“Rootsy, folky, harmony-driven music” is Tres Chicas’ Lynn Blakey’s take on her band’s sound. “I’ll have to start thinking about that,” she adds, “because we have a record coming out June 29 on Yep Roc, and I’m gonna have to start thinking about how to describe us.”
The band consists of Blakey, who was one of the dB’s and has more recently paired up with John Chumbris in Glory Fountain, ex-Whiskeytowner Caitlin Cary, and Hazeldine’s Tonya Lamm. “We’ve known each other, all of us, from playing around and we’re all good friends,” Blakey explained. “Caitlin and I have been talking about singing together for a long time. Tonya and Caitlin came up with the same idea and did some shows, and then a few years ago, we were all at a Backsliders show at The Brewery and I cornered ’em in the bathroom and said ‘you know, we should just all sing together, all three of us.’”
The band has kept a low profile recently. “In the last few years, Caitlin has just busted out with her solo albums,” Blakey says. “Tonya had a record come out from her band Hazeldine, and she went on a tour in Europe and promoted that record and then she had a baby. Then Glory Fountain put out their latest record, and I was busy doing that. So we actually haven’t played much in a few years.”
A show in Charlotte for the Alejandro Escobedo benefit last week at the Double Door is the first time the band has been on stage in three years. Though Blakey says Satuday’s benefit for the Community Independent School in Chatham County is a special event, she promises more shows soon.”We’re actually better than we ever were,” the singer says. “We’re gonna have a full band–Dave Bartholomew on drums and his brother Ron on bass. It’s a good group. We’re really good friends, and it’s always an adventure singing together.”
Tres Chicas’ newly recorded adventure, produced by dB founding member Chris Stamey, will be called Sweetwater. “I don’t quite know how to describe it,” Blakey says. “We didn’t actually go in with the idea of making a full album in one timeframe. These are songs that were recorded over the years, sort of casually, more like snapshots.” In addition to originals, the record features a Loretta Lynn cover, “Pocket,” as in “her love is as deep as your pocket.”
The singer says that this band is no prefab structure slapped together by industry moguls. “We just really love singing together, and it just naturally kinda happens. This is driven by music and friendship.” 
