Albany trio The Bluebirds share story finding music for the soul in jazz era

When you catch up with a group of friends over a bottle of wine, conversations can be wide-ranging. For three Albany mothers, one such get-together led to the discovery of a shared yearning to reignite old passions for singing and dancing. None of them had been game enough to do it alone, so together, they formed jazz trio The Bluebirds. Two years on and friends Sally Bishop, Meghan McNally and Kat Tweddle have fine-tuned a trio that aims to bring back the delights of swing dancing. The mothers were first brought together through their daughters who were all in the same class at Little Grove Primary School. One third of the group, Sally Bishop, said The Bluebirds had become an important part of her life. “I met like-minded singers, Meghan and Kat, and we joined forces in late 2019 to make The Bluebirds happen,” she said. “We are in a really great place at the moment. We’re making a transition from tunes we can sing, to tunes we really love to sing, and this phase is just so exciting.” With a rhythm section consisting of Adrian Kenyon on piano, Grant Moulden on bass and drummer Lauchie Gillet, Bishop said they were developing a distinctive sound. “It has taken a lot of logistic manoeuvring to organise rehearsal time outside of family and work, but it’s such an important part of life,” she said. A mum to a seven-year-old daughter and five-year-old son, she said her children enjoyed having a musical mum. “My daughter loves it, she has a fantastic time dancing along,” she said. “I’m glad they’re so receptive to it. Some kids maybe wouldn’t engage with this style (of music). It’s very much a niche thing.” After growing up in Perth, backpacking around Europe and spending a year in Kununurra, Bishop relocated to Albany in 2017. She played with the Albany City Wind Ensemble and the Rainbow Coast Big Band while she retrained to become a teacher. Learning to read and play music from a young age, Bishop had a talent for piano, brass and dance. Heavily influenced by her father, she recounted his love for the bagpipes and memories of “traipsing along to Anzac Day parades and Remembrance Day ceremonies to watch the pipe bands”. “He had a terrible habit, though, of piping Happy Birthday each year to us, which I found mortifying, particularly as a teenager,” she said. Another member of The Bluebirds, Meghan McNally, is a music teacher at North Albany Senior High School and a mother of two girls. She started performing in her backyard to an invisible audience at the age of three before taking up piano lessons aged eight, followed by the trumpet aged 11. “Singing with the Bluebirds in the beautiful town of Albany has been an uplifting, rewarding, valuable experience and has filled my creative cup up to the brim,” she said. Unlike her fellow members, Kat Tweddle was born and raised in Albany. The community health nurse was heavily involved with helping build the Port Theatre in her younger years as well as featuring in many pantomimes and musicals. The Bluebirds’ musical journey started with gigs at the Stirling Club which led to supporting another all female singing group, The Mockingbirds, singing with the Rainbow Coast Big Band and performing at the opening of last year’s Southern Arts and Craft Trail. The trio’s latest appearance was at the Swing Into Summer show at the Albany Town Hall on Saturday night. “The music we play is really suited to people who swing dance,” Bishop said. “Our approach is to recreate that feeling where you’ve got the band and audience working really well together,” she said. “It’s really energising to get so much energy from the audience. It’s really great, that two-way feeling that arises. The Bluebirds will perform at the Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival on December 11.