Hello out there people of the webbed world.

OK.. now here is the news I have been wanting to share with you for ages!!!!  Tore My Heart Out got SINGLE OF THE WEEK @ ITUNES for the week beginning NOVEMBER 3rd.. so for that week you can download the song for FREE.  We are so stoked with this news.. it is a very encouraging start to the album release and a great way to get the song to all you amazing people who have been so supportive.. and open our music up to heaps of people who would never have heard it before. 

Big Love.....hope to see you at a gig soon...
More Festival announcements coming soon.

So today I get to share some upcoming gig announcements with ya’ll. I am so excited to announce that we will be playing a couple of festivals in the upcoming months...

This is all I am allowed to announce for now.. So if you want to catch Brother Michael and I, we will be doing our thing Westside at the Bridgetown Blues Festival WA we are performing on the Saturday 14th & Sunday 15 November, tickets are now available and selling fast... So go to head to the website for more details and full line up http://wwwbluesatbridgetown.com

On the East side also in November you can catch Brother Michael, George and my good self shaking our tail feathers at the Mullumbimby Music Festival on Friday the 27th and Saturday the 28th November - for full line up and ticket details go to http://www.mullummusicfestival.co

Hello again..

Only 2 days left of recording!!!
This has been a great adventure. I feel like I have been living in an alternate universe. My kids have been cared for with so much love by close friends and family, and I have been able to indulge in long days in the studio breathing life into my songs, with an amazing and committed and focused, and down right hilarious group of people.

But the big news today is that I get to finally announce my next gig... We are very excited to let ya’ll know that we will be playing at the Darwin Festival this year... I have been busting to share this news for the longest time because we had such and AMAZING gig there earlier in the year in support of The Waifs. It was a highlight of our tour. So we are coming back!!

15th August 6:30pm
Darwin Festival, The Lighthouse Tickets $20/$15 ph: 08 8980 3333

We would love to see you there, so all you Darwinites come on along for an evening with Mama Kin, and if you don’t live in Darwin but know someone who does please spread the good word!

So back to the recording.. 3 songs left to get down.. Been so proud of what we are capturing. Something about living and eating together while recording has really been conducive to creating a cohesive sound between us all. I was really nervous about doing all my vocal tracks, but being able to sing at the same time as George and Brother Michael are laying down the gold in the other room has been really liberating, and has taken so much pressure off for me.

Ok signing off..
See ya.
Big love

Hey there.. So since I last wrote we have been going like the clappers. Polly, who is over here snapping some shots for us, has become our resident chef, coffee runner, and generally just our great vibes doctor. Which means we are getting fed quality food, and we are having it all in house.. So saving heaps of hours per day usually spent hunting for morsels of food.


Ok so yesterday we did It’s For Me..... We did it live in the room.. As in did the piano and drums at the same time in the same room.. Great vibes.. I was doing the vocal take in a separate room and the kids were visiting at the time.. Chaosville!!! At one stage I was doing a take with my son on my back doing his version of the back ups and my daughter beside me doing the backups as well. I had to keep prying his hands from around my neck as he was strangling the very voice out of me.. It was so funny.

Last night we started working on Bitter Tears. I really want to take a few stabs at the intimate piano songs, because it feels important to me that I capture the right emotion for these.. Well it feels important that I capture the right emotion for all the songs but I suppose these are the rawest for want of a better word.

The team has been going great. Lots of laughs, and lots of dedication and focus and long long hours. It is Monday today and so we have the rest of today and then 4 more full days to get as much done as we can.

Ok got distracted... It is now Tuesday. Had a huge day on Tore My Heart Out yesterday and still need to do a couple of bits on it today but it is getting there and we are on the journey with it... Brother Michael has a little something to add: “Jesus you said it all!! This has been a great experience working with Tony he is such a professional and he really understands where we are trying to take the songs. Looking forward to nailing Tore My Heart Out.. Cos it feels like a big one and it is the one I spent most time on in the demo-ing stage.”

Curious George piping in to say: “this has been an absolutely overwhelming experience and journey.. Just can’t wait to get into it straight after my coffee.. It is the unknown experience, that feeling of being part of a process that takes us on a journey to create beautiful music that we all love. It is an overwhelming feeling working with people that you feel extremely comfortable with and so much love for.”

