The Be Good Tanyas
Encyclopedia
The Be Good Tanyas are a Canadian
traditional music group, whose influences included folk
, country
, and bluegrass
. The style of music they performed can be referred to as alt-country or Americana
.
, Trish Klein, and Sam Parton) first played together at tree planting camps in the Kootenays
region of British Columbia. They eventually played their first concerts in Vancouver in the late 1990s.
In 2000 they embarked on a North American tour that ran from Vancouver to New Orleans, before returning to British Columbia to record their first album Blue Horse
with producer Garth Futcher. The record, which combines old-time music
standards such as "Oh! Susanna
", "The Cuckoo
" and "The Lakes of Pontchartrain
" with self-penned songs like "The Littlest Birds", was well received in the folk-roots movement and highly praised for the quality of the harmony
vocals and the mixture of the new and the traditional in the instrumentation. Helped by the popularity of Americana
at the time of its release, it achieved a modest amount of crossover success in college radio, and was featured in a television commercial for Zellers
department stores.
The second album, Chinatown
, followed in 2003. Their third album, Hello Love, was released on October 10, 2006.
The Tanyas gained some U.S. exposure when the Showtime series The L Word
selected one of their songs, "In Spite of All the Damage", for inclusion in the series' soundtrack. A live version of "In My Time of Dying" was also included in the third episode of the third season, in which Frazey Ford featured as a nun and played the song in the opening sequence. The song "The Littlest Birds" was played during the first season of the Showtime series Weeds
and was included in that season's soundtrack. The band's music has also been included in the CTV
series The Eleventh Hour and in the feature film Because of Winn-Dixie
. Their cover of Townes Van Zandt
's "Waiting Around to Die" was also used in an episode of AMC's Breaking Bad
.
After the release of the first two Be Good Tanyas albums, Trish Klein collaborated with Alison Russell under the band name Po' Girl
, a project that as of April 2007 has resulted in three albums: Po'girl, Vagabond Lullabies, and Home to You.
2007 saw all members of the band pursuing their own projects.
As of 2008, the band was on hiatus - to unwind from the stresses of touring and to pursue other interests Ford released her debut solo album, Obadiah
, in 2010.In 2011 it was announced that they would play the Winnipeg Folk Festival
heralding a return to performing.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
traditional music group, whose influences included folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, and bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
. The style of music they performed can be referred to as alt-country or Americana
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
.
Career
Formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, The Be Good Tanyas (Frazey FordFrazey Ford
Frazey Ford is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She was a founding member of The Be Good Tanyas. Her solo debut Obadiah was released on Nettwerk on July 20, 2010....
, Trish Klein, and Sam Parton) first played together at tree planting camps in the Kootenays
Kootenays
The Kootenay Region comprises the southeastern portion of British Columbia. It takes its name from the Kootenay River, which in turn was named for the Ktunaxa First Nation first encountered by explorer David Thompson.-Boundaries:The Kootenays are more or less defined by the Kootenay Land...
region of British Columbia. They eventually played their first concerts in Vancouver in the late 1990s.
In 2000 they embarked on a North American tour that ran from Vancouver to New Orleans, before returning to British Columbia to record their first album Blue Horse
Blue Horse
Blue Horse is the debut album by The Be Good Tanyas, released in 2000.-Track listing:#"The Littlest Birds" – 4:06#"Broken Telephone" – 4:52#"Rain and Snow" – 3:59#"The Lakes of Pontchartrain" – 4:39#"Only in the Past" – 4:56...
with producer Garth Futcher. The record, which combines old-time music
Old-time music
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music, with roots in the folk music of many countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland and countries in Africa. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dance, buck dance, and clogging. The genre also...
standards such as "Oh! Susanna
Oh! Susanna
"Oh! Susanna" is a minstrel song by Stephen Foster . It was published by W. C. Peters & Co. in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1848. The song was introduced by a local quintette at a concert in Andrews' Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 11, 1847. Foster was said to have written...
", "The Cuckoo
The Cuckoo (song)
"The Cuckoo" is a traditional English folk song. It has been covered by many musicians in several different styles. An early notable recorded version was performed by Appalachian folk musician Clarence Ashley with a unique banjo tuning....
" and "The Lakes of Pontchartrain
The Lakes of Pontchartrain
The Lakes of Pontchartrain is an Irish ballad about an unfortunate immigrant from Ireland who is given shelter by a beautiful Louisiana Creole woman...
" with self-penned songs like "The Littlest Birds", was well received in the folk-roots movement and highly praised for the quality of the harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
vocals and the mixture of the new and the traditional in the instrumentation. Helped by the popularity of Americana
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
at the time of its release, it achieved a modest amount of crossover success in college radio, and was featured in a television commercial for Zellers
Zellers
Zellers Inc. is Canada's second-largest chain of mass merchandise discount stores, with locations in communities across Canada. A subsidiary of the Hudson's Bay Company , it has 273 locations across the country....
department stores.
The second album, Chinatown
Chinatown (The Be Good Tanyas album)
-Track listing:#"It's Not Happening" – 2:41#"Waiting Around to Die" – 5:13#"Junkie Song" – 3:47#"Ship Out On the Sea" – 4:13#"Dogsong 2" – 5:08#"Rowdy Blues" – 3:32#"Reuben" – 4:23#"The House of the Rising Sun" – 3:49...
