Southern Girl Ramblings

Celebrating @dollyparton’s Birthday with Her No-Nonsense Advice

To see more of the Instagram community celebrating her birthday, check out #dollyparton.

Christmas, Canada and Country Music with Siblings Lennon and Maisy

To see more photos and videos from Lennon and Maisy, check out @lennonandmaisyofficial on Instagram. For more music stories, head to @music.

“It was my birthday yesterday!” exclaims Maisy Stella. The 12-year-old singer and budding TV star had quite the celebration. First, she went shopping for Christmas presents with fellow Nashville actress/older sister Lennon. Later on, the two were invited to play with their all-time favorite performer, Bahamas.

“That was kind of crazy,” says Maisy.

“It was spur of the moment,” adds Lennon, 16. “I asked my manager if anyone could get us tickets to their show, and then she gets back and said, ‘I talked to their manager, and they want you to get up and sing with them.’ I was like, ‘Uh, yes!’ I was freaking out.”

The two don’t typically get nervous — though not for lack of opportunity. Over the last three years, they have been charming American audiences on the country music drama Nashville, playing Maddie and Daphne Conrad, the talented daughters of Connie Britton’s character, Rayna Jaymes.

The real-life sisters’ storybook path begins several years before that, in Canada, where they grew up on a remote farm without Internet and television. With their parents in a successful country act, the Stellas, and the walls of their house covered in vinyl records, music became the girls’ go-to hobby.

“My parents only had vinyl. It sounds like we are making this up, but I swear that’s [true],” says Lennon.

No surprise that the two began singing at a young age. “We would wake up to Lennon at seven o’clock in the morning playing Huey Lewis,” says Maisy, who still remembers her first musical memory: performing on a Christmas record with her family at the age of two.

“My mom is one of eight children so we couldn’t afford to get every single person a gift, so we thought that we would sing,” she says. “Lennon was going to do the whole record, and I was sitting in the laundry room watching them recording it. I was like, ‘Mom can I sing?’ I ended up singing ‘Where Are You Christmas?’”

When the Stellas got a publishing deal in 2009, they moved the family down to Nashville with nothing more than a couch and two mattresses. A few years later came the role(s) of a lifetime.

“In my head it was Maisy’s thing,” says Lennon, about her sister’s love of acting. “I was totally 100 percent music. And then Maisy auditioned for Nashville and they saw me because I was there with her. And they called me in and I was like, ‘What is happening right now?’ It was just a weird thing. I auditioned and they knew and we instantly got the parts.”

The two are now midway into their fourth season on the show and ready for what’s next: more Nashville, more roles and more music: a debut album with original material.

“It’s a whole different world,” says Lennon about the girls’ life in the spotlight. “But it’s a really cool thing to be a part of and we are definitely going to continue as long as we can.”