There are moments when the world, or at least certain people with decency in their hearts and the courage in their minds, is able to make a huge difference. There are many problems to be discussed, to be addressed and be solved, no matter how far we come as a civilisation, no matter the dizzy heights of industrial might, of reaching out beyond our mortal capability into the stars and the progress of technical know-how, people fall through the gaps. They become unseen, almost invisible, past the point of sight until they blur into their surroundings and whether it is through the actions of someone else or their own misfortune, brought on perhaps by a Government and others that just don’t care, the cracks open up regardless and the streets, the parks and the obscured shadows become the home of the dispossessed and the homeless.
It is through decency, through people understanding that homelessness is a modern evil forced upon society by uncaring and social ills, that for many it is not a way of life, that it was by far the very last option they would have ever wanted, that music, that any action can make a difference; whether it is just to raise awareness or to get the public to not step over the unfortunate and sadly ridiculed by some with stone hearts in society. It is decency, humanity, plain simple morals, a pact that states if you suffer then I suffer also, that Someday We’ll See Better Days is not just a song but a hope, an expectation, a demand that this be taking seriously; life across all its many spectrums is not meant be lived without shelter or dignity.
Written by Liverpool’s John Jenkins, who himself was inspired by Val Colvin and friends hugely successful We Shall Overcome event, Someday We’ll See Better Days is one of those moments where musicians come together in the common cause and the song itself is a belter, a beautiful piece of musicianship and one that is devoted to the ear as well as the grounds that it is built upon.
The roll call of musicians involved is to know that the song, co-produced by the ever cool and musically knowledgeable Jon Lawton, is one of fine artistic belief, that the anger is swayed by the message but nonetheless still incredibly forceful, as dynamic and attention grabbing as a deep growl from a once thought extinct volcano and one that still stokes the surrounding Earth. With a line up that involves Ian Prowse, Robert Vincent, Vanessa Murray, Denis Parkinson, Mary McCoombs, Natalie James, Maria Silker, Stuart Todd, Derek King, Barry Jones, Paul Dunbar, David Nixon, Laura McLain, Alan O’ Hare, Kevin Critchley, Emma Dos Santos Rodriquez, Jade Tremarco, Jo Bywater and John Jenkins himself, the beautiful song captures the compassion, the kindness, the sheer decency which we all should be showing to anyone who has fallen upon rough or desperate times.
A tremendously well written song, one that hits exactly where it should, in the conscious of those who walk on by, who do not see the person behind the shadow, a song recorded for an exceptional cause.
All sales of Someday We’ll See Better Days by the Liverpool Acoustic Collective will be going towards raising money and awareness for homeless people. To purchase the single go to liverpoolacoustic.bandcamp.com.
Ian D. Hall