Through the healing power of song and the tender love of family, Archie Roach AM has danced with his devils at the crossroads many times and won.
At 61, after a decade of illness and grief, he reunited with his three sisters from Tiddas on the Dunstan Playhouse stage (23 June) for an evening of shared laughter and pain.
In the early '90s, prior to the release of 'Looking For Butter Boy', Archie Roach, Tiddas and multi-instrumentalist and producer Jen Anderson recorded a demo: 'Dancing With My Spirit'. While many of the songs penned for that release such as ‘F Troop’ and ‘A Child Was Born Here’ were subsequently given an alternate life on 'Butter Boy', the lushly soulful original recordings remained dormant until this year.
The on-stage reuniting of four sublime voices after all this time was undeniably powerful. At the end of ‘A Child Was Born Here’, Tiddas’ Amy Saunders, Lou Bennett and Sally Dastey belted out the refrain “can you feel it” with such an intensity of feeling that Archie remarked with awe and appreciation “yeah, I could feel that”.
It was a night of raw and palpable sensation. Tears trickled from Archie’s left eye as he recounted the inspiration of ‘The River Song’; a morning spent fishing by the riverbank with his beloved wife, Ruby Hunter. His performance was an outpouring of the soul, a rekindling of a smouldering ember.
Ruby, who he met in Adelaide when he was just 16, sadly passed away in 2010. Since the recording of 'Dancing With My Spirit', Archie has lost both of his brothers too, which rendered the brotherly tale, ‘F Troop’, achingly poignant.
On ‘Heal The People, Heal The Land’, Archie pondered what it is that kept him and keeps others going through the suffering, through the loss. He spoke with raw candour about the importance of family and belief. It was a night where even the interludes hit the right notes.
Under the strict time constraints of the Cabaret Festival, though, both Archie and the members of Tiddas lamented their inability to tell stories for longer.
There is little doubt that the ten-piece ensemble would have willingly delivered a set of twice the length, forlorn as they were at the imminent end of a joyous tour.
Despite being left wanting more, the audience spontaneously and unanimously stood and cheered at the culmination of the Ray Charles-esque finale, ‘Dancing Shoes’, immensely grateful for the time they were given.
★★★★☆
