Linnea Good - Her Story

"Swimmin' Like a Bird"

Linnea Good is standing on the deck of her Summerland home, gazing at the field of sheep below the yard and the mountains of Naramata on the far side of Lake Okanagan. Life in the small town is not new to her, but for Christian singer-songwriter, the valley has become a place of balance against the fast pace of life on the road.

Married to percussionist David Jonsson, Linnea has 3 children (Patrick, born '97, Nicole '98 and Isaac '02), a tour itinerary that carries the whole family and music team to all corners of their country much of the year, nine albums and a following of devoted fans in most every English-speaking community in Canada, into the US, Australia and New Zealand.

The 44-year-old singer has come a long way from her Maritime roots. Born in Boston, she was raised in Canada's east, the oldest of 5 children born to Patricia and Frank Good. Music was a big part of home life; Linnea's father is an infamous local singer. "We were put to bed on Gilbert and Sullivan choruses." she says. "Mom could never figure out why we weren't able to sleep after lullaby time with Dad!"

At 12, Linnea was invited to sing in the local church choir and her future in music was sealed. "I just walked into the church and joined the choir at an age when other kids were leaving it!" she laughs.

While forging a path into a world of music and religion, Linnea's work in the church influenced her to become an educator and activist. "For awhile, I thought I should be an Anglican (Episcopalian) priest. But mine was the last diocese in Canada to hold out against ordaining women. I spent so much time just trying to prove that women were people that I realised I had no idea what I really meant to do."

It took a move to Vancouver on the west coast and a new community to help her discover what she was supposed to be doing with her life. She began work in a local United Church, leading youth and music. She immersed herself in creative forms of church leadership - an alternative drama troupe and song leading. "The drama was hilarious! We had WWF tag-team theological wrestling, we enacted God-the-Committee, we critiqued the church mercilessly. It was comedic dissidence."

Since that time in 1988, Linnea has produced 8 more albums, all received with increasing acclaim across Canada: There Is A Time (1990), Stickpeople (1993), Sunday Sessions (1996), I Know You (1996, Greatest of These (1998), Crazy Faith (1999) and Swimmin' Like a Bird (2003).

While based at a downtown Vancouver church, she saw her music make its way all over Canada and into the US and Down Under. With sales toward 30,000 units, her albums are considered platinum in church circles. Five of her hymns are included in the denomination's hymnbook and more will be included in its supplement More Voices in 2007. Indeed, she has been called the "contemporary musical voice of the United Church of Canada".

A move to the small town of Summerland, BC, late in 2000 gave the Jonsson-Goods some of the space that they needed to enjoy family life and launch more solidly into the music world. At the invitation of the neighbouring Westbank United Church, Linnea took up the leadership of music - a job that had her animating, composing, conducting, and reflecting on the Christian tradition in a new and profound way. The congregation supported her outreach ministry of musical touring - even when she and the family and team went on a 6-week tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2004. Linnea inaugurated her acclaimed music e-subscription group Psalm-body's Prayin', to enable music leaders to have immediate access to choral, hymn and service music.

The universes of church and children's music converged with her album "Swimmin' Like a Bird" in 2004. The CD garnered three major Canadian award nominations for outstanding Children's Album: the (national) Shai faith Music Awards, Western Canadian Music Awards and the Canadian Independent Artists Awards. The awards were a further affirmation of her status as one of Canada's most significant children's performers of faith music.

The last couple of years have seen an astonishing output of original music from Linnea Good, as well as a focus on educating the church on how to express its collective soul in song. Linnea has been collaboratinging with well-known clinical psychologist-author Dr. Nancy Reeves on a book for 6-10 year-olds on the ways in which God speaks with children: Adventures of the God Detectives (publ Wood Lake Books, fall 2006).

She and the Good Company team will embark this year on their largest tour to date - a full circle tour of the United States from September through December 2006. September will find them in the US Midwest. On October 1, God Detectives will be launched in Paris, ON Canada and the remainder of October will find the team in the East. November brings Linnea back to Tennessee (after 2 previous visits in 2005) and Southen states. December will take her back through California and the West.

"I think I'm ready for some other universes to collide, now," says Good, as she begins the months of preparation that a self-initiated tour involves. "I have the privilege of seeing the church in a kind of bird's eye view that few people ever get. I think this means I can offer an image back to the church, poke a little fun and remind it who it set out to be. I expect to learn an enormous amount. And I think our new friends might learn something of a Canadian-style musical revival, too..!"

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