Behind The Music With The Castellows

With glorious harmonies, lovely instrumentals, and hook-filled storytelling songs, this sister trio brings the kind of familiar sound country music listeners love. Ellie, Lily, and Powell Castellow make up the trio known as The Castellows, incorporating more than just family roots to their songwriting and music. C&I interviewed them as they struck poses and showed their best Western style at our spring fashion shoot.

Ellie (left): Pecan felt hat with multicolored band, resistol.com; Brim Biter, hallettpeakleather.com; Leather vest, schaefferoutfitter.com; Mable polka dot dress, tuckerbrown1986.com; Sunshine Reeves (Navajo) Royston turquoise cuff, coloradojo.com; Glow in the Dark floral embroidery boots, corralboots.com.

Lily (middle): High Desert felt hat with concho band, charlie1horsehats.com; Flat Weave dress, stetson.com; High Horse caramel leather cape, shopwesternandco.com; Linda Yazzie (Navajo) turquoise ring, coloradojo.com; Victoria tan boots, blackstarboots.com.

Powell (right): Stellar felt hat in buckskin, baileyhats.com; Diamond horseshoe necklace, readjewelers.com; Rowdy top, doubledranch.com; Wedding leather cape, helgasdesigns.com; Idyllwind boot cut jeans, bootbarn.com; Vintage belt with Navajo sterling silver five turquoise stone buckle, lelarose.com; Turquoise feather cuff, abilenesky.com; Jacie transparent and leather boots, alcalasboots.com.

Cowboys & Indians: Tell us about your family dynamic and origin?

Lily: We're three sisters from Southwest Georgia. They're [Ellie and Powell] actually part of triplets, so they're 20.

Ellie: Don't want our brother, Henry, to feel left out.

Powell: Lily is 17 months younger, but we really feel like quadruplets 'cause we're all so close in age. And we're all so similar.

Lily: No doubt. But yes, we just moved to Nashville [last] July for music. It wasn't the plan—but we're there doing it.

Powell: Ellie and I went to UGA, University of Georgia, and I graduated there in May with an ag degree and she is—

Ellie: I'm still in school. [Laughs.]

Powell: She'll graduate in December. And then Lily is a pilot. So we all have different career paths and passions that we were going to take before we started doing music.

Lily wearing Stellar felt hat in buckskin, baileyhats.com; Turquoise bar necklace, cowboyjewelers.com; Kristopher Brock x Tecovas Ava dress, tecovas.com; Fringe denim jacket, scullyleather.com; Emmer blue boot, oldgringoboots.com.

Lily: But we all grew up singing and playing. We kind of told each other growing up that if something were to ever come with music, then we would owe it to each other to do it. Just 'cause we love doing it. We love playing together. We grew up playing and singing in church. We still lead worship when we go home, but we just didn't think people made it in music or that it was an opportunity for us ...

Ellie: Yeah, we're from some no-name town. And so the thought never really crossed our minds.

C&I: When did y'all pick up instruments?

Ellie: I played, so I was the first one to play instruments. I started playing piano when I was about eight. It's actually my first instrument. And I started playing guitar when I was 12. I've been doing that ever since.

Powell: I was probably 14 when I picked up banjo.

Ellie: And then we kind of had me on guitar, Powell playing banjo, and Lily singing for a while. And then I bought a bass and I taught Lily how to play bass. Because I told her, “you have to contribute instrumentally. You can't just sit there and sing.” And so she plays bass and she plays guitar now. And I play bass as well as mandolin, and then Powell plays banjo, guitar. So instruments has kind of always been something we wanted to do [in the] forefront even whenever we weren't pursuing music as a career.

Powell (left): American Hat Co. felt hat in Silver Sand, besthatstore.com; Ben Nighthorse (Navajo) Head of a Horse earrings, sorrelsky.com; Denim peasant blouse, stetson.com; Enamel horseshoe ring, readsjewelers.com; Vintage Navajo silver concho with turquoise belt hallmarked by Billy Slim, lelarose.com; Grey Lab leather shorts, tuckerbrown1986.com; Dani tan suede boots, stetson.com.

Lily (middle): Stellar felt hat in buckskin, baileyhats.com; Turquoise bar necklace, cowboyjewelers.com; Kristopher Brock x Tecovas Ava dress, tecovas.com; Fringe denim jacket, scullyleather.com; Emmer blue boot, oldgringoboots.com.

