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AN ACT OF FATE
Susan Jarvis
John has spoken about how much getting to know Warren and learning about his people and culture has meant to him.
Equally, Warren’s friendship and working relationship with John has opened up a whole new world for him — a world where his music has been heard and appreciated by people all over Australia and overseas.
"It’s been a pretty amazing ride since I met John. We work really well together, and I’ve had the chance to tour with him to so many places. We’ve both gained a lot from our friendship," Warren said.
Since that fateful duet in 1998, Warren’s career has been inextricably linked to John’s, including the Mates On The Road tour, album and DVD (with Pixie Jenkins), and more recently working with John on his Chandelier Of Stars tour.
The show includes several performances from Warren, and the Chandelier Of Stars album also features a beautiful ballad largely written by him (Desert Child) and a song John wrote about him (the powerful Keeper Of The Stones).
During his time with John, Warren has also enjoyed some awards success, picking up the 2004 Male Vocalist award and the 2005 Most Popular Song award (with Dreamtime Baby) at this year’s NT Indigenous Music Awards.
But somehow, in the midst of all this activity, Warren has found time to record his own album, Be Like Home — and what a remarkable piece of work it is.
"This album’s been a long time in the making because I’ve been on tour so much, but I’m very proud of it. It’s my first solo album for five years, and it has a lot of me and my life in it," Warren said.
The album contains a multitude of emotions — from extreme warmth and happiness to utter despair, and many others in between. It is a powerful and moving musical journey — one which offers much to the listener.
"The album really is about me. You see me always smiling and happy, but bad things happen to me just like they do to everyone else, and sometimes I’m sad or angry too," Warren said.
"I’ve revealed a lot of myself on this album, and that can sometimes be hard, but I reckon if you do that, you also touch a lot of people in the process because of it.
"Already people have come up to me after my shows, and talked about the way some of the songs have touched them personally, and really helped them understand something that’s happened to them. It’s worth taking that risk to help others."
Two of the most powerful songs on the album are also very personal. The heartfelt Learn My Song was inspired by Warren’s cousin – and many other Aboriginal people who’ve been removed from their homes and families for one reason or another.
"They return, but they don’t know or understand so much that they feel lost, they’re torn between a sense of home and a feeling that they’re strangers. It’s hard for them to be accepted because they can’t relate to their families in an Aboriginal way."
Warren captures that sense of loss and ambivalence perfectly, as he does the despair that comes from the death of a young man in the poignant Only Eighteen, which has close links to the death of his nephew.
"I wrote that song many years ago, but I knew there was a reason even then. When my nephew passed away last year, I understood what it was," Warren said.
However, there are many happier moments on Be Like Home. They include the album’s title track and first single, the gentle, warm Mum, Mum’s, about memories of childhood, and Milky Way, inspired by the huge, starry skies of the Outback and their place in the Indigenous way of looking at the world.
There are also some wonderful people and story songs, including Kimberley Queen, written for the larger than life comedian Mary G, and Marlo, about a cousin of Warren’s whom he describes simply as "a real dude – a chick magnet – it captures his personality perfectly".
Other album highlights include the gentle Late Train – a true story from Warren’s past — and So Much Trouble, a reflection on the current global situation and what we should be doing about it.
Warren’s also recorded a cover of the CHRIS REA song Diamonds, simply because it’s an all-time favourite and he wanted to include a version of it on the album.
Warren heads to Tamworth next month to perform with John Willamson. Two shows are scheduled, at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment Centre on the first Saturday of the festival, and at the Tamworth Town Hall on Friday, January 27 (both at night). In between, the crew will head up to Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo on Australia Day for a big concert there.
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