Bo and Ky Court, who comprise the indie-pop duo Let Flo Go, will perform on Dec. 27 at Old Schoolhouse Brewery in Winthrop.
Teens visit Winthrop grandparents for holidays
IF YOU GO
Who: Let Flo Go
When: 6-9 p.m., Dec. 27
Where: Old Schoolhouse Brewery (155 Riverside Ave., Winthrop)
Cost: Free
Info: letflogo.com
Search for “Let Flo Go” on YouTube, and near the top of the results will be a video of sisters Bo and Ky Court practicing a catchy, lovesick pop song called “Turn Around” in what looks like a cramped studio apartment.
It appears as if Ky might hit a kitchen cabinet with the end of her bass guitar while she sways to the music, but this unpretentious, impromptu recording suggests that these young women are on to something.
They’re equipped with strong voices, and harmony comes naturally to them — probably because they’ve been singing together their whole lives. They’re also clearly having fun.
“Turn Around” is one of several originals Bo, 19, and Ky, 17, have in their repertoire. The Methow Valley gets its first chance to hear this Santa Barbara, California-based duo in person on Dec. 27 at Old Schoolhouse Brewery in Winthrop.
The young women aren’t just coming to the valley for the gig. They’ll be visiting their grandparents, Ash and Linda Court, who ran the family business — Bear Creek Golf Course — for years.
Change of climate
The sisters are looking forward to visiting the Methow Valley again, for quality family time and, of course, the chance to experience winter.
“My wife likes to say that holidays in Winthrop are like living in a real-life Hallmark Christmas movie,” said Brian Court, Bo and Ky’s father and manager.
Bo and Ky have fond memories of crawling inside an igloo their uncle built for them one winter. They’ll get the opportunity to snowmobile and hike around in the snow — something their hometown doesn’t offer.
“We honestly love snow,” they said.
Brian Court graduated from Liberty Bell High School in 1994 and left soon after, eventually settling in Santa Barbara, where he and his wife raised four children.
Bo and Ky picked up the guitar around the ages of 7 and 5, their father said.
“They all had their own nylon string guitars and played using the Suzuki method,” Brian Court said. “Laborious, but they stuck with it. In a couple years, they enjoyed it enough, they started writing their own songs.”
That YouTube song, “Turn Around,” sounds like a worthy addition to the library of teen songs about lost love. Except that Ky wrote it when she was 10.
“I’ve always been creative,” Ky said. “Even growing up, I liked writing songs.”
The sisters are truly precocious. Their mother home-schooled them, and they would practice music for four hours each day after their lessons. Ky enrolled at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) at the age of 15 after earning her high school diploma early. Bo started going to SBCC at 13.
“You learn to watch and listen to people,” Ky said, when discussing the accelerated pace of their teenage years. “That’s probably our greatest experience, is watching other people.”
Why the name?
The sisters were mum about the meaning of their band name, “Let Flo Go.”
“It was a phrase in our household,” was all Bo would offer. She said they like to explain their name at their shows.
While Let Flo Go’s Facebook page calls out “our amazing and ever so supportive parents” as the sisters’ main influences, the page does also name other artists they like. That list includes Carrie Underwood, the country music superstar whose career launched after she won the fourth season of American Idol, in 2005.
You’ll also find Billie Eilish on that list. Eilish is a contemporary of Let Flo Go, a singer/songwriter who turns 18 on Wednesday (Dec. 18) and who released the biggest-selling album of 2019. Like Underwood before her, Eilish rose to fame in a manner very appropriate for her decade: She was discovered by fans on the online music streaming service Soundcloud.
Bo and Ky seem to be taking the old-fashioned, and probably more labor-intensive, road to a music career — with some modern touches. They are gigging tirelessly in and around Santa Barbara County; Old Schoolhouse Brewery will be their first show outside of California. They’ve also released four originals on Soundcloud, and they’re trying to build their Instagram following.
“We’ll definitely do this our entire life,” Bo said. “As far as we’ll get, as far as how much people will listen to us, we have no idea. We have no say in that.”
