Watson Twins turn upbeat for new album

For The Watson Twins, playing Tucson is nostalgic.

“It’s iconic, playing Hotel Congress,” said Leigh Watson, who is joined in the band by her sister, Chandra.

“It’s always a rite of passage, as a touring musician, to play there. If you’ve played Hotel Congress, you’re part of the tribe.”

The Watson Twins will return to the Hotel Congress Plaza to support The Band of Heathens at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28. Fans can expect to hear tracks from The Watson Twins’ new record, “Holler.”

Produced by Grammy-nominated knob-turner Butch Walker, “Holler” is a collection of country-infused, telecaster-twanged tunes that highlight the twins’ songwriting prowess and vocal synergy.

“It’s definitely our most Americana-leaning record to date,” she said. “I’m sure a lot of people say that, because they live in Nashville. Our journey has gotten us to this point of being able to write music that we feel just embodies our whole musical career.

“This was a really fun record to make. When my sister and I decided to make this record, we set out with the intention of making an upbeat, fun record that people would smile to; not something that’s overly complicated and metaphoric like earlier material.”

Watson chalked it up to the dichotomy of freedom and sadness after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

“There was this overwhelming sadness of everything that had happened in the previous two years,” she said. “When we started to write last year, we wanted to write a really fun album that can have sadness. That means it’s sad and melancholy, but the music is joyful and triumphant in some ways.”

For example, “Never Be Another You” has a weepy background, but it’s “sung in this way that feels more like a power ballad,” she added.

“For us, who have been singer-songwriter, indie-folk artists for the majority of our career, it was pushing us to not create material seen as metaphorical and sad.”

The women wrote the title track shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned, as they had this “overwhelming feeling that we were taking steps backward instead of forward,” Watson said.

“Seeing people holding up posters of Martin Luther King Jr., and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who have fought for people’s rights and for the better, was inspirational. What we see is a better human collective.

“The song ‘Holler’ is ‘holler if you hear me.’ It asks people to come together. When we come together, we’re stronger together.”

In the south, the term “holler” could mean where someone resides. The Watson Twins mean a sound.

“That’s really what this record represents,” she added. “It’s a new sound for us and a joyful sound, a sound of asking people to come together and be unified. There’s a lot of positive messaging in the material, and there are comical points, too; tongue-in-cheek kitschy references that we get a kick out of and we like singing.”

The Band of Heathens w/ The Watson Twins

WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28

WHERE: Hotel Congress Plaza, 311 E. Congress Street, Tucson

COST: Tickets start at $25

INFO: hotelcongress.com

This article appears in Oct 19-26, 2023.