Nardi Simpson and Kaleena Briggs met at Eora College 11 years ago. Thank God they did, or we wouldn't have Stiff Gins, a couple of angel-voiced singers and songwriters with gentle souls and sharp, perceptive minds. Nardi, a Yuwaalaraay woman, at least in terms of stage roles and personae, is the outgoing one. She announces most of the songs and takes the lead in most of the backstories and patter. She is strong and disarmingly so, her pride and courage exemplified in a heart-rending story about transcending shyness, in asking a boy to dance, years ago, in a nightclub, and being turned down. 'I'm still breathing', she proclaims, with humility and without a hint of bitterness or regret.
In Kaleena, a Wiradjuri woman, one senses a quieter strength. Together, they are a pillar, a tower; with awe-inspiring depth, dignity, empathy, heart and soul. They exude peace and harmony, not just in their exquisite songs, but in their very beings: their presence is soothing; consoling; centreing. They bestill, even as they bestow the sweet blessings that are their music.
To leave this as the legacy of a truncated performance in the plaza of a lower north shore shopping village, in opening the annual Cameraygal Festival, is extraordinary, given the distractions of rampant consumerism on all four sides, the gaggle and giggle of small children running riot, parents negotiating over who'll go and get the lattes; the general, superficial clamour of Saturday morning suburban rituals. Yet this is the legacy they leave; one of affecting ease and contentment.
Stiff Gins are well-travelled now, having performed at cultural institutes in New Caledonia, Vietnam & Spain, for example. They've been involved in cultural exchanges: to Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, the UAE & Cyprus. They've played festivals and toured throughout Canada, the US, Ireland and a big, brown land called Australia.
Their first recording (when they were three, with Emma Donovan) was a four-track EP, recorded live at ABC studios, wittily tiled Soh Fa. That was '99. Since, they've produced a sensational single (of the year, at the '01 Deadlys, deservedly, just a year after picking up Most Promising New Talent) Morning Star, as a precursor to their debut album, Origins, which also featured a who's who of Australian musos and was produced by Ben Fink (think The Whitlams; Lior; King Clam).
The second album, Kingia Australis (botanical name for the Western Australian grass tree, otherwise known as black gin, the first tree to flower after a bushfire), saw these women through a tough time; hence the metaphorical focus on rebirth.
Their third album, Wind & Water, backed by a national tour, is due anytime soon and I, for one, can hardly wait. Especially if the pure, shimmering harmonies (which remind you there are nerve-endings in the nape of your neck) in songs like In Paradise are any guide to the quality we might again expect; a song which reminds us, crucially, there is life beyond the borders of Sydney, or any big city, where wide-open space still exists ('beauty such as I've never seen; the city folks may think it's a little slow').
Stiff Gins have reclaimed and transformed a derogatory term for Aboriginal women, which likely derived from a characteristically misunderstood European corruption of 'diyin', a word synonymous with Dharug woman. Stiff Gins is now synonymous with light, goodness, personal power; the sublime and affirmative.
Their stories are important, their efforts to preserve endangered languages is laudable and vital, their hearts are as pure as they come. We can learn lessons from these wise, young women, while immersing ourselves in an wave of refreshing sound, full of promise, positivity and sunshine, that easily confirms them as the bees' knees of acoustic duos, indigenous or otherwise. Spiritual love-children of Tiddas, with their shining music to buoy us, we can all reach for the morning star.
Who knew just how beguiling two angels and a guitar could prove?
Stiff Gins
Cameraygal Festival Launch
Venue: Lane Cove Plaza
Date: 14 August, 2010
Visit: www.stiffgins.net
