FAIRBANKS — Look again. That’s the Carper Family, not Carter Family. The Carter Family was around in the 1950s and ’60s was then considered the most famous family in country music. But having a similar name is just the beginning of the fun with the Carper Family, a trio of singing and picking women from Austin, Texas. “People do notice a resemblance even though we’re not quite as folky,” fiddler and former Fairbanks resident Beth Chrisman laughed. “We’re more bluegrass and country than the Carter Family was.” One listen and the differences will be obvious. The Carper Family focuses on old-timey bluegrass and the early roots of country with a stripped down acoustic sound of fiddle, upright bass and guitar. The songs are simple, hummable and easy to tap a foot to. The band, which also includes bassist Melissa Carper and guitarist Jenn Miori, also uses three-part harmonies and the occasional yodel, a popular piece to bluegrass and country in the 1940s and ’50s. “It just seemed like something fun to add,” Chrisman said with another laugh. “A lot of the stuff we listen to has (yodeling) in there, so it was easy to throw it in.” The band performs vintage covers along with a number of originals, many of which were composed by Carper, who, according to Chrisman, “Pumps out a song a day.” Chrisman also does her share of the writing, too, when she’s sad enough. “Simple heartbreak songs, those are the only ones I can write, if I get really sad,” she said. “I think when I moved to Austin I wrote 15 in a week.” Many of the songs, even those about heartbreak, have a somewhat hilarious bent. There are songs about aliens, railroad men and ones like “Twin Cousins,” a song about everyone growing up in Arkansas (Carper’s home state) and all being related. The band has been on the go steadily since forming less than a year ago to fill a weekly residency opening at an Austin club. Chrisman and Miori, who had already jammed together, were offered a chance to play every Monday night at the Hole in the Wall, a watering hole the gals frequented. They quickly recruited Carper. “We jumped on it,” Chrisman said. It didn’t take long for the trio to get noticed. Miori had her other band, Jenn and the Corn Ponies, to draw from, but the music, even for a music Mecca like Austin, was just different. “It was easy to get people to come and see this new group doing stripped down music. It was so fresh and different,” Chrisman said. “And having three girls that can sing and pick is a novelty. That’s rare even around Austin.” It all added up to festival slots and small concerts around the Midwest and eventually an album, “Come See Yer Ol’ Daddy,” cranked out live around a pair of microphones. “It’s got that raw, old-timey sound. It’s not overproduced in anyway,” Chrisman said with another laugh. “I think we recorded it in about five hours.” Chrisman added that she is excited to show off her home state to her bandmates. “I’ve been telling everybody tales about Alaska,” she said. “We’d been talking about it for a while. We’re all pretty excited.” Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - The Carper Family sings three part harmonies and songs about aliens Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.