Take

Two CD5
and Laugh
Your

Way

to

Mental
Health:

, the
Therapy
Sisters

are

topicat,
offbeat,

, funny,
phiiosophical,
siightiy
skewed.

BY EUAN BEAR

t’s one of the stranger things I

can imagine: two lesbian

singer-songwriters from
Austin Texas get concert gigs in
Vermont. In Middletown Springs.
At the town library. I know some
lesbians who live in the small hill
town southwest of Rutland, but
it’s just not the first Vermont
venue that leaps to mind for trav-
eling dyke troubadors. Their
other two appearances — in
Bellows Falls and Burlington —
seem much more likely.

But then again, one of
their most requested songs is
“Tying the Knot in Vermont.”
Therapy Sisters Lisa Rogers
(she’s the one running for presi-
dent; check out her platform at
www.thetherapysisters.com) and
Maurine McLean did just that
this year in Brattleboro, 20 years
after their first potluck-dinner-
commitrnent-ceremony at home
in Austin.

If their October perform-
ances measure up to their own
promotional material and the disk
they sent, they just might be an
antidote to the onset of winter
gloom.

They call themselves
“Austin’s Divas of Dysfunction”
and who “dispense their medici-
nal music” at “group sessions.”
Ticket prices are identified as
“copays.” Their songs are topical,
offbeat, funny and philosophical
in a slightly skewed way.

Their latest CD is Sound
Mind, with thoughtfully odd
tunes like “Work Like You Don’t
Need the Money” and “Nuclear
Family Waste” (“What’s the half-

life of toxic emotional sludge?”).
They’ve been performing at vir-
tually every women’s music
and/or comedy festival in the US,
along with dozens of colleges,
and they’ve even played the
Burlington Coffeehouse before.

Codependent Christmas,
their previous CD, does justice to
that most emotionally conflicted
and commercialized holiday. The
title tune is a Western swing ren-
dition of a dysfunctional family
preparing for theholidays. Then
there’s “Abraham’s Lament,” a
Jewish view of Christmas hoopla,
with “a solo by Yahweh” and
klezmer riffs; “The Twelve Days
of Analysis,” an a cappella take-
off on the classic; “Happy
Whatever You’re Having,” an ode
to political correctness during
winter; “Pachelbel’s Tantrum,” a
glimpse inside the typical
American family at Christmas,
based on Pachelbel’s Canon in D;
and “The War of the Lights,” a
waltzing neighborhood rivalry
that ends with alien intervention.

Other‘ songs you might
hear include “Therapy Boogie,”
“Cure for the Common Osama”
(suggesting a quick sex-change
operation as a fitting resolution)
and “Don’t Get Even (Get
Odd!).” They write in a folk tra-
dition of tongue-in-cheek com-
mentary on current events, and
they love it that Vermont passed
its civil union law.

There’s nothing particu-
larly musically sophisticated here,
but the wordplay is clever enough
to tickle your funny bone and
maybe stick with you later. It’s
really all about having a good
time. When I listened to Sound
Mind, the duo’s close harmonies

 

and quirky songs reminded me a
lot of very early Betsy Rose and
Cathy Winter, but more upbeat.
“Work Like You Don’t
Need the Money” strings together
a series of zen-ish mottos —
“dance like no one’s watching
you, love like you’ve never been
hurt” — with a slightly oifcenter
set: “laugh like your mother said
you can’t have any spinach until
you finish all your dessert.”
“GM” is the tale of
another layoff at the auto plant —
“me and my buddies will get the
boot, it’s us on the floor not the
ones in the three-piece suit” —
while jobs go overseas, and
working class heroes begin to
question who decided that

I “what’s good for GM is good for

the country.”

“Control, Alt, Delete” is
a complaint in computer terms:
too bad life is not as simple as a
quick reboot.

“Sticks and Stones” is a

H sweet bit of advice and comfort

for the schoolyard set — and those
of us still carrying emotional bag-
gage from that era. “You’re rub-
ber, they’re glue, it’s not what
they call you, it’s what you
answer to”; and “the classroom is
not the last room” where people
will call you names, “check out

 

the executive washroom and the
typing pool.” V

Then there’s “Old
Geezer University,” the local
community college haven for
retired folks following an old
dream deferred or exploring a
new skill.

The two songs I had the
hardest time with initially were
“Sleeping Her Way to the Top”
and “I Need a Stalker.”
“Sleeping” is a catty view of the
female singer/musician who was
given everything she needs to
succeed and who treats her
entourage like props who had
better not get in her way while
she’s  If the song suggested
any sense of connection or sym-
pathy for the kind of insecurity —
or sexism in the music industry —
that might produce such behavior,
I’d feel better about it. But maybe
it’s more about grasping ambition
and greed, regardless of gender
(although I can’t say that I’ve
heard about men who sleep their
way to the top).

“Stalker” is a light-
hearted take on the ultimate in
weird celebrity accessories. If
you aspire to celebrity, maybe a
stalker is just what you need to
get your “head shot in the
tabloids.” It took me a couple of
listens to get the mockumentary
tone.

If you go to the website,
you can get to the lyrics of a few
more serious songs, like “The
Loss of a Little Girl,” who was I
killed by a drunk driver.

Romance comes out for
play, too, with “How Did I Get
So Lucky,” “It Wouldn’t Be
Heaven (Without You),” and the
aforementioned “Tying the Knot
in Vermont” (“We’ve got lots of
love to flaunt, we’ll soon be
tying the knot in Vermont 
What more could your average
lesbian couple want / than to be
tying the knot — a little tighter
honey / just a little something we
learned in Girl Scouts - in
Vermont.”)

So, if you want to light-
en up in the manner of early
women’s music, pencil in the
Therapy Sisters. The dates are
October 8 in Middletown Springs
(at the library, 7:30), October 10
in Bellows Falls (Oona’s
Restaurant, 8:30, underwritten by
Vermont-based intemet service
provider SoverNet), and October
25 at the Burlington Coffeehouse
(8 pm). V