The Richter Sisters – Pranam Bai and Ruchi Singh – come to The Fish Pond from Davidsonville, Maryland. Raised in a family of 7, the youngest two aces in the deck, they have always been around music. From early recordings with ‘The Richter Scale’ and both picking up the guitar only a couple of years ago, these girls have built their ethos around family values, musical ability, and sheer dedication to a life well lived. Their debut demo is a testament to the effort they have put into making it happen for themselves.
The Richter Sisters do something unique with their songwriting; they’ve created a style for themselves which is distinctly their own, and rather than opt for complex lyrics and standard formats, in “Show Me” they have produced a song which thrives on its lyrical beauty. You can listen to the demo of “Show Me” here while you read the review.
It’s a song of verse chorus, verse chorus chorus – no solos, no bridge, no instrumental – and yet it excels on it’s own because…it just compels you to listen to the words behind the music. The simple guitars, sounding rich and expensive, are a great prelude, well mixed, with Ruchi Singh strumming and Pranam Bai finger picking over the top. Pranam Bai introduces us;
“Settle into my arms, make your home in my heart,
Find a way to find a way, to love me”
Having heard the Richter Sisters live a couple of times now, the vocal is very “them”. You’re already starting to hear the well-practiced harmonies in the second line of the song; such a distinct feature of their music even at this early stage. From the first verse, as with so much of their extensive catalog of material, you have to wonder how so much depth of feeling welled from such young songwriters, and credit them for being able to write it down and perform it so coherently and honestly.
The chorus is a measured and bright follow on, it emits a positive sunny glow:
“We take from this life, what we give
So show me a little love, and I’ll reciprocate it”
It strikes me, even this early in the song, of how rare it is to hear such a well produced, and yet enigmatically hardly-produced, recording. It’s doing its job. It’s going to be exactly what I’ll expect at the next live performance. Commercially it’s also pretty clever, because I can’t wait to hear the album version, and yet I’ll have to. Maddening, in all the right ways.
The second verse keeps the same melody and harmonies, simple guitars warm and bright, and backing the vocals so well, loud enough and yet not overwhelming. And to my favorite line, frankly brilliantly written to evoke such a simple emotion:
“Hold me close, kiss me on my nose,
Tell me you love me while you’re sure you know”
The sentiment is pure and lovely, as I mentioned, almost deliberately simple musically, just so you can’t help but get into the joy of the song. It’s indicative of true empathy with the listener. The final line is clearly one which these two will always live by; it makes it believable.
“Life’s too beautiful, to just waste away”
The planning that has gone into this first release is pretty spectacular. Listening to their first two tracks (“Into Your Love” is also on their profile), it’s recorded to be a demo; not an EP, not an album, but a deliberately raw and emotional version of what you’ll get when you turn up to hear The Richter Sisters play live. Beautifully paired harmony vocals, strummed and finger-picked guitars, and no more. It’s what they wanted. At this stage in their career, to establish a live sound, and a live presence off the back of it, it will serve them well when the inevitable album recording comes. With very few rough edges, but in all the right places, this will surely become a collectible.
In many ways, this so-looked-forward-to first recording lives up to its message; almost a challenge, “Show Me” is what the two have surely done. I’ve had the privilege of hearing this effort live, briefly reviewing it as such, and of performing it once as a collaborative effort with Pranam Bai. It’s great to hear that such a beautiful and simple song has not been spoiled at all in the recording, and also to anticipate that we’re bound to hear more produced versions, equally beautiful in their own way, in the future.
Congratulations, girls, and I look forward to hearing much more of your recorded work in the coming year.
David Mark Smith
The Fish Pond
david@globalmusiciansfishpond.com
