With their model-pretty looks, sweet-as-sugar harmonies and bleeding-heart folk-pop, Alabama-bred Allison and Catherine Pierce seem a shoo-in for mainstream success. But The Pierces' 2000 self-titled debut did doodly-squat commercially, despite some well-placed praise for the two former professional ballet dancers.

That nonresponse—due in part to record label shake-ups and misguided marketing—was "a devastating heartbreak," according to 29-year-old Allison, but the sisters were undeterred, moving from Nashville to New York to jump-start their careers. "We were discouraged, but hardly finished," she says. The Pierces' second CD, the breezy, radio-friendly Light Of The Moon, is due out next month.

The Pierces—daughters of music-loving hippies—started singing as children with their dad at churches and weddings. They both danced professionally until a serious injury sidelined Catherine. "Somehow I think we both knew that singing was what we would eventually do," Allison says. "Dance is this weird subculture where you walk around in a leotard for seven hours a day and try not to become totally self-absorbed," she recalls. "Music has its own quirks, but it's much more a part of the real world. It's where we're meant to be."

Sat., Dec. 18, 7 p.m., $10, with Stargazer Lily, The Point, 880 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, 610-527-0988. (Stargazer Lily also appears with The Brindley Brothers at 10 p.m.)