There can be few bigger compliments for a songwriter than a fan tattooing your lyrics on their body. For Katie Noonan, it’s happened not once, but several times.
A photo uploaded to her Facebook page last week shows a woman’s inner arm permanently etched with the words “And say I love I live and breathe in now”, from Noonan’s song “Breathe in Now”. It was sent to her by the fan, who was devastated she was too sick to attend a Gold Coast gig.
“Amazingly, quite a few people have tattooed my words on their bodies, which is an incredible compliment,” she tells InDaily. “I’m so flattered, but I’ve never been that vehement about something myself to put it on my body.”
Noonan has just finished her Songbook tour, and is now back on the road with classical guitarist Karin Schaupp performing music from Songs of the Southern Skies, an album featuring a diverse collection of tracks from Australian and New Zealand singer-songwriters. Although Noonan performed a solo show at this year’s Adelaide Fringe, the city was left off the itinerary when she and Schaupp toured on the back of the Songs of the Southern Skies’ release last year. This time round, they are bringing the show to the Dunstan Playhouse on July 26 and 27.
Four-time ARIA award winner Noonan says the pair first met as children at a summer camp for gifted kids – something her mother remembers, even if the musicians don’t. Years later, they kept seeing each other at gigs around Brisbane and hatched the plan for a joint project.
“Karin and I have a lot of common ground … classical music is my first love and that’s how I started, and obviously it’s Karin’s main love.
“Both of us are very focussed on the little details of what we do and try to explore the full dynamic range of what we can do with our instruments.”
Noonan and Schaupp admit that selecting the tracks for Songs of the Southern Skies was no easy task. The final list traverses artists ranging from Cold Chisel and Icehouse to Tim and Neil Finn, Goyte, Bic Runga, Gurrumul and Vince Jones. It also includes a song called “All Things Conspire”, written especially for the pair by Elena Kats-Chemin, and “Bora Ring”, by Adelaide composer Andrew Georg, who won a national composition competition judged by Noonan and Schaupp.
Noonan says they wanted songs from a range of genres – including pop, folk, classical and jazz – which would work in an intimate setting.
“We had an amazingly long list. For me, lyrically, I had to have songs that I could connect with and obviously deliver with conviction.”
A number of different composers and arrangers were commissioned to write the new arrangements. Noonan says one of her favourite songs in the playlist is her mentor Vince Jones’ “Rainbow Cakes”, arranged for Songs of the Southern Skies by Melbourne guitarist Doug DeVries. However, she anticipates that the song which will especially resonate with local audiences is Goyte’s “Heart’s a Mess”, for which she and Schaupp will be joined on stage by members of youth choir Young Adelaide Voices.
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“That will be a special moment.”
Katie Noonan and Karin Schaupp’s Songs of the Southern Skies will be at the Dunstan Playhouse on July 26 and 27.