Grammy-nominated songwriter Lisa Silver is a multi-faceted talent whose Nashville career includes work as a studio musician/vocalist and voice-over artist. As a background singer and fiddle player, Lisa has performed on thousands of recordings, radio and television commercials, live stage shows and television shows.
For 20 years she has served as Music Director/Cantorial Soloist at Congregation Micah and has created and performed many original settings of Jewish liturgical music for all age groups.
Here she recalls how the Cherry Sisters, pictured above with Jerry Reed, got their start.
I had been working as a freelance studio singer /fiddle player/violinist for about a year and a half, and I often worked for a producer named Pat Patrick. One fateful day, Pat decided to hire me along with two other freelance singers, Diane (Tidwell) Vanette and Sheri (Kramer) Huffman on a session for a soulful singer named Tommy Dougherty.
It was a live session, in a small studio with a rhythm section and the singers. Diane and Sheri and I had never sung together before, but for some reason we instantly clicked.
We each gravitated to the part that was best for our vocal range, our voices blended and we made up some great background vocal parts on the spot. We all realized there was something special going on and decided to pursue getting background vocal work as a trio. We started to get hired often, as word spread among studio musicians, engineers, producers and arrangers.
Top Nashville arranger Bergen White was one of our biggest champions. It was on a session with Bergen that famed arranger Bill Justis jokingly said, “Well, if it isn’t BW and the Cherry Sisters!”* and our vocal group name was born.
* There was a terrible group in the early 1900’s named the Cherry Sisters, but we think Bill Justis was referring to a group of musicians in Arthur Godfrey’s band who dressed in drag for fun and called themselves the Cherry Sisters on the Arthur Godfrey TV show.
