Diana Jones has released a new single called ‘We Believe You’ taken from her forthcoming new album ‘Song To A Refugee’ which comes out on Proper Records on September 25th. The song features the help of Steve Addabbo producing and guest artists Steve Earle, Richard Thompson and Peggy Seeger each singing a verse, Mark Hunter on piano and Joe DeJarnette on bass. It was previewed on BBC Radio 2 Country Show with Bob Harris last night.
Of the track Diana says: “Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez visited a US border detention center last summer and testified in Washington DC. She said “I believed the women,” when speaking about the reasons why they left their homes to seek asylum and the terrible conditions within the detention center. She repeated that statement many times and it occurred to me how important it is to be believed, especially for the vulnerable population of asylum seekers.”
The story of how the album came about really begins in 2016-17 when Diana was recovering from a serious illness caused by a gas leak in her apartment. Although her health was improving, artistically Diana felt at a loss. She had written no new songs due to her illness and she felt overwhelmed by the prevailing political environment. Diana found the harsh realities of what was happening at the US-Mexican border particularly distressing; scenes of mothers separated from their children resonating with her own experience of being adopted.
She explains “The devastating election of 2016 had left myself and many of my artist friends unable to respond creatively. During the spring of 2018 I landed back in New York after a tour with no new songs. I had admired Emma Thompson’s work as an artist and a humanitarian forever. After randomly bumping into each other twice in a park near my apartment we had a long lunch and Emma told me about her work and her work as president of the Helen Bamber Foundation. I don’t think anyone could have called me out of my writer’s block the way Emma did and I began to write the stories that I found so devastating, one voice at a time. My own need to “re-humanise” the people who were being de-humanised by governments and the press resulted in a flood of songs.”
