The Be Good Tanyas
May 29th, 2004
I’ve already forgotten how I stumbled across them on iTunes, but if you haven’t heard The Be Good Tanyas yet, give them a chance.
Now, everyone knows my tastes are a little on the eclectic side, so try not to freak out too much when I say this trio of women are billed by the label-needy as either bluegrass, folk, or some variation thereof. Regardless of how you want to file them in your collection, TBGT are worth listening to. When I heard the first notes of the first track of their last album, Chinatown, I was drawn in immediately. Reminded me of the first time I ever heard Cowboy Junkies’ The Caution Horses.
It’s easy to use phrases like “hauntingly beautiful” to describe the well-layered, masterful sound of The Be Good Tanyas, but that would be evocative of only one facet of their music. Along with the dark, there is light. So, balancing out the depression-inducing cover of Townes van Zandt’s “Waiting Around To Die” you have the classic bluegrass tune “Reuben” (followed up, interestingly enough by another cover, “House of the Rising Sun” — quite possibly one of the more interesting interpretations of that often-covered track). Equally dark and uplifting in that odd way that roots-based music can be, Chinatown is worth adding to your library.
