Music critics are forever claiming that the Watson Twins are a country group. Yet, fans used to perking up to the sounds of Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings or even Uncle Tupelo might curl an eyebrow at the assertion. After all, only a couple songs into the sisters' debut EP, "Southern Manners," it becomes readily apparent that they are as indebted to influences like Joni Mitchell and Sarah McLachlan as they are Lucinda Williams.

Leigh Watson - her sister, Chandra, is the other twin - thinks it's all just a matter of perspective. "It's interesting," she says. "I think that there are songs that we play that are country influenced, and we do play our version of country. I think a lot of people who have been writing about us are indie rock writers, who are used to reviewing records like the Jenny Lewis record or Death Cab for Cutie, and they don't really know how to classify it."

Watson credits her formative years for any hillbilly bent their music takes. "Some of the new songs we've been writing do sound a little more country," she says. "I think more than anything it's just our musical background, growing up in Kentucky. It definitely peeks its head out there, but so do indie rock influences as well and folk music. They've all been combined into this record."

Same could be said for the album that's currently sending the girls around the globe on tour. If their moniker sounds familiar, it's probably because the first time it appeared in a national release the jewel case inside the cover read like this: Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins. The album, released in January, was called "Rabbit Fur Coat." Lewis, the lead singer of indie darlings Rilo Kiley, gave the Louisville natives a strong boost into the limelight by hiring them for her solo debut and the ensuing tour.

"I met the girls in L.A. through Blake (Sennett, Rilo Kiley's guitarist)," Lewis explains on her website. "I'm just so impressed with their instincts as singers and their relationship to my songs. They were very serious about them."

The three ladies discovered that they share a love of the country music they were raised on. It's how they bonded. "I think the records you first hear as a child are those that stay with you the longest," Lewis told the BBC earlier this year. "I learned how to sing, singing along with Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton and Dusty Springfield, and so I think that's what shaped my voice. And my mother was also a singer in Las Vegas - she had a lounge act. "

"These were the records that we shared and listened to on Sundays, making breakfast at home in the Valley. I think they're the dearest to me, the most important. One of the records that we listened to the most was a record by Laura Nyro and Lavelle, and it's a great soul record. That sort of set up with women singing together inspired this and pressed me to ask the Watson Twins to come in on the record."

Leigh explains that the experience of recording and performing with Lewis has been a hugely positive one: "We've been traveling all over the country and to Europe several times. It's definitely taken touring and performing to another level for us. (Lewis) is a very consistent and professional performer, which is what I aspire to be."

"My sister and I want to get to the point in a music career where you've made it be an experience. We've heard a lot on this particular tour with Lewis, 'Wow, you guys really put on a show.' Our response is like, 'Yeah, that's what we're here for.' There's dancing around and costumes, and it's more of a show show. It's made me realize how you can get people in by creating an environment. It's been like going to 'tour school.'"

It would seem, though, that a rigorous touring schedule to essentially promote someone else's music could become a detriment to the Watsons' budding solo - or, more accurately, duo - career. Leigh admits that "Southern Manners" was, in fact, squeezed in around the Lewis' recording schedule. However, the sisters' creative energy made more than the most of their time in the studio.

"The EP was something we did on our own time while we were working with Jenny Lewis on her record, 'Rabbit Fur Coat,' and touring on that," she says. "Doing an EP was all we had time for. We wanted to have the record finished before this year was over. But, originally, it wasn't meant to be anything more than a four-song EP. Then we got into the studio and were having such a great time doing it and bringing more songs to the table. Finally, eight songs into it, the guys were like, 'You have to get out of the studio."

The Watson Twins hope to have a major label help them release a full-length at some point in 2007. Until then, they continue to enjoy the balancing their own career with supporting Lewis.

