Swan Song Podcast Reaches Episode 100!

We are very excited to have reached episode 100 of The Swan Song Podcast and can’t wait to share it with you.

We started the podcast in 2020 when we were unable to visit hospices for our usual songwriting work. The aim was to share inspiring and practal information about songwriting as well as stories of how music can help people deal with bereavement. My original plan for it was for the episodes to be about 15 minutes. They very quickly grew and are now regularly about an hour. I feel incredibly lucky to have had all of these conversations and I have learnt so much from them.

If you haven’t listened to the podcast before, each episode features a different songwriter and I ask them to share:

• One of their songs and discusses how they wrote it

• A Songwriting Tip

• A Song that is meaningful to them relating to bereavement.

The podcast has featured a wide range of songwriters including Mike Scott (The Waterboys), Frank Turner, Emily Barker, Larry Love (Alabama 3), Ruth Lyon and Justin Sullivan (New Model Army).  

Of course we wanted to do something special for episode 100.  We decided Instead of featuring a professional songwriter as usual, episode 100 will feature 2 people who have written songs with the help of The Swan Song Project. Both guests share their songs and talk about their experiences of writing them along with a piece of advice for anyone else thinking of writing their first song.

The episode features Richard Gibson who wrote a song for his son Leo who died by suicide in 2021. The song is called “Forever Young (Boy Wonder). Richard said:

“Music was a big part of his life and when I heard about the Swan Song Project I immediately thought that writing a song would be the perfect way to honour his memory.”

It also features Mari Isdale who is 39 and living with terminal cancer. Mari wrote a song for her family called “To the stars and back”. Mari said:

“This song has been the best thing I have done to express my love and appreciation of my family…It’s celebration of us and helps to give happiness in the face of sadness.”

Episode 100 of The Swan Song Project Podcast will be released on Tuesday 3rd September and will be available on all podcast platforms.

Read the full story on Podcasting Today here.

Find links to all previous episodes here.

Please subscribe on whatever podcast platform you use.