Ontario-born folk-country trio the Good Lovelies pride themselves on their feel-good sound and genre-mashing music.
The band is coming to Kingston on Saturday, Oct. 5 to perform music from their latest album at The Spire. Made up of singer-songwriters Kerri Ough, Sue more, and Caroline Brooks, the band got its start in 2006.
Together, they’ve won one of Canada’s highest honours in music: a Juno Award. Their record The Good Lovelies won the Roots & Traditional Album of the Year award for a group in 2010. They were nominated again in 2012 for album Let the Rain Fall.
Since their start, the band has been touring and putting out records with their folksy, melodic sound, complemented by pop and roots undertones. Their most recent album, Shapeshifters, came out in February of 2018.
The Good Lovelies play with harmony and a variety of instruments through their music, including the acoustic and electric guitar, keyboard, synthesizers, bass, and drums. All these tools come together to form a sound that can’t be defined by any sole genre.
“We have this hybrid of music where there’s no genre that we won’t attack and our voices are the main connecting feature,” Ough said.
The musician went on to say how much she loves the variety of sound on the band’s records.
“There’s a Sue song, and then there’s a Kerri song, and then there’s a Caroline song. And it makes for a really interesting [record]. It’s sort of like a mixtape. There are three different people on there.”
This is the core of the Good Lovelies: three voices and three lives, intertwining harmoniously to make music representing both their individual and collective experiences.
The three have shared a love of music from an early age: Kerri and Sue grew up singing in choirs.
“My whole life has been music,” Ough said. “We were all drawn to music, and we love it.”
The trio formed a unit almost accidentally when they played a show together in Toronto in 2006 as soloists. Ough said after that, “it just kept rolling and we went with it.”
Since then, the Good Lovelies has shared their music with audiences across Canada and the globe, from Alaska to .
In addition to touring their regular records, the trio does an annual Christmas tour. This summer, they spent their days recording their second Christmas album, called Evergreen. It’s scheduled to be released on Nov. 15.
Earlier this year, Ough released her debut solo album, One Day Soon, which has been 10 years in the making. She calls this album a personal ode to her life.
“I call it one of those records that you want to fall asleep to,” Ough said. “It’s got these dreamy sounds and a gentleness to it.”
However, the singer-songwriter commented on the difference between making her own album and making one for the Good Lovelies.
“It’s very different making a record with a whole nine songs in a row of my experiences,” Ough said. “I love that I have a chance [to make] this solo record in addition to the Good Lovelies stuff, because my friends are extremely ive of this side project.”
According to Ough, “it [will be] a really special show in Kingston on Saturday.”
Concertgoers can expect an entirely different experience than what they’d have listening to the record alone. The Good Lovelies’ shows are known for energetic sing-alongs and crowd involvement.
“We like to tell a lot of stories on stage and make people laugh,” Ough said. “It’s not just a concert […] it’s a real interactive experience. You’ll leave feeling better than when you arrived. A lot of people say it’s a good-for-the-soul sort of concert, and I stand by that.”
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