Everybody leaves eventually, especially artists of one form or another. If the call of a new pasture in which to paint never calls then how does new and exciting work happen, the imagination after all is only as strong as the individual and no artist can imagine a waterfall crashing down upon shaped boulders if they have never seen a water drop.

Some leave too soon, some perhaps too late in the day but neither really ever write a song, paint a picture, or capture the emotion of leaving somewhere they love unless they have a poet’s mind dwelling deep in their soul.

For Ragz Nordset, a woman who has graced many a stage in Liverpool, from Leaf to St. George’s Hall and beyond, saying goodbye to the city is perhaps more devastating than most and her final goodbye to it’s people and the many hundreds who have heard her sing time and time again is perhaps all the more pertinent; the sheer beauty and scale of Ragz Nordset and her gift to Liverpool in the song Don’t You Forget.

The song captures all that Ragz Nordset has come to epitomise as a song writer, all that is wholesome that comes out with Nordic feeling and abundant thought that goes into each line. If any of her previous songs that she has released so far are to be used as a bench mark, perhaps only Mitt Hjerte Alltid Vanker (My Heart Will Always Rest) can stand up to the same level of appreciation and scrutiny; for in both songs the grip on the soul is enough to bring tears to the eyes and a pain of regret to the missing.

It is said that nobody ever truly leaves Liverpool, they just spread the word far and wide about the city and what the culture in the city means to the people there; for Ragz Nordset this might be goodbye but not one person who ever saw her sing will ever fail to recall her last song written in the city, Don’t You Forget after all is a song of real charm, beauty and honest feeling.

Ian D. Hall