The easy, breezy three-part harmonies of yesteryear can be heard in the original tunes by the Good Lovelies.
The Juno-nominated country-folk trio is bringing old-style music to a new audience at time when nostalgia has saturated much of popular culture.
Whether looking back at the past goes along with entering a new millennium or is a recessionary thing, group member Caroline Brooks, observes “something is happening to our pop culture at the moment” that makes it cool to dress in vintage clothing or watch the ’60s-era TV series Mad Men.
While the Toronto-based group has been compared to the Andrews Sisters, its biggest influences are the Mills Brothers and the Boswell Sisters. “The Bossies” were well known in the 1930s for their intricate harmonies, which Brooks believes produced the template for the Andrews Sisters a decade later.
Sounding retro not only appeals to the Good Lovelies, who perform on Wednesday at The Matchbox in Red Deer, Brooks maintained, “it’s natural for us” — although she hopes the group also brings its own modern sensibility to the music.
The playful, sunny image put across by Brooks and her singing, songwriting, instrument-playing cohorts, Kerri Ough and Sue Passmore, seems to connect with a lot of people — from the kids to seniors who enjoy Good Lovelies concerts, to CBC Radio storyteller Stuart McLean, who took the group along on his Vinyl Cafe tour last month.
(The trio found the Red Deer audience “so amazing and fantastic we had to come back,” said Brooks.)
Besides being up for a Juno Award next month for the group’s debut self-titled roots album, the Good Lovelies also recently won the Best Emerging Artists award from the Canadian Folk Music Awards.
All this back-patting reinforcement is welcomed by the trio, who quit solid day jobs to travel around the country as folk singers — Brooks used to work as a University of Toronto recruiter, Ough was an Ontario government civil servant, and Passmore worked with a small printing house.
“Quitting was really scary at first — these were great career jobs with RSP-matching contribution programs and health and dental plans,” recalled the 28-year-old Brooks.
Fortunately “things got moving at a good clip,” during the group’s first Riches to Rags Tour, and the Good Lovelies haven’t looked back.
Brooks, a Whitby, Ont., native, who grew up singing in her parents’ Brookfield band, believes “part of the reason we’re making this work is that we’re willing to spend a ridiculous amount of time on the road.”
With a supportive husband and no kids yet, she figures the travelling is just part of the adventure.
Tickets for the 8 p.m. concert are $20 from Ticketmaster or The Matchbox box office.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com