Milwaukee's SistaStrings joins Joni Mitchell at the Grammys for her historic performance
It was a historic moment on the Grammys stage Sunday night — and Milwaukee duo SistaStrings was part of it.
Sisters Chauntee and Monique Ross supplied strings and backing vocals for Joni Mitchell at the 66th annual Grammy Awards Sunday night, for a remarkable rendition of Mitchell’s classic “Both Sides, Now.”
Airing live on the CBS broadcast, the performance drew a standing ovation from inside the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, and received visibly moved reactions from superstars like Taylor Swift, Meryl Streep, Beyoncé, Jay Z and Olivia Rodrigo in the audience.
Incredibly, it was Mitchell’s first performance ever on the Grammys, nearly 10 years after the 80-year-old legend suffered a near fatal brain aneurysm. Along with the performance, she picked up a Grammy Sunday for best folk album for “Joni Mitchell Live at Newport,” a recording of her surprise performance at the Newport Music Festival in 2022 (which the Ross sisters saw from on stage).
Mitchell and the Ross sisters were in great company Sunday, including Brandi Carlile, who introduced Mitchell Sunday, and credited SistaStrings specifically as one of the featured performers. SistaStrings have played in Carlile’s band since 2022.
The performers sitting around Mitchell Sunday also included Allison Russell (who previously included SistaStrings in her touring band), Lucius, Blake Mills and Jacob Collier.
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Add Mitchell's Grammys performance to the list of accomplishments that SistaStrings have earned since moving to Nashville in 2020, including backing Carlile on “Saturday Night Live,” playing stadiums in her band on Pink’s tour last year, playing with Mitchell at a rare performance in Washington last summer, and winning Instrumentalist of the Year at the Americana Music Awards last September.
Born and raised on Milwaukee’s north side, Chauntee and her older sister Monique played their first instruments before they were 5, and first played in a family group, Sisters of Praize, at schools, libraries, churches and nursing homes around the city.
They formed SistaStrings in 2014, becoming one of the most popular acts in the local music scene and collaborating with a wide range of Milwaukee artists, from singer and rapper Klassik to folk musician Peter Mulvey, who worked with SistaStrings on their joint album "Love Is the Only Thing," released in 2022 on Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe Records.
In addition to playing their own shows and touring with Carlile (and likely playing with Mitchell again at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in October), SistaStrings have been recording their own new music. Carlile told Variety last fall that she was producing their next album.
Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or [email protected]. Follow him on X at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee duo SistaStrings joins Joni Mitchell for Grammys performance
