Ex-Communard Sarah Jane Morris has released her new album, The Sisterhood 2, a project celebrating the female artists who've inspired and shaped her life. We asked Sarah the BIG questions . . .
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Sarah has released 16 albums over the last 40 years after first finding fame in the 80s with bands like The Republic and The Communards, with whom she has a No 1 hit in Ireland in 1986 with Don't Leave Me This Way.
The Sisterhood 2, which was recorded with guitarist Tony Rémy, celebrates artists such as Patti Smith, Sinéad O’Connor, Peggy Seeger, Etta James, Joan Baez, Dolly Parton, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Armatrading, Janis Ian, Tracy Chapman and Amy Winehouse.
Tell us three things about yourself
In 1986, I had a number one hit with The Communards, singing Don’t Leave Me This Way as a duet with Jimmy Somerville. Back then, we played The Point in Dublin and The Royal Opera House in Belfast.
Both before and after pop exposure, I was more political, more subversive of the status quo, and more committed to a personal creative identity hammered out as a student of Brechtian theatre and by connecting with ANC-associated refugee musicians from South Africa.
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I am a singer-songwriter now myself and have developed my personal authorial voice over nearly forty years. My passions are social justice, human rights and seeking out stories to tell. I co-write with Tony Rémy; professionally, he has become my ultimate and absolute partner.
How would you describe your music?
Soul, funk, jazz, R&B, African blues, rock, folk. I have worked in all of these genres, never as a purist, but developing fluidity and a 'world-music’ approach. I am not a casual tourist, but a committed internationalist; I regard music as a universal language, and I reject the notion of cultural appropriation. Musicians and artists in general should be sharers and collaborators.
It is with this broad cultural knowledge that Tony and I have approached our big project - The Sisterhood - a song-cycle that honours the life and work of twenty-one women, all singer-songwriters, who have changed the course of musical history. Tony and I have amassed a combined knowledge bank of truly remarkable range, and I believe that the twenty-one songs deliver that most elusive of creative goals – they are astonishingly varied and truly coherent. For us, with this new project to deliver, these are exciting times.
Who are your musical inspirations?
As a singer, I would cite three of my Sisterhood as especially important - Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Janis Joplin. I can add another, in that I felt a keen sense of inspiration the day I heard the news of my friend Sinéad O’Connor’s tragic passing. Her story inspired one of The Sisterhood’s most personally felt songs. Other significant influences/inspirations include Sly and the Family Stone, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, Otis Redding, Tom Waits and Ennio Morricone.
What was the first gig you ever went to?
Santana at the Birmingham Odeon, the Abraxus Tour, November 16th 1973. Unforgettable.
What was the first record you ever bought?
It Must Be Love by Labi Siffre. I saw him on Top of the Pops when I was twelve years old; seventeen years later, Labi and I were writing songs together.
What’s your favourite song right now?
While researching Bonnie Raitt for The Sisterhood 2, I came across her 2023 Grammy Award winning song, Just Like That. I’m not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t heard it yet, but if it doesn’t bring you at least to the verge of tears then you haven’t got a heart. Great, great song.
Favourite lyric of all time…
"Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears, Her noblest work she classes, O: Her prentice han' she try'd on man, An' then she made the lasses, O".
I first came across Green Grow The Rashes O when my friend Eddi Reader recorded her sublime album The Songs of Robert Burns (2003). Rabbie was irresistible to the lasses, it is well known, and he still charms us like no other!
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
This is a hard one, because most of us know through experience that the surest way to make a favourite song un-listenable-to is to ‘play it to death’. If I can’t have Bach’s The Art of Fugue (cheating?) it has be Sinéad O’Connor’s Peggy Gordon from the album Sean-Nós Nua (2002), which I would have to ration myself, so as to preserve the ethereal magic against familiarity.
Where can people find your music/more information?
My website, Instagram, YouTube. My new album, The Sisterhood 2, is out now.
Alan Corr
