Day Eight - One Voice

“This is the sound of all of us”

You can hear an audio version of this post here.

Today’s song is One Voice, written by Ruth Moody. You can hear it here.This song is one with a very loose connection to my visits to Montrose Folk Club (2004-2018), but there is still a link. The song appears on the 2004 album 40 Days by the Canadian band The Wailin’ Jennys and I did see one of the early members of that band, Cara Luft, at the club in April 2007. Cara was on tour with another Canadian folk staple and favourite of the Montrose club, The James Keelaghan Band (have you noticed how many Canadian acts appear in Scotland yet? Lots! I saw Keelaghan and band four times in just a few years). Cara was in The Wailin’ Jennys when they recorded 40 Days and does feature on that album so I’m counting it as a link. Cara performed and recorded solo for a while after leaving The Wailin’ Jennys, in 2014 played in the UK with English musician and songwriter Bella Hardy (who will be featured here on 18th January) but most recently she is part of the duo, The Small Glories (with JD Edwards). The Wailin’ Jennys are now original members Ruth Moody and Nicky Mehta and, since 2007, American, Heather Masse. Interestingly, when I was trawling YouTube to find out how to pronounce Mehta and Masse for the audio yesterday, I heard in an interview that it was Aoife O’Donovan who introduced Heather Masse to the Jennys when they were looking for a new recruit. I'm not sure how well my pronunciation research went (just for yourselves) but there will be more on Aoife (and the band Crooked Still) on 25th of this month.

I don’t remember knowing The Wailin’ Jennys’ music before 2007 so I think it must have been around then that I bought the 40 Days album. I have no clear memory of buying the CD (it’s possible I bought it at Celtic Connections one year) but it’s a lovely collection of songs and one I’ve listened to quite a bit over the years. It features songs written by all three of the original Wailin’ Jennys as well as a couple of traditional songs, John Hiatt’s Take it Down and Neil Young’s Old Man (the latter a particular favourite of mine when I was about 15 – I know Neil Young would be in many people’s list of favourite songwriters and I can totally understand that). 

One Voice is the opening track on 40 Days and is particularly emotive for anyone who likes a bit of a singalong (most of us who go to gigs of some kind, anyone who’s in a choir or singing group, anyone who likes to belt it out along with the radio…). It starts with one voice (“this is the sound of one voice”), then two, then three, then altogether (“this is the sound of all of us”). On the album it has a gentle rise and it’s very moving. It also reminds me that some of my happiest memories of going to the folk club in Montrose are about times when the audience all joined in with the singing. The Montrose crowd could be quite minimal in their reactions in some ways (not a wild lot, at least not obviously so) but every now and again if it was a song or an act that they liked they would really go for it (or gie it laldie as the Scots phrase goes) and sing with all their hearts. I so enjoyed this aspect of folk club that I even wrote about it and got them to join in with a ‘singalong’ poem (you can see a live version of that poem in a video here from 2009, recorded at a National Poetry Day event that I put on in Montrose at the usual folk club venue then, The Links Hotel). In the background you can see others who were on the bill at that event in 2009 (local singers, Charlie Williamson and Grace Banks).

Ruth Moody (pic from ‘40 Days’ CD sleeve)

I haven’t had a response from Ruth Moody who wrote the song but maybe we don’t need one because there is a whole article about it and interview with her in a recent American Songwriter here. As well as being in the Jennys, Ruth also has solo releases and has toured with Mark Knopfler. He definitely was a feature of my teenage years as Dire Straits were everywhere in the ’80s and especially in my next-up-the-line brother’s record collection. That brother also loved Bruce Springsteen and Ruth has a version of Dancing in the Dark on her 2013 solo album These Wilder Things (Bruce is a songwriter I’ve come round to as I’ve got older, or maybe as he has). It’s interesting (to me and I hope to all of you reading) that Ruth didn’t start in the folk genre but grew up around classical music. I think there’s probably a PhD in there somewhere (growing up around folk music vs not growing up around folk music). I’m definitely in the latter camp (unless we’re widening out folk quite a bit into pop and soul and other genres, which to be honest I’m totally up for). Feel free to go mad in the comments, telling me what music you grew up hearing and any effects you think that had on your taste and life in general.

I know some people are terrified of/confused by commenting on blogs (and prefer to comment on Facebook, Twitter etc. instead) but it’s really quite easy. Use a Google account or be a guest. You can even comment as anonymous (very appropriate for folk song posts) and just put a name in the box with the comment (any name – it doesn’t have to be your real one). My real name hasn’t been online since some unfortunate online encounters courtesy of Friends Reunited in the early noughties. 

See you tomorrow for a trip back over the Atlantic to England.

This post is part of my Songs That Stick project for 2022's Fun A Day Dundee (a community arts project that takes place every January). Anyone can take part (you don’t even have to be local to Dundee) and much of the work can be found on Instagram during January (use #FADD2022). There is usually a real-life exhibition later in the year (though this has been online for the past 2 years). The full list of songs I am writing about this year is here. My first post about why I picked this project this time is here.

If you are interested in my Fun A Day Dundee projects for 2020 and 2021 you can start here and here. They are quite different to this one (a short poem and drawings in 2020 and lots of poems and writing in 2021).