Just Us Folk

As a group that puts a high priority on vocal harmonies, the Good Lovelies have seemingly developed the ability to read each other’s minds when it comes to figuring out what to do with each song they sing.

It stands to reason that after 18 years together, Kerri Ough, Sue Passmore and Caroline Brooks would know what the others are thinking.

“Sometimes as we work with other people, they may point out that we do have our own shorthand that we haven’t noticed. But there is an intuition and a language that we speak together,” said Sue at the 2024 Mariposa Folk Festival.

“As an example, when we’re on a workshop stage and one of us hears a harmony, the other two can quickly catch on to what that person’s going to do,” added Caroline.

Legendary children’s performer Raffi got a closeup view of the Good Lovelies process when they sang on his latest album, Penny Penguin.

“At one point, he said, ‘What’s happening here?’,” said Caroline, “because we would go, ‘You do this. You do this,’ and we know what each other’s saying.”

The trio has released 11 albums or EPs in their time together, including two Christmas collections, with their latest being, We Will Never Be the Same.

“We had so many album titles it took us a while to come to a consensus,” Sue recalled. “But I feel it worked on various levels. The feeling of the title permeates a lot of the songs and where we’re at right now.”

But they almost called it, The Cottage Record.

Throughout their career, the Good Lovelies would spend a few weeks somewhere secluded to write new material for an album. For We Will Never Be The Same, they were given the opportunity to stay at the cottage of the late CBC broadcaster and writer Stuart McLean. Many of the bed tracks were recorded at a cottage in Nova Scotia, Dream Date Studio, while they slept each night in another cottage close by.

“A lot of the sounds we captured in the cottage are so warm sounding,” said Caroline. “It was a pretty fabulous experience.”

Producing the album and playing on it was the duo of Joshua Van Tassel and Christine Bougie.

“It was very interesting working with them,” said Caroline. “Christine’s been on all of our recordings, and Josh we’ve known for a long time as a great percussionist. So, the combination of all of our talents made for a very different process, but it was really cool.”

The creation of a Good Lovelies song takes many a road to finish. Whether it’s a complete song by one member, bits and pieces of an idea or a song created from scratch, it’s all formed through the Good Lovelies filter in the end.

“We don’t consider it a Good Lovelies song until we’ve all spent time with it,” explained Caroline. “We spend a lot of time thinking through it. I’m digressing a bit, but harmony is an integral part of the song and as important as the lyrics.”

As the Good Lovelies get set to wrap up a year of touring in support of We Will Never Be The Same, which received a nomination for both a Juno Award and a Canadian Folk Music Award, a deluxe version of the album has been released with acoustic renditions of three of their songs and covers of ‘Helplessly Hoping’ by Crosby, Stills and Nash and ‘Songbird’ by Fleetwood Mac. December will see the trio embark on their annual Christmas shows tour.

“I always feel like we’re always on tour,” said Caroline. “But we usually try to keep the touring condensed and not be gone for a month at a time.”

“It’s easy enough to burn out if you’re not paying attention to it,” added Sue. “So, we’re trying to be more intentional as time goes on.”

Caroline and Sue have young kids at home who were able to benefit from the trio’s collaboration last year with Raffi. They were able to sing on his album!

“That was a magical thing,” Sue remembered. “We’re Baby Beluga grads so that was pretty neat.”

“Yeah, they’re bragging at school about it,” added Caroline. “They’re saying, ‘Raffi paid me to sing on his record!’”

For more on the Good Lovelies and We Will Never Be the Same, go to https://www.goodlovelies.com.