Good Lovelies have charmed audiences for years with their Christmas sets, and they’re back for more
Juno award-winning trio the Good Lovelies will perform the first show of their virtual Christmas tour, titled Christmas Time’s a Comin’ (which is also the name of their latest single) on Dec. 13 presented by the National Arts Centre.
The group will livestream performances to audiences in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, but all 10 shows will be available to anyone with Internet access, no matter where they are in the world. According to the group’s website, Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough, and Sue Passmore, will perform both holiday classics and original songs.
“A lot of the songs that we sing in our Christmas concert are covers of old Christmas songs. This lends well to Christmas nostalgia,” said Ough in an interview with the Fulcrum. “And we do sing three original songs from our latest Christmas record, Evergreen.”
This year, the Good Lovelies have completed three online performances prior to their upcoming Christmas tour.
“It is a beautiful yet strange experience to perform live from my home. It is heartening that so many people tune-in to watch our performances,” said Ough. “But, let me tell you, it feels weird to sing to a computer instead of an audience.”
While the impact of a venue concert is different from one online, Ough thinks performers should continue to produce virtual tours.
“When you watch a live performance from home, you feel that the performer sings just for you. And that feels extremely special.”
Brooks, Ough, and Passmore created Good Lovelies after they performed their first Christmas concert in 2006 before expanding their tour to London, Toronto and Port Hope.
Ever since, the Good Lovelies Christmas tour has been a yearly event. And because of the concert’s popularity, the group released a Christmas record entitled Under the Mistletoe in 2009.
“We had no master plan to create an established Christmas tour, but it just ballooned into something major. Some years, we perform 28 shows in December. We really enjoy our Christmas tour,” said Ough.
Ough continued to explain that while, “they are not a Christmas band,” they perform these concerts because it is, “a traditional honouring of our beginnings. And our renditions of Christmas songs help introduce our music to people from all over the world.”
Not only are Brooks, Ough, and Passmore known for their harmonies, but also known for their philanthropy.
A portion of ticket sales for each concert will go to local charities: part of the proceeds from Ottawa’s show will be given to Ottawa-Riverkeeper, an organization which helps assess and monitor the Ottawa River’s ecosystem.
Ten years after winning their Juno award, Ough said the group still finds the thrill in performing for an audience no matter if it’s live or online.
“I will never forget the night that we won a Juno award in 2010. We never thought that was possible. Our only hope was to play music, meet our musical heroes, and find an audience in this world,” she said.
“It’s difficult for me not to perform in front of audiences. This is my profession and my passion. And I’ve never gone this long without performing in a venue. So I think I might cry after our first in-person performance. I miss it so much.”
