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Cooking up something lovely

Having three chefs in the kitchen is never a good idea — unless the Good Lovelies are cooking up a brand-new album.Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Sue Passmore are in the midst of a recording session for a yet-unnamed new CD, to be released in February.
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Juno winners The Good Lovelies perform at The Hideout in Gasoline Alley on Sept. 10.

Having three chefs in the kitchen is never a good idea — unless the Good Lovelies are cooking up a brand-new album.

Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Sue Passmore are in the midst of a recording session for a yet-unnamed new CD, to be released in February.

This means all three singers in the Juno Award-winning folk trio are contributing harmonies, writing original tunes and weighing in with their own opinions.

If there’s a potential for friction in this scenario, Brooks doesn’t see it.

“Three cooks in the kitchen might be a nightmare for some bands, but we all love each other and have always felt very strongly that we should all bring something to the table,” said Brooks, the tall, dark-haired one.

She considers Ough and Passmore “my favourite songwriters in the world” and added, “it’s easy to be in the same band with the people you love.”

With a new album coming early in 2015, the Good Lovelies, who perform on Wednesday, Sept. 10, at The Hideout, in Gasoline Alley, south of Red Deer, are touring for the final time with the music featured on the group’s Live at Revolution CD.

“This is a great moment in time for us,” said Brooks.

Live at Revolution was recorded in front of an audience at the Revolution Recording studio in Toronto in 2012 and is a best-of album of sorts. The release that won two 2013 Canadian Folk Music Awards contains plenty of re-dos of favourite Good Lovelies songs, including I Want and Kiss Me in the Kitchen.

Brooks said these tunes naturally changed through many performances and Live at Revolution captures their new, evolved sound.

Also featured are covers by Leonard Cohen (Hallelujah), Bruce Springsteen (State Trooper) and Deep Dark Woods (Winter Hours), as well as two new songs by the trio.

Duvet Love is “a bit of a sassy tune” by Passmore, while Tuesday Night was written by Brooks about a troublesome relationship. She’s quick to add it’s about a friend’s turbulent love life and not her own.

“I have an extremely functional relationship with my husband, so I have to take my inspiration from other people’s challenges,” said Brooks, with a chuckle.

What has been testing is taking her two-year-old daughter on tour with the band. But with a nanny on standby and a easy-going toddler, who’s now a veteran of 50-some airplane flights, Brooks hasn’t found this overly difficult. “She’s an easy baby to travel ­— which is good, because with a band, you have no choice.”

The singer is something of a trailblazer in the Good Lovelies. While Ough and Passmore have significant others, neither yet have children.

Brooks admitted her young daughter has inspired at least one of the new songs slated for the upcoming album.

She expects the CD will have more of a contemporary sound than most previous vintage-flavoured Good Lovelies records. “It might have more of a modern twist,” said the singer.

But the group’s characteristic harmonies, which have enthralled Alberta fans (this is the trio’s most toured province), will remain.

“We have a great following in Alberta. I think people really like the three-part harmonies we do,” said Brooks.

Tickets to the 8 p.m. show are $20 in advance from The Hideout Eats & Beats, 53rd Street Music, and Gord’s Smoke Shop in Red Deer, or $25 at the door. For more information, call 403-348-5309.

lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com