Canadian country duo’s daughters star on TV show,
Country singers the Stellas made it big on reality TV. Now, they’re passing down their fame to their two daughters
Marylynne Stella grew up poor.
“Like, government housing poor,” she says. Her father, Ray Penhale, was a working musician in Oshawa who, while raising a family, toured with vocal group the Platters — “Only You (And You Alone),” “The Great Pretender” — for a spell. Yet pursuing his dream meant that Marylynne and her seven siblings struggled.
“There’s no doubt the man loved music and there’s no doubt he raised us on a love of music, but that’s all he raised us on,” she says.
Marylynne has managed to achieve the kind of success her father only dreamed of. Marylynne and her husband, Brad, are country duo the Stellas. They spent years playing open mic nights around Southern Ontario before placing fourth on Country Music Television’s Idol- esque Can You Duet. They scored a publishing deal in 2008 and the family moved to Nashville the following year. The duo paid homage to their humble beginnings on their single “Gravy.”
The scars of an upbringing filled with financial hardship remain, but even that didn’t prepare the Stellas for the astronomical success their children have had.
Lennon and Maisyare an indie-pop duo and stars of TV’s Nashville. Their sound has little in common with their parents’ low-key country one, a musical incongruity; Lennon, 15, is “completely obsessed” with the Swell Season, while Maisy, 11, loves Neon Trees.
That explains why, despite singing together for years, the family will perform together for the first time this weekend, at Boots & Hearts Music Festival in Oro-Medonte, Ont.
And as the girls find themselves increasingly in the public eye (they also have a popular YouTube channel), Marylynne and Brad have had to find new ways to ensure their children don’t fall prey to the pressures the music and television industries can place on teen stars. On the day that we chatted, the couple had just met with Nashville’s writing team.
“When something bad happens (on the show), they call a meeting,” says Lennon from the set. “I think I’m probably going to be pushed out of my comfort zone, so they have to talk to my parents, to make sure they’re comfortable with it.”
“I obsessively watch documentaries and videos and read articles on the things that happen to kids,” says Marylynne. “It’s bad, but I feel that knowing these things, maybe we can stop it before it happens.”
To that end, Brad and Marylynne founded Back 40 Entertainment, which handles recording, publishing and management for themselves and their daughters. It allows the country band to write and record without interference from their label, to which they licensed their most recent record, It Wouldn’t Be This.
“It’s taken the business component out of having someone else run your art,” says Brad. But it also gives Lennon and Maisy a space to explore their creative impulses.
“There’s no pressure, there’s no timelines,” says Marylynne. “There’s nobody telling them what they can and can’t do.”
Brad agrees. “I understand the amazing benefits of having a label and all that, but with the girls they don’t really need to do anything. They don’t have bills to pay. They’re kids. There’s time.”
That freedom has allowed the girls to find their own way musically. And even with previously unimaginable opportunities available — performing with Taylor Swift, attending New York Fashion Week — Marylynne wants her children to understand the uncertainty that could lie ahead.
“Music is a tough road,” she says, “but they won the lottery.” The Stellas appear on the Boots & Hearts main stage Saturday at 4 p.m.