FREMANTLE has been a muse for some great artists and musicians.
Something about the port city draws out the creative side in folk and it was no different for singer-songwriter Helen Townsend.
She didn’t write or perform a song until she moved to Fremantle in 2009, when she was in her 40s.
Now she’s got four albums under her belt and is set to headline a show at Freo.Social next week.
• Helen Townsend and her musical partners in crime. photo by Adrian Thomson
“My personal musical discovery was all due to Fremantle and the local musical community,” Townsend says.
“Thanks to the Hilton Park Bowling Club open mics ran by local bush poet Peter Capp, who encouraged me on many occasions to sing the one song I knew, every time I visited the club.
“It was the local, well established musicians such as Dave Johnson (The Fling), John Reed (Sensative New Aged Cowpersons) and so many others that helped me get over stage fright and get comfortable with performing.”
Fusing Americana, country and rock, Townsend’s spine-tingling vocals float over a dreamy palette of sound.
The lead single Demons on her new album Take It or Leave It is a cracker.
Sparse and haunting with a killer vocal, it sounds like Sheryl Crow backed by T Bone Burnett.
There’s a strong Americana flavour with slide guitar, phat snare drum and plenty of space to let the music soar and fall.
“I specifically went to Rada Studios for this album to work with Dan Carroll,” Townsend says.
“Dan is a master crafter of songs and isn’t one to put too many unnecessary effects on a song that make it too polished.
“He has a well versed knowledge of the style of music I like to create and the influences which shape it.”
A self-described “love junkie”, Townsend says the theme running through her new album is emotion, specifically love.
“I have a special attachment to the song You Know I Do,” she says.
“This song tells a story of my past and gives a little insight as to who I am and where I have been.
“It mentions my shotgun wedding in Las Vegas, which was something that I have always had hesitation about sharing in fear of judgement.”
They say you’ve got to live before you can write, and Townsend has plenty of life experience under her belt.
During the 1990s she went travelling around the world for three years to “find herself”, absorbing the musical culture in Ireland, America, Africa and Scotland.
“I bought my first guitar from a backpacker,” she says.
“I spent a significant amount of time in Belfast, North Yorkshire and the Orkney Islands, after a three-month trip through Africa. Music was everywhere.
“The Irish sessions, and lock-ins around the fireplaces with the glorious peaty aroma that envelopes you like nanna’s crocheted blanket, were my soul food.”
After returning to Australia in 1998, she became a mother for the first time, capping off a life-changing decade.
She enjoyed playing guitar and singing in private, but realised fear was holding her back.
“After having my daughter, I worked hard to overcome the anxiety of speaking in front of people, let alone performing on stage,” she says.
“I look back on the doubts and fears that once held me back.
“What made the difference was being surrounded by supportive, talented people who shared my love for music and self-expression.”
Now happily settled in Hamilton Hill, Townsend is busy preparing for her album launch gig at Freo.Social on Thursday August 15.
Also on the bill are the Dave Johnson Band and Helen Shanahan.
Tix at moshtix.com and for more info on her new album Take It or Leave It see helentownsendmusic.com.
by STEPHEN POLLOCK