Country music has a long lineage of female familial acts, including The Carter Sisters, The Judds, SheDaisy, The Mandrell Sisters, The Pointer Sisters, Tigirlily Gold and Chapel Hart.
Now, Georgia-born sister trio The Castellows is fast making its own modern mark on the genre, blending ethereal harmonies with acoustic-driven, rootsy instrumentation and lyrics informed by the siblings’ rural upbringing. The Balkcom sisters — lead singer/bassist and guitarist Lily, banjoist Powell and guitarist Ellie—will release their seven-song EP, Homecoming, Friday (May 30). The set builds upon their 2024 debut EP A Little Goes a Long Way and their three-song EP Alabama Stone, which also released that year.
The trio’s brand of folk-country comes at a time when roots-oriented sounds from artists such as Tyler Childers, Noah Kahan, Zach Bryan and Sam Barber are again in the limelight.
“That’s just the kind of stuff we love — and if we had to do anything different, we probably wouldn’t be doing this,” Lily says.
The sisters, who were homeschooled, grew up on a cattle farm in rural Georgetown, Georgia and discovered their affinity for music early.
“Music was our extracurricular activity,” Ellie says. “I played piano first and we started picking up instruments. We were a glorified Mumford and Sons cover band. Lots of random folk songs, lots of Tyler Childers.”
They performed at churches and hometown events, but had no plans to pursue music professionally. While attending the University of Georgia, Ellie earned a degree in information management systems and Powell a degree in agriculture business.
Lily followed her dreams by earning a pilot’s license. “I had my pilot’s license when I was 17 and I was working on my instrument commercial [license] when I moved up to Nashville, but I’ve been flying since I was 16. I want my own plane one day,” she says.
They took on their great-grandmother’s maiden name as their group name, and in 2022 began posting covers of hits such as Tyler Halverson’s “Beer Garden Baby” and Childers’ “Universal Sound” on Instagram and TikTok. Labels soon came calling. They signed a deal with Warner Records and Warner Music Nashville in May 2023, then moved to Nashville in July of that year, signing with Luke Combs’ manager, Chris Kappy.
They have focused on songs that lean on imagery derived from their rural Georgia roots, such as on their debut song “No. 7 Road,” about strolling down the same dirt road their grandfather walked down, or the shimmering “Sheltered” from their new Homecoming EP.
“I feel like the way we grew up has had such an impact on our songs and what we write about,” Lily says. “We grew up homeschooled on a farm, so farm life and family are something that is so familiar to us. It’s something that we love and that we always want to write about, and it’s a lot of who we are and our identity. I love being able to tie our background in agriculture and the farm and where we come from with our music and our career.”
Along the way, they’ve also teamed with Wyatt Flores for the song “Sober Sundays,” and with Colby Acuff for “How Do I Feel Alive.” The Castellows co-wrote every song on the Homecoming EP, working with fellow writers Erik Dylan, Daniel Tashian and Casey Beathard, among others.
“We know how special this town is, with the writing community here,” Ellie says of Nashville. “It’s unlike any music town in the whole world. Just knowing the pool of talent here, we feel like we’ve become better writers by surrounding ourselves with top writers — kind of the whole iron-sharpens-iron thing. We just love the writing community here, and some of our sweetest friends are writers who we met when we first moved to town.”
Coming up, they will open for Thomas Rhett on his Better in Boots tour, in addition to spearheading their own The Homecoming Tour. “We actually have a tour bus for this upcoming Thomas Rhett tour, which is our first ever bus,” Ellie says.
The Castellows, Billboard’s May Country Rookie of the Month, open up about the Homecoming EP, recording with Flatland Cavalry and more below.
“Homecoming” is the title track. Why do you feel like that song encapsulates the feel of this EP?
Lily: We’ve been playing it live for almost two years now, so that song has really become part of our identity. To me, this project is songs about us being on tour, songs about the world and how you view the past, present and future. “Homecoming” captured it best. And it’s funny because the word “homecoming” is nowhere in the song “Homecoming.”
Why did you include your version of Patty Loveless’ “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am”?
Powell: You almost don’t even want to dare touch her work, because it’s just perfect as it is. But we were in our hometown shooting some videos in a silo, and I was like, “The acoustics here are really good. Do y’all want to try to sing a chorus of ‘You Don’t Even Know Who I Am’?” I feel like the first time we heard it in that silo, we were like, “Oh, this is meant to be sung with harmony.”
And there’s a male singing harmony under Patty in her version. It’s obviously beautiful, but I feel like with this song, it’s almost a bit more powerful when there’s three women singing it. And I feel like our generation hasn’t really heard this song, so we wanted to hopefully introduce it to younger people.
You also bring in Flatland Cavalry, whom you share a management company with, for “Place They Call Home.” What was it like working with them?
Ellie: That was one of the most special moments we’ve ever had, because [Powell] and I saw Flatland our freshman year of college, before we had ever even written our first song. We were the first ones in line, and we’ve been fans of them for so long. When we had the opportunity to write with [Flatland Cavalry frontman] Cleto Cordero — we were freaking out because we are such fans of them. We could have maybe just gotten Cleto on it, but it felt like the song had the Flatland Cavalry spirit in it, so we waited to line up everyone’s schedules so we could go to Austin and record it with all of them.
It’s been two years since you signed your label deal. What has been the best career advice you’ve gotten from other artists?
Lily: We are big fans of the Avett Brothers, and we ended up opening for them at their annual New Year’s Eve Show. When we met them, they were like, “Don’t take yourself too seriously” — which was good advice because as female artists, you can get caught up in how you look onstage and what you’re wearing. You can kind of break yourself down pretty easily, and at the end of the day, we’re playing music for a living and this is the music business. If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.
What is a song you wish you had written?
Lily: We have a playlist called “Songs I Wish I Had Written.” Some of the hotspots on it are “Russell County Line” by 49 Winchester, “Boulder to Birmingham” by Emmylou Harris, “Bluebird” by Miranda Lambert, “Heart of Gold” by Neil Young and Turnpike Troubadours’ “Diamonds and Gasoline.”
Who are the songwriters on your co-writing bucket list?
Ellie: We had a great write last week with a bucket-list writer. We wrote with Ashley Gorley. That was very cool. Writing with some of the legacy heroes like Robert Earl Keen or Steve Earle would be cool.
What is a book or podcast you are into right now?
Lily: I’m trying to read all of the Brontë Sisters books this year.
Powell: I’m reading the Count of Monte Cristo, but I have an Ag [agriculture] business degree, so I listen to Cattle Chat podcasts, too.
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