Collaboration with Bob Brown and Monique Brumby released November 2020
/On Steve’s new collaborative CD “Hidden Vale”, Bob Brown, Australia’s most loved environmentalist, reads 10 of his poems backed by stunning vocals from double Aria award winner Monique Brumby. Monique also produced, mixed and mastered the CD.
For 50 years Bob Brown’s voice has been like the pirate radio station in Dylan’s 2020 song, KeyWest (Philosopher Pirate), sending out love and inspiration that helped change conceptions of what the world is and can be. Rarely do we have the privilege of being allowed into the private thoughts and reflections of someone with such a visible public presence as we do on “Hidden Vale”.
In the Introduction to his book of these poems (“In Balfour Street”, NewPrint, 2010) Bob revealed that writing an occasional poem calmed his frustrations, and expressed his affinity with Nature and other people. He concluded, “I wanted to make sense of the world but couldn’t”. The listener will, respectfully, disagree. For the lucky few - given CV-19 restrictions - the CD launch at the Ferntree Tavern on the slopes of kunanyi / Mt Wellington in December is the perfect chance to show Bob Brown how much he is loved and why!