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Here in North East England, personalised songs are being created for care-experienced babies and children. Sing Our Story is being rolled out by Blue Cabin in partnership with Groundswell Arts, and three musicians will create songs for 12 families. The first phase of the project is happening in partnership with Darlington Borough Council. One of the musicians, Carol Bowden, gives an insight into the process of creating these very special compositions.
When Jenny at Blue Cabin asked me if I would like to be on the Sing Our Story team, with Katie Doherty and Eleanor Mooney, I jumped at the chance! They are both amazing musicians and seasoned songwriters, which made me feel slightly unworthy, daunted and beyond excited to be in such inspiring company.
As an Associate Artist for Blue Cabin, I have been working on This Is The Place project as a musician in Darlington and Redcar, with foster carers and care experienced babies and very young children since January 2023.
It’s a wonderful project and we (Katie and myself) have nurtured a safe space for supportive relationships to blossom, through music making and play. Sing Our Story would have its first phase running in Darlington, and the babies and young children who attend This Is The Place would be our first cohort.
What we hadn’t fully anticipated at the start of building the project, was the impact of the transitional nature of the babies and very young children in foster care. We therefore had two children still in placement and two who had recently been adopted.
Emotions were raw in some cases, as children had just recently moved into adoption, so our conversations to gather ideas for their songs were full of laughter and tears. There was so much to talk about, due to the children having attended This is the Place sessions for some time, that I was enriched with the wealth of our conversations, and took some of those emotions with me into the songwriting.
This part of the process took a lot more time than was anticipated, which I had to fit around other commitments. I didn’t want to cut corners in the recording and did get a lot of helpful advice from my husband, as this is what he does for a living, and you’ve got to utilise what you can get for free!
It was all done at home which meant that I had to fit it around various factors. One was having a sore throat so my singing wasn’t up to scratch, and then there was one day that I had earmarked to do a good bulk of recording but which, unfortunately, the local authority had also earmarked for roadworks. This lost me a day that I had to make up which was a bit stressful.
I did have a lot of fun working on the arrangements though, styling the songs on the children’s favourite music and artists, I developed a lot of new skills in how to use recording software and I can safely say that I am now reasonably competent on Ableton Live!
It was also a very personal experience for me. I knew these children, I had said goodbye to two of them who had moved on to adoption. I had spent a morning every week singing and playing with them, learning about who these little people were and watching their development with awe, and I think this made it both easier to write about them, but also a very emotional process. You can definitely hear my voice break with tears in one of the songs.
The project ended with a sharing event, which conveniently fell around Christmas time, so sweet mince pies were on the menu. We all cried into our pastries while listening to the songs, and I was so humbled and honoured to have had the opportunity to write for them and put some of my heart into something that they will have for the rest of their lives.
Thank you Carol for sharing this insight into the process behind these very special songs!
Sing Our Story is a personalised song-writing programme created by London-based charity, Groundswell Arts that supports children’s musical development, confidence and wellbeing.
Groundswell Arts and Blue Cabin are collaborating to deliver Sing Our Story in North East England for the first time, with a focus on care-experienced babies and children. These songs will be saved as part of the children’s life stories.
Sing Our Story in the North East is funded by Youth Music.
Carol is a musician, songwriter and educator based in Newcastle upon Tyne. She enjoys sharing her love of music, through delivery, mentoring and training and strongly believes that we can nurture relationships, support development and find ways to heal through music and musical play.
