album review: genevieve chadwick, riding the wind forgetting time

Listening to Genevieve Chadwick’s husky, passionate vocals, I can’t help but suspect that in a few years time she’ll have truly carved out her own little nook in Australian blues, roots and rock and roll. With her rich melodies, gravelly voice and poignant songs of love, loss and freedom, this talented singer and guitarist from the south coast of NSW is starting to catch people’s attention, even being likened to icons like Janis Joplin and Tracy Chapman.

At 27 years old, there is a clear maturity in her songwriting, but it is infused with youthful passion and a sense of romance. Through her fearlessly direct lyrics, she yearns for that pure rush of freedom and feeling alive in the world; of ‘riding the wind, forgetting time.’ Relishing in the highs and lows, she sings about life in a way that feels wise but not jaded, hopeful but not naïve. There is a visceral sense of really living– of throwing herself into all the exhilarations and the heartbreaks with equal intensity.

But along with her hopefulness, there is something almost brooding about her music, giving it a melancholy, happy-sad kind of feeling. Chilled, bluesy, and easy to listen to, it’s the sort of album you’d play while having dinner with your girlfriends, or going for a long walk alone on a cloudy day. I have this romantic idea of walking along a windy beach somewhere, hearing the first few chords and the opening line, ‘This feels amazing, the wind in my face, not knowing where I’m going…’ playing in my headphones. That probably would feel amazing.

Australian music seems to have been missing a really gutsy, impassioned female vocalist for a while. But the raw sincerity of Chadwick’s music- filled with aphorisms like ‘following your heart will make you sane’ that feel genuine rather than trite- makes me think it’s not inconceivable that she might just be the one to lead the next generation of Chrissy Amphletts and Deborah Conways.