TWO singers are doing it for the ladies with their collaboration project that remembers some of the great women of country.
Beccy Cole and Melinda Schneider have teamed up for the first time and have released Great Women of Country and the Songs That Made Them – an album which they will bring to Mandurah next month.
As Schneider puts it: “Both Beccy and I had always thought about doing an album like this individually … but I woke up one morning and the idea wouldn’t leave me alone, so I called Beccy and asked: ‘Want to do it together?’”
“[Melinda] called me last February and basically I was on board immediately,” Cole said. “She said we needed to balance the genders. We can’t let the boys do all the boys’ songs and not represent the girls. It’s been great to pay tribute to these great artists and great females as well. The songs which I chose for the album were all songs which influenced me and started me in this industry. They all mean something to me. I would hear my mum singing these songs when I was a kid.”
The pair is country music royalty in Australia, renowned for their successful solo careers.
It seems only fitting and natural that these firm friends not only record an album of some of the all-time great country songs by women but also perform them live in concert.
“I think it’s great to do this sort of album especially as a songwriter,” Cole said. “A lot of these women wrote their own songs. While I loved doing this I also couldn’t wait to get back to writing after this. I was reinspired; these songs are what made me fall in love with country music in the first place.”
For Cole the experience was so inspiring, she’s been able to write and record a solo album in the time since Great Women of Country and the Songs That Made Them was released.
Sweet Rebecca is due out on April 10.
If Cole wasn’t busy enough, her honest autobiography, Poster Girl, is due out a week after that.
“The same way the [collaboration] album was an inspiration, the chapters in the autobiography brought back memories to write about,” Cole said.
“I haven’t held back at all with the autobiography; if you are going to do it, do it. You can’t write that everything was perfect – it doesn’t work that way. I wrote it how I remembered it. I’ve told my story and avoided telling other people’s stories as much as I can.”
Schneider and Cole will be at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre on March 4. For more information go to manpac.com.au or call 9550 3900.
