A new single about learning to live life in recovery from alcoholism has inspired a groundbreaking songwriting project for people in recovery to be trialled in Glasgow next year.
‘Yesterday’s Promises’ by Americana-Indiepop trad band The Tumbling Souls, from Lewis, is a part-biographical look back at the early musical career of Willie Campbell and the unravelling he experienced while in his first band ‘Astrid’.
The song, already enjoying strong airplay even before its release on Friday, touches on how signing to a label and touring accelerated his struggle with alcohol at a young age, eventually being let-go to then begin on the road back to recovery.
Almost two decades sober and as co-founder of six-piece supergroup The Tumbling Souls, he explained their new single delves into how addicts often face an “itch” for more from life, no matter how content they already are.
Now he is harnessing that experience to facilitate the first in a series of workshops – The Recovery Sessions – to inspire others in various stages of recovery to find their own creative paths to explore their thoughts, using songwriting as a focus.
The first pilot session is taking place in February with Glasgow based ‘Freed Up’ – an independently run community interest group which runs alcohol-free and sober social, creative, and recovery-focused events to reduce stigma and build community through events like recovery raves, sober sessions, and festivals.
It will also feature John McAlinden, from festival favourites Colonel Mustard & The Dijon 5, who is co-hosting the workshop with him.
Willie said: “Yesterday’s Promises is in part about that feeling of dissatisfaction that I still struggle with sometimes. Like being away on holiday somewhere beautiful with my beautiful family, the people that I love the most in the world and still feeling distracted and itchy inside.
“It’s quite a common feeling that addicts and alcoholics share and something that needs to be watched for in everyday life with wiring like mine. It’s also me just having a word with myself, be grateful for what you have, look for the positives.”
“One of the verses is specifically about my time living in Glasgow, over 20 years ago now which blows my mind. Losing sight of what was important for the sake of alcohol and feeling absolutely no pain until the next day and then the cycle just continued.
“Everything else was falling apart around me. I’m glad to be free of that way of life, but it’s not something I take for granted, it needs to be maintained and gratitude for the straightforward things in life is a big part of that.”
Willie never lost the urge to make music and began playing guitar and writing again during the false starts and periods of sobriety, which are common for people in early recovery. Discovering the enjoyment again, it slowly helped him focus.
“To be honest I didn’t want to go near a guitar at the beginning – it was tainted by a sense of guilt and failure and all these other emotions,” he said, “But you never really stop being a person that wants to write songs and connect with people, I just started playing again and it helped me massively.”
The Recovery Sessions will see participants explore songwriting, some for the first time and others building on what they know already, learning techniques and tips on how to plan, structure and compose tracks.
Willie said: “It’s about giving people a chance to write about whatever they want, learning some of the techniques songwriters use, and to do it all in a supportive environment.
“I believe everyone has the ability to write a song, and those in recovery have so much that they might want to say. I’ve always found it therapeutic and sometimes gives me relief from the odd day of turmoil, I’ve no doubt others taking part will get that too”.
“There will be no pressure on people, there’s no expectations. It’s just about exploring that creative process and hopefully enjoying it too.”
The first gathering of The Recovery Sessions takes place on 1 February, and Donna Boyd, Project Manager for Freed Up, said there has already been a huge interest in people wanting to take part.
Donna said: “Freed Up are all about unlocking creativity in recovery, so when Willie reached out about delivering a full-day workshop, it was an instant yes. For us, it was a perfect chance to build on the momentum of our recent hip-hop sessions with Becci Wallace and the excitement around our upcoming EP release.
“Opportunities like this don’t just offer a day of learning, they deepen the creative culture that people in recovery are helping to shape across Scotland.”
Willie added: “It’s been an idea in my head for a long time now and I’m really looking forward to it, Donna is the perfect partner for it, thanks to John for suggesting Freed Up and just hope people take something from it. Songwriting connects the writer and the listener, there’s so much value to that, people feel less alone, or even inspired, that’s what it’s all about.
“Gratitude is also a huge part of staying sober and that’s one of the things that The Tumbling Souls new track is about. It was written quite a while ago, reminding us all to look at all the good things we have in life, and how lucky we are.”
Willie has since forged a successful career as a prolific singer songwriter, performing in acclaimed shows including the Between Islands Project, and most recently Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey production. He was also inducted into the HebCelt Festival Hall of Fame and regularly performs shows across Scotland and Europe both as a solo artist and with the band.
The Tumbling Souls have together built a large following with their songwriting and hotly anticipated live performances, and are already being booked-up for next summer by large festivals eager to feature their unique style of Americana, Indiepop, and trad melody.
Yesterday’s Promises is the third track from a pending new album, and follows recent good reception for singles ‘1995’ and ‘Nowhere In A Hurry’, ahead of them performing a double header with folk rock giants Torridon in Stornoway on 27 December and again on 30 January at Oran Mor during Celtic Connections.
Skog Media Associates 