If you were lucky enough to catch The Secret Sisters on Jools Holland’s annual Hootenanny gig you will be aware of the beguiling close-harmony singing of Alabama songbirds Laura and Lydia Rogers. An impromptu audition in Nashville thrust them into the spotlight, and they soon found themselves in Los Angeles recording demos of their 1940s-50s influenced music. They came to the attention of the legendary T. Bone Burnett — last seen here strutting his stuff with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. The result is the beautiful eponymously titled album released at the end of this month on Burnett’s own Beladroit label.

This is a mix of cover versions and self-penned songs was recorded with ‘old-school’ equipment which would have been used back in the 1950s to capture the purity Burnett heard in Laura and Lydia’s voices. No digital equipment was allowed near the sessions. Burnett’s summing up of Laura and Lydia’s performance says it all. “Listening to the Secret Sisters sing, you hear in their voices a sound that is timeless and of the moment. Your hear the history of rural American music from the 1920s and a reverence for every musical genre this country has produced.” While you are waiting for the album to be released, you can find a four track sampler on iTunes. The sisters will be at the New Theatre on February 25, supporting Ray Lamontagne.

Band on the Run was a great album born out of adversity, writes Reg Little. In Paul McCartney’s case a band walkout, limited studio facilities, stolen demos and a mugging in Nigeria, where the album was recorded, meant he had to fall back on his own talent as never before. But this near perfect pop album, on which he plays almost everything, more than anything was his answer to Lennon’s “pretty soon we’ll see what you can do” jibe, taking a grammy and in the charts for half the 1970s.

A remastered version, along with a three-disc set (2CD and 1DVD), are now available. The fact that a typical McCartney set now includes ten of these tracks confirms it merits such lavish packaging, with Macca himself putting unusual effort in promoting a product that proved that there was life in him after the Fabs.