Comment on this story What: Tres Chicas with the Tim Lee Band When: Saturday, Sept. 25, 10 p.m. Where: Patrick Sullivan’s Great Room Cost: $5

Caitlin Cary finds harmony in Tres Chicas

by Paige M. Travis

When Caitlin Cary, Lynn Blakey and Tonya Lamm recorded the debut record for their trio Tres Chicas, they were careful to make sure their three-part harmonies weren’t too pretty.

“If you add that third voice it can turn to saccharin,” says Cary, who harmonized with Ryan Adams in Whiskeytown and has spent the last few years establishing a solid solo career with an EP and two highly regarded records. Released in June, Sweetwater has put another feather in Cary’s cap and given her fans another reason to tune in.

The Chicas met in the usual ways of musicians in overlapping circles of North Carolina, where Blakey (formerly of Let’s Active and Oh OK) fronts Glory Fountain and Lamm heads up Hazeldine. Their first few performances together were casual events: three women winding their voices around country classics in the company of friends and musical colleagues. To listeners and the trio, the combination was magic—even to those behind the microphones.

“And it was really exciting, pretty thrilling,” Cary says of singing with women after having sung mostly by herself or with men.

Sweetwater’s vocal arrangements are creative and lovely; the songs’ depth and variety gives each woman a new role. No song sounds too much alike, either musically or vocally. Cary felt challenged to fit her voice in with the others. Some parts of the harmony—“the lowest part, the simplest part,” she says—were harder to pin down. Carrying those notes, “holding up the bottom,” made her think about the whole of the song differently. “It’s not concentrating on getting out the meaning, but serving that part of the song,” Cary says.

While Blakey was charged with keeping Lamm and Cary from swaying too far into waltz territory, the women all vowed to stay away from stereotypical folk trio territory. “There’s no Mighty Wind here,” says Cary. “And if it ever sounds remotely barbershop we call it off. Sometimes you stumble on that stuff. It can be so exciting that you don’t realize it sucks.”

The collection reflects the trio’s strengths—as vocalists, musicians, songwriters and interpreters. Sweetwater’s originals are woven seamlessly with Lucinda Williams’ “Am I Too Blue,” a foot-stompin’ rendition of George Jones’ “Take the Devil Out of Me,” and a sassy take on Loretta Lynn’s “Deep as Your Pocket.”

Because of their solo careers, Tres Chicas started out as a side project with potential.

“We started out just sort of thinking of this as something fun to do between killing time with other things,” she says. The band played “a good, full, really buzzy showcase” at Austin’s South By Southwest (SXSW) music festival.

It didn’t take long for the Chicas to visit a studio to lay down some demos that might entice a label. They started out with a few songs by Blakey, who Cary calls the band’s “hitmaker.”

“She’s more rooted in rock ‘n’ roll,” says Cary. “Tanya and I desperately need that. We’re both stuck in three-quarter time.” Case in point: their co-written contribution to Sweetwater, the loping waltz, “In A While,” is the disc’s saddest song.

For a time, solo careers and life changes sidelined the side project. Cary recorded a record and Lamm had a baby. Producer Chris Stamey, who also produced Cary’s solo records, prodded the Chicas to stay diligent.

“He said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a record here. You guys had better get this out there.’”

And since Chapel Hill’s Yep Roc Records released Sweetwater in June, the response has been just as encouraging.

Touring with Tres Chicas has been another thrill for Cary and her cohorts—one part rock concert, one part slumber party. At their practices, the Chicas have been known to drink some wine and dye their hair. And, unlike touring with an all-male band, the time between gigs won’t be spent exclusively in record shops and guitar stores. But if classic rock cover songs are a testosterone trend, the Chicas are crashing that Y-chromosome party: each night’s set includes a love-to-hate-it blast-from-the-past. Think Bad Company’s “Shooting Star” or “Want You to Want Me” by Cheap Trick.

“It’s actually really fun to realize this is in my veins somewhere,” Cary says. She used to belabor her choice of covers, worried that she had to twist them somehow to set her version apart from the original. But she realized her voice is enough to make it her own.

Cary’s next project is a duet record with Thad Cockrell, a former North Carolina songwriter who recently relocated to Nashville. The two have been writing together for a while, and they plan to record next month.

The specifics of the next Tres Chicas record are uncertain, but Cary insists that the musical threesome isn’t a one-time deal. They’re having too much fun.

“We’re really pretty gung ho,” she says. “Now that we know that we enjoy it, I think we can do a record in a much more intentional way and do more of the writing together.”

September 23, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 39 © 2004 Metro Pulse