A decade ago, the holiday season in Canada was enlivened by the delightful, charming and harmonious unveiling of Under the Mistletoe, the third release overall, and second in less than a year, by a burgeoning new Canadian roots/folk vocal trio, the Good Lovelies. It became a smash hit and added to the playlists of many fans from coast to coast, as well as garnering not inconsiderable critical acclaim and all-important airplay.
Fast forward to 2019, and the Good Lovelies have become a well-respected and beloved staple of the contemporary folk/pop music scene, with a growing international fan base and a reputation for compositional excellence, a vibrant, lively and humour-filled stage show and a desire to stretch their creative muscles into new and exciting artistic territory, as evidenced by their latest studio album, Shapeshifters, released last year. It was an ambitious collection of songs that has seen a shift into more of a modern pop territory for the trio of Kerri Ough, Caroline Brooks and Sue Passmore.
But the affection for the band’s Christmas shows has also become a regular part of their yearly repertoire, and while not a stagnant aspect of their career, these shows, and the accompanying music have retained the same tone and vibe as the songs on Under The Mistletoe. As a way of honouring this legacy and to ensure the sustainability of the wildly popular Christmas tours, the Good Lovelies recorded a new album of holiday tunes and released them on the album Evergreen on Nov. 15. Now with two albums of classic Christmas music under their belts, the band has embarked on its annual yuletide musical sojourn, which started Dec. 5 in Sudbury, and continues throughout Ontario until Dec. 22, in the band’s hometown of Port Hope, with dates in Stratford, Belleville (at the Empire Theatre on Dec. 8), Midland, Meaford, Huntsville, Guelph, Oshawa, Toronto, Ottawa, and two shows in London on Dec. 21 in between.
“Under the Mistletoe came out 10 years ago and that album has brought us to a lot of places. And since then, over the years we have developed almost an alternative persona where there are two parts of our musical lives. There’s the regular show that we do most of the year and then there is this Christmas thing, which has kind of blossomed into its own beast. We wanted to honour that first record and all the places that it’s brought us, essentially,” said Brooks.
“We have done a Christmas tour every single year since our band started and that album has come on the road with us for years and years and years – it’s our best-selling album in fact. We wanted to honour that record and we thought that a lovely way to do that would be to record a lot of the other Christmas holiday seasonal songs that we have been playing over the last decade that people have been enjoying on our Christmas tours. So, that’s basically where the idea for Evergreen came from. And stylistically they fit together. Our last album, Shapeshifters was a bit of a departure, and it was so enjoyable for us to make that record. Evergreen is almost like a return to our roots. The Christmas show very much exists in that original Good Lovelies sound, which is the high, three-part harmony which harkens back to that timeless classic Christmas sound of years past.
But then there are moments on Evergreen which do sort of lean into what we’re doing now. For example, Song of the Magi still exists quite a bit in the folk world, it’s definitely pushing the boundary a little bit on this Christmas album. But, really, for this album we wanted to pay homage to our roots and pay homage to our Christmas show. And, honestly, it all happened pretty quickly. We only decided in the early Spring that we wanted to do that, and so in between everything else, including two of us having young kids, we made this record and had it out by mid-November. It was a very quick album to make, partly because we have been touring these songs for years, so we knew them inside and out. I would say it’s something that really satisfies our long-time fans because our fans have been on a real journey with us musically, and I think this is a nice return o some of those early sounds we were making.”
There is a superb and crowd-pleasing mix of old familiar Christmas songs, some covers of more contemporary holiday favourites (especially the Beach Boys’ Little Saint Nick, as well as some original compositions, including two from off the top, The Garland and These Christmas Nights, both of which are heartfelt odes to the best parts of the season, without diverting into the realm of cliched sentimentality. It’s the joy of Christmas from the perspective of a modern family.
“Sue and I wrote some original songs for this record. I can speak for The Garland, which was one of my contributions, and it’s purely about being in that time of life with your family where everything is magical at Christmas. The kids are just so excited about Christmas and there is this feeling of family and tradition. I haven’t actually told anybody what that song is about, but it’s essentially about that family time when the little kids are so into it and there’s just this magic around Christmas,” Brooks, a mom of two, explained.