Ellie (right): Carlsbad straw hat, outbacktrading.com; Verde Valley turquoise earrings, lauraingallsdesigns.com; Ben Nighthorse (Navajo) Head of a Horse pendant, sorrelsky.com; South Rim cuff, vogtsilversmiths.com; Denim short-sleeved jacket, doubledranch.com; Idyllwind floral drive jeans, bootbarn.com; Victoria tan boots, blackstarboots.com.

C&I: Do you like to play additional instruments on top of your chosen ones? 

Ellie: Yeah, so the songs we recorded are full-band. We like a big band, just because it makes [the sound] cooler. But Lily doesn't really play bass anymore. It is hard to; it's really hard to play bass with a drummer because you have to be a bit more in the pocket.

Lily: It's hard to sing lead—there are very, very few people who sing lead and play bass. I think I only know of two people who do it. It's a rhythm instrument, and you try to perform and sing; it was difficult. But we have a fiddle player who also plays anything with a string. He's crazy at the guitar. So we have a bunch of instruments.

Ellie: And then I sometimes play mandolin in our stuff. [In] our online videos sometimes ...

Lily: You can play anything with a string. She's talented.

C&I: So how did y'all first break into the music scene?

Ellie: So my friend—he's gonna get a kick outta this, too—but our friend and I were literally in the deer stand last fall and just talking about whatever. And he said, “you know, I think y'all should post your stuff on Instagram and TikTok. I think it would get a bunch of views.” And I said, “You're so silly.” And it was also around the time we'd been writing songs just for fun and playing bars in Athens. And so in December it was literally just me with my friend in the deer stand and him giving me the idea. And we just started posting randomly and it was cover videos of our favorite songs we liked, and [they] got views from the moment we started posting. [Laughs.]

Ellie wearing Carlsbad straw hat, outbacktrading.com; Verde Valley turquoise earrings, lauraingallsdesigns.com; Ben Nighthorse (Navajo) Head of a Horse pendant, sorrelsky.com; South Rim cuff, vogtsilversmiths.com; Denim short-sleeved jacket, doubledranch.com; Idyllwind floral drive jeans, bootbarn.com; Victoria tan boots, blackstarboots.com.

Lily: I think the first one we posted ... it wasn't bad. We just didn't try. Like, we took two takes and said, “I guess that sounds fine.” ... We still don't know anything about social media. We got phones when we were 15, so we grew up homeschooled, in the middle of nowhere, on a cattle farm. And so we really didn't do a lot of social media or whatnot. Then Daddy didn't want us to get TikTok because he thought people would steal our information. So we got TikTok without him. [Laughs.]. But he knows we have TikTok now.

Ellie: And he's okay with it. [Laughs.]

C&I: Can y'all tell us a little about growing up homeschooled on your family’s cattle ranch?

Powell: We were homeschooled all the way through and we absolutely loved it. I feel like growing up, on land and out in the open, it’s so great. You're in that environment because your whole world is this piece of property; you're just learning, and we got to work on the farm, and I feel like we were able to learn stuff.

We were able to learn responsibilities. And then, [agriculture is] what I wanted a career in, so I kind of found my love for that from growing up on the farm. And it's a smaller farm. We do cattle and timber, and then both our parents have other full-time jobs. So anything we do on the farm is just our family. And all, basically, our whole extended family on my dad's side lives on that land, on that farm, too. So, we were super blessed to grow up that way. I feel like a lot of people don't get to grow up like that with all their family.

Lily: And we grew up in the house where our Daddy was raised in—

Powell: And they all help on the farm, so I love that. Yeah.

Powell wearing Stellar felt hat in buckskin, baileyhats.com; Ben Nighthorse (Navajo) Head of a Horse earrings, sorrelsky.com; Diamond horseshoe necklace, readjewelers.com; Rowdy top, doubledranch.com; Wedding leather cape, helgasdesigns.com; Idyllwind boot cut jeans, bootbarn.com; Vintage belt with Navajo sterling silver five turquoise stone buckle, lelarose.com; Turquoise feather cuff, abilenesky.com.

C&I: What are some of your main songwriting inspirations?

Ellie: I think a lot of different things inspire our songwriting and we are also very new songwriters, so it's interesting to see what's inspired us a year ago is not what's inspiring us now. And I think a lot of it is stuff we know. Like we write a lot about our home, we write a lot about our family. We write a lot about each other. And we're also patriots. We love this country. So we write a lot about this country and we write love songs too...

Lily: We haven't really dated a whole bunch, so that's not the first and only thing that we write. I feel like there are a lot of people who write awesome love songs, but we just write other stuff ...

Ellie: Story songs ... a big part about country music is storytelling. Perfecting the art of writing a narrative song is something that we try to do.

C&I: What about artists who've inspired you? Anyone in particular?

