The personal and the political

The personal and the political

Robyn Habel

Robyn Habel

Produced by Terry Bradford and Stuart Day

Larrikin Records

Reviewed by Melanie Sjoberg

It will be great news to many women in Adelaide that Robyn Habel has released a CD in her own right, capturing some of our favourite acoustic rock and blues numbers. Robyn's dynamic and varied style, especially her gutsy double bass, is well known to regular attenders at "Women Performing", and the CD reflects the best of these aspects of her music.

Robyn tackles a range of personal and political issues on this CD, in a style that reflects her stated influences of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. "A lot of my philosophy is that [joy and sadness] exist together, and you'll find in each song an element of dark, but there is always, always, in every song without fail, an element of hope", she said. Most musicians don't like to be labelled, but I would suggest there is also a bit of Janis Joplin in there.

The lead track, "Ceasefire", displays Robyn's strong voice in her comment about overcoming conflict, at both the individual and the global level: "... but the TV's on and the colour's gone and everyone bleeds red, it's just another fight for black or white and a ceasefire".

My other favourite is "Just A Habit", about the barriers we build preventing communication in a society where alienation is rampant: "... it's just a habit that I learned when I was young, I never touch anyone".

The ballad style in "A Poet's Life" offers an uplifting appeal to follow your path and not to put up with the downtrodden life. The "Ballad of a Searcher" challenges listeners to struggle to find answers, not necessarily accepting what someone else says. The album concludes on a positive note with "We Can Change Things".

From GLW issue 119