Supplied photo
Three blonde sisters from Nashville by way of small-town Georgia perform neotraditional country music as The Castellows. Though they’re related, Castellows isn’t their last name; it’s Balkcom. The Instagrammable young ladies carry three-part harmonies through the voices of two of three triplets Eleanor (guitars) and Powell (banjo), while their younger sister—not one of the triplets—Lily sings lead. I don’t know why the other triplet sister isn’t in the band. Could it be that there’s something wrong and we’re not supposed to talk about it? Or maybe she’s a botanist and finds music irritating.
At any rate, this family band is approaching stardom in its brief three-year career, jettisoned on the strength of a few tiny releases, and the largest to date, the seven-song A Little Goes a Long Way EP (2024). Yet for all of the Southern-accented vocals, Southern-oriented lyrics, and blatant use of fiddle, the Castellows come across more like modern country than anything that would fit into a ’70s episode of “Hee Haw.”
On stage, they’ve toured not as a lightweight three-piece, but regularly backed by a group of dudes on standard rock-tuned drums, bass, and electric guitar. The result leans toward country standards of the last few decades: midtempo rock embellished with touchstones of a bygone era for a certain demographic. For instance, they’ve covered Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark,” and The Beatles’ “Come Together,” not proof of wrongdoing by any means—even Johnny Cash and elder country peers were early rock ‘n’ roll pioneers.
Perhaps the biggest clue that this family act is supposed to be a country outfit comes from the fact that they’re really happy to be on stage, smiling, encouraging the audience, and singing sweetly.
