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It's difficult to name the best track on such a diverse album, with 12-bar blues numbers like "C7" situated next to slow acoustic love songs like "The Words," which Rachel freely admits makes her cry. The Damsels music runs the gamut from radio-friendly pop-rock songs to country and blues jams, all pulled together by a tremendous sense of musicality.

In fact, their guitar-driven music and strong vocals at times draw favorable comparisons to Melissa Etheridge, whom they also frequently cover at live shows. Sabrina, in particular, tends to play and sing in the style of the iconic singer (as if her 12-string Adamas guitar didn't give her away).

Rachel and Sabrina share songwriting and singing duties on the album, and both of their voices are powerful and well-trained. Sabrina is the more bluesy singer of the duo, while Rachel's voice is more introspective and soft (but with the ability to wail). She's also the more political, snippier singer, with sarcasm flowing freely through some of her songs. " It's funny that the shy one has the more sarcastic lyrics and the bigmouth has the sensitive lyrics," kids Rachel.

The musicality and talent on Ashes is unmistakable, but lesbian music fans tired of the same old generic love songs will also find solace in many of the lyrics, which are written with either gender-neutral or feminine pronouns. "I normally write in the 'I' or 'she' person," says Sabrina. "Rachel is more third person in the past, but [her] new stuff uses female pronouns. We want a good gay following and a good straight following, and so far it hasn't been a problem."

Perhaps the most blatantly gay song is "Dirty Little Nice Girl," with overtly lesbian lyrics like, "Dirty little nice girl/Crooked in a straight world/Where your mommy and daddy, they really want a wedding/But not one to a girl..."

With an album full of girl-loving songs, The Damsels have had to deal with being a gay band in a straight bar world, but it hasn't been as bad as one might expect.

"Of course, The Damsels have had the few 'dyke' comments in the bar on occasion, and I've been fired from a few gigs for being a lesbian and bringing a 'lesbian crowd'--the typical 'I don't want my bar turning into a dyke bar' reason," says Sabrina. "But we're pretty lucky. We've even won over a few of the assholes--people [who] were making 'dyke' comments and by the end of the night they were big fans. You just never know."

But The Damsels are not simply another lesbian bar band, having played with national touring artists such as Melissa Ferrick and LP. "That was our first original gig, opening for LP," says Sabrina. "Oh my god. We only had eight originals and had barely played them. But LP is awesome. She's a sweet person. We wanna open for her again in the future, and we'd love to tour with her if we can."

A few years later and with their new CD to peddle, the band is showing no signs of slowing down or lowering their expectations. They hope to branch out from Baltimore a bit more in the future, playing gigs wherever they can, labels be damned. But they haven't forgotten their roots. "I'm from the old school where you tour and promote the hell out an album," comments Sabrina. "We think clubs sometimes match up gay or girl acts for a better draw, and we agree with it. We love playing with other lesbian or girl bands. It's cool."

On the lookout for a tour and support wherever they can find it, the one thing experience has taught The Damsels is never to fall complacent and settle. "We did get an offer to be on a Christian rock label the other week," laughs Sabrina. "They said they didn't care about the lesbian thing, [that it] would be a good diversity thing. It was a youth-oriented project, but not for us."

Learn more about The Damsels and purchase their CD at thedamsels.net

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