Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - It has been more than three years since I interviewed Willow about the release of their EP ‘The Southend.’
Maureen Fox explained, “it was right before COVID when we spoke. We've had a bit of an adventure and then about a year later, Noel Maffin had to move to Gold River to be with her family. So we were asked the beautiful Kelly Beamish to join us. Kelly brings this fabulous voice into the mix that has been really fun because her voice blends so well with ours.”
Kelly Beamish: “Hi.”
CC: When did you join Willow?
Kelly: “2021 I think. Yeah, like March.”
They have only recorded one song.
Andrea Blaseckie explained, “I have a clip of ‘Joyful,’ which is the latest song that was recorded here on Quadra Island and it has all four of us in it.”
(’Joyful’ is inserted in the podcast.)
Andrea later emailed, “It's a song I wrote after I found a bag full of little notes that people had written to me for my 21st birthday. When I turned 21, I was travelling with an international performing group where I was mainly a backup singer. That morning we were enroute to Leipzig, Germany. The rest of the cast surprised me with this little bag full of birthday wishes and kind words and insights on how they saw me.”
“I hadn't seen that little bag of notes for over 25 years and I happened upon them at exactly the right time that I needed to find parts of myself that I had forgotten. It was a great reminder of the innocence and blind faith of my 21 year old experience, the hope that I saw within the world, the difference I believed we all could make, my growing sense of self confidence and self worth, my shyness and yet there I was travelling the world singing songs and performing to audiences anywhere from 25 to 30,000 people. Joyful was a song I wrote to my 21 year old self. To all of our 21 year old selves. To remind us all of who we may have been then and the threads of that version of ourselves that is still within us now.”
Maureen Fox explained, “It is on our agenda to get some really good recordings coming up. So you'll hopefully be hearing from us in that way not too long from now.”
To which Trinity Gogolin added, “We have a lot of new songs, at least 10.”
Several of the group promptly responded: “More than that”; “She's saying this year”; “last couple of months”; “in last year that we've started practicing.”
There are three opportunities to hear these new songs coming up.
Aug 5 - at the Southend Farm Winery Concert Series on Quadra Island
Aug 12 - at Lovefest on Cortes Island.
Aug 26 - at the Comox Valley Market Exhibition Grounds, Courtenay, BC
