Speaker 1 (00:00.088)
Hello everyone and welcome to the My Local Marketer podcast. I'm Maria and today I'm speaking with Sherrie Allam, a country singer from Theale. Sherrie, hello and welcome to the podcast. Hello, Maria. It's lovely to have you here. We're going to talk singing today, which I'm very excited about. But first of all, could you please just give a bit of background to yourself and how you became a country singer?

I've always loved country and I've always loved to sing, but I've always written songs, put them in the drawer. thought no one would be interested in them like you do. And just got on with my everyday life. And that's kind of how it all started. I'm a full-time carer because I have a son with a severe condition and he's not going to get better, but we get by every day and he's got cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus. So where music is concerned, Dantley like me, he loves music. He loves ABBA, but...

Dolly Parton and all the stuff I like. So one day my nephew, he contacted me and he said, do you need to meet this country artist that I know? He's an agent. His name's Henry Smith. He originally come from Redden and I thought, he won't be interested in me. So I got invited to go to the studio because I wouldn't put myself up for it. So I was a bit shy. And one day he said to me, so if you've got some music then, and I got it out. My first song was called Rootin' Tootin'.

And that got to number 25 in the country charts. I was quite shocked about that. Now I'm onto my second album and Henry, he's just given me so many chances that I would never have had. I'm still the same on me, still Cheri, still the carer, but it's nice that my music's kind of getting out there and Henry's given me big chance.

so good that you actually went out there and you did, you asked him, even though you thought, he won't be interested. The thing is you ask, if you don't ask, you don't get, don't know what people are going to be interested in.

Speaker 2 (01:56.994)
I think I've always thought, or I've always been led to believe you're good, but never good enough. And so many people do have that attitude and that's why we don't put ourselves out there.

I'm so pleased you did that. So you very well did that. It's fascinating background. And it's lovely to hear that you've got this in common with Antony too, so you can do things together as we're going to find out later on. You've done the song that we're going to talk about today, which is Free Us From This War, which you've done for the Poppy Appeal for the British Legion. So what led you to writing this song in the first place for them?

Quite often in our lives, something can happen that I just have to write a song to it. I was watching the news, this was a few months ago now, lead us to say it's a bit sad these days and there's nothing we can do. We can't change nothing. But it just brought tears to my eyes. And then I just felt myself sort of singing, free us from this war, can't take it anymore. I felt those words and then just started writing and then I would watch the news again the next day and then...

By the end of the week, I'd come up with this song and I actually said to Henry, my agent, also my friend, I said to him, I've written a song about the war, but I'm not going to record it. I'm not, I'm not going to put it out there because it's too personal. It's not the bubbly show. So I sang it to Henry and he said he liked it. Now, Henry's dad, he's such a lovely gentleman. He's in his eighties. He said, you should record it. So then I asked a few other people, friends of mine from the British Legion, and I said, don't think it's a little bit?

not my business to do. So we sat down and I had the tune in my head, but we wrote the music, sat down, did it. We recorded it that day. And then I felt to myself, I need to do something with this song. Now I've recorded it. And then I thought, I really would love to do something for the Poppy Appeal. My dad was always into the Poppy Appeal.

Speaker 1 (03:53.048)
So you had this idea and then you sort of wrote it, you went out, you found out what was thought about, which I think is great, it's good to get feedback. We then went to do a music video. So how did you come to do the video in the church in Theale?

took a while actually, it took a good few months. Henry said to me, we need to do a video. So I went high run between us. We were messaging each other and we thinking of all the things we could do to put the song out, how it would go best. I said to Henry, I would quite like if I was allowed to do it in a church, because if I did it in a church, one, it would be big and sensitive for me because I'm seeing me. And I thought it was pretty. So I contacted my local vicar.

I went to meet him with Henry, we sat down and we chatted and we sort of said, this is what we wanted and could it be possible? And then it had to go to the council, then it had to go to the person that's in charge of the church, it had to go through the committee, all the red tape. It had to go through a big journey to get to that video. So I think it was a good two or three months before I even heard back. They thought it was a really beautiful idea.

And then basically we had the rain at the church for the afternoon. It was so lovely.

How are you going to promote the song? You've got a video. What's your plan for promoting the song now?

Speaker 2 (05:14.828)
Well, I'm going to try and contact Meridian. I'm going to contact my local radio stations. In fact, Berkshire Radio, they contacted me last weekend and they've shown an interest in my music. So with the Free Us From This War, it is a case of trying to get it out there and saying to people, can I sing this song for any event that's coming up for Poppy Appeals? I'm going to try and contact British Legions. The ideal thing would be to try and get it on the radio.

That needs to be into what we're saying about the challenges. So what challenges do you have as a country singer or even just a singer?

I think my main challenge is, I mean my early 60s. My only regret is that I didn't do this sooner. I wish I'd stopped thinking you're good, but you're not good enough. I wish with all my heart that I could go back so many years, still be the same person I am, but just have the confidence that I've sort of got now. The thing is in Reading, not everybody in my hometown knows of me and what I do. So I thought if I could try and get the song out to somebody.

or get it so that it can be noticed to raise some money for the Poppy Appeal. I have to fight to get it out there. I have to fight to get heard. MCS, they are really good. They've got me out on a few radio stations and stuff like that. But it is a case of also multitasking, because I'm a carer. Just keep climbing the ladder so you can get noticed and get out there.

That's lovely. So what other projects are you working on? Because you're working on one or you've just finished working on one with your son, haven't you?

Speaker 2 (06:48.512)
I'm just like three songs away from finishing my second album. This other song I've written, I don't do too many from the heart ones because I think that sometimes when life doesn't give you what you want it to give you, sometimes you have to just keep going on a bubbly attitude. So anyway, this next song, my agent Henry said to me, you should write a song about your boy. It's called My Boy. The verses are very short and sweet, but

They're poignant, they have a meaning. Like the first verse is, my son was born when I was 22. He was different than all the rest. The doctor said he wouldn't make it till two. And then the chorus is, but he defied what the doctor said. And then it goes, he is my boy, my only boy. So basically the chorus is really lively. And then it goes back to the verses again. So you've got five or six little verses, but the chorus is really, really lively. It is about Anthony.

He loves it, because he's on the video. He keeps saying, I'm going to be on the telly and I said, I don't know about the telly, but you'll be on YouTube. So he's quite excited. He can't wait for it. So yeah, it's a poignant song again, but it's very lively as well. It's lively because I don't want a disablement or an illness. It's horrible and it's not what we want, but then you can't change it. So you have to kind of look at the positives as well as negatives. And that's what my song does.

That so lovely. so pleased. I love your attitude and I think that you're absolutely right to have that attitude and to embrace him and to bring him in it too. And he looks so happy with the video. that's brilliant. Sherrie, thank you so much. I love your approach on how you need to sort of seize opportunities. Like you're saying about, you wish you did it younger, but now you're doing it. You're doing everything you can to seize this opportunity. So I think that's really inspiring.


Speaker 1 (08:45.186)
So is there anything that you would like to leave our listens with today?

I think the logic of life in your story is this. Don't think of what you haven't got or what you've lost. Think of what you have got and what you're going to choose.

Thank you so much for time Sherrie, it's much appreciated. And yes, everyone, please go and listen to Sherrie's song, which is Free Us From This War, and also her other song, My Boy, that she's done with her son, Anthony. Sherrie, thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you.