A song of inspiration, for anyone who’s doing it tough

With an unreleased song from 2011, married musicians John Butler and Danielle Caruana (aka Mama Kin) are the latest stars to grace our Isolation Room.

Singer-songwriters John Butler and Mama Kin (aka Danielle Caruana, his wife) in their garden near Margaret River. Picture: Colin Murty

About a decade ago, married ­musicians John Butler and Danielle Caruana took a rare holiday without their children or touring commitments, and what emerged was a musical project they called Brave and the Bird.

One of the songs to emerge from a late-night writing session was Jenny, which told the fictional story of a character who has faced her share of challenges but still holds her head high.

“I always like playing that one with Dan because it’s one of the first songs we really wrote with each other — and personally, it’s one of my favourite songs I’ve written as far as telling a story,” says Butler.

For The Australian’s Isolation Room video series, Butler and ­Caruana sat in the backyard of their home near Margaret River, Western Australia, to play an unreleased creation they both hold dear.

“It ticked a lot of boxes as far as being something really intimate from us, from our home out into the world,” says Caruana, who performs as Mama Kin. “But it’s also a story about a woman who’s lived a really hard life, and I think that’s the reality of some people really being on the skids, and being vulnerable at this time — particularly in relation to a surge in domestic violence calls that were happening when the crisis first occurred.”

Despite their best intentions on that holiday, Brave and the Bird hasn’t yet taken flight.

“It’s just one of those things; when it feels right, we’ll give it the time of day,” says Butler. “We’ve got a 13-year-old boy bursting out of the seams as the tallest person in the house, and a 17-year-old who’s doing her last year of high school. It’s not the greatest time to create a new production.” Caruana concurs, noting the empathy and understanding the pair have long upheld to run their shared lives as tag-teaming touring musicians.

“Adding a new project over the top might just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” she says with a laugh. “It’s just an idea, but it’s sleeping soundly; they love each other and they’re having a beautiful long winter, and we never know when spring might come. It’s a Game of Thrones-sized winter — a f..king long one.”

On Saturday, The Wiggles will offer a unique take on a song written in response to the pandemic.