It’s all relative for the Travelling Mabels – the Alberta-based country folk band made up of mother and daughter vocal powerhouses Suzanne and Eva Leveque, along with road manager and keyboardist Keith Floen and his talented wife, Lana.
Floen said he and Lana first met the Leveques at an Association of Country Music of Alberta after party in Winnipeg, where they performed a few songs together impromptu at an open mic. The musicians clicked, and he and Lana invited the Leveques to come jam in their kitchen.
It didn’t take more than a few bars for Floen to know there was a chemistry – and a special sound – when the three women sang harmony.
“They started singing for me in the kitchen. (I thought), ‘The blend is just really fabulous,” he recalled. “I said, ‘We have to record this. We have to make an album.’”
That first album, The Travelling Mabels, turned into a cross-Canada tour, radio recognition in the United States and a Canadian Country Music Association award in 2011 for Group of the Year.
Now, eight years later, the group is on the road again through Alberta and B.C. – with a stop at St. Andrew’s United Church on Jan. 14 as part of the Legacy Live Songs for a Winter’s Evening concert series. Cochrane singer Sydney Mae opens the show.
The older Leveque plays guitar, the younger plays bass. Lana takes on guitar while Floen tackles piano, accordion and accompaniment. It all comes together with the bright harmonies of three generations of women.
The magical feeling Floen had in the kitchen all those years ago is the same one the band hopes to evoke at their concerts.
“It’s like you’re in the kitchen the first time with me,” he said. It’s like a big kitchen party.”
Through the years, Floen said the group has “gotten to know each other’s style really, really well” and their melodies have progressed from instrumental to more unplugged. Along with that more intimate musical connection, the band injects humour into everything they do, and so fans can expect “lots of laughs, lots of jokes” at any live show.
“We love it when people get involved, the smiling faces,” said Floen. “It’s a love of performing together.”
The Mabels’ new album Postcards continues to draw on the spirit of friendship, family and storytelling. It’s available on iTunes and at the shows.
Tickets for the Cochrane concert are $35 and are available by calling (403) 981-1808 or visiting Legacy Guitar House at their new location on 1st Street West. For more information, see http://www.legacyguitarhouse.com/events.
