With Mother’s Day coming up next weekend in Australia, the US and Canada, it seems like a good time to launch a song on a relevant but very poignant theme. “Mother Courage” is about a couple who emigrate, by ship, to another country in the hope of giving themselves and their children a better life. During the voyage, she discovers she’s pregnant. A storm blows up and… Well, if you want to know the rest, you’ll have to play the song.

Dedicated to a very, very special woman and mother – and to all mothers everywhere, especially those who have endured the ultimate loss.

Thanks to Steve Passfield for performing, recording and engineering, and also to Gary Steel (accordion) and Darryl Neve (upright bass). Recorded at Handpicked Studios, Berowra, NSW, Australia.

While the song is based on experience, its imagery was in part inspired by Ford Madox Brown’s immortal painting, “The Last of England”: