The Be Good Tanyas

The Be Good Tanyas have come this far in their career by the most serendipitous accidents imaginable. Chance meetings and ironic coincidences piled onto unlikely occurrences convinced the Canadian country/folk/blues trio that resistance to the idea of their musical conjugation was futile.

The Tanyas’ karmic adventure began almost a decade ago when Frazey Ford and Samantha Parton became friends at a tree-planting camp in British Columbia. Two years later, Ford and Trish Klein met while attending a B.C. music school and found themselves duly impressed with each other’s musical skills at regular open mic gigs at local clubs.

“When I first saw Frazey, she was singing an a cappella version of ‘Manic Depression,’” says Klein.

Within a year, the three vagabonds had scattered, Ford to Montreal and Guatemala, Parton to New Orleans and Klein to Vancouver. In 1999, Ford and Parton found themselves in Vancouver; Ford subsequently reconnected with Klein, who was playing in a loose collaborative called Saltwater June. Ford casually joined the group, which morphed into a living room jam project featuring Ford, Klein and Texas songwriter Jolie Holland. Holland mentioned that she had a friend who would fit the group well; it turned out to be Parton.

Holland inadvertently named the group by bringing friend Obo Martin’s song called “Be Good Tanya” to the attention of the others as the quartet began gravitating toward gospel and blues-tinged country.

“I think it was the alchemy that was happening between all of us,” says Ford about the Tanyas’ direction. “You join different projects because they bring different things out of you. We were focused on acoustic instruments, and we were all interested in exploring old sounds together. That was part of the connection between us.”

In short order, the Tanyas moved from living room to stage and a buzz began to build around the quartet. After a grueling U.S. tour in 2000—“A whole crapload of gigs in all kinds of disgusting little dives,” says Klein—they began work on their debut album, Blue Horse, which actually started out as a student project on tech mic placement and recording technique. With only a handful of songs completed, Holland left the band and relocated to San Francisco for financial reasons.

Down to a trio, the Tanyas finally finished and released Blue Horse. In this hemisphere, they received a big boost from Canada’s CBC, which gave them a touring platform and high exposure. After signing with Nettwerk for a Stateside release, the group found support from National Public Radio. In England, the Tanyas were recognized by the country’s premier Americana DJs, including John Peel and Bob Harris, who helped make the band a sensation. The Tanyas’ first U.K. tour was a sellout, on release, Blue Horse hovered near the top of the British country charts, gaining almost universal critical acclaim. Mojo declared it the country album to buy for the year.

After a second sold-out U.K. tour and a two-week Australian jaunt opening for legendary singer-songwriter Paul Kelly, the Tanyas began to think about Blue Horse’s follow-up. The trio’s experiences had made them a considerably different group than the indie band that had made Blue Horse on a shoestring.

“Blue Horse was really unpremeditated,” says Ford. “We didn’t really think about it. It was a sampling of what we were playing at the time. It’s the same with Chinatown; it’s a little photograph of where we’re at with the band. With Blue Horse, we were focusing specifically on old sounds, and now that sound is in our bones. I think with Chinatown, it’s just a slightly broader scope of who we are as people and musicians.”

“Blue Horse stayed within a particular feel, sort of sing-songy and nostalgic,” says Klein. “Chinatown has some of that, but it sounds a bit more contemporary and there’s more diversity of styles.”

The Tanyas were also slightly apprehensive about the direction of Chinatown, given the incredible reception that greeted Blue Horse’s release. “We were shocked and amazed at the response to Blue Horse,” says Ford. “Blue Horse was something we really loved, but it was a simple, natural thing. We were amazed by how many people loved it. It was a little scary to do another album, because we didn’t even try and people loved it. In the back of your mind, you’re like, ‘What was it about that album that people loved?’ and there’s a tendency to become self-conscious. Once we got into the studio, that all got put to the side and that intimidation disappeared. We just fell into what we do naturally.”

The Tanyas’ range on Chinatown stretches from Ford’s sparse and muted look at Vancouver’s burgeoning drug problem on “Junkie’s Song” to a dusty and original take on “The House of the Rising Sun.”

“Blue Horse was very whimsical and light-hearted, and with this album we deal with more difficult topics,” says Klein. “On Chinatown, there’s songs about drug addiction, about death and loss, and a song about Sam burying her dog. I don’t think this album is as immediately accessible as the first one. I think it’s an album that will grow on people.”