The Band: Eisley

"Make believe is much too fun..."

Eisley is...lullaby folk indie? I hate inventing awkward genre combinations to peg a band, (really, it's just all about the cred) but that's as close to what Eisley is. Combining the close-knit choir stylings of Tilly and the Wall with the dancing melodies of The Decemberists and pleading vocals of Rilo Kiley, they weave a dreamy tapestry of sound. Eisley is an adorable quintet, four of whom are siblings, consisting of Stacy, Sherri, Chauntelle, and Weston DuPree and long-time neighbor and friend Jonathan Wilson. Stacy exudes delicate auras and gentle melodies on the keyboard; Sherri and Chauntelle, both handy guitarists; Weston, the subdued drummer; Jonathan, bringing up the bass. All three gals woo with varied melodies and harmony in the fashion of a girls' choir.

"Lying in the sun everday feeling all of the magic in life and the wonder..."

The band, raised in Tyler, TX, first started playing together as a trio, the elder DuPrees jamming as they took music lessons, excluding Stacy on grounds that she 'wasn't cool enough because she wasn't a teenager'. And so, Stacy, only 8 at the time and jealous as hell, wrote a song herself, which, in fact, ended up becoming Eisley's first song. Debuting in 1998 at Brewstone's Coffee Galaxy, a local Christian-oriented coffeeshop, the group quickly began playing regionally to an audience pleasantly suprised by their mature, fairytale stylings eventually being discovered by Coldplay's Chris Martin who took them on tour in 2003.

"The bees flew down and wrapped themselves around me and that's when I spoke the word to have them trace your face for me in pollen..."

Their first full-length album Room Noises starts off with the hauntingly hopeful Memories to kick off my journey down the road, winding through a land of magic machines, proud heroes and dragons, forgotten woods, and loves I never knew I lost. "How she sows the seeds her husband loved so much, but he's no longer here with us...I'm always wondering where you are." Melting flawlessly into the hazy, bright center of the soundscape, smooth, mellow vocals whispered tales in a fashion reminiscient of young mothers singing their babies to sleep by candlelight. "Dark night...hold tight, and sleep tight, my baby. Morning light shall burst bright and keep us here safely." Epic fantasy landscapes were injected directly into my imagination by the DuPree sisters' high and pure, unified choruses. "It kind of makes me very happy; lets go far away to the humming meadow." A gentle nudging told me my reverie was coming to an end, leaving me with a bittersweet nostalgia that comes from shared memories and a hymnal-like invitation to come down that road again. There's nothing like waking up smiling.

Having completed their first headlining tour and releasing their first full-length album this year, young, and damn cute, Eisely has a bright future ahead.

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