Janet Bates - Another Child

The political nature of this CD, I think, reflects the extremely tumultuous time our world is going through. The songs are an attempt to replace apathy with empathy. There is an old native American proverb "Oh, Great Spirit, grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins" I only now realize that, that is what I do when I write songs, I often see a picture or read about someone and then try to imagine what it must feel like to be them. I have tried to imagine what it must have been like to have been trapped in New Orleans during the floods, to have been in Rwanda, during the genocide, to be an American soldier in Iraq now, to be a conscientious objector now, or to be the mother of a soldier. The title song, Another child, is an attempt to bring attention to the Unicef figures that 25,000 children die each and every day needlessly. There is one song on the CD that is purely fictional, and it is called Do us part. In our concerts I tell the audience that it is a true folk song, it has a sailor, a ship and a girl named Mary. The main instrumentation on this CD are me on 12 string, my husband Ken Bates on Bouzouki, Gary Montesano on guitar and Perry St John on hand percussion. A few songs have some electric guitar accentuation, and keyboards. To bring about change is my main motivation to write songs. I hope you will consider playing them. I recently saw a bumper sticker that said, "I love my country, but we need to start seeing other people" I guess that sums up the CD, seeing other people.

1) Calling for You
2) Another Child
3) Bearded Stranger
4) Farewell to You Army of One
5) Do Us Part
6) Rwanda
7) Prisoner of New Orleans
8) A Prisoner of Conscience
9) Mothers Day
10) A Day Is Coming
11) American Soldier