Wendy Ealey

Wendy shares her Melbourne home with her family,
two** cats, Harley and Abby, and Alfred
the latest addition to the family —the guard dog— all
six of these close relatives being discerning critics
and valued advisors in matters musical and sartorial.

Vale Johnson

Hello Alfred

A varied career includes singing in folk clubs in the seventies, stand up comedy in sunny Brixton (UK) in the eighties, co-writing, arranging and performing the sound track of two award winning documentaries, co-writing
and performing corporate comedy and appearing
in the occasional dramatic piece - being a bit of a dramatic piece herself.

She is still involved in fostering the songwriting talent in the Northern
suburbs of Melbourne as a coordinator of the Darebin Music Feast
Songwriters Award and a co-founder of the Darebin Songwriters Guild. Not content with drowning in the administration of the above, Wendy also coordinates the Maldon Folk Festival Roddy Read Memorial Songwriting Awards as she has done for the past two years.

2010 got off to a jolly fine start with the Tamar Valley Folk Festival - just can't keep away from that lovely place and those lovely people, this time however, with Unsung. Then Unsung's 'tour of Wodonga and environs' tooks us up the Hume and into some lovely country before hitting the Hume again and participating in a couple of concerts at the National and ... well we'll have to wait and see won't we?

	STOP PRESS!!! Unsung have just completed their first album. 13 troolly roolly good songs sung by 3 troolly roolly good types. CD's called 'Mudcake' and it's title track does not exist. On that thought... welcome to Wendy's site. Have and gander and a listen.
	Unsung Heroes of Australian History - Recently performed at the 2010 National Folk Festival and received with great enthusiasm from general audience, historians, educators and folklorists. So exciting for Unsung and such a joy to be performing with Bruce Watson and Ronnie Summers!
	The All Of Us Project was the brain child of Michel Lawrence in response to the Cronulla Riots. He undertook to seek out and photograph at least one member of each naitonality that lives in Australia. My song "All Of Us" rather coincided with his theme and it was incorporated into the DVD of the project and to my surprise and delight it found it's way onto Youtube. Listen up. The message matters. We all belong here.

Click this to share a Youtube moment with Unsung playing at Bar 303 on Moy's song 'Winter Sun'

	Have a listen to a couple of songs at Folk Victoria, The Emerald Room, Clifton Hill Hotel, May 2007 with Harry Williamson. Unsung played the second part of the evening and we each had our 'me me' moments for the first set. Big thanks to Malcolm Turnbull for knowing the words to my song 'Walls'(!)

	Pop back a meer 30 years (omigod!) to the days of the Green Man and Carterhaugh. Chris Pain and I did make the odd nice noise looking back...

Despite appearances, I'm not just about to eat Jess Evans, my partner in musical crime from time to time. Jess writes a mean song - in more ways than one. They're fine tunes but she manages to pop in some sticky chords for lazy ol' moi to get my fingers around. We're currently working on a demo CD, tracking for which should be finished Feb '09 and we playing at the Sunday Sounds at the Royal Talbot event too.

I have taken the liberty of including some responses to performances in my
chronological ‘breakdown’ (for which I’m sure there’s a cure).

Also here are a some very kind reviews of my new CD...

Jeb Tyler, Down Under, Australian Hi-Fi, Sept/Oct 07
"It almost took me longer to read the 'thank-you's' on the back of the CD than
it did to listen to Out of the Shower. Ealey's contralto voice is a superb instrument,
her lower registers are almost tenor and so superbly earthy you can smell the humus. At times when she sings, she sometimes seems to 'dual pitch', with her voice briefly catching the upper octave (or second octave!) before regaining the 'real' note, which I found quite fascinating. It's also lucky she's singing her owns songs. No Right Way is so fiendishly difficult I don't think it'll every be covered. Her songwriting abilities are demonstrated by Child of My Heart, easily the finest lyric I have heard in a long time, and Wendy is so obviously singing from the heart that it will stick in your memory."

Julia Irwin, Northcote Leader, May 07
"When Northcote resident Wendy Ealey wrote to Grammy Award winning US singer-songwriter Janis Ian describing herself as an insignificant songwriter who wanted to do a version of her song 'Jesse', Ian replied saying there is "no such thing as an insigificant songwriter". She said she was welcome to record the song. Ealey does the song justice with her faithful rendition, but it is some of the songs she has written herself that can move the listener to tears or laughter. This is an intensely personal folk roots album from a seasoned musician. Standout tracks include the title 'Out of the Shower', an optimistic song about gaining confidence with age, and 'Child of My Heart', about Ealey's longing to have a child afer the biological clock passed midnight. Ealey's 82-year old mother Mary Stentiford performs backing vocals on one track. 'Out of the Shower' is well worth a listen. It is available at Wendy's gigs."

John Williams, Trad & Now, December - January 07/08
"In the cover notes to this CD Wendy says she wrote to Janis Ian asking permission to sing the classc song 'Jesse'.
The reply was, "Wendy, there is no such thing as a singer/songwriter of little consequence."
After listening to this CD many times I am surprised that Wendy thought of herself in this way as this CD is a beauty.
The review took quite a while to write as I had to keep stealing the CD back from my wife who took a real liking to it.
Everyone I played it to also thought it was terrific. There are thirteen tracks ten of which are written by Wendy.
Wendy can write very powerful lyrics.
Her song, "Bigger Than This"* about our government's attitude to refugees deserves wide airplay but probably won't make commercial radio.
That's why we have the ABC.
Another political and thought provoking track is "Riding on Uncertainty".
Wendy also shows her abilities with many highly personal tracks.
"Cautionary Tale" shows what happens to a partner who cheats.
"Child of my Heart" has such a sense of longing it could easily move you to tears.
"Walls" is about a relationship break-up and getting over it.
My favorite track is the very amusing "Dancing".
This song will sure fill the halls of Australia with willing dance participants!
At the very least you are guaranteed a good laugh.
The title track, "She's Out of the Shower" is possibly autobiographical.
If this is the case then Australia has gained a great singer/songwriter who has the ability to construct meaninful lyrics and perform them with great vocal talent.
There are many other fine tracks on this CD.
You won't be disappointed if you purchase it.
And I'll bet Janis Ian will be pleased with Wendy's cover of 'Jesse'."

* To avoid any confusion, Bigger Than This was not written by me, but rather by Mary Caruana, in conjunction with Brent Parlane. I thank them for their permission to record the song and for their contribution to the recording. Mary and Brent both sang backing vocals, Mary's daughter Belle is that angelic voice of youth at the end of the song, and Brent also kindly played guitar on the track.

Welcome and please enjoy a browse through my resume, some of my lyrics, and maybe even order a CD.

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