Beat the Sunrise is an album by Sisters Erie, released in 2016. Its original material moves between the band's family humor, drinking songs, folklore, and quieter accounts of love and home. The four sisters' different personalities give those subjects their voices: a song about Gael's capacity for trouble belongs beside Mary's more reflective material and Ryanne's storytelling.1 2

The album follows the band's early period, which included the four-track EP The Coming Storm in spring 2012 and the Wind & Rain Tour in 2013. Where the EP placed two inherited songs beside two originals, Beat the Sunrise develops the idea of a full Sisters Erie album of original songs.2 3

Four sisters, more than one kind of song

The band's musical identity comes from the sisters' shared upbringing: four accomplished singers who grew up listening and responding to one another. Their related voices remain distinct, and a lead can move between them without turning the rest of the family into anonymous backing singers. Ryanne and Gael are the principal leads across the band's wider repertoire, while Mary and Aileen also carry songs of their own.4

That breadth matters to the album's material. Half-Myth, Half-Trouble introduces the band through its own mixture of identity and mischief. Gael Force turns a sister's outsized personality into a subject. The drinking songs have room for communal humor; An Empty Space and The Candle in the Window turn toward more private feelings.2

The band's core sound puts voices, fiddle, traditional percussion, and acoustic texture in the foreground. Its capacity for force comes from the players listening and responding together: close harmony can open into a larger chorus, a restrained passage can give way to rhythmic drive, and a fiddle can become a lead voice in its own right.4

Music and themes

The songs associated with Beat the Sunrise range from an introduction to the sisters themselves to an escape from Faerie. The following groups the material by subject; it is not a numbered track sequence.2

Song Subject
Half-Myth, Half-Trouble An introduction to the band and its mixture of myth and mischief.
Gael Force Gael's personality, energy, and the family problem of keeping up with her.
A Drunken Ass The band's comic repertoire extends to a drunken donkey.
Running Underhill Maeve's journey into Faerie, her refusal to abandon Cian, and their race to escape.
One More Round! A drinking song built around the invitation to keep the evening going.
Too Much Water in My Whiskey A drinking song bringing together a collection of toasts.
An Empty Space Mary's farewell to a love that never became the relationship she had hoped for.
The Candle in the Window Ryanne's coming-home song.

Running Underhill

Running Underhill brings a longer narrative into the album. Its tale, The Road Under the Hill, was one of Ryanne's childhood favorites. Maeve, who possesses innate Sight, follows a Faerie procession and eventually refuses a safe way home because it would leave Cian imprisoned. Their escape depends on seeing the true road and obeying rules that become harder to follow as the pursuit closes in.5 6

The arrangement gives the sisters different parts in telling that story. Ryanne carries Maeve and the main narration; Gael supplies the force of Aodh and his host; Aileen anchors warnings and rules; Mary follows the Sight, glamour, and hidden road. The roles allow a shared refrain to change meaning as the danger changes.5

The escape reaches its deadline, but not the homecoming the fugitives expected. A hundred years have passed outside Faerie. They return together to a world that has continued without them.5

Love and coming home

An Empty Space concerns an absence that does not follow a dramatic betrayal. Mary's subject is the relationship that might have been: something did not become what she hoped, and the song gives her a way to say goodbye to it.2

The Candle in the Window belongs to Ryanne and the idea of coming home. Beside the album's drinking, teasing, and pursuit, it gives the material a quieter destination. Together, the two songs broaden the emotional territory beyond the family's public exuberance.2

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