By GINA KINSLOW
MUNFORDVILLE — Word is getting around about the pop band Warrior Poetes.
The group is composed of three sisters — Marissa, Allicia and Ariana, and as southcentral Kentuckians learn about the band they invite them to play at various events and functions.
The Warrior Poetes have graced the stage at Hart County’s Civil War Days, Cave City’s Good Ole Days and the recent groundbreaking ceremony for Hart County’s new sports complex, to name a few.
The band, which spells its name using the French feminine form of the word poet, formed in 1999 and was touring quite a bit before leaving Westport, Conn., to move to Munfordville in 2007.
“Our whole immediate family transplanted here,” said Marissa.
The sisters followed their mother, Darlene, who dreamed of opening a bed and breakfast on a working farm.
“When she said she was moving, we didn’t know where that was, but we are a very close family and pretty much wherever Mom was, was going to be home,” she said.
Their mother purchased an Amish farmhouse in northern Hart County and began transforming it into a bed and breakfast with her daughters’ help.
“We very much laid down Warrior Poetes and other jobs we had and we each have taken a strong role in developing the bed and breakfast,” Marissa said.
Marissa assisted their mother in the general renovation and construction of the bed and breakfast, as well as the marketing of the bed and breakfast, while Allicia took care of the 180 laying hens, ducks, horses, cats and dogs on the farm. Ariana took care of office management issues and grew the all-natural garden.
As the community got to know the family, it also learned that the girls could sing.
“People learned that we did this, and so, without us pursuing anything, we have had a fabulous time in Kentucky as Warrior Poetes,” said Marissa.
“The community has really embraced us as a family, as a band, and if there is an event they contact us and ask, ‘Would you be interested in being a part of it?’ And we love that.”
The grand opening of the bed and breakfast, which is known as Country Girl at Heart Farm and Bed and Breakfast, was in November 2009, and now that it is up and running Marissa, Allicia and Ariana have time to return their focus to music.
The sisters have always sung together.
“We would be getting ready for school in the mornings, and we shared a bathroom so we were all in there ... if one of us had a song stuck in our head, the others pretty much knew it,” Marissa said, adding they would each learn the harmony parts of the song or make up harmony parts. “Our mom would hear us, and ... when we went to family parties or picnics, she would say, ‘Girls, what can you sing for your grandparents?’ We just grew up singing for friends and family.”
They also sang in church and at school events. Marissa plays fiddle and some percussion, while Allicia plays electric and acoustic guitar and Ariana plays piano.
They formed Warrior Poetes in 1999 and began touring soon afterwards, playing shows in New York City, Seattle, Orlando, Buffalo and internationally in El Salvador and Ireland.
The sisters describe their music as being “out-of-the box pop rock,” and have recorded three CDs — “Power, Love and a Sound Mind” in 2000: “Amplified,” in 2001; and “Anticipating Arrival,” in 2006.
Warrior Poetes is an independent band. The sisters do everything themselves from business management to booking gigs and stage set up.
They draw inspiration from everyday life for their self-written songs.
“We just write about life whether it’s a great day or a bad day,” Marissa said. “We’ve all grown up with a strong faith and that comes through in our music also.”
The sisters have not started a fourth album, but are giving the idea some thought. In the meantime, they perform for guests at the bed and breakfast.
The Warrior Poetes are also booking for summer gigs.
Read more about the band at www.myspace.com/warriorpoetes and at sonicbids.com/warriorpoetes. The band’s music is also available on iTunes.com
