Patsy’s Song

ARTIST
Éva LaPrairie

SENIOR OR ELDER
Patsy Gabriel

ARTFORM
Music

ABOUT THE ARTWORK
For my Art Piece, after speaking with Patsy, I decided to write a song about her life, from childhood to now. I decided to keep it simplistic, just vocals and acoustic guitar, with echo effects on guitar, and reverb on vocals.

Patsy told me many details about her life: She moved from Newfoundland
to Fort McMurray in 1976 with her ex-husband. She came from a very large family of 21 siblings in a small town. A place where everyone knew each other, and everyone would help each other out.

She learned important values from her mother growing up: always lend a helping hand, treat others with respect, look out for one another, help one another when at all possible, come together as a community and that we are all equal.

She’s a very social type of person and would love to go out on the weekends to socialize and go dancing. Her favourite places were The Legion and The Newfie Club. She always had a blast dancing with her friends on the weekend. She also told me one of her favourite artist’s is Johnny Reid who she has seen a couple times in Fort McMurray. She enjoys a lot of country music, some newer country music but mostly the classics.

Patsy feels as though the world is quite different from how she grew up. She finds people are more materialistic now, self-centered, and less empathetic. “People used to be outside all the time,” she recalls. There was nothing else to do really, and no technology, so she was always outside and playing with her siblings. “I had a really good childhood,” she recalls, “no complaints.”

Arts Council decided to team Patsy up with myself, because she is blind, and they thought it would be a good match, since I am a songwriter. She can listen to my art piece once it is created.

After talking to Patsy, I instantly felt positive, happy-go-lucky vibes from her. She knows the true meaning of life and values the people greatly in her life. She always takes the opportunity to socialize, has good values and appreciates all of life’s moments.

During quarantine, she has found it hard not to go socialize with friends or go on outings, she says she has been keeping herself busy by chatting to friends on the phone.

I wanted to write a song for her that had a nice, uplifting melody, while keeping it simplistic. An almost classic, country, pop sounding song. The main message of the song is that we should all be more like Patsy, enjoy life, dance in the moment, keep it simple, help one another; that is the secret to happiness.

I will include the lyrics for Patsy’s Song in this description, it will showcase the reflection of her life and life values. I will also be attaching the MP3 recording so you can hear the melody and overall creation of vocals and acoustic guitar together.

I am mostly a live performer, and this is my first time recording and producing music on my own with The Logic Pro X technology. I am still learning and getting used to this program; however, I tried my best to record the song in a raw, live-room type of setting. Thank you for asking me to be a part of this project, it was an honour to interview and create an art piece uniquely for Patsy.

– Éva LaPrairie

LYRICS
In ’76, I came up from Newfoundland
My mama taught me good values, always lend a helping hand
My siblings (all 21) say I’m a social butterfly
You can always find me outside or dancing into the night

Oh Patsy
Take me dancing on the weekend
At the legion
See all my good, good friends
Cause Good times never end
And Patsy
Keep on smiling, Keep on spinning
Keep on winning….
Have a good, good time
cause we can dance all night
Keep on dancing all night
Keep on smiling so bright
Keep on, keeping on…

Patsy you say the secret to life is simple
Respect one another, we are all so equal
Growing up in a small town, I’ll take this with me
Helping each other is the only way to be free

And Patsy Take me dancing on the weekend
At the legion
See all my good, good friends
Cause Good times never end
And Patsy
Keep on smiling, Keep on spinning
Keep on winning….
Have a good, good time
cause we can dance all night
Keep on smiling so bright
Keep on dancing all night
Keep on, keeping on

In the middle of the night
You may think of where you’re from
A small friendly town
Never stop being who you really are
You bring love everywhere you go

And Patsy
Take me dancing on the weekend
At the legion
See all our good, good friends
Cause good times never end
And patsy keep on laughing
Keep on dreaming
Keep on scheming
Have a good, good time
Just you and I

Keep on smiling so bright
And keep on dancing all night
And Keep on, keeping on
And keep on, keeping on
(Repeat) Keep on dancing all night.

LISTEN TO “PATSY’S SONG” BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW