Ep 91 - Crystal Luk-Worrall
Music Therapy Conversations
In episode 91, Davina speaks to Crystal Luk-Worrall about EMDR and music therapy. Crystal Luk-Worrall is a music therapist and EMDR therapist working with the adoption community in London through her private practice Clap and Toot, as well as working with bereaved families through her work at Shooting Star Children’s Hospices. She enjoys exploring multi-modality practice and systemic practice. Crystal also supports fellow freelance therapists and newly qualified therapists through her role as BAMT’s freelance network coordinator.
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Ep 90 Helen Wallace-Bell
Music Therapy Conversations
In this podcast, Martin Lawes talks to Helen Wallace-Bell about SMI and RMI which are part of the contemporary spectrum of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) and Music and Imagery (MI) methods Helen explains what these approaches are and how the recorded music used is chosen collaboratively to help the client develop their inner resources or work on issues. Helen is involved in MI training which also gets discussed. In addition, Helen talks about her work with clients who have PTSD and about online groupwork with carers. She discusses various music used in this work...
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Ep 89 Emi Booth
Music Therapy Conversations
Emi talks with Davina about their recent debut at the BAMT Conference in May 2024 where they spoke about their experiences of being a deaf music therapist. Here are Emi's words of introduction: My name’s Emi and my pronouns are they/them. I’m a deaf music therapist who currently works in older people’s mental health in the NHS. I graduated from the University of Derby in 2022 with my master’s in music therapy, where I became passionate about making music therapy more accessible to deaf people. Ever since, I’ve been working on publishing my independent scholarship on how my experience...
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Ep 88 BAMT Conference 2024 Roundtable Discussion
Music Therapy Conversations
This is the recording of the live discussion from the BAMT conference at the Curve Theatre Leicester on 18 May 2024. The conference panel was Luke Annesley, Rachel Darnley-Smith, Tilly Mutter and Davina Vencatasamy. Surprise special guests were Wendy Magee and Joy Gravestock, who happened to be in the audience, and excerpts were included from previous episodes from Wendy and Joy, along with Denise Wong and Mercedes Pavlicevic. The episode includes discussion about the genesis of the podcast, the processes of interviewing and being interviewed, and closer examination of excerpts from episodes...
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Ep 87 Karen Goodman
Music Therapy Conversations
Karen D. Goodman, PhD., Professor Emerita of Music, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey, USA., has been the primary figure in designing and developing both the former undergraduate and graduate music therapy programs at Montclair over forty years. Professor Goodman’s research-based clinical work, at ten clinical settings, includes music therapy practice in child and adult psychiatry and developmental disabilities at New York Hospital- Cornell Medical Center, Creative Arts Rehabilitation Center-NYC and educational programs in the Greater New York area. Currently an Associate...
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Ep 86 Holly Shirra
Music Therapy Conversations
Holly Shirra is a qualified music therapist who holds her focus on helping people connect in community and express themselves creatively and authentically. With classical piano training from a young age, Holly discovered a passion for free improvisation while studying music therapy, which she completed in 2020. To help her understand further how people spontaneously create in groups, Holly founded 'Cambridge Music Improv' - a community project that gathers people from diverse backgrounds in public spaces to improvise music together. This supportive environment allows participants to tap into...
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Ep 85 Jessica Leza
Music Therapy Conversations
Jessica Leza is a board-certified music therapist, author, and multimedia artist. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Music Composition from the University of North Texas and a Master of Arts in Music Therapy from Texas Woman’s University. Leza’s music therapy scholarship and advocacy centers around neurodiversity, disability justice, culture, and LGBTQ+ liberation and includes publications in The Neurodiversity Reader, Sociocultural Identities in Music Therapy, and The Oxford Handbook of Queer and Trans Music Therapy, as well as the solo-authored An Introduction...
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Ep 84 Den Vecchio
Music Therapy Conversations
Luke talks to Den Vecchio, a play therapist living and working in Bristol, UK. They discuss the principles of play therapy, why play therapy has become more available in mainstream schools in recent years, and overlaps with music therapy practice. Also - why every play therapist should have snakes, spiders and crocodiles in their collection! Den is a thoughtful practitioner and was a very entertaining and engaging podcast guest. As a music therapist, you're perhaps unlikely to have come across her, but don't let this discourage you from listening to this fascinating episode. There's lots of...
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Ep 83 Evelyn Mason
Music Therapy Conversations
Evelyn Mason is an experienced music therapist and Vice-Chancellor’s PhD Student at the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge. Chroma Therapies and the Independent Neurorehabilitation Providers Alliance (INPA) are collaborating with ARU on this study which focuses on music therapy to address the emotional challenges of family caregivers of people with Huntington’s disease. As a practising clinician, she has specialisms in brain injury rehabilitation, adoption, dementia, learning disability and hospice care. Having completed her MA...
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Ep 82 Elaine Streeter
Music Therapy Conversations
Elaine is a BAMT registered clinical supervisor, and consultant lead visitor for the HCPC. She studied piano and composition at GSMD, and trained as a music therapist with Dr Paul Nordoff and Dr Clive Robbins in London. After running the music therapy service at the CDC, Charing Cross Hospital for several years, and completing an MA research thesis in music therapy at the University of York, Elaine was appointed Senior Lecturer at the Roehampton Institute where she developed a new post-graduate course in Music Therapy. Her music therapy practice with children, young people, and adults...
info_outlineKaran Casey
Does Singing Songs Make a Difference?
This episode is a recording of Karan Casey’s keynote presentation at the close of the conference of the European Music Therapy Confederation in Edinburgh, 8-12 June 2022. Karan talked about songs and social justice, arts practice research, and about her own life and experiences as a performer and campaigner on social issues. She performed a number of songs as part of the presentation, and then had a conversation with Luke Annesley to explore these issues further. It was an inspiring ending to a varied and exciting conference.
About Karan:
Singing songs charged with a sense of social responsibility in a career spanning over 25 years Karan Casey has released eleven albums as well as contributing to numerous other artists’ projects – appearing on more than 50 albums in total. She has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Japan, performing with her own band as well as collaborating with such diverse musicians as Maura O’Connell, James Taylor, Bela Fleck, Boston Pops Orchestra, Kate Ellis, Niall Vallely, Pauline Scanlon, The Chieftains, The Dubliners, Peggy Seeger, Karen Matheson, Mick Flannery, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Tim O’Brien, Solas and Lúnasa.
In 2018 Karan helped found FairPlé which is an organization aimed at achieving fairness and gender balance for female performers in Irish traditional and folk musics.
Karan tours with her band Niamh Dunne, Sean Óg Graham and Niall Vallely.
Karan’s most recent album Hieroglyphs That Tell the Tale was released on the Vertical Records Label. Her song “Down in the Glen” was nominated for Best Original Folk Song at the RTE Folk Awards 2019 and she completed a PhD in music in 2019. Karan has recently performed her new show with Director Sophie Motley called I Walked into My Head which was premiered at the Kilkenny Arts Festival 2021.
Karan is currently working on a new stage show to be produced at the Everyman Theatre in Cork in early 2023 as well as an album of new songs about women in the Irish revolutionary period.
Please note: As we are awaiting permission to include the performance of 'The King's Shilling' in this episode, here is a YouTube link to Karan's studio version of the song.
Reviews of Karan's music:
"Karan Casey’s latest album is revelatory. She’s always been a singer of songs that tell a story and show their muscle…This is a strikingly three-dimensional work that stands the test of intensive and repeated listening with ease. A vivid and dazzling snapshot of Casey invincible, at the height of her powers.”
Siobhán Long, Irish Times
“Casey’s voice is among the loveliest in folk music and she’s a wonderful interpreter of both contemporary and traditional material.”
BOSTON GLOBE
“Karan Casey's latest solo venture is a thing of rare beauty.”
SING OUT
"The most soulful singer to emerge in Irish traditional music in the past decade."
THE GLASGOW HERALD
“If ever any doubt existed about who's the best Irish traditional woman singer today, "Exiles Return" sweeps aside all pretenders…Karan Casey has no vocal peer.”
IRISH ECHO
Songs
Siúil a Rúin (trad.)
The King's Shilling (Ian Sinclair)
Rocks of Bawn (trad.)
Ballad of Accounting (Ewen MacColl)
I'm Still Standing Here (Janis Ian)
Hear How the Music it Heals (trad.)
Bog Braon (trad.)
Other links and references:
Casey, K. (2017, September). Singing my way to Social Justice. In Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy (Vol. 17, No. 3).
Davis, A. Y. (2011). Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. Vintage.
