The Be Good Tanyas
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| The Be Good Tanyas | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
| Genres | Folk Country Bluegrass |
| Years active | 1990s – Present |
| Labels | Nettwerk |
| Associated acts | Jolie Holland, Po' Girl |
| Website | www.begoodtanyas.com |
| Members | |
| Frazey Ford Samantha Parton Trish Klein |
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| Former members | |
| Jolie Holland | |
The Be Good Tanyas are a Canadian traditional music group, whose influences include folk, country, and bluegrass. The style of music they perform can be referred to as alt-country or Americana.
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[edit] Career
Formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, The Be Good Tanyas 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[citation needed] 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,[citation needed] 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 band's music has also been included in the Showtime series Weeds and the CTV series Eleventh Hour in a similar role, 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.[1]
As of 2008, the band was on hiatus - to unwind from the stresses of touring, and to allow the members to refocus their lives.[2]
[edit] Members
- Frazey Ford (guitar, vocals)
- Samantha Parton (guitar, mandolin, banjo, vocals)
- Trish Klein (guitar, banjo, vocals)
[edit] Former members
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
| Year | Album |
|---|---|
| 2000 | Blue Horse |
| 2003 | Chinatown |
| 2006 | Hello Love |
[edit] Singles
| Year | Single | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | "The Littlest Birds" | Blue Horse |
| 2003 | "It's Not Happening" | Chinatown |
| 2006 | "Scattered Leaves" | Hello Love |
[edit] Other contributions
- Live at the World Café: Vol. 15 - Handcrafted (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 Brightest (2008, Hear Music) - "Ootischenia"
