MORE ON THE CHARLOTTES

It has been my intention for a long time to complete this selection of material and I am hoping that updating this much earlier post will be a useful reminder.

There is a page entitled ON THE CHARLOTTES on my web site at www.sheilakcameron.com.  And the plan is to transfer the information which I first posted here to that page.

It is mostly about the songs which were written during my time of living on Haida Gwaii - referred to then as the Queen Charlotte Islands. I intend to include some comments about their content and the context in which they were written. They all belong to a particular place and time but they are also representative of one of the earlier phases of my interest in writing songs.

Then as now writing songs happened only occasionally and in no set or determined way. But perhaps it did become more of a habit when I was on the islands. And my way of working may well have been heading in that direction from its beginnings in Glasgow through a relatively brief stay in Alberta.

In the Cold Light of Day

The words for this track came from a news item which I just happened to see the day before Amber McLaughlin was executed. The words were a way of dealing with the shock I experienced the following day on reading that it had taken place. Much of my response is in the words but I did honestly think it would not happen. I foolishly felt sure such a barbaric act would be stopped. 

I can't ever recall feeling as shocked as I did on reading the news item about Amber's death and the decisions which were made. There was a vulnerability in her face in the photograph I had seen in the newspaper and her final words have stayed in my head. 

It’s not much good being upset about what happened but I wanted to make others aware of the awful way in which Amber's life ended.  

There is a free download of the words on Bandcamp on the following link https://sheilakcameron.bandcamp.com/track/in-the-cold-light-of-day