Sherri Dupree (vocals, guitar) * Stacy Dupree (vocals, keyboards)
Chauntelle Dupree (guitar) * Jon Wilson (bass) * Weston Dupree (drums)

Dreamy guitar pop-rock from Tyler, TX. Eisley (2003 Best New Act Award from the Dallas Observer) consists of three sisters, their brother, and a best friend, most of them still teenagers. Coming off a major tour with Coldplay and Ron Sexsmith, this group is on its way to marvelous days ahead. This is their major label debut EP.

TRACK LISTING: Memories * Sea King * Marvelous Things * The Winter Song

A quintet of four siblings plus a family friend, EISLEY have nurtured their own unique songs of innocence and experience across a lifetime, with the kind of creativity, charisma and camaraderie that is as special as it is surprising. Add to that the sheer exultant joy of music making and you still won’t have tapped the unique appeal of these sensational newcomers. Eisley is, in a word, amazing.

Since first emerging six years ago on the burgeoning Texas music scene, the group has garnered ecstatic word of mouth, a solid string of sold out shows throughout the region and some major industry buzz. The results include an invitation to open on the US tour for Coldplay, as well as slots at both the Coachella Festival and Britain’s V2003 Festival.

All in all it’s been quite a ride, one that began in a strangely symbiotic family setting. The decidedly unconventional parenting skills of Boyd and Kim DuPree produced a tight-knit brood of siblings with a near telepathic creative connection, nurtured by life in the small Texas town of Tyler, with few friends, no cable TV, and a lot of big sky to bounce around under.

Sisters Chauntelle and Sherri, at the ages of 15 and 13 respectively, had holed up in their room practicing guitar and singing harmony when eight year-old Stacy intruded, stubbornly insisting on her place in the fledgling band. When turned away by her sisters, Stacy took to her own room and began writing songs with all the determination that three chords and raging sibling rivalry can muster. Proudly presenting her results, she was immediately recruited into the sister act.

The question of where, exactly, an eight year-old and her sisters might actually perform their original and decidedly quixotic music was answered when their parents opened a coffeehouse to showcase up-and-coming Tyler talent, including, of course, the homegrown variety.

By this time brother Weston, two years older than Stacy, had been recruited to play drums and the quartet got busy gathering a small but fanatically loyal following, performing in the all-ages clubs, church basements and school auditoriums of East Texas.

From that point the Eisley saga moved into the fast lane. Even as their playing radius expanded beyond the state to include an appearance at Chicago’s Cornerstone Festival and a trip to Seattle to record some early demos, the band added another member, bassist and family friend Jonathan Wilson. Frequent stopovers in Dallas’ happening Deep Ellum district earned them the status of local heroes, culminating at a packed appearance on the stage of the North Texas New Music Festival, with easily the largest audience of the entire event.

Demo tapes quickly landed the group a series of record company showcases in New York and Los Angeles, with Warner Bros. Records winning the day. At the same time, word of mouth had reached the ears no less than Coldplay, who promptly recruited them as an opening act on their upcoming tour. Meanwhile, pre-production continued for Laughing City, their first EP, produced by both Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes) and John Goodmanson (Hot Hot Heat).

Confesses Chauntelle, who, at 22 is the band’s oldest member and unofficial spokesperson, “The whole idea was for us to try and express what was happening in our little world, to describe it to ourselves. We know each so well and have shared our lives together, and our music really comes from that common bond. It’s still surprises us sometimes that people pick up on what we’re doing…that they can relate.”

What Eisley is doing is delving deep into a reservoir of rich imagery, fashioning elegant hooks from the simplest musical elements to catch haunting reflections of memory and longing, laughter and dreams in songs with lovely, lingering echoes. A natural, spontaneous and eloquent expression of the innocence and experience, the music of Eisley runs deep in the blood.