The Orcas Center is often our lifeline to the rest of the world when the gloom takes over and we begin to feel isolated. As the performing arts hub, it’s a place where creativity never stops. Especially in the winter. Plays, performances, art shows, lectures, films, dance and aerial silks classes, garden club gatherings, and dozens of other soul-filling things happen there.
My husband’s birthday was yesterday and for a week now I’ve been carrying a flyer in my jacket pocket advertising tonight’s concert – a trio called the Good Lovelies. I hemmed and hawed over whether to buy tickets for their show. The flyer says, “Impeccable vocals, winsome songwriting & comedic banter.”
We decided to check YouTube to get a feeling for their sound. Hmmm. I still couldn’t decide. A couple days before his big day, I went for it. It’s a milestone birthday for my husband and we weren’t going on some big trip abroad to celebrate. (Ha.) The island has very little to do at night unless Orcas Center has a show, so this would be the big birthday memory.
Wow. They were lovely. And they were good. The flyer was so right. They were not the songs we found on YouTube. Or shall I say, they were not the same live. Never are they, though, right?
Can they sing impeccably. And play impeccably. Their in-between-songs humor makes you feel like you’re in an even more intimate setting, yet their professionalism and crispness in voice and instrument quality is stunning.
Every song was musically and vocally creative in dozens of ways and while they are called folk or country, I don’t think you could actually pin a genre on them tonight at all. I liked that.
You got a strong feeling for each one of their personalities. Caroline was sweet and funny. Susan came across as classy and balanced. Kerri was part serious, part sass, with a dry sense of humor. And she likes spreadsheets. (From left to right in the photo above.) All three seem intelligent and are really easy on the eyes. They have a drummer and bassist as well, who are both fantastic at what they do. The total musical, vocal, and visual picture made me want to go on longer than the 2 hours and 20 minutes we were already there.
While the three (five) of them are spread far away from each other in Canada, you would never know it from the quality of their music. It wasn’t just the 200 of us who felt that way, either. After 11 years together, touring around the world playing 930-ish gigs, they may be on the cusp of stardom. They just found out that their song, “I See Gold,” is at the top of the Canadian CBC music chart.
It was hard to leave. They came down off the stage right in front of us all and sang a cappella after our enthusiastic standing ovation. Not a note was off.
After tonight, they’re on to some other local-ish stops before heading to Australia. If you see them on the ferry tomorrow, ask them to sing their “Border Crossing Song.” Then ask them why I said that.
Thank you for the birthday memory, y’all. You cranked it. And thanks, Orcas Center, for keeping us connected to the rest of the world.
