What: Linda McRae and Shara Gustafson
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. (Sidney) and Sunday, 8 p.m. (Sooke)
Where: St. Paul’s United Church, 2410 Malaview Ave. (Sidney) and Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 1962 Murray Rd. (Sooke)
Tickets: $20 (Sidney) and $18 (Sooke)
Note: McRae joins Shari Ulrich, Jeanne Tolmie and Zac Doeding for a performance tonight at Norway House (1110 Hillside Ave.). Tickets are $15 at the door.
Singer-songwriter Linda McRae’s decision to leave Spirit of the West in 1997, following eight successful years with the beloved Vancouver group, felt a bit like jumping into the deep end of the pool.
To her surprise, a new pursuit that sees her host writing workshops at, among other places, North American correctional facilities — including a maximum security California prison built to house problematic inmates serving long sentences — feels less daunting.
It’s funny how perspective changes things.
“I never ever dreamt I’d be doing anything like this,” McRae said from her daughter’s home in Maple Ridge, as her grandchildren, Aria and Harmony, played nearby. “But it has just been terrific.”
McRae, born in Duncan and raised in Victoria, has lived in Nashville since 2007. She has permanent-resident status in the U.S. as a result of her marriage to writer James Whitmire, which allows her to work freely anywhere in North America.
Making a living playing country music in Nashville isn’t easy, she admitted. But McRae finds inspiration in the type of traditional country that gave Music City, USA, its name.
“I’m kind of in the old school. I just love the classic stuff — I was bottled-fed on it. There’s still a lot of people out there who are honouring that and not writing about trucks and short shorts and beer and all that frigging crap.”
A new creative path was presented to McRae and Whitmire in 2011.
At the suggestion of a friend, the couple created the Express Yourself Writing Workshops.
McRae and Whitmire have given 100 writing workshops at high schools, prisons, juvenile detention centres, detox centres and women’s shelters throughout North America. Thanks to the state-funded Arts-in-Corrections program, seven have been held at the California State Prison in Sacramento, California, known unofficially as New Folsom Prison.
The original Folsom State Prison, located nearby, is where country star Johnny Cash recorded his landmark live album, 1968’s At Folsom Prison.
McRae is hesitant to talk at length about the connection, out of respect for her students.
“I downplay it a little bit,” she said. “I don’t want it to be sensationalized because of that connection.”
McRae’s music has been greatly affected by her workshops. Flowers of Appalachia, a song on her newly released album Shadow Trails, features lyrics written by a New Folsom inmate who had taken one of her workshops.
“We want to help them understand some of the things they are going through and put their feelings and frustrations on paper,” McRae said, adding that some of her most rewarding workshops are with at-risk youth. “We give them a voice.”
McRae is clearly filling a hole in the lives of prison inmates. Her workshop with Whitmire at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women, in the tiny town of York, saw 120 inmates sign up for writing lessons.
“Some of the places in the States don’t have a lot of programs in place, unfortunately. There is not a lot of focus on rehabilitation.”
She can’t help but wonder how her life turned out the way it has. The important thing to remember, McRae said, is that both she and Whitmire, a recovering addict who has been sober for 27 years, have battled hardship and won.
Now it’s their turn to help others navigate a similar course.
“A bunch of inmates said that before they discovered this program, they never realized there is actually beauty and love in the world,” McRae said.
“They never experienced it when they were on the outside, but they see it now that they are behind bars.”