Mulberry Lane

Evoking the sound of 1970s soft rock ensembles such as Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, Mulberry Lane comprises four sisters from Omaha, Nebraska, who formed a sweetly melodic vocal quartet built around close harmonies. Heather, Rachel, Jaymie and Allie adopted the group’s name from the Omaha street where they first sang together as children, spurred on by their mother, a local jazz and big band singer. While still teenagers, the sisters performed at the Nebraska State Fair and were introduced to a representative from the Triangle Talent booking agency, an encounter that secured a development deal with PolyGram and sent them to Nashville to work with country producers Harold Shedd and Rob Galbraith. The arrangement collapsed, however, after the label decided the sisters “weren’t country enough,” despite the country inflections that surface within their soft rock and adult contemporary style. Once they reached adulthood the quartet kept playing local Omaha dates, and in 1998 they independently released their debut album, Don’t Cry ’Til You Get to the Car, which sold more than 10,000 copies and earned them a contract with Refuge/MCA. Under that imprint they issued Run Your Own Race in 1999, followed two years later by Fabu.