, followed in 2003. Their third album, Hello Love, was released on October 10, 2006.
The Tanyas gained some U.S. exposure when the Showtime series The L Word
The L Word
The L Word is an American co-production television drama series originally shown on Showtime portraying the lives of a group of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and their friends, family and lovers in the trendy Greater Los Angeles, California city of West Hollywood...
selected one of their songs, "In Spite of All the Damage", for inclusion in the series' soundtrack. A live version of "In My Time of Dying" was also included in the third episode of the third season, in which Frazey Ford featured as a nun and played the song in the opening sequence. The song "The Littlest Birds" was played during the first season of the Showtime series Weeds
Weeds (TV series)
Weeds is an American television comedy created by Jenji Kohan and produced by Tilted Productions in association with Lionsgate Television. The central character is Nancy Botwin , a widowed mother of two boys who begins selling marijuana to support her family after her husband dies suddenly of a...
and was included in that season's soundtrack. The band's music has also been included in the CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
series The Eleventh Hour and in the feature film Because of Winn-Dixie
Because of Winn-Dixie (film)
Because of Winn-Dixie is a 2005 film adapted from the book of the same name by Kate DiCamillo and directed by Wayne Wang. It was produced by Walden Media and released by 20th Century Fox...
. Their cover of Townes Van Zandt
Townes Van Zandt
John Townes Van Zandt , best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American Texas Country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet...
's "Waiting Around to Die" was also used in an episode of AMC's Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White , a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series...
.
After the release of the first two Be Good Tanyas albums, Trish Klein collaborated with Alison Russell under the band name Po' Girl
Po' Girl
Po' Girl is a Canadian group whose style derives from folk, country and jazz. The style of music they perform is called "urban roots."The band evolved from a series of jam sessions, in 2000, between Trish Klein of The Be Good Tanyas and Allison Russell, then of Fear of Drinking...
, a project that as of April 2007 has resulted in three albums: Po'girl, Vagabond Lullabies, and Home to You.
2007 saw all members of the band pursuing their own projects.
As of 2008, the band was on hiatus - to unwind from the stresses of touring and to pursue other interests Ford released her debut solo album, Obadiah
Obadiah (album)
-Track listing:...
, in 2010.In 2011 it was announced that they would play the Winnipeg Folk Festival
Winnipeg Folk Festival
The Winnipeg Folk Festival is a summer folk music festival held in Birds Hill Provincial Park, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It features a variety of folk artists from all around the world, as well as a number of local folk performers....
heralding a return to performing.
Members
- Frazey FordFrazey FordFrazey Ford is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She was a founding member of The Be Good Tanyas. Her solo debut Obadiah was released on Nettwerk on July 20, 2010....
(guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, vocals) - Samantha Parton (guitar, mandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, banjoBanjoIn the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, vocals) - Trish Klein (guitar, banjo, vocals)
Albums
| Year | Album | CAN Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Blue Horse Blue Horse Blue Horse is the debut album by The Be Good Tanyas, released in 2000.-Track listing:#"The Littlest Birds" – 4:06#"Broken Telephone" – 4:52#"Rain and Snow" – 3:59#"The Lakes of Pontchartrain" – 4:39#"Only in the Past" – 4:56... |
— |
| 2003 | Chinatown Chinatown (The Be Good Tanyas album) -Track listing:#"It's Not Happening" – 2:41#"Waiting Around to Die" – 5:13#"Junkie Song" – 3:47#"Ship Out On the Sea" – 4:13#"Dogsong 2" – 5:08#"Rowdy Blues" – 3:32#"Reuben" – 4:23#"The House of the Rising Sun" – 3:49... |
39 |
| 2006 | Hello Love | 73 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | "The Littlest Birds" | Blue Horse |
| 2003 | "It's Not Happening" | Chinatown |
| 2006 | "Scattered Leaves" | Hello Love |
Other contributions
- Live at the World Café: Vol. 15 - HandcraftedLive at the World Café: Vol. 15 - HandcraftedLive at the World Café: Handcrafted is the fifteenth volume in an ongoing series of compilation albums showcasing artists that appear on the radio program "World Cafe". "World Cafe" is a two-hour long nationally syndicated music program that originates from WXPN, a non-commercial station on the...
(2002, World Café) - "The Littlest Birds" - 107.1 KGSR Radio Austin - Broadcasts Vol. 10 (2002) - "Light Enough to Travel"
- Northern Songs: Canada's Best and BrightestNorthern Songs: Canada's Best and BrightestNorthern Songs: Canada's Best and Brightest is a compilation album of songs performed by some of Canada's "best and brightest" musicians, released in September 2008 under Rhino Records and sold exclusively at Starbucks locations through their Hear Music label.-Track listing:#Feist -...
(2008, Hear MusicHear MusicHear Music, also known as StarCon is the brand name of Starbucks' retail music concept and record label. Hear Music began as a catalog company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1990 before being purchased by Starbucks in 1999.-Concept:...
) - "Ootischenia"