As a reviewer, I am acquainted with about three hundred new acts each year. Each time I ask 'What kind of music do you play?' I'm met with a host of answers. My favorite response is 'Oh, we're really different!" When I listen to these acts, I find that they're usually not that different at all. Well, now I've been stumped. The Gibson Sisters are different. Here in the office, as a CD plays, everyone is allowed to yell out who it sounds like to them. While The Gibson Sisters' CD "BLACK AND WHITE PICTURE" was blaring through our review speakers, each 'sounds like' was followed by a 'but different.' So I could begin an exhaustive list of who they sound like on each song, but then I'd have to disclaim it by saying 'but different.' It's so refreshing to see an act take true pride in how the song is delivered and worry more about how the fans will receive it than in how the song can be pigeon-holed into some vaguely accurate genre. The Gibson Sisters, Laurie and Sally, are extremely gifted, sporting excellent voices and chiming in on guitars, fiddle, banjo, piano, mandolin, and percussion. This project is very well produced and expertly arranged and orchestrated. The siblings blend beautiful harmonies through a myriad of styles that resemble everything from war-era jazz to ragtime, from folk to country, but never loitering in any particular genre. The album invites the listener on a journey much like following a road map through a plethora of adorable small towns, each one unique and more charming than the last. This is a 2000 release but ranks as one of my favorite reviews of this year.