Stefan Bradley
Tomorrow at The Wedge, Katie Noonan and Karin Schaupp, both ARIA award-winning musicians, will be celebrating some of Australia’s greatest female artists through reimagined covers of iconic songs with a classical feel.
The show presents the pair’s new album, Songs of the Southern Skies Volume 2, a collection of 12 songs that celebrates the greats such as Missy Higgins, Sia and Kylie Minogue through to Dame Olivia Newton-John and Aunty Ruby Hunter – all beautifully re-imagined for the masterful and virtuosic playing of Ms Schaupp’s classical guitar. The show will also revisit tunes from the first Southern Skies volume.
Ms Noonan said she preferred to call their takes on the songs as ‘reimagined’, rather than simply ‘covers’, as they commissioned classical composers to write brand new parts for the classical guitar. With so many great Australian artists it out there, it was tough for the pair to narrow down the choices.
“I started with a very very long list of my favourite singer songwriters and then we had to cull it down! We wanted to represent a brand range of women who have had interesting and diverse careers – interestingly most of them are working musician mothers like Karin and I also,” Ms Noonan said.
“I’ve known Missy (Higgins) since she was about 16 when I took her (on) one of her first tours. I also met Sarah Blasko around the same time and I have loved watching their careers soar and their artistry grow.
“Then we have women I really looked up to as an emerging artist – women like Kate Ceberano and Deborah Conway, and then we also wanted to pay tribute to extraordinary women we have lost in recent years; Dame Olivia Newton-John and the beautiful Aunty Ruby Hunter.
“We have two of my heroes joining us on the album also – Kate Ceberano and the gorgeous Clare Bowditch, who also sang with us on Songs of the Southern Skies Volume 1, 12 years ago.”
The show will be Ms Noonan and Ms Schaupp’s together in ‘duet mode’.
“It’s truly amazing the amount of different colours and timbres a true virtuoso classical guitarist can make with the one instrument – it really is a thing of wonder in the hand of a great composer/arranger and a guitarist like Karin.
Karin plays a beautiful bespoke Australian hand made guitar – a classic wave top classical guitar made by Australia master luthier Jim Redgate,” Ms Noonan said.
“In this busy, noisy and difficult world, I think there is something soothing about the simplicity of just the human voice and a beautiful nylon string classical guitar.
“I would just encourage people to support local independent Aussie artists as much as possible if they can – it’s such a difficult time with the rising cost of living, so we really genuinely appreciate people investing their precious dollars into buying tickets to our concerts – honestly Aussie artists need you more than ever, and we are sincerely grateful for your support.”
It’s been over a decade for the second Songs of the Southern Skies album, but Ms Noonan says another follow-up is “absolutely” a possibility.
“This album is a celebration of 20 years of musical friendship and although we have busy careers as soloists and Karin is also head of classical guitar at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, we love making music together and there is no shortage of incredible Australian artists to celebrate,” Ms Noonan said.
Katie Noonan and Karin Schaupp will be performing at The Wedge, Sale, tomorrow night from 8pm.
All tickets cost $69 each, and are available from www.thewedge.com.au
Track listing for the new record Songs of the Southern Skies Volume 2
by Katie Noonan and Karin Schaupp, with original artist in brackets:
1. Down City Streets ( Ruby Hunter)
2. I Thought You Were God (Clare Bowditch)
3. The Cooling of the Embers (Missy Higgins)
4. We Won’t Run (Sarah Blasko)
5. Confide in Me (Kylie Minogue)
6. Brave (Kate Ceberano)
7. It’s Only the Beginning (Deborah Conway)
8. Gratitude (Katie Noonan)
9. Elastic Heart (Sia)
10. Even When I’m Sleeping (Leonardo’s Bride)
11. Xanadu (Olivia Newton-John)
12. If Penguins Could Talk (Mary Doumany)
