Vespers: Sunny-side Folk/Pop at Sunset

Callie Cryar of folk and pop quartet the Vespers loves the summer. It’s a good time to be outside and meet new people.

“I love not being cold,” Callie told Nightlife. “But I also like playing for the different festivals and crowds in the summer.”

The Vespers will do just that when they perform at the Sunset Concert on Thursday, July 19 at the Turley Park Gazebo. Featuring a set of sisters and brothers, the band from Nashville, Tennessee, offers a bright, sunny-side folk and pop experience.

The Vespers began when Callie Cryar was in high school. She and her sister Phoebe Cryar found out early on that they had musical chemistry. They grew up in a musical family in Music City.

“We were always sort of working with one another and so we sang together every chance that we could,” Callie said.

But it wasn’t until the sisters found brothers Bruno (upright bass) and Taylor Jones (drummer) that the Vespers came together. The brothers came from more of a southern-rock background, and their father had an extensive record collection that contained soul records and Stevie Wonder titles.

The band members gravitated to folk music because of its spiritual undertones and musical instrumentation.

“We felt complete,” Callie said. “It felt [like] the most natural thing to do,” Callie said. “There was a guitar and a banjo, and we just went for it.”

In April, the Vespers released The Fourth Wall, a blend of folk/pop that sounds young enough to be hip but deep enough to be meaningful. For instance, “Flower Flower” is about hope, fulfilling destiny, and love of, well, you guessed it, a flower.

The name for the album came from the group’s experience on tour. The fourth wall, in theater terms, is described as the barrier between the audience and the performers. Callie said the band is all about playing for its audiences, breaking down that fourth wall and connecting with the crowd.

The sisters take turns singing the lead in the band. All of the Vespers write songs, and the only cover on The Fourth Wall is “Grinnin’ in Your Face” by bluesman Son House.

Phoebe Cryar is perhaps the most prolific writer of the Vespers, contributing to nearly every song on The Fourth Wall. On the album’s opening track, “Better Now,” the younger sister came up with the melody while Bruno Taylor brought together the bridge that made the song complete. The song was drawn from a story in the Bible about the blind man who was later healed. The slow tune about hope and overcoming adversity is another shining example of how the Vespers embody the spirit of folk music.

Sure, sibling rivalry may exist, Callie admitted­-- a given when she and Phoebe spend so much time together. “We have some of that,” Callie said. “But sometimes I think it works in our favor.”

For more about the Vespers, check out <http://TheVespersBand.com>.

who: Vespers

what: Sunset Concert Series (Americana)

where: Turley Park Gazebo

when: Thursday, July 19