Three twenty-three-year-old women from Melbourne, Australia, founded this trio with the ambiguous name. Heide Perverdelle, Janis Pilkington, and Gracie Sinclair have known each other since high school. They formed the trio in 2020, but it wasn’t until 2025 that their first album was released.
It was worth the wait. The girls offer humourous, satirical indie-folk that distances itself from serious, socially conscious folk. But because the chemistry between them, particularly vocally, is so intense, you could end up taking them … seriously. Musically, they bring to mind The Roches, the Indigo Girls, or more recently Boy Genius, British singer Laura Marling, even Crosby Stills & Nash. But the bitches have their own sound and their own world. Even as they poke fun at themselves and their twenty-something angst, they take us through a whole range of musical moods. Even in their irony, they touch our souls.
While not breathtaking, the vocal harmonies between the three singers work very well. Accompanying these voices are acoustic and electric guitars with reverb. Occasionally, a violin appears. You have to wait until the sixth track to hear drums. The previous track is a cappella.
As a man in his sixties, I am not part of the Folk Bitch Trio’s target audience. I envy their lighthearted approach to life. But as a lover of folk music and vocal harmonies, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to these Australian women. Judging by the reactions of the English-language press, they will continue to be talked about for some time to come.
