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Good Lovelies hitting the Northern road

The Good Lovelies will be returning to Thunder Bay with their unique brand of folk/country in support of the Sleeping Giant Folk Music Society.
The Good Lovelies
Caroline Brooks (left), Sue Passmore (middle), and Kerri Ough (right) of the Good Lovelies will be playing in Thunder Bay on Saturday May 27 at Urban Abby. (Photo supplied).

THUNDER BAY - Touring can be a long, lonely, and tough grind for some bands. But for the folk/country trio, the Good Lovelies, sometimes small additions can make hitting the road a delightful experience.

The Good Lovelies, consisting of Sue Passmore, Caroline Brooks, and Kerri Ough are hitting the road this spring for a short six day tour across Northern Ontario, which will bring them back to Thunder Bay on May 27th.

“We’re not out for very long and we play some shows and come back to our families,” said Sue Passmore. “That has actually changed touring quite a lot too. The length of time we spend on the road when we have little ones either with us on the road or back at home.”

The trio have been making music together since 2006 and have released four full-length albums as well as several EPs. Their debut album, Good Lovelies, won the 2010 Juno Award for Best Roots and Traditional Album.

Having toured extensively across Canada, the trio has also toured Europe and Australia. But Passmore said tours closer to home always feel a little more special, and a little easier.

“We get to jump in the van from our homes,” she said. “It’s still our home province and we’ve got a lot of friends that we made here and there’s something nice about driving in Ontario. It’s a little bit different when you are off in Australia. You do feel like you are off in a different world.”

But even if a tour takes them far from their front door, for the last five years the Good Lovelies have had a little piece of home with them on the road.

Passmore and Brooks both gave birth to sons last March and Brooks’ first born has been traveling with the band since 2012.

“There are definitely some challenges to it, but also it brightens the touring life in a very unique way,” Passmore said of touring with little ones in tow. “If the travel day has been hard or here and there things can go wrong, and then you have this delightful infant babbling away and laughing and playing, it can completely change a ridiculous situation around.”

The Good Lovelies are working on a new record to follow up the 2015 release of Burn the Plan, which Passmore said will be released next February. And while the songwriting on the newest record will reflect experiences of family life, musically it will also be taking a big step forward.

“We are doing a lot more playing on the record,” Passmore said. “In the past, we certainly played, but we also hired other musicians to fill things in. We are doing that, but we are doing a lot more playing ourselves on the record and that has really been a rewarding experience.”

According to Passmore, playing more instruments in the studio and soon to be on the road, allows her to feel closer to the music that she and her fellow bandmates are creating.

“It makes it feel like we are involved a little more creatively because our hands are actually on all the instruments that are being played,” she said. “You are right there, your hands are in it. Most of the parts that are going down on the songs are things that came out of the three of us.”

Despite all the successes the Good Lovelies have seen over the years, from European tours to winning a Juno Award, Passmore said when the band gets back in the studio or up on stage, the focus is always on the music.

“If it’s received well by the community, we will obviously be delighted. But that’s not the main goal,” she said. “We want to love the show that we are playing. That is really the key thing. We will be planning over 100 shows once that new record is out and you definitely want to like the songs that you are playing.”

It has been more than six years since the Good Lovelies have played in Thunder Bay, having graced the stage with Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Café in 2010 and then returning a year later for a solo show in 2011.

Their latest upcoming show will not only mark their return, but will also support the Sleeping Giant Folk Music Society. Passmore said she is always happy to play in support of folk music societies across Canada because they help get her music to audiences.

“They are so supportive of bands like us at a level where we are able to tour and tour pretty regularly,” she said. “They fill a really important place and a really important role in music venues throughout the country and I think it’s very important to keep that going.”

The Good Lovelies are playing Saturday May 27th at Urban Abby on 330 Red River Road. The show starts at 8 p.m.



Doug Diaczuk

About the Author: Doug Diaczuk

Doug Diaczuk is a reporter and award-winning author from Thunder Bay. He has a master’s degree in English from Lakehead University
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