THE GOOD LOVELIES
Live At Revolution
Good Lovelies/Six Shooter
The Good Lovelies, the always charming
harmonizing trio of Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Sue Passmore, have gone the
live route for their fourth full length album and, typical of their concerts, it’s
a delightful blend of new material and standout songs from earlier albums and several
excellent interpretations of well chosen covers.
Among the familiar Good Lovelies tunes are versions
of “I Want” and “Lie Down” that are both a lot of fun. It sounds like the whole
audience was happily singing and clapping along on “Lie Down.”
Of the new Good Lovelies songs my favourite
is “Tuesday Night,” which seems like a nice blend of old-time music – thanks in
large part to the rhythms of Caroline’s banjo playing – and classic pop
balladry.
The two killer cuts for me, though, are
their stunning takes on a couple of very familiar songs. They strip the honky-tonk
off of “Juanita,” a Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman song from the first Flying
Burrito Brothers LP, and re-imagine the song as an a cappella song of
redemption. Then, they end the album with a beautiful, compelling version of
Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” that’s as fine as any version I’ve heard.
As I noted a couple of years ago in my review of Let the Rain Fall, “The Good Lovelies’ arrangements blend folk,
country, jazz and swing influences into something that’s always quite
appealing, always very musical, and, almost always, lots of fun to listen to.”
That still holds true on Live At Revolution.
Throughout the album, the three members of
the Good Lovelies seamlessly swap lead vocals and harmonies and, from song to
song, swap around the banjos, guitars and mandolins. They also receive some
excellent support on most of the album from bassist Paul Mathew and
multi-instrumentalist MVP Christine Bougie. Les Cooper also adds mandolin or
guitar to a few songs.
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