‘My heart laid bare’ … the revelations of Clancestry

Troy Cassar-Daley’s multi-award winning and deeply personal songs have been the soundtrack to many people’s lives over decades – but the performance he brings to this year’s Clancestry at QPAC will be a rare take on his musical legacy.

A string quartet will accompany his fireside storytelling style in this special gig on August 6.

Cassar-Daley’s songs cover the trajectory of his life as a proud Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung man, capturing love, loss, heartache and triumph from across this vast country, while bravely exposing his personal struggles in the process.

Cassar-Daley ponders this while speaking from the living room of his mother’s house in Clarence Valley near Grafton, where he recorded his last album Between the Fires, about how his world fell apart after his mother died. He says hearing these songs reinterpreted with strings has been like hearing them again for the first time, at times moving him to tears.

‘when something pulls on your heartstrings, I reckon that they’re talking about violins and cellos’

“I’d never done anything with a string quartet,” he says. “These instruments that people are playing around me are over a hundred years old. In this format, the stories are beautiful to share because when these songs start, and right through to when they finish, they’re taking me on a bit of a ride and I really hope that people feel that in the audience.

“One song in particular that closed out that record – Moving On – is probably one of the moments in the set that really gets me. So I’ve got to be really careful and fully prepared for when that song comes along. When people say things like, when something pulls on your heartstrings, I reckon that they’re talking about violins and cellos.”

He’s only performed with a string quartet once previously at WOMADelaide, and Cassar-Daley says Brisbane will be one of the few places to see his heart laid bare in this way.

His Clancestry performance will also feature five songs that haven’t been performed with strings previously. It’s taken months of working closely with arranger Gabi Louise, who charted the course after long yarns with Cassar-Daley about his reflections on each song.

“It’s a big process. These aren’t very common shows,” he says. “I had to sit with Gabi on the phone and yarn about the intricacies of what the songs were about so that when she was writing the strings, she got it. Because otherwise she might not have fully understood the story of the tune and what I had tried to envisage when I wrote it.

“I was blown away with what she came back with. She’s just a kid, but really, really wise for her years and as soon as she heard the stories and some of the background to some of the tunes, she just interpreted them really beautifully.”

QPAC head of First Nations programming Bradley Chatfield is thrilled with the result.

“We love this. This is so exciting. With Troy’s music it’s always such a fan favourite and bringing the strings in just gives it that little bit extra component to see Troy in a different light,” Chatfield says. “We’re so excited to bring it onto the Playhouse Theatre stage. It’s going to be a beautiful evening and a very intimate evening as well in that space.”

Chatfield says Cassar-Daley’s performance along with those of other artists such as Jessica Mauboy, the circus celebration of Camp Culture, the free children’s program and Yothu Yindi’s performance celebrating their recent resurgence after 40 years together, shows how Clancestry’s reputation has grown since it’s first outing at QPAC in 2013.

‘really special career songs that have been on the long paddock for a little while’

This legacy is not lost on Cassar-Daley. He’s thrilled that after so many Clancestry performances he’s done over the years, this time will be something special.

“I always try and bring something back that’s memorable for people, and I’m hoping that they will carry this show with them for a long time,” he says. “There are songs that are really special career songs that have been on the long paddock for a little while and you give them a bit of a rest every now and then. But when they come back and they’re re-imagined like this, they take on a whole new life.

“Even breaking things down like Born to Survive and the Freedom Ride that I wrote with Paul Kelly – they really do take on another life with a quartet. I never thought they would.

“There’s a song called Shadows on the Hill on here that I really didn’t even consider putting in there because it’s such a sparse song, but the eeriness of the strings is something that just gave me shivers when I played it over in Adelaide, so I cannot wait to share that with people.

“As long as people know how much I love Brisbane and what it’s given me, I just feel like it’s a lovely way to give back when you design up a show like this, so I can’t wait. I just feel privileged to still be doing it.”

Clancestry unfolds from July 30 to August 8 at QPAC. 

Camp Culture with Dale Woodbridge Brown, Cremorne Theatre, July 30 to August 1;  Ya’Djin Spirit Women, Cremorne Theatre, July 30 to August 1; Jessica Mauboy, The Story of Me, Concert Hall, August 1, 7.30pm;  Gunawarra Re-Creation, Cremorne Theatre, August 5-8; Troy Cassar-Daley, Playhouse, August 6, 7pm; Barragga Yangga, Playhouse, August 7, 7pm; Yothu Yindi, Concert Hall, August 8, 7.30pm.