Building strength and solidarity
Intuition
Ant McKenna
Produced by Ant McKenna and Phil Ross
Review by Nick Everett
Intuition is the debut CD of Brisbane-based singer-songwriter Ant McKenna. Since 1993, McKenna has been playing gigs in and around Brisbane, including several fundraising dinners for Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly.
In 1996, McKenna put together a band featuring Greg Rostron on drums, Michael Heron on bass and guitar and, more recently, John Rodgers on violin. Joined by percussionists Stephanie McCaw and James Harper, and well-known Brisbane vocalist Siobhan Lawless (from the Lawless Murphies), the band recorded Intuition, which was launched in December at the Woodford Folk Festival.
The CD features a wide variety of songs that capture glimpses of McKenna's upbringing in a big Catholic family in the suburbs of Melbourne and also what he describes as "a new awareness" gained as a youth worker on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane.
"This Town" is inspired by a song-writing workshop for young people in a Queensland country town. It is a story of survival in a town in which the main lifeblood, the meatworks, has been closed.
"Control" is a story of coming to terms with the death of a friend. It captures his feelings about a man angry and frustrated at "the system of oppression" that surrounds him. McKenna describes him as "both victim and perpetrator", injuring himself and others.
"Move" and "Lost in the City" are perhaps the two most inspiring songs. "Move" begins with the words "I believe in Jesus — that's what I used to say". McKenna seeks to express his transition from faith in God and family, to belief and commitment to building strength and solidarity among the oppressed.
"Lost in the City", about the environmental and social ills of an alienated society, captures McKenna's lyrical talent:
"Acid rain falls like some racist joke/ Smoke filled cafes, with coffee beans/ Grown by slaves to oil the First World machine.
Ant McKenna and the band launched an east coast tour on February 28.They will be in Melbourne at the Rochester on March 26; at the Royal Darby Hotel on March 27; and at Thumpin' Tum on March 28.