Patrice Pike started in Austin with a band called Little Sister, later known as Sister 7. Composed of lead vocalist Patrice Pike, with Wayne Sutton on guitar, Darrell Phillips on bass, and Sean Phillips on drums, this quartet saw the hard work as a notable road band come to fruition on their second Arista release Wrestling Over Tiny Matters. The quartet formed in the summer of '91 and at first were almost a self-described funk band, playing good-time music in weekly gigs at bars on Sixth Street.

Sister Seven's soulful and assured 1996 Arista Austin debut This The Trip generated the hit "Know What You Mean." Rolling Stone has said of Patrice, "She's Tina Tuner, Bessie Smith, Janis Joplin and Robert Plant rolled into a tiny but explosive package." Each member of the band is a powerful musician in his own right. The group has used its extensive time on the road to develop and mature as songwriters.

As they moved toward concentrating on songwriting, they tried to keep elements of that funk while evolving their overall sound. From the start their emphasis has been on the music.

The band began with the name Little Sister (Patrice's childhood nickname). By their first album, the self-titled Sister 7, the name had changed. According to their bio on Arista's site, "There were six bands in the United States and one in the UK with the word 'Sister' in the title," Patrice notes. "We were literally Sister Seven. Plus we liked the name because seven is a lucky number."

In 2001, Patrice Pike began singing with a group called Black Box Rebellion and Sister 7 has become a piece of history. Pike also does a considerable amount of solo performing. You can get music from Patrice Pike and Patrice Pike and the Black Box Rebellion at CDBaby.