INDIVIDUALLY Allison Moorer and Shelby Lynne are two of the most successful country singers and songwriters around. Now for the first time the pair will be performing together at a series of dates in the UK including one in Manchester on Monday.

The sisters released their first album together, Not Dark Yet, late last year. It’s a collection of covers ranging from the expected - Merle Haggard and the Louvin Brothers; to the surprising - Nirvana’s Lithium and the Killers’ My List.

So what finally prompted them to work together?

“I think most things life are about timing,” said Allison, “particularly when it comes to art and making art.

“You can try to force something but it’s probably not going to work if you do. So I think that my sister and I had both got to get to places where we felt relaxed with where we were individually in order to feel like we could do something worthwhile together.

“We just had to wait until it really felt right.”

Having released the album, the pair went on tour in the States - again the first time they had performed together.

“We kind of know how it will go when we are in the UK, or at least we hope we do,” said Allison.

“We are really looking forward to it. We really like playing together, it’s fun and rewarding plus we get to spend time together.”

Collectively Allison and Shelby have released 24 albums, Allison was also married to singer songwriter Steve Earle with whom she has a son John Henry.

“For the album both of us brought things to the table,” she said. “I’ve said it before but had we made it six weeks before or six weeks later than we did, the list of songs which made the album would have been different.

“We tried to bring in some songs from our childhood such as Merle Haggard’s Silver Wings but also bring in things we like from today.

“We wanted songs that we felt allowed us to sing together in a successful way but also put wanted to put together a record that tells a story from beginning to end because that’s the job.

“Especially when you are doing a covers record, people sometimes forget it can be very revealing about an artist - or a couple of artists in this case.

“It reveals a lot about who they are and what they are like. There wasn’t any formula in choosing the songs; again, it was just what felt right.”

Fans were delighted to see the sisters who grew up in Alabama working together and the final track on the album, Is It Too Much ,is the only original song on it, based on the tragic incident in which hints at future collaborations.

It is based on the events in 1986 in which their father killed their mother before turning the gun on himself.

“We wanted to write the whole record but we just didn’t have the time and we weren’t together to do it,” said Allison.

“We did write Is It Too Much by emailing lyrics back and forth but we didn’t want to do a whole record that way. Trying to write a record over Facetime is unrewarding so if we are going to do another one, which we are talking about, we are going to try and get in the same room for that.”

Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer, Stoller Hall, Manchester, Monday, January 29. Details from 0333 130 0967 or www.stollerhall.com