2019 Arctic Expedition: Jesse’s Song

Guest post by James Raffan

Jesse Byrne brought the house down with his song, written in Ian Tamblyn and George Woodhouse’s songwriting workshop, and performed on one of the first nights we had student contributions to our nightly recap.

I just happened to be in the Hub (meeting room on the ship for full team gatherings and presentations) when they were working it up and I sat in with an extra guitar thereby becoming part of the impromptu “band” backing up this performance.

But I was so beguiled by Jessie’s voice and his courage and creativity for coming up with this ditty that I thought it might be fun to hear a little more about how it came to be. As luck would have it, Jesse was in my Zodiac today for our cruise at the bird cliffs of Cape Graham Moore and so I asked if he might be interested in helping to make a mini podcast of his song. He said yes but the big surprise here was that we actually had a few minutes later in the day to slip up to the sauna on the Ocean Endeavour (perfect on-board recording studio … ps the heat wasn’t on) to record his guitar and voice.

With the amazing Comm’s Team’s help, we stitched Jesse’s voice describing how the song came to be into the song itself. Just one of a multitude of creative products emanating from SOI Arctic 2019. Take a listen here:

About this song and interview compilation:
Jesse Byrne is Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation currently living on the west coast of Newfoundland & Labrador in the town of Stephenville. He wrote this song onboard the Students on Ice 2019 Arctic Expedition, inspired by his journey. This song and interview compilation was supported through an expedition workshop with award-winning singer-songwriters Ian Tamblyn and George Woodhouse, and author and musician James Raffan.