2016 In Review

Another year has come to a close, and with it comes the flood of 2016 Best Of’s, Top Tens and Who We Lost this Year lists. 2016 was a weird one – from political upsets to the deaths of so many musical icons (don’t get me started). But for our band, 2016 was landmark in many ways and there was an awful lot of joy and adventure. Here are some of the highlights, in no particular order.

THE TWINS & HAWAII

The band grew by two this year! In March, within three days of one another, Sue and I gave birth to two little boys. Henry and Wallace (or Hank and Wally as we call them) are born BFFs for life.

After flying across Canada to meet the boys (and to see their Mommies), Kerri and her husband headed to Hawaii. She wrote a great travelogue about her adventures travelling to my home in Toronto, to Victoria to see Sue and her time in Hawaii. I highly recommend reading the entries from that time (all her blog posts are worth reading for that matter). Check out her blog HERE.

TRIO SHOW

We decided to take a solid break from touring – from January to June – to prepare for the babies, and to take a bit of a “rest.” We’d been touring hard for years and in need of a reset. Taking that time off would allow Sue and I to get used to having these new little humans in our lives, and for Kerri to pursue some creative projects that she’d been working on. Sue also moved home to Ontario from Victoria during that time.I don’t know how she did it with a newborn in tow, but she is clearly superhuman.

By June I was itching to sing with my band mates and best friends.  We had decided to ease back into #tourlife by spending a week doing house concerts as a trio. We went to the homes of friends and folks who’ve been there since the early days – playing Piebird Vegan Farmstay near North Bay, and a Church lived in by our friends Mike & Leah.

The thing I loved most about that tour was revisiting the trio show. It’s something we ended up doing a lot of this year; stripping down the songs and playing in our “original” set up. Kind of like a no-frills version of our regular show. We have even started flirting with using an omni-mic, which brings us physically closer together. It’s my favourite, hearing Kerri & Sue’s voices so close – I’m pretty sure that’s how music was meant to be made.

SUMMER FESTIVALS

This year’s summer festival circuit was small but mighty. We kicked it off at Red Wing Roots Music Festival in Virginia, truly a “Musician’s Festival.” Our dear friends The Steel Wheels started this Festival near their hometown a few years ago, and they wanted to make the artists’ experience top priority. We were treated royally the whole time we were there.

In addition to playing our own set, we got to sling beers in the beer garden (only two people returned my pours due to excessive foam!). We closed out the festival singing under the stars with The Steel Wheels and Mipso (a great band from North Carolina).

Later in the summer, we made it all the way to Grand Prairie, Alberta for the inaugural Bear Creek Music Festival. There are so many things we could say about this festival – but for me, it was all about the lineup! Incredible performers from all over the world, folks we have admired (ahem, Case, Lang & Veirs and Bahamas!) and good friends too! Music aside, these festivals are often the only place we get to hang with our fellow travelling musician friends. It’s where we converge, briefly, before dispersing across countries and continents to make ends meet. What I’m saying is: the artist backstage beer tent is where it’s at, and where we were for much of that weekend.

We got to hang with our dear friend Jill Barber and her sweet daughter Gracie throughout the weekend of Bear Creek, swapping travel stories and tips. Kerri snapped this photo of Sue, Jill and myself and our travelling mama sisterhood.

Travelling with the babies has been interesting to say the least. We’re juggling, and making it work because, well, we love what we do. One of my travel highlights from the last year was a 7 hour drive between shows. We were somewhere, I don’t remember where (this is not uncommon in my Mama haze these days), but the boys’ nap and feeding times matched up perfectly. They started going squirrelly in the last hour of the drive, so I had to make a total fool of myself in the backseat of the van to keep the tears at bay. I hope Sue and Kerri were entertained too! I hope to God there is no video footage of that hour!

RECORDING IN NOVA SCOTIA

The seeds for our next studio release were sown in the summer months of 2016. We headed to Nova Scotia and spent a couple days writing and recording demos with Dan Ledwell at Echo Lake.

Being away in that space was really rejuvenating. Not only because we were steps away from the lake (mid afternoon swims, anyone?), or because our friend Jenn was cooking us delicious meals (and also watching the boys), but because we had a little time to just BE. Not on tour, not preparing for a show. Just writing in the day and hanging out in the evenings. It. Was. Heaven.

And we’ll be going back in about a month for a repeat performance…

10 YEARS AS GOOD LOVELIES & ANNUAL CHRISTMAS TOUR

2016 marked our Tenth Anniversary as a band… 10 YEARS!!! We made it through a decade of writing, recording and touring (and touring). Eight of those years we’ve been full time musicians – I still pinch myself when I think about the life we have built for ourselves.

Many things have changed over the last decade: we choose hotel rooms over couches now (thank goodness) and flights over days of driving. Also, we now generally opt for healthy food over Arby’s (those days were fun but definitely hard on the gut). But some things have not changed at all; the enduring friendship that helped sparked this fire has been steady through the ups and downs we have faced both personally and professionally. I am so grateful to call Kerri & Sue my best friends first and band-mates second.

To celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary, we embarked on our Annual Christmas tour with added production and personnel (read: friends) and maybe a few cups of good cheer! Our Christmas tour is always fun, but this was one of my favourite shows ever.

We hit 14 towns and cities across Canada performing Christmas and winter songs we’ve been singing over the last decade. Lo How A Rose is one of those tunes and is the first song we ever sang in harmony. I can remember that first moment of “Good Lovelies” harmony – huddled in Kerri’s basement apartment in Toronto, navigating choral parts we had sung separately before. The hairs on my arms stood up then hearing our voices together, as they did every night we sang it on this past tour. If that’s not a sign from the universe, I don’t know what is.

The 10 Year Anniversary tour ended in Cobourg, Ontario at Trinity United Church on December 18th, playing to a hometown crowd. Our parents and families were there as well as friends and folks who’ve been supporting us from the start. It was joyful and fitting to end the  tour in Northumberland, where we are kind of like rock stars! I say that with tongue firmly in cheek but honestly – playing to that hometown crowd makes me want to put my foot up on the monitor and rip a solo. Well, not really, but you get what I’m saying.

There’s a lot to look forward to this year. Just next week, we’ll be in Colorado for two trio shows in Beaver Creek and Denver. You can find info on those shows as well as all future tour dates HERE.

Then there will be some new music for you to hear in the next little while. Thanks always for listening, for buying our music, for spreading the word and for the love notes. We really couldn’t (and wouldn’t) do it without you.

Hope to see you out there in the next year. Be well, be safe, and Happy 2017.

Caroline for Good Lovelies