The Wolff Sisters bring their Massachusetts Americana to Boston Calling

Boston Calling kicks off Friday, and three siblings from Canton will hit one of the stages dedicated to regional artists. Since they were teens — and even tweens — the Wolff Sisters have been honing an Americana sound with Massachusetts as a muse.

Rebecca, Rachael and Kat Wolff grew up in a rambling Victorian surrounded by art and instruments. A sunlit harpsichord glows by the living room window, just a few paces from a Cable Nelson player piano.

“It's sort of out of tune,” Rachael said as her fingers tested out a few keys. She remembers playing the old stand up after their dad registered her, and her older sister Rebecca, for lessons when there were 5 or 6. Then, little Rachael had a revelation.

“I heard Jimmy Hendrix play ‘Purple Haze’ when I was 8 years old and I was like, that's what I want to do,” she said. “And so our dad and his brother bought Becca and us a family guitar.”

Rebecca recalled responding to her sister's new mission, “'Well, if she's doing it, then I'm going to do it.'”

These days Rebecca plays acoustic. Their dad built a custom, sea foam green Telecaster for Rachael. The two picked up their instruments for a short, but sweet, living room concert.

Perhaps it was inevitable the Wolff sisters would become musicians, between an instrument-builder dad — who’s also a pianist — and a mom who’s a poet. Rebecca said music filled their childhood. “I remember a lot of dancing and loud Santana, Little Feet, Bruce Springsteen, Alanis Morissette,” she recalled. “Just a lot great music, and a lot of women in music.”

Rachael added their parents would also host jam sessions with their musician friends. “When we were like 12 we could sit in with them, and they would show us and teach us.”

It wasn’t long before the youngest Wolff taught herself to play piano. Rachael said at age 11 or so Kat came up with a seminal chord progression that helped convince the sisters to form a band. Together, the sisters wrote music and lyrics for their first song, “Down By The Lake.” They eventually recorded it for their 2018 album “Cahoon Hollow.”

Its nostalgic lyrics are loosely inspired by summers the Wolff family spent at a lake house with friends. A full moon and a “blackberry sky” lead into the chorus, where Rachael sings, “This dirt on my shoes ain’t coming clean/ my shirt still smells like kerosene/ I don’t know how long I’ve been awake/ won’t you meet me down by the lake.”

The image of a kerosene lantern inspired the band’s logo, which also captures the Wolff Sisters' aesthetic. “New England places mixed with Americana sound,” Rachael explained. "You can go to the Cape and see these beautiful dunes and oceans, and then drive a few hours up north and you're in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We’re so lucky to be from here and to experience it in the summers and the winters.”

The Wolff Sisters often write and sing about water. Oceans, rivers, lakes — even holy water appears in the song “Roll Me Mama.” For Kat — who wrote its wistful, stream of conscious lyrics after moving to Los Angeles — water evokes the human experience. “Water as the womb, but the water as emotions, but the water as this like greater force of nature,” she said, “and it’s just like the essence that everything like comes from and returns to.”

Rachel said the tune highlight’s her younger sister’s lyrical style where sometimes the end of a line becomes the beginning of the next. Kat’s dreamy voice and plaintive piano also take center stage.

The Wolff Sisters’ latest single “Hurricane” channels the brewing turbulence of a coastal New England storm. "I came up with the line, ‘Ride to the coast on the back of a howlin’ hurricane,'” Rachael said, then Rebecca added, “Kat came up with the 'salt and rain' line.”

The song’s arc builds until it explodes into a wild instrumental jam. Rachael said they were inspired by another family band, the Allman Brothers. The three sisters wrote “Hurricane” together to showcase each of their strengths: Kat’s versatility on piano and organ, Rachael’s electric guitar prowess, and Rebecca’s soaring vocals. It’s their rip-roaring ode to the moody, bewitching New England coastline. Then, there’s their other homage called, “Boston Town.”

“I wrote the song with an idea that I wanted our band to write the next anthem of Boston,” Rachael said,  “and I remember getting the lick. It sounds like this old Irish song, or pirate shanty tune, or maybe even a Bruce Springsteen-esque sort of riff.”

Rachael sings “Boston Town’s” lyrics that reference North End docks and the street where their parents lived in Brookline when they were in their 20s. “Now the ironic thing is Kerrigan Place doesn't exist anymore,” Rachael said. “They bulldozed it down and now there's a hotel. But it still exists in the song.”

Rachael said she’s dreamed “Boston Town” would one day be played at Fenway Park. Now, the sisters are thrilled about where they’ll perform it Friday.

“It would be a missed opportunity to not play ‘Boston Town’ at Boston Calling," Rebecca said. “It was one of those things where, when we found out we were going to play, we just kind of fell on the floor with excitement.”

And, of course, the Wolff Sisters’ proud parents will be there too.

The Wolff Sisters perform at Boston Calling's Orange Stage on Friday, May 24 at 2:50 p.m.