Three of New York's hottest rising country music stars are headed for Bermuda to perform this month.

Acoustic country music group Avenue B, consisting of sisters Olivia, Dominique, 21, and Gabriela Arciero, 18, will be playing at Bermuda Folk Club night at the Spanish Point Boat Club on September 13.

The band is originally from Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, A fourth sister Jillian, the oldest, recently left the band.

"We started doing musicals when we were very young," said Olivia, 23. "We started our own theatre group called the Chester Springs Actress Group. I was 12 and I would direct the plays.

"We did Annie, and Cinderella. I would write the whole script. Then the four of us would be the main characters."

What came out of the musicals was a mutual love of four part harmonies.

The sisters' talents quickly gained the attention of the music world.

The girls, previously known as the 'Little Women Band' toured with country music legend Kenny Rogers for seven years as part of his winter musical 'Christmas from the Heart' .

In 1999 the girls appeared on TNT television show 'Crook and Chase show'.

"It was so inspiring travelling with Kenny," said Olivia.

"We often played for 6,000 to 7,000 people a night," said Dominique.

"He would take us to play tennis in the morning. He would tell us about his life. He is a cool guy. He also does a lot of things including photography and movie- making. Many people don't know that."

In more recent times Avenue B left Pennsylvania and now lives in Manhattan, New York.

Olivia plays the guitar, sings and writes most of the songs, Gabriela plays the drums, percussion and sings and Dominique plays the piano, keyboard and also sings.

Avenue B has collaborated with United Kingdom songwriter James Bourne, but they usually write the songs and music themselves.

"I will write the songs and we will put on our different parts," Olivia said. "Dominique will make us some cool piano part. It is really fun."

Many of the songs are based on their own experiences.

The girls were living in London when Olivia developed a crush on a man from another band.

It turned out that he liked a different sister.

"Even though I totally liked him, I would never turn on my sister," said Olivia. "I would never take a guy over her."

After this experience, the girls wrote 'Never Turn On A Sister'.

"It is kind of like a warning song," said Olivia.

"We have talked about that song a lot," said Dominique. It seems like you could take it in different ways."

Olivia said although they have the usual who-stole-my-sweater sister fights, they give each other unconditional love and support.

"We have our ups and down," said Olivia. "We mainly fight about clothes. It is never much about the music. When we get in the room to play together, we are a band; we are not sisters. All the petty stuff goes out the window. We are real musicians, we focus on the melody."

In terms of the future, the girls are looking to break into the professional scene. They have put off college to focus on their music dreams, although Olivia has studied audio engineering.

"We are life- long learners," said Olivia. "We love travelling. Gabby is constantly reading."

Olivia said the Bermuda trip came about when Avenue B met up with Bermudian Val Sherwood of the Bermuda Folk Club at the Sundance Film Festival in Sundance, Utah this year.

"She thought we would be a good band to come out and play in Bermuda," said Dominique. "Our parents had their honeymoon in Bermuda, so we have always been really fascinated with the idea of going there."

Right now Avenue B is working independently and does not yet have a record deal.

"We are open to it and we are open to new material," said Olivia. "We are working on recording and getting tours that work well for our band and playing shows everywhere we can."

Like many of today's musicians Avenue B is using the Internet to get the word out about their music.

"We are broadening our Internet fan base," said Dominique. "We are utilising MySpace and other webpages like that."

Fans can listen to several of their songs on MySpace including 'Coast to Coast', 'Believe' and 'Bad Habit', but they have at least fifty more that they have written.

"We have an up-tempo, catchy new song called 'Romeo'," said Olivia. "That will probably be on MySpace in September or October. We are making the music video for that. We are looking forward to that."

Their influences include other girl bands such as The Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain.

"Harmonies are awesome," said Dominique. "We like the older eighties and nineties bands including Sawyer Brown and Brooks & Dunn. We are big country fans. We also love Hanson and Sheryl Crow."

Dominique said their fans include women of all ages from teenage girls to older women.

"When we play for parties, middle aged women are really drawn to our music," said Dominique. "It is wholesome and real and honest. It is also fun. We don't like to put ourselves into a category. Young girls like us, but lots of guys like us also."

Some of their most popular songs include 'Bad Habit' and 'Boy from Memphis'.

The Bermuda Folk Club night on September 13 starts at 8 pm. Tickets are $10 at the door. For more information telephone 291-2070.

For more information about Avenue B go to their website at http://www.avenuebmusic.com/WELCOME.html

For more information about the Bermuda Folk Club and their activities go to their website at www.folkclub.bm