DAVID ADAMS listens to an album of original songs by a diverse group of Queensland song-writers with a story to tell…
No Covers: Original Music by Resilient People
Various from the Song Writers’ Workshop
Carinty Education Rockhampton, 2021
In A Word: Heartfelt
Suzie Baloh is one of the artists who contributed to the album.
“Ranging from facilitator Narelle Schirmer’s uplifting We’re Lost to Donna Purcell’s toe-tapping Daisy and Katherine Cox/Narelle Schirmer’s ballad Lullaby, it’s an eclectic mix from people who have faced a range of challenges in their lives – everything from depression and domestic abuse to ongoing physical disability and mental health issues.”
A celebration of overcoming adversity, this collection of songs originated out of a songwriters’ workshop held over eight weeks in Yeppoon, in the Australian state of Queensland, involving 12 local artists. It was funded by the Community Recovery Challenge – an initiative of Carinity Education Rockhampton designed to help build resilience in the Livingstone Shire district.
Ranging from facilitator Narelle Schirmer’s uplifting We’re Lost to Donna Purcell’s toe-tapping Daisy and Katherine Cox/Narelle Schirmer’s ballad Lullaby, it’s an eclectic mix from people who have faced challenges in their lives – everything from depression and domestic abuse to ongoing physical disability and mental health issues.
“The songwriters’ workshop has been a breath of fresh air and provided me with the opportunity to renew hope, after a recent loss of hearing,” explains Rockhampton’s Amanda Johnston who contributed her song, Travelling Away, to the ensemble.
There’s a country twang to many of the songs on the album and some folksy notes as well as some great instrumental work including in Suzie Baloh’s Faded Picture and Dennis Frahm’s Searching.
But it’s the power of the lyrics and the stories they relate of hardships and how the writers have – and in some cases, continue to – contend with them that’s the main attraction here. Raw and, at times, emotional, these songs speak directly to the human experience and the resilience we need to face the obstacles life throws at us.
They also speak to the joy of coming through. As Narelle Schirmer sings in the album’s final track, Balance of Life: “Now I’m feelin’ blessed, I’ve lost my hopelessness…We’ve got family and friends, we’ll get through in the end.”
The album can be purchased for $A20 from Carinity Education Rockhampton (Phone in Australia (07) 4936 3741. All money raised will be given to the Yeppoon Community Centre to assist families in need following disasters.
