The
Be Good Tanyas are a
Canadian traditional music group, with influences in
folk,
country and
bluegrass. The group, which comprises Frazey Ford (
guitar, vocals), Samantha Parton (guitar,
mandolin,
banjo, vocals) and Trish Klein (guitar, banjo, vocals), was formed in
British Columbia and 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 BC to record their first album
Blue Horse, supposedly in a shack. The record, which combined
old-time music[?] standards such as "Oh Susannah" and "The Lakes Of Pontchartrain" with self-penned songs like "The Littlest Birds (sing the prettiest songs)", 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.