Lyrics
Siúil a Rúin
I wish I was on yonder hill
'Tis there I would sit and cry my fill
Until every tear it would turn a mill
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán
I would sell my rock, I would sell my reel
I would sell my only spinning wheel
For to buy my love a sword of steel
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán
Siúil, siúil, siúil a rúin
Siúil go sochair agus siúil go ciúin
Siúil go doras agus éalaigh liom
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán
And now my love he has gone to France
To try his fortune to advance
And if he returns, 'tis but a chance
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán
Siúil, siúil, siúil a rúin
Siúil go sochair agus siúil go ciúin
Siúil go doras agus éalaigh liom
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
I wish I had my heart again
And it’s vainly I think that I would not complain
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán
The King’s Shilling
Oh my love has left me with bairnes twa
And that's the last of him I ever saw
He's joined the army and marched to war
He took the shilling
He took the shilling and he’s off to war
Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar
Take the King's shilling and you’re off to war
Well did he look as he marched along
With his kilt and sporran and his musket gun
And the ladies tipped him as he marched along
He sailed out by
He sailed out by the Broomielaw
The pipes did play as he marched along
And the soldiers sang out a battle song
March on, march on, cried the Captain gay
And for King and country
For King and country we will fight today
Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar
Take the King's shilling and we're off to war
The battle rattled to the sound of guns
And the bayonets flashed in the morning sun
The drums did beat and the cannons roared
And the shilling didn't seem
Oh the shilling didn't seem much worth the war
Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar
Take the King's shilling and we're off to war
Well the men they fought and the men did fall
Cut down by bayonets and musket ball
And many of these brave young men
Would never fight for
Would never fight for the King again
Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar
Take the King's shilling and we're off to war
Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar
Take the King's shilling and you’ll die in war
Rocks of Bawn
Come all ye loyal heroes wherever you may be.
Don't hire with any master till you know what your work will be
You will rise up early from the clear day light till the dawn
and you never will be able for to plough the Rocks of Bawn.
Rise up, gallant Sweeney, and give your horse some hay
And give them a good feed of oats before they stray away
Don't feed them on soft turnip put them out on your green lawn
Or they never will be able for to plough the Rocks of Bawn.
My curse upon you, Sweeney boy, you have me nearly robbed
You're sitting by the fireside with your dúidín in your gob
You're sitting by the fireside now from clear daylight till the dawn
And you never will be able for to plough the Rocks of Bawn
My shoes they are worn and my stockings they are thin
My heart is always trembling for fear they might give in
My heart is always trembling from the clear daylight till the dawn
And I never will be able for to plough the Rocks of Bawn.
I wish the Queen of England she would call for me in time
And place me in some regiment all in my youth and prime
I'd fight for Ireland's glory from the clear daylight till dawn
And I never would return again to plough the Rocks of Bawn.
Ballad of Accounting
In the morning we built the city
In the afternoon walked through its streets
Evening saw us leaving
We wandered through our days as if they would never e
All of us imagined we had endless time to spend
We hardly saw the crossroads
And small attention gave
To landmarks on the journey from the cradle to the grave,
cradle to the grave, cradle to the grave
Did you learn to dream in the morning?
Abandon dreams in the afternoon?
Wait without hope in the evening?
Did you stand there in the traces and let them feed you lies?
Did you trail along behind them wearing blinkers on your eyes?
Did you kiss the foot that kicked you?
Did you thank them for their scorn?
Did you ask for their forgiveness for the act of being born,
act of being born, act of being born?
Did you alter the face of the city?
Did you make any change in the world you found?
Or did you observe all the warnings?
Did you read the trespass notices did you keep off the grass?
Did you shuffle off the pavement just to let your betters pass?
Did you learn to keep your mouth shut,
Were you seen and never heard?
Did you learn to be obedient and jump to at a word,
jump to at a word, jump to at a word?
Did you ever demand any answers?
The who, the what or the reason why?
Did you ever question the setup?
Did you stand aside and let them choose while you took second best?
Did you let them skim the cream off and then give to you the rest?
Did you settle for the shoddy?
Did you think it right
To let them rob you right and left and never make a fight,
never make a fight, never make a fight?
What did you learn in the morning?
How much did you know in the afternoon?
Were you content in the evening?
Did they teach you how to question when you were at the school?
Did the factory help you grow, were you the maker or the tool?
Did the place where you were living
Enrich your life and then
Did you reach some understanding of all your fellow men,
all your fellow men, all your fellow men?
I’m Still Standing Here
See these lines upon my face
They’re a map of where I’ve been
In the deep they are traced a deeper life has settled in
How do we survive living out our lives
I wouldn’t trade a line make it smooth or fine
Or pretend that time stands still
I want to rest my soul here where it can grow without fear
Another line another year
I’m still standing here
See these marks upon my skin
They’re the lyric of my life
Every story that begins
Means another ends in sight
Only lover’s understand
Skin just covers who I am
I wouldn’t trade a line make it smooth or fine
Or pretend that time stands still
I want to rest my soul here where it can grow without fear
Another line another year
I’m still standing here
See these bruises see these scars
Hieroglyphs that tell the tale
You can read them in the dark
Through your fingertips like braille
I wouldn’t trade a line make it smooth or fine
Or pretend that time stands still
I want to rest my soul here where it can grow without fear
Another line another year
I’m still standing here