Back when Vic Simms was an inmate at Bathurst Jail, serving a seven-year sentence for robbery, he taught himself to play guitar and started writing songs in his cell.
“When I sang into the toilet bowl it was the greatest sound system you’ve ever heard,” the 77-year-old singer said this week.
Music mentors Abby Dobson, Murray Cook and Bow Campbell at the launch of Songbirds 3 – an album of original music by NSW inmates.Credit:Anna Kucera
The non-profit Robin Hood Foundation heard of his talent, provided him with a cassette player to tape his songs, and in 1973 with the launch of The Loner, Simms became the first Australian prisoner to record an album live from jail. After his release from prison he went on to tour with his songs, throughout Australia and Canada, and in 2001 received a Deadly Award for outstanding contribution to Aboriginal music.
This week he went back to jail, to Long Bay’s Boom Gate Gallery, to launch the third CD in the Songbirds Project, which is helping prisoners find their voices and record them.
The template of his tale – finding redemption through the healing power of writing and singing music – is what inspired musician Murray Cook, formerly of Midnight Oil and Mental as Anything, who runs the Songbirds songwriting and arts workshops in NSW prisons across the state.
Musician and former prisoner Vic Simms.Credit:Anna Kucera
Cook had taught music at Long Bay jail for over 20 years before the NSW Liberal government made teachers in correctional facilities redundant in 2016.
The non-profit Community Restorative Centre (CRC), which helps people transition from prison to the community, stepped in to fund this project in 2017, inspired by successful overseas prison-arts programs such as Billy Bragg’s Jail Guitar Doors, Mimi Farina’s Bread and Roses (US and UK) and Vox Liminis (Scotland).
Cook has brought together a team of musical mentors such as Abby Dobson from Leonardo’s Bride and Baby et Lulu, Bow Campbell from Front End Loader and Dead Marines, to work with prisoners to write songs in 50 workshops in 10 jails from Broken Hill to Long Bay via Wellington, Silverwater and Parklea.
The result is the three Songbirds CDs containing over 50 original songs recorded in prison cells, cupboards, gyms and libraries, and produced by five-time ARIA-winning producer Paul McKercher (who’s worked with Iggy Pop, Hoodoo Gurus, Midnight Oil, Cruel Sea, You Am I) at the state-of-the-art Free Energy Device Studio.
“Many of the contributors had never sung into a microphone, or for that matter written a song before – hats off to their courage and often surprisingly good and heartfelt vocals,” says Cook, who starts his sessions getting prisoners to write a blues song about their life story.
Abby Dobson from Leonardo’s Bride, Bow Campbell from Front End Loader and Dead Marines and Murray Cook formerly of Midnight Oil and Mental as Anything, outside the Compulsory Drug Treatment Correctional Centre at Parklea.
“The look of joy on their faces when they hear their song back, professionally and sympathetically produced by people like Jim Moginie from Midnight Oil is the payoff for me.
“The tracks have been used as a ‘demo’ to get work post release, or just even as a reminder that the darkest period of their lives produced such beautiful music… Two of the singers were asked to appear on The Voice on the strength of these recordings,” he said.
CRC CEO Alison Churchill says the project has been a huge success in improving the outcomes of people who have a high risk of reoffending when they leave the prison system, opening up educational and vocational options on release, and ultimately resulting in reduced recidivism.
Songbirds 3, Ballads behind bars, artwork by inmate Tiny from Long Bay.
“This is a group of people who haven’t been seen, heard or valued and music is changing their lives by giving them some self-worth and a way of creating a new identity – they are now people who can sing not just someone who has been in prison,” she says.
Dobson, who travelled all over the state to correctional facilities to help inmates demystify the songwriting process, said she could see first-hand the joy that came to prisoners once they sang their stories.
“I loved watching the men in the workshops see that music is a sacred outlet for emotional expression, and encouraging them to articulate their feelings in song you could see there was a palpable difference, they felt better about themselves,” Dobson said.
At the CD launch this week, Luke Grant, the deputy commissioner at Corrective Services, said the Songbirds Project not only creates possible employment skills, but also helps ensure the wellbeing of people in custody.
Long Bay jail art teachers Carrie Fraser and Jim Croke.Credit:Anna Kucera
“If you listen to the music, they are songs of regret and loss, sadness but also hope for the future – the whole human experience – and you get an idea of how sad they are, but that music can be transformative for prisoners. You can hear the authenticity in their voices in this recording,” Grant said.
The music program runs in tandem with art workshops for prisoners run by the National Art School’s former head of sculpture Jim Croke and art therapist Carrie Fraser, all funded by philanthropy to the CRC. A theatre skills workshop began for the first time on Friday.
“It is so rewarding to see people escape from prison for a bit, while they are painting,” Croke said.
Long Bay’s Boom Gate Gallery, where the art produced in prison is sold, will celebrate its 30th anniversary in October, with a retrospective exhibition of prisoners’ art work.
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