The Tennessee Twisters are the duo of Amelia White and Linda McRae, who will bring an evening of stories and songs to Southside Bethlehem\u2019s Godfrey Daniels on Nov. 20.<\/p>\n
White says this is her fifth time at Godfrey\u2019s and the second as half of the Twisters. They appeared there in May.<\/p>\n
Their concerts are warm and intimate, relying on close communication with their audiences.<\/p>\n
White, who sings and plays guitar, writes about a wide range of subjects, and tries to \u201ckeep her antennae up\u201d to find subjects. It might be something personal, but written with relatable emotions.<\/p>\n
\u201cA song that is about one thing to me might be something completely different to someone else. I try to get a universal feeling, where people cry and laugh together<\/p>\n
\u201cTimes are difficult now for musicians, but there will always be a place for people to gather to hear music. It is a sacred thing, and a big thing in a time of divisiveness,\u201d White says in a phone from Syracuse, N.Y., during an Upstate New York tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy writing has become more streamlined. It\u2019s harder to write with simplicity, cutting out a lot of stuff. I look to be poetic and use imaging, like presenting small movies,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
White has been playing music her whole life:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was eight or 10, I wrote my own plays with music, and I was told that I even sold tickets to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
McRae, who sings and plays guitar and banjo, also emphasizes her bond with listeners. For example, after doing a song about addiction that affected a close relative, she says, \u201cSomeone always comes up to me and tells me their own story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their first few shows coincided with a tornado or windstorm, which gave the duo their Tennessee Twisters name.<\/p>\n
\u201cLinda and I knew each other from the music scene in East Nashville, but we found that we were magnetically drawn together at a music festival in Washington state,\u201d says White.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have so much fun on stage,\u201d says McRae. \u201cHooking up with her is such a blast. We have a great rapport.\u201d<\/p>\n
At first when they did Twisters\u2019 shows the two performed separately and with each other. Now, says White, \u201cWe have two sets of material we do together, split about equally between songs each of us have written. We hope that we can do an album or an EP together in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
They live near East Nashville, Tenn. \u201cThere is so much more going on there than just country music and the publishing industry. There is jazz, blues and even hip-hop,\u201d says White.<\/p>\n
White has released 10 albums. McRae has released eight albums. Each has appeared on a number of other recordings. White has completed her third successful Kickstarter campaign to help fund her next album, which she says will be a \u201creally stripped down, community affair\u201d done with friends.<\/p>\n
Originally from Canada, McRae was a long-time member of the Celtic rock group Spirit of the West, which she left to perform her own material. She hopes one day to do a \u201cChristmas album for people who don\u2019t like Christmas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI draw from a lot of different sources,\u201d McRae says. Having learned the banjo in 2005, she has a particular tie to traditional music:<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents were fans of Country music. We made our own booze and we fed musicians when we had jams in our basement.\u201d<\/p>\n
McRae says her music has become more introspective over the years. \u201cI used to point my finger at people,\u201d she says. Her Linda McRae Band was a punk band.<\/p>\n
McRae does songwriting workshops, including 13 visits to Folsom Prison, Calif.<\/p>\n
Rameen Shayegan, guitar-maker at Martin Guitar who plays guitar and mandolin with the Dina Hall Band, opens the concert. He released his first album, \u201cForeign Land,\u201d in 2021.<\/p>\n
Tennessee Twisters, 7 p.m. Nov. 20, Godfrey Daniels, 7 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem, 610-867-2390, https:\/\/godfreydaniels.org<\/p>\n
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY HUNTER JOHNSONTennessee Twisters, from left: Linda McRae, Amelia White.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tennessee Twisters are the duo of Amelia White and Linda McRae, who will bring an evening of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-38410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}