Teresa learned she had cancer on the day the twin towers fell in New York City. Full-on cancer treatment hit her hard. Friends and family stepped in, brought her meals, tucked her into her big red chair, and walked her dear Finnegan.
Recovery was painfully slow, but as the haze began to lift, Teresa leaned hard into her poetry and music. She joined a songwriters’ group, Writer’s Block, and her songwriting blossomed. In April 2005, she recorded a demo of her new songs at James Stephens’ studio in Chelsea, QC. It was just that – a demo – a chance to document what she had been writing. She had no intention of releasing it. She passed it along to friends, including me, and on a long flight to Australia, somewhere over an ocean, on a dark night, I fell in love with these songs and with their writer.
Once I got back, Teresa asked me to accompany her on her new composition “Song for Peace,” and together we produced “Tangled in Our Dreams,” again with James Stephens. We included only one song from her demo tape, although we did perform several as part of our live shows.
In her final years, Teresa returned to working on the songs on her demo. Sadly, her cancer returned, and we lost our dear Teresa in the waning hours of the winter solstice 2022 before she had a chance to record them.
In my grief, her songs haunted my thoughts. I remembered the demo and to my astonishment, found the CD that had moved me so many years before. There was her handwriting, in smudged marker, “Teresa Healy, Various Tracks.” I listened to it over and over on my first trip back to Ottawa, late into the night of my arrival with her friends Brian, Danielle and Cathy, and with James the next day at his studio.
We all agreed. This is so much more than a demo. Her performance of these wonderful songs needs to be out there in the world. So, it is with great joy and love we present “Boot Against Nettle,” a new recording by Teresa Healy.
~Tom Juravich
Listen to the album below or On Bandcamp
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