Distant Voices: Songwriting between Prison and Community

Alison Urie and Louis Abbott share their work with the Distant Voices Project at Vox Liminis

The Celtic Connections Festival also sponsors talks throughout the community. I attended one talk featuring Vox Liminis and its Distant Voices project, which uses the power of songwriting to "write and record songs that express and challenge the ways we think and feel about crime, punishment and reintegration." Scottish songwriters team with people who have some connection with criminal justice system including:

• People in prison
• People who have served community sentences
• Prison officers and governors
• Social workers and probation officers
• Victims of crime
• Families affected by imprisonment
• Academics and students

Alison Urie and Louis Abbott from Vox Liminis shared how songwriting forms connections between different people who share a commonality, yet at the same time levels the playing field because everyone is focused on the music. Questions explored include:

• How people’s lives are affected by the criminal justice system in Scotland
• The ways in which people can make more positive futures for themselves and for their families
• The roles we can all play in building a fairer society
  

As part of the Q&A, an audience member asked, "Is Reintegration made easier by letting go of your story through this songwriting process?" The response was multi-faceted. Often songs explain the why things happened, which can often be about just one bad mistake. Others shared that we are not defined by just one story. Sometimes the story is cornered by the system and songwriting allows you to tell the story in a different way or tell a different chapter in oneʼs life.

Distant Voice debuted its most recent album, Not Known at This Address, as part of the Celtic Connections festival.  Here is one of the songs, Frankieʼs Song.