Liner Notes
- This episode aired on Saturday, October 23th, 2021 at 2:00 PM (PDT), streaming on KUTZ FM, Sacramento Free Form radio, and broadcasting at 103.1 FM in Sacramento, California. To replay this episode, scroll to the bottom of this page, or visit the Local Gold YouTube channel.
At the conclusion of last week’s episode, we heard the material The Perry Sisters for Sacramento’s Raven Records. In all, the Perry Sisters released six sides on Raven, with the first four cut right here in Sacramento at Brandt Studios. As the Raven sides began to get airplay at radio stations across the country staring in 1970, Sally and Mona made their way from back east, put together a band, and promptly went to work.
Terry Sutton, a native of Canada and a wunderkind pedal steel player, was among the first to join the girls in their first fully formed band of their own. Sutton would stick with them for years, becoming an instrumental force in furthering their careers in music. Terry proved to be a brilliant musician and great bandmate with a wealth of connections that helped expand the Perry Sisters to broader audiences. Sutton would later produce two Perry Sisters sides that would be released on the Raven Label (CSS-11).
Naturally, the golden Perry harmonies featured prominently, and with Sutton on steel, Sam Buckner on lead Guitar player, and Kenny Finn on drums, they’d put together a solid group of musicians who clicked in naturally around Mona’s rhythm guitar and Sally’s steady bass playing. Kenny Morris would take over for Sam Buckner on lead guitar in 1972, and like Sutton, he would become a stable and supportive foundation for Sally and Mona. Early incarnations of this group would be called The Perry Sisters and the Scorpios, The Nashville Sons and Daughters, The Perry Sisters and Two Misters.
In these early years, the band traveled and gigged all over the east coast, worked their way down south to Nashville, Tennessee, and back up north to Canada, with many enduring gigs occurring in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other parts of New England.
One such run landed them in Southbury, Connecticut with Johnny Henks as the featured act at Kelly’s Oak Tree Inn. Then there was a run at the New Milford Theater, in Milford, Connecticut, which drew the attention of local WFIF disco Jockey, Frank Derak who set them up with a weekly radio show (some of which you can hear in this episode). In 1974 the girls met Bill Dellaney, who owned The Wind Jammer, a club in Harwinton, Connecticut. With Dellaney himself as drummer, the trio played four nights a week for two and a half years, doing their own radio commercials and packing the place every night.
The Perry’s jumped at the chance open for Capitol Records artist Dick Curless, and were quickly hired as his backing band for the rest of the tour. The girls soon established a home base of sorts in Boston, Massachusetts. Naturally, they played spots like Nashville North, The Hillbilly Ranch, and Kevin’s Corner in Summerville.
It was in Boston that the band met record producer Ray Winn, who arranged the recording of the Perry Sister’s first and only full length LP Feelin’ Country, released on his label SV Records in 1977. The album had two Perry originals penned by Sally. One of these (Mary Ellen Jensen) was released as a single and got extensive air play in different parts of the country. It crested the mid-fifties on the national top 100 country charts, and per Billboard Magazine, was wildly popular in Grand Junction, Colorado where it was number one for several weeks.
Never slowing down, The Perry Sisters wound up in Las Vegas with their own popular show, working the strip and all the major Casios throughout the 1980s. Well into the late 1990s, Sally was still taking bass gigs in cruise ship bands, usually convincing sister Mona to join as singer—no doubt to the delight of passengers. Today, both sisters are retired. Sally lives with her husband in the Las Vegas area, while Mona spends much of the year traveling the US in an RV with her husband. After 50+ years of making music together, the sisters are as close as ever, boded deeply by blood and harmony—just as they are with their children, kin back in Maine, and extended family around the country.
Ever since that chance discovery of a Perry Sisters 45 rpm record, we here at Local Gold were determined to hear more and learn all we could. We’ve been extraordinarily fortunate to find Sally and Mona, and hear from them directly about their music, lives, and careers. We are eternally grateful. Ladies, thanks for all the music.
Music Featured In This Episode
(in order of appearance)
- Top Of The World (Feelin’ Country, SV Records; 1977)
- House Of The Rising Sun (Feelin’ Country, SV Records; 1977)
- Take Me Home Country Roads (Feelin’ Country, SV Records; 1977)
- Sunshine On My Shoulder (Feelin’ Country, SV Records; 1977)
- He Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye (Feelin’ Country, SV Records; 1977)
- Me And Jesus (Feelin’ Country, SV Records; 1977)
- Mary Ellen Jensen (Feelin’ Country, SV Records; 1977)
- Delta Baby’s Tears (Feelin’ Country, SV Records; 1977)
- Cotton Jenny (Feelin’ Country, SV Records; 1977)
- Foggy Mountain Top (WFIF Radio Transcriptions)
- You Ain’t Woman Enough To Take My Man (WFIF Radio Transcriptions)
- Feelin’ The Blues (WFIF Radio Transcriptions)
- Truck Driver’s Woman (WFIF Radio Transcriptions)
- Blue Highway (Decca 9-31006; 1959)
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