“And I know Sue wrote These Christmas Nights with her little family as well and seeing Christmas kind of through the eyes of her little guy. So, yeah, the whole album and the songs on it are definitely inspired by the children in our lives, but also remembering what it was like for us when we were younger, because we were all kids once. And I can tell you the reason that Jingle Bells is on this record is because it’s my son’s favourite song. We literally sing it all year. He is three and a half so that song definitely was chosen last year to go into the Christmas show as almost a joke because he and I sing it almost every single day at home.”
It seems, even to the casual observer, that Christmas or holiday season-themed shows and tours, and even local concerts and special musical presentations are seeing a resurgence. People seem to be enjoying the escape from the news of the day, the stresses of modern life, the onslaught of technology, social media and invasive advertising, and are seeing these shows a chance to step back in time to a simpler moment in their lives, or just revel in the carols, sing-alongs and upbeat melodies with friends, family and neighbours. It’s a phenomenon that Brooks and her bandmates have observed as well.
“There were a few years when we first started where I was a little bit ‘bah, humbug’ about the idea of being a quote unquote Christmas band, because as a musician you want legitimacy and you want people to respect what you’re doing. And early on when we were doing the Christmas thing I was like, ‘what are we doing? This isn’t necessarily Polaris Prize-worthy stuff,’” she said with a chuckle.
“I started realizing year to year as we were doing this tour that people would return with their kids, and seeing them grow up, or with other loved ones, or even just themselves. I have seen the joy that Christmas brings to people, completely separately from all the religious stuff. I definitely feel that’s happening more and more. It’s becoming a real holiday tradition again with people. There are definitely people who come to any show we do, but there are also people who only see our Christmas show. So, on that note, it’s really important for us to be writing original Christmas music, but also in the shows make sure we’re playing a couple of songs from Shapeshifters or from our earlier records, to make everyone happy. I feel like we did a pretty good job of choosing the songs for the album because it feels like a Good Lovelies show – it’s like a set list. I think with Christmas albums, more than any other kind, people actually listen to them from start to finish, so song order was really important to us. We spent a lot of time thinking about the order and how to make it arc in a certain way. There are some other songs that we recorded at the same time, but they just didn’t really work out; they didn’t fit. But I am really pleased with this crop of songs, and how pretty much all of them are under three minutes. It’s just crazy how we can fit 15 songs on a record and it still only take up 40 minutes.”
An interesting modern twist to what is a traditional holiday venture is the Good Lovelies commitment to help offset their own carbon footprint and make their own statement in favour of climate change mitigation as a tie-in to Evergreen.
“It’s so exciting. We have been thinking a lot about climate change, obviously. It’s something I have been pretty passionate about for a long time. We have been trying to reduce our eco footprint for a long time. We have a plastic-free rider on our contract, and we try to drive instead of fly whenever we can. So, we are constantly thinking about that stuff,” said Brooks.
“Not long ago we came upon some property up north [near Burk’s Falls, Ontario, the heart of the province’s cottage country] that we have some access to, so for every copy of Evergreen we sell, every CD or vinyl on the tour, we will plant two trees on that property. We’re going to plant this Good Lovelies Forest next spring, and that’s a small way for us to do a little bit of carbon offsetting. It’s really important for us to give back and that’s what we’re doing next year. There are going to be several thousand trees that we’re hoping to plant, and we’re going to be out there doing it with friends and family, and we will most likely hire some people to help us out.
“The nice thing about that is we’ll be able to add to that forest as time goes along. And we’ll also be able to share the progress of the forest with everybody for years to come. People will take pictures and stuff and post them on our social media and website. I am not sure about signage; we haven’t really thought about that. It’s very very early in the process, but we’re very excited about it. And it’s also a super tangible way to make an impact. Forest and tree growth are one of the greatest ways you can offset carbon in this day and age. We’re working with Trees Canada and we have had them come and visit the site and tell us what kind of trees we need to plant and when to do it and all these things.”
For more information on the tree-planting program, Evergreen and upcoming tour dates, visit www.goodlovelies.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for nearly three decades. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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