Product Description
Produced by Shane Nicholson, Jodi’s long-awaited album Saltwater is a stunning showcase of her original songs. The album highlights Jodi’s emotive voice, songwriting and versatility. Jodi co-wrote three of the tracks – Saltwater in My Hair, Criminal, and Peace to Keep – with folk legend Arlo Guthrie in the States and she co-wrote the humorous Diesel with Jeff Lang in Melbourne. This strong collection of songs retains Jodi’s earthy, organic approach, and at the same time Shane Nicholson’s production is sophisticated and full. It is the kind of catchy, cheeky, fun and insightful record that will tend to be played over and again!
SALTWATER ALBUM – THE SONGS
This track is all about the healing power of the ocean, and time spent with family and friends. You have to look closely, but the music video for this song also subtly references the healing qualities of tears – which like the ocean, are also made of saltwater. Kids do it naturally and both sad tears and happy tears can be therapy for the mind and soul!
The song Sandcastles is my fun antidote for when life feels like it’s all getting too heavy, or you find yourself starting to overthink things. It’s about getting back into the moment – building sandcastles, just to smash them down!
A toe-tapping anthem to op-shopping, adventure, special moments around fairy bread and finding fun ways to keep your passion on the road, no matter what! The overall theme is ‘I wanna make my heart my home!’
A ‘country-reggae’-song about frienship, famly and football! Malpa Wiru means ‘good friends’ in Pitjantjatjara and I collaborated to write this song in one of many songwriting workshops I facilitated with amazing school children at Ernabella Anangu School for Music Outback Foundation. We decided to create the main characters for the song in our imaginations – but the adventures and the feelings in the song are real and could be about any Australian kid who loves kicking a footy! We were proud as punch when the Ernabella School Choir placed in the Alice Springs Eisteddford with this song, and also got to perform it at the Adelaide Carols in 2011.
Irreplaceable is dedicated to my treasured brother, and I wanted it to be a positive song that could be sung for somebody who is important in your life – that they may know how truly valued they are. May we consistently remember to tell the people close to us how precious they are to us! ‘Do you know how irreplaceable you are?’
‘When did Mother Nature become a criminal?’ is the tongue in cheek question posed by this song. Arlo and I had a lot of fun writing this, and the main point of it for me, is to remind us all to take a good hard look at what we’re doing from a big picture point of view; to really think about it. The seed for this song came from Arlo Guthrie’s wife Jackie, when we were out at dinner the night before we wrote it. She told us the story of an Amish community getting raided one night by armed Federal Police because of a tip-off that they were selling milk directly from their cow to their neighbour. Jackie said ‘What is the world coming too – it’s like we’re turning mother nature into a criminal?!’ I knew immediately that this was our next songwriting brief, and said straight away ‘Jackie, that’s our song to write in the morning!’ Here it is – enjoy!
‘How do you keep the peace, when ther’s no peace left to keep?’ Navigating our way through our conflicts and differences has to be one of the biggest challenges we have in human relationships on every level, whether it’s between a couple or countries. This song has been kicking around in my collection for a few years now, but it wasn’t until I sat down with Arlo Guthrie that we found the missing link the song had been waiting for… a lift into the chorus. Thank you, Arlo. Its so good to finally have this song recorded.
Screwed Up is a bit of an anthem for life – speaking for myself at least! Life is beautiful, but at times it hurts, and we all get a bit damaged to some degree. We continue on, as the song says, ‘trying to make the most of broken parts’. But despite the fact that we’re all a bit screwed up. I absolutely mean it when I sing ‘I just want to keep my heart’. Keeping an open heart despite the hurts and disappointments that life may throw at me is one of my key life goals – so much so that I have recorded this song for the third time and I absolutely love the vibe that Shane Nicholson and I have nailed on this particular release. Enjoy!
Things Are Gonna Change is a song about the inevitability of change, and coping with tough times and loss. This song has also been kicking around for a while as a concept, and ironically less than a month after I finished it, I experienced the most difficult change that I have encountered in my life to this point – losing my close friend and brother.
The first verse of Bar in Paris is set in a bar at the Australian Embassy in France, and the song takes us on international journey to explore the sometimes elusive essence of what it means to be Australian. From Redfern to Scotland, to restaurants in Sydney, and to the centre of the heart. I wanted this song to have an understatedness about it. That relaxed, warm and understated attitiude is one of the many qualities I love about my country and its people.
