There’s a wall, in your family home. It’s next to an old stairway that leads to an attic you never go into, but the wall is alive and lined with photos. Each one a cherished memory locked in time, waiting to be brought down, dusted off and held in the hand of a storyteller intimately connected with the finer points of every detail. Caroline Marie Brooks is just such a storyteller. On Everything at the Same Time, the first solo outing from ⅓ of Canadian harmony trio Good Lovelies, Brooks walks you through a wall of stories, taking moments from her life down and carefully recounting the feeling of the sun and the wind in the trees from days past and present. Today, the award-winning contemporary folk artist shares these 11 new songs with the world. Everything at the Same Time is available everywhere (distributed by Outside Music)!
Everything at the Same Time is a collection of songs highlighting 40 years of life experiences – from being a daughter, a wife, a mom, a touring musician, and of course Jim (her dog). Caroline leads a vivid journey through feelings familiar to our hearts. Gentle guitar work laying a backdrop for her sweetly divine vocals, densely layered with wurlitzers and mandolins and steel guitars to evoke feelings of memories both lost and found.
Lead single “Vitamin” evokes a sun-drenched nostalgia, albeit a nostalgia happening right in front of you, one that you can live in and hold onto. The album includes “Birdsong” – a song that sits in the discomfort of being stuck; not just physically, but emotionally (those sweet additional vocals are Andrew O’Brien from Fortunate Ones), “To The Waves”, “Lights Go Down” (co-written with Peter Katz), and “Song for Fred” – a song written for her dad Fredrick Brooks & featuring his beautiful, thoughtful guitar playing. The album concludes with a cover of Roger Miller’s “Oo-De-Lally” (from Disney’s Robin Hood).
Everything at the Same Time was recorded in the midst of an age when sometimes living through our memories of easier days may be all that we have. It asks only that we live and be present in the moment and to remember that though the days are long, the years are all too short. The inevitability of change looms in the distant, and Caroline Marie Brooks challenges you to hold on to the gift of the times we are in.
Recorded and co-produced with her dear friend Jim Bryson (Kathleen Edwards, Skydiggers, Suzie Ungerleider) at his Fixed Hinge studio (Stittsville, ON), Dream Date studio (Toronto, ON), and across southern Ontario at many of the featured musicians’ homes. Stay tuned for the official video for “Birdsong”, more Live at Dream Date videos and an upcoming virtual show – all to be announced soon. Follow along on the journey at www.carolinemariebrooks.com
