The new album by sister act The Sunny Cowgirls is the perfect representation of what country music is all about. “We’ve never done anything we didn’t want to do and this album is no exception,” declares Celeste Clabburn, one half of The Sunny Cowgirls. The duo’s latest album, What We Do, is a powerful and engaging testament to the grit, talent and determination of Celeste and sibling Sophie.

The 14 songs on the album – all originals – find The Sunny Cowgirls reaffirming and extending their reputation for delivering hook-laden country songs shot through with emotion, instantly memorable imagery and wry humour. Recorded in Nashville, Perth and Sydney, What We Do finds the Clabburn sisters in mature and confident mode – with an approach to songwriting and performance that will invite rave reviews.

“Soph and I had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted this album to be,” says Celeste. “I think we’ve both grown up in the past few years, and it shows in our song-writing and the content of our songs. We wanted this album to be real, organic, natural and true to us. We wanted great players and amazing musicianship, but at the same time we didn’t want a sparkly, shiny Nashville-sounding record.”

It is a mark of the Clabburn sisters’ determination that in What We Do they have achieved exactly that. Despite being joined in the Fool On The Hill studio by some of Nashville’s finest talents – such as dobro-player Dan Dugmore (James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt) and drummer Shawn Fichter (Peter Frampton) – the new album is as dinkum Aussie as its first single, Green & Gold, suggests. The idea of recording in the USA came from The Sunny Cowgirls’ producer, Australian studio legend Sam Hawksley (The Whitlams, John Farnham, Adam Brand). At first, Sophie and Celeste were not at all keen on the idea.

“Sam’s a great friend of ours and just brilliant at what he does,” says Sophie. “We’ve always been big fans, but never thought in a million years we’d be recording an album with him in Nashville! We actually laughed at the idea when he first suggested it, because Nashville isn’t really what we’re about. We’ve always recorded here in Australia. We were worried that our Aussie sound might get lost in a big American studio.”

Those fears proved unfounded, however, in part because the stellar American talents who joined Sam and the sisters in the studio were balanced by an equally stellar Australian contingent, including bluegrass guitarist Jedd Hughes (Patty Loveless, Sarah Buxton) and, later, keyboardist Matt Fell (Tim Freedman, Sara Storer). The sisters’ down-to-earth no-nonsense attitude was more than matched by the businesslike approach of their American collaborators.

“We recorded 14 tracks in two days!” says Sophie. “Actually, not even – they were only six-hour days, so 12 hours all up. They don’t muck around over there.” Once the music recording was completed The Sunny Cowgirls left Nashville and flew to Perth – where they spent their childhoods – and laid down vocals under the guidance of band manager Mark Donohoe. Backing vocals were provided by former Australian Idol heavyweight, Courtney Murphy. The final elements – including a toy piano – were added at Sydney’s Love HZ studio, under the watchful eye of Matt Fell.

And thus, more than two years after the first songs for it were written in 2010, What We Do is finally ready for release. The immediate success of the first single Green & Gold suggests the collection will be an early, strong contender for many awards. In the minds of the Clabburn sisters, however, it is already a triumph – of the will. “This is the first album we have released independently,” said Sophie. “There is no record company calling the shots. We really took control of this record and made the album we wanted to make.” And rightly so… after all, it’s what they do.

The Sunny Cowgirls album What We Do is released on Friday January 11, 2013 through WJO.

For more information please visit www.sunnycowgirls.com