FOREVER GRATEFUL
Most songwriters have a figurative ‘song bag’ where they keep melodies, titles, chord progressions, words, phrases, stories and anything else that may one day perhaps find life in a song. I wrote the basis of Forever Grateful with my co-writer Raffaella Fox several years ago but it sat idle in my ‘song bag’ until I received a telephone call in March 2020 from a friend who is a nurse unit manager at a Melbourne hospital. The world was in a terrible and unprecedented struggle, caught in the devastating grip of the COVID-19 pandemic and like all other ‘front line’ medical personnel across the globe, her staff were tired, anxious, frustrated and scared. My friend was very worried about her team’s morale and mental health and she asked me if I could write a song to lift their spirits, to make them feel appreciated, strong and valued. I didn’t sleep a wink that night trying to come up with song ideas and lyrics to express gratitude for the amazing job the ‘front line heroes’ do when I remembered the song Raffaella and I had written some years before, Forever Grateful. The chorus had the perfect sentiment I was looking for so I re-wrote the verses at 4am in the morning, typing feverishly on my smartphone in the dark and I went into my studio and recorded the new vocal that day. I added some extra guitars and other ‘musical colours’ and the song was finished.
REASON TO BELIEVE & SITTING IN LIMBO
These two tracks are taken from the Original Seekers album Back To Our Roots. My association with Australia’s legendary musical group The Seekers spans thirty years and I’ve been honoured to have directed and produced nearly all their musical output during that time, with multi-platinum record sales along the way. The Seekers incredible success story is well documented, but what isn’t so well known is that the group actually started off as four boys before Judith Durham replaced singer Ken Ray and the group shot to international stardom. Judith has now retired from performing, so when the three ‘boys’, Athol Guy, Bruce Woodley and Keith Potger asked me to join them as The Original Seekers to record an album and embark on a national tour, I was thrilled.
I’LL NEVER FIND ANOTHER YOU (duet with Mirusia)
I met Mirusia when she toured with The Original Seekers in late 2019. Known to audiences around the world for her brilliant performances with André Rieu as his star soprano, she has a string of number one albums and sold-out shows to her credit. I was delighted when she agreed to perform “I’ll Never Find Another You” as a duet with me in the concerts and it was one of the show highlights. Robert Rigby from Sony Music and Ambition Entertainment suggested we record the song and it has become a favourite with fans around the world.
PER SEMPRE GRATO A TE
Upon hearing the news of the terrible devastation in Italy due to the coronavirus and both being of Italian descent, Raffaella and I translated the lyrics of Forever Grateful and I recorded this special Italian version for the ‘frontline heroes’ in one of the countries hardest hit by the virus.
