Not the same, old Good Lovelies

Juno award-winning trio returns with new album, style that straddles pop, roots

The perfect, three-part harmonies are there.

So, too, the gorgeous melodies. But don’t expect the same-old Good Lovelies — the folk and roots trio of Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Sue Passmore — when they take the stage at the Triffo Theatre in Allard Hall on Wednesday.

Expect the surprisingly fabulous 2.0 version of the Good Lovelies when they launch into tunes from their new album, Shapeshifters.

They ’ve shifted, all right, directly onto the pop side of the music ledger but with enough of the root to keep it alive.

“I really like it, it’s a bit of a departure for us, stylistically,” said Brooks in a telephone interview. “I think it’s straddling pop and roots.”

At the least, there won’t be much to be disappointed about when the Good Lovelies perform, accompanied by a drummer and bass player.

They will play their own instruments, as they did on the album for the first time after depending on studio musicians to reduce the time cost of studio albums in the past.

“We play a lot of new sounds and we got to play the majority of the music ourselves and now we get to play it live,” said Brooks. “In making this record, we had a lot of grace and time to try out this new stuff.”

The Good Lovelies were solo artists before they came together for a Christmas show at Toronto’s Gladstone Tavern where they shared the stage, each playing their own material until they united their voices to sing some Christmas hymns.

“That first show, we never expected to form a band, it just happened organically,” recalled Brooks.

“We’d all sung this one hymn before and knew it and I remember the hairs on my arm standing up while we sang and I remember thinking, ‘This is really special.’ And the people were really reacting to it.”

Within a few months they released an EP, Oh My!, followed by their first studio album, The Good Lovelies in 2009 that won the 2010 Juno Award for roots and traditional album of the year.

Shapeshifters is a 10-song studio album that explores issues such as love, loss, motherhood, longing and self.

There’s a lightness in the music and lyrics, a sense of hope,

honesty, strength and determination, from the opening track I See Gold to the final, This Little Heart, which is as perfect a close to an album as I’ve heard and one of only two songs on this album grounded firmly in folk.

“There’s a lot of emotional depth tied up in this record,” said Brooks.

This album is full of surprises, from the electric guitar on Move Away Clouds and Take Me, Take Me, to the stripped down poignancy of Daylight and I Had A Dream, to the tasteful dollops of percussion, and the teasing, playful moments you’ll hear in Lightness that just make you feel great.

Producer Daniel Ledwell’s masterful work never loses focus of the vocals, especially their collective power as in I See Gold, allowing lots of air for delicate moments that feel like a tender hug or warm embrace.

Every song on this album is interesting, packed with emotion and not a single throwaway track.

Before arriving in Edmonton, the band should be extremely comfortable with the material, having toured the U.S. and Australia through March and April.

They performed at Massey Hall earlier this month, but their stop in London marks the start of a cross-country tour.

Brooks said the audience can expect lots of banter and story telling throughout the show.

“The whole intent of our show is tell a story and make people feel like they’ve just been hanging out in the living room,” said Brooks.

“There’s a beautiful energy in this show. We’ll be exploring a wide range of feelings.”