Singing Revisited (2024)

Singing Revisited is an ongoing series of performances, revisiting the songs I used to sing with my late-brother Steve when we were growing up. 

Back then, Steve, five years older than me, would accompany me on the piano as I sang popular songs with heartfelt enthusiasm. As I've revisited singing, as a choir member of Vancouver's Solidarity Notes over the past few years, and more recently attending the bi-monthly 411 Coffeehouse, I've been drawn to circle back to the songs that I sang as a child, but haven't touched since. When I sing this music again, it's takes me back to standing beside the piano and choosing the next song, re-connecting with the pains and pleasures of my childhood. It's not that I was ever a particularly good singer. That was never the point. Rather, it's that singing felt and feels good to do and it touches me like nothing else I do.

This sonic prompting has become another way to dig into my personal history. Much of my artwork draws on unpacking assumptions and cultural norms through varied and inter-connected media. Performing these songs and having a singing voice provides yet another way. And given the fragility of the present world order, singing and being in community feels particularly vital.

Thank you to Earle Peach, musician, composer, and choral director, for his on-going encouragement and guitar accompaniment.

Performance Notes:

#3 - Lola

"This sweater belonged to my dad, David Busby. He didn’t wear it very often, but he liked it. When he was the minister at an Anglican Church, a parishioner, Nina McGee, knit it for him. He drove an early-1950s Matchless 500, a cool motorcycle even in the late 1960s. When there was an apparent problem with motorcycle gangs of angry young men in and around our town of Streetsville, a suburb of Toronto, my dad‘s response as a peaceful motorcycle rider, was to start a club called the Ville riders. It became a popular hub for motorcycle enthusiasts of all sorts. When he died suddenly in 1994, my mom was quick to clear out his things. Certain things jumped out at me as I helped with the process, and one of them was this sweater. I kept it tucked away in a special box until very recently. It's a strange, sad and beautiful feeling to be wearing it. I love that I have it and that I'm wearing it now.

As some of you will know I’ve been revisiting songs that I sang with my late brother Steve in the late-60s and early-70s, starting when I was about 8 and he was 13. I don't remember when Steve brought home the sheet music for "Lola", probably while it was still a hit in 1970 or '71. I loved its rhythm and the story and I really loved singing it with Steve. It's only in pulling it out now that I learned it's known as the first popular song explicitly on a trans theme. It was written by The Kinks lead singer, Ray Davies.

Thanks so much, Earle for accompanying me and for you and Barbara creating this space for us to share music and stories and be together. It's a bright light.  Please, everybody, feel free to sing along."

-Cathy Busby, December 12, 2025