: “True love is buggering off together in a Ford Focus.”