Ok that is it from us for now.. Stay tuned. Bye.

Hello there. So its the end of day 3, well almost. It is 10:39 as I type this out on my little phone and we are mid way through song 2. It is called Love's Not So Great. The song came from a passing comment a friend once made to me about his relationship which had just broken down. He said that everything she had loved about him became everything she hated. It really struck me. It got me thinking about how love is a process, particularly once the initial gloss wears off where you are infatuated with the us-ness of everything. Ok I am waffling on now..... Buuuut what I am trying to say is that this song is about coming into a relationship with all your previous heartbreaks and baggage convinced that love is hard work... And you are wary with love, trying to protect yourself from it. Maybe love is easy and we just complicate things by being wary. Maybe love demands only one thing... Generosity. Ok this tired Mama better sign off. Thanks for tuning in. Will have some pics for you in the next couple of days.

Hello out there..
It has begun.. Officially.. We are pressing record tonight on the new Mama Kin album. I am here in Fremantle, WA with Brother Michael, George Servanis, and Tony Buchen and we are almost ready to roll. It has been a really frightening process for me, but the last day or so has been easy and definetely helped to allay my fears. I feel very vulnerable, but beneath it all excited and eager to hear how the songs, that were written in the quiet on my loungeroom on my little Wurly, often whispered in song so as not to wake sleeping kids, will sound to others ears.

I’m hoping to keep a little recording journal that I will update every day or so with snippets and photos.. So stay tuned for more news as it rolls on out.
Big Love
Mama Kin.

BTW: if you want to access this facebook page directly you can get here one step by going to www.facebook.com/mamakinband

Hi Ya’ll,
I am writing to you all today to bring light to this very important issue.  I was lucky enough to give birth  in the sanctuary of my own home.. Because that was my choice, and to support that choice I was able to engage an amazing midwife to assist my partner and I through the birth and pre and post natal care.  The following is terrible news and I urge you to respond.. Whether you would choose homebirth or not yourself.. This comes down to choice.. And I believe that homebirth is best for some women and those women should be completely supported in this.  I urge you to sign this petition.  With thanks and love Mama Kin

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/australianhomebirth/?e

Today Nicola Roxon introduced two Bills to Parliament.

1) Health legislation amendment (midwife and nurse practitioner) Bill
2009

This Bill is about accessing Medicare and PBS, there is nothing currently
written in this Bill that discuses eligibility - there is no comment within
it at present that states anything about homebirth. However, in her speech
she openly stated that there will be no MBS for Homebirth.

2) (and this is the clincher) Midwife Professional Indemnity
(commonwealth contribution scheme) Bill 2009

This Bill excludes midwives from providing intrapartum homebirth care.

THIS IS A SAD SAD DAY FOR THE WOMEN OF AUSTRALIA!

Here is the press release from Homebirth Australia

Deaths will increase with new announcements

Homebirth Australia today slammed the exclusion of homebirth from insurance
schemes for midwives announced by the Health Minister Nicola Roxon in
parliament today.

"Effectively two pieces of legislation will outlaw midwives providing
homebirth care from July 2010" said Justine Caines, mother of seven and
secretary of Homebirth Australia.

"Women will continue to homebirth, but will now do so without the assistance
of a qualified professional." said Ms Caines. "The result will be an
increase in deaths for mothers and babies, this is certain. It is
absolutely impossible to understand the government's position on this, other
than to say that they have bowed to political pressure from medical lobby
groups."

The National Maternity Service Review received submissions from hundreds of
women wanting access to homebirth services. The vast majority of homebirth
services are provided by private practice midwives. Removing this option is
likely to end access for most women to homebirth.

Ms Caines called on all ALP members to declare their view on a woman's right
to self determination of her health care needs. "If the ALP is so hell bent
on preventing women from accessing homebirth as an option I ask all ALP
members to publically state their position on this. It appears that having
a Health Minister who is a woman, a recent mother, and a lawyer
understanding consumers' rights, is not proving to be an advantage for
women. Removing women's rights to the point where we are back providing
care in dark alleys or in back rooms is ridiculous in 2009."