Keith Mullins/Thom Swift Youth Song Project

This project is about more than music. It is about giving kids a 'voice'. The Wood Buffalo Youth Song Project offers us an opportunity to connect with a community of young people who have something unique and important to add to our national conversation. We need to listen to what they are telling us.
- Wendy Bergfeldt, Host of CBC Radio's Mainstreet, Sydney

Wood Buffalo Youth Song Project album released
While the album may not go platinum, 100 local students can now call themselves recording artists.

The Wood Buffalo Youth Song Project is a result of 10 days of music making at 10 schools across the region.

The project was a collaboration led by Maritime musicians Keith Mullins and Thom Swift.

"You can do anything you want in life, it just depends on whether or not you're willing to work hard for it.

"We worked really hard to get this CD together and at the end of the day, here it is. So hopefully the kids got that message too," says Swift.

Proceeds from the album will assist school programs and youth support initiatives.
- Mix 103.7 website, fort mcmurray

Back in March two very cool singer songwriters – New Brunswick native Thom Swift and Nova Scotia’s Keith Mullins took their craft to the kids - visiting 10 schools in 10 days throughout the Municipality of Wood Buffalo, Alberta.

Each morning they would meet with a different group of children and create a song from scratch. And these songs are incredible! You can listen to a samplin’ of just 2 of the 10 amazing tunes above.

These sessions allowed the school kids to explore all kinds of themes like love and family and heritage and then convey their feelings...from mind, to paper, to music – so truly COOL!!!

The students’ voices were recorded, followed by the songwriters’ voices and instruments – and every song was written, performed and recorded within one day! (What a 'realty show' that would have been!!!)

The Wood Buffalo Youth Song Project is available on CD and your purchase will assist school programs and youth support initiatives in the municipality….not to mention increase your collection of awesome music!

Congratulations to all involved and cheers to Mr. Swift and Mr. Mullins – good on ya fellas – sharing your gift like that means your presence will be felt in that community for a long long time!!! SABS

. - Sea and Be Scene

Thom Swift is no stranger to playing in schools. The member of the ECMA favourites Hot Toddy, and solo star in his own right has been in the classrooms and auditoriums many times, working with kids in music classes, and giving them demonstrations on what the blues, folk and songwriting is all about. The same goes for Nova Scotia's Keith Mullins. He's developed a series of successful workshops, everything from drumming to world music, that he gives to school kids, and groups of all ages, in class and at festivals and events.


Earlier this year Mullins came up with a unique project, and Swift jumped on board. According to their Facebook site, in March they "visited ten schools in ten days in Northern Alberta. Each morning they worked with a small group of students to create a song from scratch. The songs explore themes of love, family, strength, community and heritage. The student's voices were recorded, followed by the songwriters' voices and instruments. Every song was written, performed, and recorded in one day. This is The Wood Buffalo Youth Song Project."


Working with producer and songwriter Steven Bowers, the project has now become an album, and you can check it out, and buy it too. Best of all, the money goes to more of the same. The profits are rolled back into more schools projects and youth initiatives.


You can hear the duo talk about, and play songs from The Wood Buffalo Youth Song Project this Saturday (June 25) on CBC Radio 1's Atlantic Airwaves at 5:05 PM ADT. Visit the Facebook site for more info on the Wood Buffalo project at http://www.facebook.com/youthsongproject - Bob Mersereau

Thom Swift thought he had seen and done it all during his life in the music business.

ENLARGE PHOTO


Submitted Photo
Fan favourite Thom Swift will help kick off the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival on Wednesday when he plays a free showcase in the Mojo Tent alongside local singer-songwriter Andy Brown, starting at 7 p.m. Swift is proud of his role with The Wood Buffalo Youth Song Project - an initiative that saw him and musician Keith Mullins travel to northern Alberta in March to write and record an album with school children.
But when the award-winning, McAdam-born singer-songwriter travelled to northern Alberta in March to write and record an album with his friend and musical colleague Keith Mullins and the students from 10 schools, he found himself in the midst of a unique experience.

The finished product is called The Wood Buffalo Youth Song Project, and Swift will have it available when he helps kick off the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Mojo Tent.

"I didn't realize the scope of the project I was getting involved with. We flew to Fort McMurray and spent 10 days going to 10 different schools. You had to go to some of the communities by bush plane because they were so remote," he said.

"We'd write a tune in an hour, first thing in the morning. And then we'd record the kids singing it in the second hour. In the third hour, we'd put on a show for the school and we'd have the kids sing the new piece of music to their peers. And then we'd race back to the hotel room where Keith and I were staying. We had a makeshift studio set up there and we'd just edit our vocals and instruments."

The two roots musicians would send their results to Pictou County songwriter and producer Dave Gunning, who completed the production work.

"At the end of the day, around midnight or whatever, we'd email it to Dave Gunning, and he'd mix and master (the tune)," said Swift.

"In 12 days, we had the CD done. Crazy."

It was a bit of a whirlwind for Swift, who has built an appreciative audience with two critically acclaimed solo albums - Into the Dirt and Blue Sky Day - and for his work with the long-running Maritime roots collective Hot Toddy.

"I'm used to pining over a note here or a note there. Well, after three or four days into the program, I didn't even know what had happened previously. You couldn't remember one day to the next what you had done. It was 14-16 hours per day, every day. It was just a blur," he said.

"To hear the finished product now, it sort of makes me think I should do that again for some other projects."

Most of the children they worked with were enrolled in grades 5-7, although collaborations with a Grade 1 class and a high school class also took place.

"Most of the kids were probably 11-year-olds to 14-year-olds. When we went into the classroom, we'd give them each a piece of paper and we'd tell them to write random thoughts - anything that came into their heads. And Keith or I would be hovering around them, looking at what they were writing, and we would write down 25 lines that had come out of that five-minute writing session," he said.

"And from that, we'd pick the title of the tune. We'd erase everything else and we had the title of the tune and we'd tell them to write five minutes on that. It worked well ... One little guy wrote two lines that we used, and the minute he heard them with the music that we provided, he raised his hands and said, 'I'm awesome. I'm just awesome.' "

Swift said each day, the students had different perspectives, experiences and goals.

So the two musicians informed the children the project would be about bringing something positive into the world, creating something that would celebrate the potential to be whatever they wanted to be.

"The isolation element of where these kids are living brings with it a lot of challenges for the kids. There's a lot of alcohol abuse and drug abuse and sexual and physical abuse and whatnot. So they're up against it hard," he said.

"It's hard to get a good-feeling story (sometimes). Don't get me wrong. Some of those kids were making straight As and doing great and were coming from solid backgrounds, but some of the kids weren't."

He said it was pretty remarkable to see the students working together to create a piece of music from scratch.

"At the end of the first session in the first school, the principal was crying. She said she'd never seen these kids (respond so enthusiastically)," he said.

"There they were, up there singing their hearts out."

Swift, who has worked with young offenders in the past, said he's been asked to return to Wood Buffalo and continue working on the project.

"We're going to go up and work 10 different schools," he said.

"The municipality of Wood Buffalo paid for the whole thing. And they provided thousands of copies for each school and they're selling them. It's such a positive project - all that positivity goes back into so many homes in those areas."

But first, he's planning to have some fun at Harvest.

"I'm really looking forward to it," the singer-songwriter said.

"It's just a great time of year. There's so much going on. You can see great music everywhere. It's going to be a lot of fun." - Daily Gleaner