In Concert: The Good Lovelies - Harmony Regained on Main Street | Eastern North Carolina Now

   The Good Lovelies, three young, talented, and yes, they are lovely in their essential togetherness of spirit and harmony, made their one night stand at the Turnage Theater, and made their indelible, however transitory, mark upon the history of the theater's best musical moments. The estrogen infused Folk trio, all the way from Toronto, Ontario, confidently took to the beaten boards of the stage of the Old Turnage Theater, Friday night, September 30, 2011, and brought their original Lennon Sisters meets Woody Guthrie meets the Chordettes to the small, but appreciative audience gathered for their good and lovely sound.

    What a beautiful blended concoction of genres. Interestingly, Kerri Ough related to crowd that her mother, "who was famous for dispensing unsolicited advice: 'Why don't you play "Mr. Sandman"?'" For those of you who were not around in the middle 1950's, "Mr. Sandman" was the Chordettes' iconic hit.
The Good lovelies upon the stage: Kerri Ough (left), Sue Passmore (center), Caroline Brooks (right): Above. Kerri on bass (left), Sue on acoustic 6 strings (right): Below.     photos by Stan Deatherage
    The lovely ladies stood their marks, they told their tales of great travels with great friends, they played their swapped instruments, and they sang a melodious single note and blended the harmonies. And their harmonies are their stock-in-trade; so much, they could put their string instruments down, and just play their vocal chords till every note needed is explored and each song is complete.

    Their sound may not be unique to some, but it was certainly unique to me. They took their original songs, which the girls imparted, were written from a sense of joy from their collaboration, and they set it up, and they play from place to place: swapping instruments, swapping stories, and playing well their number one instrument - their harmonies.

    The Good Lovelies have also known some success - winning the "prestigious" Juno (the Canadian's version of the Grammy award), as we were oft-reminded in the discourse delivered by the proud lovely ladies.

The girls regale the audience with their finely woven stories of their travels to far away lands and the making of their music. Sue Passmore (left), Caroline Brooks (right): Above. Sue on the 6-string: Below.     photos by Stan Deatherage
Kerri Ough (left), Sue Passmore (center) swapped the electric bass, and blended their vocals, and made a joyful sound. A trademark of the lovely ladies, besides their pleasant blended voices is that they never wore pants - always skirts: Above and below.     photos by Stan Deatherage
    Like many young musicians today, some of whom have played the Turnage Theater, the Good Lovelies are not adverse to penning their own lyrics and melodies, which are quite unique to the times we live in. The Good Lovelies latest compilation of 13 songs, released in 2011, Let the Rain Fall, is a harmonically infused delivery system, constructed from harmonic melody, pieces of hope, love of friendship, the optimistic frontier of the open highway of a lovely world devoid of the unrelenting cynicism that is rampant in today's society. It is not that the lovely ladies are not serious, they just are earnest about the positive vibe that they so ably project. All but 2 of the tunes were written by the trio (they equally share the responsibility of their creation as is reflected in their song's credits).
Interestingly, Caroline Brooks used the stratocaster to lay down some lead to mix with the girl's blended vocals, with great effect on songs like "Every Little Thing:" Above. Kerri Ough, her turn with the acoustic 6-string and sincerely lost in the moment of musical message: Below.     photos by Stan Deatherage