By Vannessa Hearman
The Brunswick Music Festival has done it again, this time with a fantastic night of women's music featuring Faith Petric, an 82-year-old folk singer from the US, and the recently formed Three Sheilas, composed of Judy Small, Kavisha Mazzella and Bronwyn Calcutt.
Petric was born in a log cabin in Idaho in 1915. As a Methodist preacher's daughter, singing was an integral part of her family life. She has lived a rich life, including working in San Francisco in the late 1930s, then running a migrant relief office in San Joaquin Valley in 1940.
In the 1960s she was involved in the civil rights movement and since 1970, when she retired, she has been travelling around the world performing at folk festivals.
This was Petric's first visit to Australia. She performs with her trusty guitar and a lot of passion, and is particularly interested in songs and ballads about unions, workers, women and peace. Pete Seeger once said: "Faith Petric has a lifetime of experience and knows how to present a song without messing it up."
One of the most remarkable aspects of Petric's performance is her ability to follow moving, weighty songs — about women ("Womanchild"), the anti-war movement ("Grandma's Battle Cry"), the environment and indigenous people ("As Long as the Grass Shall Grow") with funny ditties and parodies.
"Grandma's Battle Cry" was probably the most haunting and moving song of the night. It tells the story of a woman who has been marching against war since she was barely 10 years old. She hailed the World War I armistice, then marched for Spain, Hiroshima, Korea and Vietnam, and is still marching at the age of 82.
Faith also paid tribute to the US countryside and the indigenous people from whom it was stolen.
The best part of this inspiring performance is that the audience is encouraged to sing along with each chorus.
The Three Sheilas had a hard act to follow. Each band member was given plenty of space to show her talent, while also being vocally and musically supported by the other two.
Mazzella, whose interests include Italian folk songs and migrants' songs, sang about "Carolina", who refused to marry, emigrating from Italy to Australia instead. Calcutt sang about a modern woman's life, part of her "Piaf meets Freud" series.
Small was the strongest Sheilas performer, however. She did her satirical "Lesbian Chic Has Passed Me By".
The night finished powerfully with all four performers on stage singing "No Going Back", written by Sandra Kerr about the women campaigning to stop mine closures in Thatcher's Britain.
Small's albums are available from PO Box 304, Fairfield 3078, and Mazzella has a new album out, Fisherman's Daughter. Petric can be contacted by e-mail at The Brunswick Music Festival runs until April 17 at various venues. For information and bookings, telephone 9388 1460.