Hearing their Inner Voice

The quartet collectively known as Inner Voice will launch their debut album of original and traditional folk songs this week.
The CD, Jada's Lullaby, will be released Jan. 25 at the monthly fundraiser for the Karen Lynn MacDonald Allergy Awareness Society in the Lismore Hall. Five dollars from the sale of each CD will support the Women Alike Abreast dragonboat team and the Karen Lynn MacDonald Society, named in honour of the former Pictou County music teacher who died two years ago of an allergic reaction.
The song, Play a Song for Me, is dedicated to MacDonald. Guitarist Ray Stewart says he and the other members of Inner Voice - Jeannie Cameron, Dawn Forbes and Merton Arbuckle - all knew MacDonald and admired her for her warm spirit and good nature.
"Karen had such a passion for music," Stewart recalls.
She was the type of person who lit up a room, Cameron adds. "She was someone you wanted to be around all the time."
Another track on the album, Women Alike, is dedicated to the Women Alike Abreast dragonboat team, a squad made up entirely of breast cancer survivors. "I wrote the song in a matter of an hour," Stewart notes. "These ladies, fate has dealt them a rough hand, but they're the happiest group of people."
In addition to the self-penned tunes, the album features covers of some classics folk songs, such as Simon and Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence. It was recorded at Dave Gunning's home recording studio in Pictou, with Gunning adding his own brand of studio magic to the disc. Sisters Anna and Sioban Bond of New Glasgow provide backing vocals on the song You Raise Me Up, while Fleur Mainville, a Pictou violinist, sat in on Play a Song for Me and Jada's Lullaby.
Cameron says the album is a labour of love for the group.
"This is something we wanted to do for ourselves," she says. "I'm just so proud we were able to do this."