THE VAILIMA PRAYERS PROJECT

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Neil Adam's interest in Robert Louis Stevenson has been life-long. Before Covid struck, Neil and his partner Judy Turner were planning a return to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2020. Their show Sing Me A Song - telling RLS life story - had sold out at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in August 2019. 

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Pivoting (as you do) when Covid brought all travel and touring to a halt, Adam turned his attention to Stevenson's Vailima Prayers written during the period of his life when he was living with his family in Samoa. The poems had been published by RLS' wife Fanny after his death, and never before set to music. Find more of that story here.

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Through 2019 the prayer-songs took shape, and lockdown provided the opportunity to record them, albeit in an unusual lockdown way.

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The recording of these 12 prayer-songs features well-known Australian acoustic musicians such as Luke Plumb (mandolin), Dan Witton (double bass), Hamish Davidson (fiddle), Judy Turner (fiddle, viola, uke) and singers Lucy Wise, Bec Rigby, and Pete Daffy. Learn more about the musicians here.