Be Good Tanyas Biography

Be Good Tanyas Biography

The Be Good Tanyas are a Canadian traditional music group, whose influences include folk, country, and bluegrass. The style of music they perform can also be referred to as alt-country, Americana, or New Grass. Formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, The Be Good Tanyas first played together at tree planting camps in 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" 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 also achieved a modest amount of crossover success in college radio. 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. 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 is on hiatus - to unwind from the stresses of touring, and to allow the members to refocus their lives.