Brett Whiteley kept thousands of LPs, the tunes have inspired new work

In 1985, artist Brett Whiteley bought an old Surry Hills warehouse where he would paint to the sound of his favourite artists, playing scratchy old LPs on his well-used record player.

His record collection featured thousands of dog-eared albums, including 14 from Jim Morrison and 24 from Bob Dylan, as well as classics by Joni Mitchell and Don McLean.

Singer songwriter Jo Davie will open the Sydney Festival’s Brett Whiteley Studio sessions.Credit: Jamila Toderas

Now that record collection, which has been converted to a 6000-tune digital playlist, has provided the inspiration for a series of performances for the 2024 Sydney Festival, to take place in the Archibald-winning painter’s studio.

The Brett Whiteley Studio sessions, from January 6-27, features musicians including sitar player Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the legendary Ravi Shankar, lead singer of The Whitlams Tim Freedman, Cuban jazz pianist Harold Lopez-Nussa, and Brisbane-born newcomer Jo Davie.

Davie was the support act for Katie Noonan’s Blue, which celebrated 50 years since Joni Mitchell’s album launch, in a sold-out 2023 Sydney Festival appearance.

This year the 28-year-old steps into the spotlight with her own show, accompanied by guitarist Jack Walton, with whom she performs regularly when not studying for her PhD in songwriting technology at Queensland University or touring with her folk-jazz band Cigany Weaver.

Jo Davie, here at her Brisbane home, has been compared to the great Eva Cassidy.Credit: Jamila Toderas

“Brett had an insane record collection so the Sydney Festival asked us to look through all the songs and find our favourites,” says Davie, also a graduate from the Queensland Conservatorium’s jazz program.

“I love jazz, but my first love is folk music, so I picked the folkier stuff to sing ... I learnt his taste was very eclectic ranging from Vivaldi to Dire Straits.”

Davie’s musical journey began as a school chorister, before graduating to piano, violin and guitar, learning to play using the Eva Cassidy Songbook.

She cites golden-voiced Cassidy, who died of cancer at 43, as an early influence, not only in the way she plays music, but why.

Davie is looking forward to a busy January.Credit: Jamila Toderas

In her final year of high school a decade ago, Davie’s folk music-loving mother Kathy was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. Two of her original songs, Sinking Feeling, and The Window, are about the pain of having a mother who no longer recognises you.

“I’ve written a lot of songs about it, and I’m very happy I can write and sing about it because I don’t know how else I would deal with the grief,” she says.

“A lot of people might not have a mum with early onset Alzheimer’s, but there’s a lot who have been touched by Alzheimer’s or dementia, and they usually tell me after my shows my songs have touched them and brought them to tears. For me being able to perform is cathartic.”

Next month promises to be busy for the singer-songwriter whose ethereal voice has been compared to that of her hero Cassidy. Cigany Weaver will launch their second album, Still Water, on January 11, she appears in Bellingen’s Megan Hall on January 14 and at Sydney’s Camelot Lounge on January 19.

For her Sydney Festival performance on January 6, the opener for the studio sessions, she has chosen Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now, Leonard Cohen’s Bird on a Wire and Suzanne, a selection from James Taylor, Rickie Lee Jones and Eva Cassidy’s version of Songbird, which was on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album, which Whiteley owned.

“These are all songs that have been part of my upbringing, so I hope the audience leaves feeling they heard some of the classics, interpreted in a new way,” Davie says.

The 2024 Sydney Festival takes place January 6–28.