Marked by beautiful harmonies, tunes that fuse pop hooks with roots rock accents, and a playful sense of humor that doesn't interfere with the (sometimes) serious intent of the music, the Psycho Sisters is a collaboration between two acclaimed and accomplished artists, Susan Cowsill and Vicki Peterson. Cowsill first rose to fame as the youngest member of the Cowsills, the family pop/rock band who enjoyed a run of hit singles in the '60s, while Peterson enjoyed multi-platinum success in the '80s as a member of the Bangles. In the late '80s, the two first met through mutual friends, and struck up a close friendship after Peterson signed on to play guitar during a Cowsills reunion tour (Peterson, a longtime Cowsills fans, told a reporter "It was like being on-stage with the Beatles"). In 1991, Cowsill and Peterson both joined the alt-country band the Continental Drifters, which also featured Peter Holsapple of the dB's and Mark Walton of the Dream Syndicate. Cowsill and Peterson began collaborating on material while working with the Continental Drifters, and created the Psycho Sisters as another vehicle for their music. In 1992, the Psycho Sisters made their recording debut with a vinyl 7" on the Singles Only label, "This Painting" b/w "Timberline," while the duo also appeared on a rare split single with the Continental Drifters, released in 1994. The Psycho Sisters also played occasional live shows, headlining in small clubs, sharing the bill with Giant Sand on a European tour in 1993, and opening a handful of shows for the Go-Go's in 1994 and 1995 (Peterson was a touring member of the Go-Go's at the time, while Charlotte Caffey was on maternity leave from the band). Though Cowsill and Peterson continued to write together on occasion, finding time in their schedules to record a full Psycho Sisters album proved difficult, and it wasn't until 2012 that the two discovered they were, as Cowsill put it, "not doing anything for a minute." Cowsill and Peterson financed the sessions with a crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter that brought in nearly twice their original goal, and the Psycho Sisters booked time at Dockside Studio in Maurice, Louisiana. In 2014, RockBeat Records released the long-awaited Psycho Sisters album, Up on the Chair, Beatrice, which included new recordings of several of the live favorites from the '90s, including fresh versions of "This Painting" and "Timberline." ~ Mark Deming