Alberta’s harmonic powerhouse singer/songwriter trio, a match made in heaven, lin elder, jenny allen and lori reid were brought together by fate. They asked us to keep their names in all lower-case letters.

They are on the tail end of their live Canadian tour and readying themselves for the studio to produce their 3rd album. All three sat down with me, face to face, at Calgary’s newly reincarnated Victoria’s Bistro.

H: All three of you have had solo CDs. All 3 of you are accomplished singers/songwriters. How did you all meet up?

lori: In Banff, 2003, at a women’s singer/songwriter night.

H: How did you know that the three of you would have such synergy?

lin: It was Instant!

lori: We spent a night talking and bonding. We hit it off right away, we could all relate to each other very well.

H: When did you hear your voices as one?

lin: It wasn’t until the next morning that we tried singing, and it was just instant. It was the kind of thing, Linda, where everyone just opened their mouth and grabbed a part and sang, and it mooshed together.

lori: It was like we knew it all along

lin: And then we had to figure out what to call ourselves, which actually took about six months.

lori: Our album was pretty much recorded before we knew we were “the fates”

H: What were some of your first name ideas?

All: Eve’s Garage, 3 Faces of Eve, Sybil, and The Urban Fishwives….

lin: It was to the point where we were going insane. We were getting quite desperate. Our record was ready and we didn’t know what to call ourselves. What happened is, one night after the studio, we went to a lounge and grabbed three coasters for each of us to list 3 favorites…jenny turned over the coaster… “the fates”…and I said “Oh my God, that’s brilliant”. …lori said the same thing…jenny laughed because she mentioned it ages ago.

H: Your first album as the fates, is a compilation of your individual song writing?

lori: Yes, and then we started touring, and recording our shows, that’s how SLAM, our second CD, came out. It’s a live recording from various shows touring the past couple of years. Now, it’s back to the studio for our third!

H: There seems to be something special about the dynamic of three.

lori: It’s been there since the beginning of time, like how we became ‘the fates’. When Jenny brought up the name I did research, who are The Fates? That’s when I found out about these three sisters, born from the Gods, daughters of necessity. The Fates are the ones who decide your destiny in life. Every human being has to present themselves in front of The Fates - they are at the mercy of The Fates. It is the youngest Fate that comes up with the pattern of life. It is the middle Fate that measures the life and dictates milestones, and it is the third oldest Fate, the elder, that completes life. That’s why the name struck us so deeply. Traditionally there is this idea of three sisters, of three powerful women in mythology, and we are spinners. That’s what The Fates do: they are spinners.

H: What does that mean?

lori: Spinners. We are storytellers, we are artisans and that’s another reason why the name fit so well.

H: So, tell me true or false? All 3 of you were born in or raised in Alberta?

All: True…lori was born in Edmonton, and lin was born in Manitoba, but raised in Edmonton. jenny was born in Edmonton but raised in Calgary. So, yeah, we all have the Edmonton thing happening too.

H: What other artists have you been compared to?

jenny: Used to be the Dixie Chicks.

lin: Now, it’s Crosby, Stills & Nash meets the Staple Singers, meets The Dixie Chicks. And they are all trios.

lori: We do have all those separate sounds though: folk, rock, blues, soul, r&b, even country and gospel.

jenny: So far, we’ve managed to avoid the three stooges!

(As laughter and stooge-like antics ensue, I witness and feel the camaraderie between the three of them. So, I have to ask…)

H: What’s your favorite feeling when you are singing together?

All: It’s that thing where we’re together. We are all connected. We call it “the zone”. There’s a rush - you know, when you get goose bumps and it’s a good thing!

H: The individual freedom you have had from the start, especially on song writing, how will that affect your new album?

lin: We all have our own individual styles, but when we moosh it all together, that’s what becomes the sound of the fates, that’s what is unique about the fates. We have all our individual stuff smashed into one and that becomes a whole new sound, which I think is pretty unique to anything out there, really.

lori: That’s the most beautiful thing about this collaboration. You don’t lose yourself. We are really good on our own, we are able to be strong on our own and we are even stronger together.

jenny: And we have a lot of fun. We’ve also had challenging times.

lin: But, we are “the fates”, right?

H: Because of your solo careers, you must have an incredibly strong fan base…especially in Western Canada.

All: We knew that everyone would have his or her favorite fate. We all can see that, because we all are fans of each other.

H: And I bet your fans look forward to accompanying you, the fates, on your journey, and be able to witness your milestones and be right beside you throughout your destiny.