While No-One Was Looking

Little Sister, the Lonmon sisters and their friends, typify what I have come to associate with South African musicians: they are experienced, they know what pleases an audience, they are confident, and, like so many other SA bands, the Sisters are utter professionals. Their smooth sound is inspiring.

I was familiar with many of these tunes before acquiring While No-One Was Looking by virtue of having heard them over at their web site littlesister.co.za. It’s a friendly site, and airing the music as it does made me decide that I did want to acquire their music – they’re not giving it away, they’re advertising, and it worked: after I heard their songs, I wanted more.

By the way, sidemen aren’t credited in the liner notes of this CD, but they are in the respective albums these songs come from, and on their website.

Little Sister’s songs are clever in that they are intelligent rock songs yet are deceptively easy to listen to. The hooks are not obvious, but thoroughly catchy nonetheless. There is an urgency, an aggressiveness if you will, to many of the lyrics that raise these songs above pop or easy listening and into the realm of mature singing, mature songwriting, and talented rock. The clever, thoughtful lyrics engage one’s attention the way rock should.

Here’s where I admit ignorance on two topics and yet come to a real conclusion, with an unrelated example to support my contention. I don’t know how many gigs Little Sister plays a year, but they seem to undertake a healthy number of tours. I don’t know how many shows a huge current world-success band plays annually, but I’ll bet it’s far fewer gigs than Little Sister plays. My conclusion is the playing Little Sister does accounts in part for their confident and professional sound. To back this up, boxers of yore used to fight more often that a modern toothless wonder like Spinks. Spinks boxes once or twice a year, while old-time fighters fought every weekend. The old time boxers learned moves, combos, endurance, and skills unknown to modern sluggers. My conclusion of this thread: Little Sister has talent and experience, that makes them a wonderfully tight and smooth and professional band – I urge them to keep slugging away!

Here are my takes on a handful of the songs, though each and every one of the 15 tracks is a winner – truly a Best of collection:

“You Bring Out the Best in Me” – Two versions are on this disc, the first and last tracks. The second, extended, version seems more intimate, even with the added guitar, but both performances are lovely love songs.

“Dear Abbie” – So sincere and honest a song, replete with passionate despair, excellent musicianship and singing, and fine songwriting.

“Peace on Earth” – An optimistic anthem suggesting we keep on aspiring.

“No Man Shall Fall” – Elegiac and beautiful, soaring singing and guitar work, a song about awareness of wrongs done and a new leaf turning.

“Love Is a Weapon” – Ain’t it sometimes though? Rocker with an honest hook.

“That’s Just the Way It Is” – a nice straight-ahead thumping bass guitar and a bit of a bopping shimmy going on here.

“Little Sister” – Crank it up! Aggressive adult lyrical content, too. Based on this tune, I think my next Little Sister album will be Ready and Willing. It contains two versions, one with extra guitar, apparently.

The songs above, and the otherwise excellent ones unmentioned, make a nice ebb and flow through the album. The tempo will slow a little, then in roars a song to fill the dance floor. Good pacing of these cuts.

I’ve read comparisons between Little Sister and Heart, but frankly, I don’t hear any more Heart (as in Ann and Nancy Wilson) in these songs than might be coincidental by virtue of two female voices, sisters no less, in a guitar-and vocals-oriented rock band. I hear Debbi and Jenni Lonmon. Not much Heart, but lots of heart – and a fair amount of rocking blue-eyed (make that brown-eyed) soul. Little Sister is not a girl group, but an original-sounding rock band with a pair of female lead singers.

At times I feel dismay that my wish list of SA rock is so long, but then there is another side that cheers me up. After enjoying this CD so much, I am glad I have four more Little Sister CDs to buy from One World. And, to brag, I have the special autographed edition – if you hurry, One World might still have in stock some CDs that Jenni and Debbi have signed.