Second Cup Cafe: The Waifs

This week, on The Saturday Early Show, the Second Cup Café welcomes The Waifs.

Hailing from western Australia, The Waifs formed 11 years ago when sisters Donna and Vikki Simpson met guitarist Joshua Cunningham. Each of the band's founding members shares in the songwriting and lead vocal responsibilities.

Their drummer is Dave McDonald.

After seeing the band perform in Australia, Bob Dylan personally asked them to join him as the opening act on select U.S. dates, including the prestigious Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island.

On the Waifs' official Web site, Donna Simpson writes, "In 1985, dad taught me how to play guitar. I was 15 years old. He's a classic campfire-style guitarist who can play any song with 4 chords. He's also a fisherman. The first song I ever learnt was Dylan's 'The Times Are A-Changing' and I was hooked.

"My sister Vikki picked up the guitar in about 1988. She was 14 and playing 'House of The Rising Sun.' She was hooked."

She reveals that their bandmate, Cunningham, "lived on a farm in New South Wales and picked up his first guitar after seeing Michael J. Fox play 'Johnny Be Good' in 'Back To The Future' in 1987. He was also self-taught and got hooked at 15."

The Simpson girls started traveling around Australia and performing in 1992. Writes Donna, "Music was only a means of making money to travel…and travel, we did."

Soon thereafter, they were joined by Cunningham and traveled and performed together for the next three years. Then, in 1996, they recorded their first album, "The Waifs." It was followed in 1998 by "Shelter Me" and in 2000, by "Sink or Swim."

As for how the band got its name, Donna Simpson explains: "After about a year of traveling on the road, we came home and our grandma said, 'Oh, here comes the waifs.' The word 'waif' means a skinny, under-fed, dirty street urchin. We used to come back from tour looking pretty rough."

But, like any good grandmother, she is a fan of her granddaughters.

"She's 84 now," says Donna. "She was in the front row at a recent outdoor concert, rocking in the front row surrounded by all these young people covered in slush."

The Waifs' current release and fourth album is "Up All Night."