Conversation: Inspired to be a ‘minstrel of God’ - Peter Kearney, singer and songwriter

Sydney
9 December 2001

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Conversation: Inspired to be a ‘minstrel of God’ - Peter Kearney, singer and songwriter

Peter Kearney found his true vocation when he began strumming and singing his message in towns around Australia. Marilyn Kerjean reports

Catholic singer and songwriter Peter Kearney (pictured) “never had any illusions that it would be big time sort of music” when he decided in 1982 to pursue music as a full-time career.

Rather, he thought, it would be “just going around linking comm unities”.

“Even though I’ve been doing it for nearly 20 years I get a lot of satisfaction out of it,” he says. “I get a feeling that it’s a good thing I’m doing.”

He says his inner life must be nourished for all to be well on the outside. And he believes this truth extends to the country as a whole.

“I have this awful vision of Australia, of people living along the rim, on the coast and leaving this large internal area empty,” he says.

Peter, born in Sans Souci, and now living in Mittagong, says he is as much at home performing in quiet country towns as he is in big cities.

His musical ministry has seen him take his brand of heartfelt folk music to many country and regional towns.

He has a special fondness for these communities. And he is always amazed by the strength of the social networks he finds there.

“When I’m in the Blue Mountains,” he says, “for example, I might be in Oberon and mention someone in Gulgong and people say: ‘Oh, yeah we know him’.”

Peter sees his place in the world as using stories and song to help support such community life, that while strong, is becoming more fragile.

“People living in small towns get a sense of despondency when they see young people leaving for the cities, and there’s no life coming in,” says Peter.

“I hope we can find some way to not neglect the rural areas. So many decisions get made by people in the cities.”

Peter’s songs reflect his concerns. While most are written for adults, with the themes of justice and reconciliation featuring strongly, many songs are for children.

In fact Peter performs most of his concerts in schools. He encourages the children to explore their own talents, sending tapes in advance so the students can learn the songs before they perform together before parents and the wider community.

“It makes for a long day but I like to work with the children and present family concerts,” he says. “The number one thing I want is for people to be engaged with the stories and songs and have a good time.

“It sends lots of good little ripples out when people enjoy themselves at these concerts. Hopefully, the Spirit is present in those gatherings. I have a really good feeling about what I’m doing there.”

Each of Peter’s song has a message, whether it’s about the joys of life – like finding a life partner, or the issue of reconciliation. Peter’s great inspiration in life is St Francis of Assisi and, like that saint, he likes to think of himself as a ‘minstrel for God’.

“St Francis would pick up some sticks and pretend to play with them and when people came over he would speak to them,” he says.

Peter’s identification with Francis goes far deeper than his intention and approach. “He had that big tension in his life between the mountain and the valley,” Peter says. “He wanted to care for people but he also felt drawn to spending time alone in contemplation, on the ‘mountain’.

“He consulted St Clare and she said: ‘Your gift is for the world, you have to go out to the valley and work with the people’. But he always felt that need for solitude and prayer. He would go up to the mount of La Verna and spend long hours there.”

Likewise, Peter says, if he neglects the contemplative side of his nature he can get “all tied up and depressed”.

“Where I can I try to give some priority to nourishing the inner life in stillness and prayer,” he says.

It took 25 years and much prayerful reflection to complete the major creative work of Peter’s life, inspired by St Francis’ greeting: “Good morning, good people. May the peace of God be with you.”

Good Morning Good People! is Peter’s two-hour long musical of the saint’s life, which was always centred “on the figure of Christ”. It premiered in a triumphant concert in Mittagong in 1994 when a cast of about 100 performed before an audience of 2,000 people.

Today, the echo of St Francis’ unique spirituality rings through in Peter’s just-released CD Islands of the Heart.

One song, The Water of Life, about the founder of the L’Arche Community, is about the “contemplative mode of life that must always balance the active”.

Peter sees his life’s work as connected to his baptism, although not the way it was first thought.

He was the first of seven children born to “staunch Catholic parents”; a prayer was said at his baptism for him to become a priest.

He was an altar boy at Sans Souci parish when his parents sent him to Marist Brothers’ Darlinghurst, where he learnt Latin.

“But I dropped Latin after a time, mainly because I didn’t want to become a priest,” he says with a smile.

But the religious and spiritual dimension of life has always been important to Peter.

“I didn’t want to find a job to work in just for a job’s sake. I wanted something with a sense of vocation to it,” he says.

But it took a brief stint as a secondary teacher in England, then a guitar teacher, before Peter found his true vocation as a ‘minstrel for God’.

Peter Kearney’s first collection of religious songs was published in 1966. Best known are probably Fill My House and The Beatitudes.

He says his latest album is for those “people who have a heart for the pain of the world”, including songs inspired by Sr Irene McCormack and Edmund Rice,

Islands of the Heart is available in Pauline bookshops and through mail order from Crossover Music: PO Box 496, Mittagong, NSW 2575, phone: (02) 4871 2284 or fax: (02) 4871 3250.