Yvonne Lyon: Held in the Moment

This is singer songwriter, Yvonne Lyon.
I first met Yvonne a couple of years back when I was helping to spread the word about Absent Voices, a public arts project based around the once-mighty sugar industry in Greenock.
Yvonne was the one who brought the project to glorious vocal life.
I remember having tears in my eyes watching her sing with a group of local primary school kids. They were performing a couple of songs they'd written with Yvonne all about sugar and its place in their town.
Yvonne contacted me recently to say she was bringing out a new album and asked me to help get it out into the world.
It's not an easy concept. The album, Held, is a collection of ten songs written by Yvonne together with ten people who have experienced bereavement.
It started life as an element of her coursework for a Masters in Songwriting and Performance which she studied for at the University of the West of Scotland - and as these things do - grew arms and legs.
I've listened to Held many times now and it's a beautiful piece of work. I find myself drawn back to one song in particular.
It's called Till We Meet Again and Yvonne has written it together with a friend called Angela Beggan.
Angela's six-year-old son, Caden, died at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow in 2012 after a four-week battle with meningitis.
Upbeat in tone yet with an underlying sadness, the refrain, Till We Meet Again, is catchy but it catches you unawares.
Without a word of a lie, I've been waking up at night with this song playing in my head.
Yvonne's friend, the Nashville-based singer, Beth Nielsen Chapman, describes the album better than I ever could when she says that Yvonne's 'gentle-yet-powerful voice will melt you into this soul-stirring collection of songs, traversing loss and grief in that magic way that great art can bring us from devastation to rebirth.'
Held is being launched on Saturday 7th November at the Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock.
I'll probably be blipping about as I'm going on the night. I believe tickets are still available - it should be quite a special night.
Special guests include Graeme Duffin (guitarist with Wet, Wet, Wet and long time producer/friend - he has also co-written a track which appears on Held), fiddler/composer Seonaid Aitken, cellist Pete Harvey, drummer/percussionist, Wilf Taylor, and Yvonne’s husband, David Lyon.
The launch will also feature artwork inspired by the songs on the album and created by artist Raine Clarke.

Launch of HELD at The Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock