All the Little Pieces brings haunted legend to life on new album

While playing to a crowd of 40,000 people on top of a South Carolina bridge, Rhyan Sinclair didn’t know she was hours from writing her third album.

In April, Sinclair, 15, with her Lexington-based rock band All The Little Pieces, was chosen to perform at the Cooper River Bridge Run. The quartet was led up the 573-foot bridge by a police escort at 4 that morning to play two concerts. That night, the band was led though the city of Charleston on a ghost walk.

“It was pretty crazy that we were awake enough to go on a ghost walk that night,” she said. “I think it was just meant to be.”

On the ghost walk, the band was told the story of Lavinia Fisher, who according to some legends was America’s first female serial killer. She and her husband, John Fisher, owned an inn in South Carolina in the early 1800s. Travelers who stopped at the Six Mile Wayfarer’s House were poisoned by a tea concocted by Fisher. They were then robbed, and some of them reportedly disappeared. Lavinia and John Fisher eventually were convicted of highway robbery and were hung on the same day in 1820.

This haunted tale was the inspiration behind All The Little Pieces’ third album, which was released this fall.

“It started by wanting to write a song about Lavinia,” Sinclair said. “But it just kept expanding. I had a few previous songs written (for a future album) that fit in like puzzle pieces to the story that I wanted to tell.”

The concept album “The Legend of Lavinia Fisher” begins in the present “with a traveler who wants to get out of the small town he’s in,” she said. “The road he’s on shifts to the past, and he ends up at the Six Mile Wayfarer’s House. The rest of the album is Lavinia.”

All the Little Pieces formed in 2012, and its music has been dubbed “Southern grunge,” but it also plays alternative rock and blues. Sinclair said the band went through some “growing pains” as the young singer found her niche.

“Our previous records jumped from genre to genre, and this one came out more cohesive,” Sinclair said. “It shifted into a little more country. “Writing this record felt more like home, like where I’m supposed to be.”

Ever since winning her kindergarten talent show with a rendition of a Nat King Cole song, Sinclair has rocked the mic. She sang alongside her mother in church and started writing original material when she was 11. All The Little Pieces formed shortly after.

“I’ve always loved music,” she said. “I never woke up and decided I wanted to do music professionally. It just kind of happened naturally.”

Along with singer-song writer Sinclair, All The Little Pieces is composed of Billy P. Thomas on bass, Zach Lafferty on guitar and Matt Halvorson playing drums. The album features guest artists like Fats Kaplin on fiddle and pedal steel guitar and Warren Hood on violin.

“I’ve been such a huge fan of Fats Kaplin and Warren Hood, having them [on the album] is such an honor,” Sinclair said. “Hearing them put their own touches on the songs was really cool.”

The first single from the album, “Just Sane Enough,” features Kaplin on fiddle accompanied by rattling chains and a raspy cold voice from Sinclair.

A ghostly touch was what Sinclair was working toward. As a fan of Tim Burton, the “‘Sweeny Todd’ vibe and cool visuals” of Lavinia’s story really drove Sinclair’s writing style. Appropriately, the band has a Halloween-night gig playing the entire album at Willie’s Locally Known.

“The album has a ghost-story feel,” Sinclair said. “It’s fun to play this time of year for the spooky feel, but it can be played all year long.”

This story was originally published October 28, 2016 at 10:13 AM with the headline "All the Little Pieces brings haunted legend to life on new album."