"I feel like it's all part of the big picture," Leigh says. "My sister and I love working with Jenny, and it hasn't at all gotten to the point where there's any competition between working with Jenny and doing our own thing. They're kind of walking hand in hand with each other. Both elements are exposure. Hopefully, people buy the Jenny Lewis record and wonder what the Watson Twins are like."

If "Southern Manners" is any indication, the Watson Twins are like this: dulcet, sultry and angelic. Their voices blend so naturally together it's no surprise that these 30-year-olds have been singing together since not long after they began climbing stairs. By way of comparison, imagine cloning Emmylou Harris. Then pair the Emmylous together for a duet of "If I Needed You." That's a fair approximation of the level of beauty the Watson Twins achieve on the debut recording.

Take, for instance, the album's third track. Titled "High School," it floats skyward on the power of harmony alone. The song - all eight on the EP are originals - also highlights one of the Watsons' most fearless songwriting knack, the ability to juxtapose dark tales against their ethereal voices.

"We have four nephews who were entering school at the same time because they'd been home-schooled their whole lives," Leigh explains. "('High School') is a song about how brutal people can be in that world. It's remembering your first days at a new school and how that translates throughout the rest of your life. It kind of always feels like the first day of school."

Chandra is responsible for penning that tune, but the two collaborate on nearly every song. Turns out, there's no such thing as sibling rivalry between the sisters when it comes to creating music. In fact, their closeness seems to work in their favor.

"We both write words and music," Leigh says. "We've co-written a couple songs simultaneously - working on a chord progression, then adding lyrics. Mostly, though, they're skeletons of songs that we do on our own individually, and then we come together and flesh the songs out, making comments about lyrics and the bridge and other structural things."

"They're pretty much full songs when we show them to each other, and that's helped our working relationship. It's difficult to co-write. Luckily, we've lived our whole lives together - so, those blows like, 'that lyric doesn't work and needs to be changed' don't hurt as bad."

A song like "Shoot the Lights Out" shows the duo at their best. "The story's always better than the truth/So tell me what you want to see/And I'll give it back to you," Chandra sings as the song opens. "It's about performing and being on stage and feeling misunderstood - people having an image of you but that not being you," Leigh says. "It's about what other people around you building up something that's not necessarily the truth."

Sounds like an accurate depiction of the pratfalls of life in Los Angeles. The girls should know something about that - they moved from Kentucky to southern California eight years ago. The transition was made easier through a support system of college friends who also moved to the area at the same time. Plus, the Watsons had each other, more than most souls who drift that way can count on.

"L.A. can be a really tough place," Leigh says. "But my sister and I built a platform of a lot of great people to keep us grounded and real. We're people in Los Angeles - there are struggles being in a town that's built on people's dreams. Ninety percent of the time, those dreams go up in flames. You definitely feel that glossy picture that everyone paints. Behind it there's a bunch of really sad things. But we've been able to bring part of Kentucky to Los Angeles."

The title track to the new EP speaks to that. It endorses the most southern idea of them all - that hospitality never goes out of style. "'Southern Manners' is a song that encompasses where we come from," Leigh states. "When someone comes over to your house, you make sure that they're fed, and they have something to drink. People are always telling my sister and I that we can make anyone feel comfortable when they come over - it's that southern hospitality."

"We've tried to transplant that out to L.A. The song's about a relationship, but it's also about having manners, having a good man in your life, the hope that you can have that world no matter where you are. That's a part of us."

So is a homegrown do-it-yourself attitude. The Twins self-released "Southern Manners" and still rely on their mother to handle bookkeeping matters. That grounded attitude - along with analog equipment borrowed from friends and co-producers of "Southern Manners" J. Soda and Russ Pollard - is what gives the album its comfortable, homey feel.

"We just went into a really small studio setting with two of our best friends," Leigh explains. "This record really captures the sound of how we sing live. We got to test out a bunch of microphones to see which ones got the warm, embracing feel that we wanted. My sister and I really got to be a part of the whole recording process, and the album ended up feeling just like we wanted - like it was recorded in the '70s."