Lily: It depends on what we're writing. If we're writing a storytelling song, then, I get a lot of inspiration from the best storytellers ever, which is Marty Robbins and every single one of his songs. It's like watching a darn movie. And then for writing ...

Powell: We all love Emmylou Harris; we get a lot of inspiration from her.

Ellie: We write a lot of bluegrass-esque songs too. A lot of times you just write lyrics and melodies, and you don't necessarily think about production until you're in the studio. But we tend to write songs that start with guitar riffs instead. And so I feel like stuff that comes from old flat pickers like Doc Watson and Tony Rice and stuff. We're kind of all over the place.

Powell: But us being instrumentalists, we really try to incorporate that in our writing and in the songs we sing and write because good, fun instrumentals are really important to us.

Lily: But there's also three of us, so we have to write with harmony in mind. And so then we think about [similar groups] who inspired us like the Pistol Annies, obviously, the Dixie Chicks or even older groups, like Shenandoah, or the Judds. Or you know, Diamond Rio slays ... and Alabama, they tear it up. There's a lot of good vocal groups you can lean on. [Laughs.]

Lily wearing High Desert felt hat with concho band, charlie1horsehats.com; Flat Weave dress, stetson.com; High Horse caramel leather cape, shopwesternandco.com; Linda Yazzie (Navajo) turquoise ring, coloradojo.com; Victoria tan boots, blackstarboots.com.

C&I: What are the differences among you guys?

Lily: A bunch. [Laughs.]

Powell: It's funny because we all have different strengths that tie into each other. And I think when you're working so closely with people, it's important to understand that each person has a place and a strength. So, like, Lily, being the lead singer, is very fun and outgoing and has, you know, a big personality. And then Ellie is ... smart, intellectual. She's basically the leader of the band, and she's ...

Ellie: Not the lead singer. [Laughs.]

Lily: She keeps our heads on straight. And then Powell is just the peacemaker. She's so gentle and sweet and calm. And when Ellie and I are going at it, Powell's the one to bring us back. [Laughs.] We all love each other, you know?

C&I: I love it. OK, fashion question. How would you each describe your style?

Lily: I would say we didn't grow up in the West. We love Western style and we love wearing our boots and our jeans and our hats. But we're also we're not from the West; we're from the South. We're South Georgia girls, so ...

Ellie: We're more redneck than Western. [Laughs.]

Lily: Yeah. I mean, it's more of a farm girl Western style. Because it's like farm with country.

Ellie: Yeah. I struggle with fashion in general. I mean ...

Lily: I dress Ellie.

Powell: Ellie will wear anything. Like, she's easy.

Ellie: I've been trying to do better.

Lily: She has; she carries a lot of other things. She doesn't need to dress herself. I can dress her.

Ellie: Thank you.

Ellie wearing Pecan felt hat with multicolored band, resistol.com; Brim Biter, hallettpeakleather.com; Leather vest, schaefferoutfitter.com; Mable polka dot dress, tuckerbrown1986.com; Sunshine Reeves (Navajo) Royston turquoise cuff, coloradojo.com; Glow in the Dark floral embroidery boots, corralboots.com.

C&I: So you were talking about how this wasn't your original plan. What were you originally going to do?

Lily: So when they [Ellie and Powell] were off in school, they graduated early, went to UGA. I wanted to be a commercial pilot. So, when I was 16, I started flying. I got my license at 17, and I was working towards my instrument by the time I turned 18. I'm 19 now. And then I was 18 going on 19 when we started doing this music stuff. So I wanted to do aviation, and I still have my license, and I still fly when I can.

Ellie: And then I was studying management information systems in international business. So I wanted to do—sounds so dumb looking back—international IT project management. I speak Korean. I studied Korean in school. So I thought I either wanted to go overseas and work in something that has to do with that or work in an IT department at a company. [Laughs.]

Powell: I studied agriculture in school. So, growing up on a farm, ever since I was little, I wanted a career in agriculture. Specifically on the livestock side. I wanted to go into something like livestock production, something like that. And I still want to do that because that's my greatest passion.

Powell wearing American Hat Co. felt hat in Silver Sand, besthatstore.com; Ben Nighthorse (Navajo) Head of a Horse earrings, sorrelsky.com; Denim peasant blouse, stetson.com; Enamel horseshoe ring, readsjewelers.com; Vintage Navajo silver concho with turquoise belt hallmarked by Billy Slim, lelarose.com; Grey Lab leather shorts, tuckerbrown1986.com; Dani tan suede boots, stetson.com.

This interview was conducted in November 2023.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Tim O’Keefe