Review’s Isolation Room: Archie Roach plays We Won’t Cry from his kitchen table
One of Australia’s greatest musical storytellers has picked out a true beauty whose uplifting message could not be more apt | WATCH
Sitting beside his kitchen table at his home near the Victorian coastal town of Killarney while hooked to an oxygen tank that has become his lifeline, it couldn’t be clearer that Archie Roach knows a little about hardship.
For Review’s Isolation Room series, one of Australia’s greatest musical storytellers has reached into his proverbial bag of tricks and picked out a true beauty whose message could not be more apt.
Roach has recorded a remarkable and uplifting solo take on his song We Won’t Cry, which he wrote and recorded alongside Paul Kelly for his 2012 release Into the Bloodstream.
That album was built on the pain of losing his life partner, Ruby Hunter, as well as surviving health issues including the removal of half a lung due to cancer.
“It’s not a song about not shedding tears, because we continue to do that,” says Roach, 65.
“It’s really about trying to lift yourself up, and not being dragged down into despair.
“It’s about rising above your circumstances, or adversity in your life, or things that might get you down – and in particular, what’s going on these days.”
When The Weekend Australian rebooted our popular video series last Saturday with a beautiful performance by Brisbane pop singer-songwriter Dami Im, the intent was to brighten the spirits of millions of Greater Sydney residents under lockdown.
A week later, with Victoria and much of southeast Queensland now joining the NSW capital under firm stay-at-home orders due to Covid outbreaks, our collective need for artful succour and inspiration has only increased.
Last year was supposed to be the one where Roach made a final, celebratory tour of the capital cities before retiring to a quieter life away from the stage.
That didn’t happen, like so many of our plans for 2020.
Even making it to one of the major moments of his career was touch-and-go, after Roach’s health took a turn for the worse and he ended up in hospital not long before he was due to be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in November.
He pulled through, though, and his appearance in a wheelchair at the Lighthouse Theatre in Warrnambool – including a stunning group reading of Roach’s signature song, Took the Children Away – was one of the most moving and memorable moments in Australian music history.
“There’s nothing like going out and performing, and having a live audience; nothing will replace that,” says Roach of his touring interruptions.
“But it’s been good, what we’ve been able to do and produce this last year or so.”
That output includes an album recorded at his kitchen table, The Songs of Charcoal Lane, where he reprised his landmark 1990 debut for its 30th anniversary.
As well, Roach has been prolific on YouTube.
His channel has become a wealth of songs and stories, with the latest chapter beginning this week: his Kitchen Table Yarns series finds him in conversation with emerging Indigenous artists via Zoom.
Through it all, his oxygen tank has been pumping away, as reliable as a heartbeat and such a fixture of his life now that he’s long past feeling self-conscious about his nasal cannula.
“It’s just who I am now,” says Roach of the hardware.
“It helps me to sing, to talk and to share stories with people. It certainly is a lifeline – but as well, it’s something that just enables me to do what I love to do.”
To rewatch our Review’s Isolation Room archive, click here.
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