Felicity Urquhart and Josh Cunningham to light up Bowral stage with 'Song Club'

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A tumultuous year for most, 2020 provided Josh and Felicity with a creative outlet which culminated in their first album together.

Their album 'Song Club' was inspired by a real-life song club.

Introduced to the song club by musician and ex-pat Sam Hawksley, Josh said the song club began with a small group of people in Nashville.

"Sam is a good friend of Felicity's and he is part of this called song club," he said.

"The lady who runs it sends out a prompt each week and the members of which there's eight or nine have to write a song guided by the prompt and turn it in by midnight Thursday.

"Sam decided to set up an Aussie song club and Felicity and myself got invited to that and it led to a whole bunch of songs.

"It was the start of last year and last year was a big year where everyone stayed home and life as normal ceased to exist and it was a really wonderful way to stay creative and stay connected as well."

Josh, who's also one-third of the Waifs said his collaboration with Felicity was natural.

"We have a great connection musically and personally," he said.

"I first saw Felicity perform in Tamworth pre-2000, where I was there with Vikki from the Waifs and friends. We were doing a theatre show and after our show, we went out to the pub and Felicity got up and did a couple of songs with the band.

"I never said hello, I never met her then but that was the first time I discovered who she was."

It wasn't until 2005 that Josh formally met Felicity.

"I was co-producing an album with Sara Storer and Felicity turned up at the studio to do a session. That was the first time we had met and said g'day and had any decent conversation," he said.

"Before that, we had occasional chance meetings. I used to bump into her late husband Glen in the same sort of fashion over years.

"When I heard the news of Glen's passing, I reached out to her as a lot of people did and she appreciated it. She said next time I was driving past I should stop by for a cuppa and we could play some music and try and write a song together.

"It was by chance that Sam [from the Song Club] was there and I guess I was in the right place at the right time."

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'Song Club' features many songs that were written in the song club. While 'Spare Parts' is the first single from the album to be released, 'Year to Remember' reflects on 2020 and the challenges faced by everyone.

Josh said the song was inspired by the bushfires that came close to his Far South Coast property.

"The year began with fires. To go from evacuating my place, the frantic build-up to the fires approaching and getting everything ready," he said.

"Eventually we had to walk away and hope for the best and thankfully everything turned out okay.

"The anxiety and struggle of all that then morphed into the whole Covid situation, the loss of work and being isolated at home."

Josh said the theme 'a year to forget' was given as a prompt through song club.

"Even though there were many regrettable and forgettable difficult things about that year, I was kind of reflecting on life as it was unfolding and was thinking that there were plenty of positive things happening in my life," he said.

"So I flipped the prompt and wrote about a year to remember."

While song club and Josh's collaboration kept him busy in 2020, other aspects of his career suffered several knockbacks due to Covid-19.

"The Waifs had a big year planned for 2020," he said.

"We had a tour in America that was on the cards and we were booked to play the Blues Festival too in Byron Bay.

"We had a lot of work lined up and given that The Waifs don't tour that frequently anymore, it was meant to be a big exciting year for us.

"All the plans got thrown totally out the window, It was a difficult imposition for everyone."

However with live music kick off once more, Josh is excited to get back on the road.

"It's an incredible time, all the things you lose come back with a vengeance," he said.

"It's great to have new musical collaborations. To get back on stage, which has been a rare experience in the last 12 months, is just a wonderful thing to get back to.

"To see the effects on people who come along with enthusiasm and to see how music lovers have missed the experience of live music seems like we're making it up for it now."

With a Bowral show just around the corner, Josh said people can expect a lovely show.

"We play a fair chunk of the album. Felicity has a large and successful career and she's got a lot of Golden Guitars so she has a healthy back catalogue of well-loved songs.

"There will be Waifs tunes, Felicity's song we will be performing the bulk of the new album."

Josh (as a member of The Waifs), and Felicity in her own right, have both enjoyed lengthy, successful, enduring musical careers. A collective haul of Golden Guitars, ARIA Awards, multi-platinum album sales and extensive touring of more than nearly three decades forms a body of work that serves as a ready definition of success.

You can catch Josh Cunningham and Felicity Urguhart at Bowral Bowling Club on May 8.

'Song Club' will be released on May 7.

Tickets can be purchased here.

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