Singer calls for unity.
Cape Breton singer-songwriter calls for unity with ‘Stronger Together’
BADDECK — As Nova Scotia was seemingly bombarded by one tragedy after another in recent months, Keith Mullins says there were plenty of reasons to lose hope.
From the mass shootings that killed 22 people, to the disappearance of Truro boy Dylan Ehler, to a helicopter crash off the coast of Greece that left six military members dead, including Nova Scotians — all during the COVID-19 quarantine — Mullins said it was a sad time in the Baddeck home he shares with his partner and three young boys.
So, the award-winning singer-songwriter turned those emotions into “Stronger Together,” a song he hopes will inspire people to remain optimistic about the future.
“In my household there were quite a few tears shed after the mass shooting — I knew Jolene Oliver, she worked at Embers in Sydney, she was one of the victims — and then we had that little boy Dylan and our hearts were just broken for him and his parents. Then we had the helicopter go down and then with COVID-19, it just seemed like we were getting hit with so many different things all at the same time. My heart went out to all those people and that song just came out of me in 20 minutes,” said Mullins, who released the song and video Tuesday.
“Even with all that stuff that was happening, I’m an optimist. I engage with people through my music and that’s what I do best, I think. I believe that through unity and being together, change will come. There is hope on the other side.”
While “Stronger Together” features a talented lineup of East Coast musicians, including Jason Mingo, Meaghan Smith, Chris Kirby, Kev Corbett and Colin Grant, he said the children of the Basinview Choir really made the song powerful and moving.
Mullins and the Bedford school choir have collaborated many times in the past and have together raised more than $30,000 for projects such as an accessible school playground, IWK mental health and Kids Help Phone over the years. He and Basinview school music teacher Carol Coutts had been talking about ways they could work together again and “Stronger Together” seemed perfect.
“To me, there’s no sound in the world that says hope more than a bunch of kids singing a song. Just the sound of a children’s choir, that’s the sound of hope to me,” said Mullins, adding that more than 40 students and musicians sent video and audio clips that they recorded from their homes.
As for his music career, Mullins said he’s still writing and recording new songs. While he said the COVID19 lockdown has made him reconsider how much time he spent on the road away from his family, he can’t wait to perform in front of a live audience again.
He recalled one interaction with an elderly man at a festival in Lunenburg last summer. Mullins had just finished performing “Somebody Cares,” a song he cowrote with Dave Gunning as a tribute to first-responders and health-care workers, when he noticed the man shuffling his way toward the stage.
“I look at him and there’s tears rolling down his face and he’s walking so slowly towards me and I’m telling myself, ‘Pay attention, Mullins — he’s got something to tell you,’” Mullins recalled. “And he said ‘My wife passed away a few months ago and all the first-responders and health-care workers were so sensitive and gentle with my wife, were so amazing with her, I just wanted to tell you how much that song meant to me. You nailed it.’
"When you see an 80-yearold man crying, it’s so powerful and it’s those kinds of moments that make me take what I do so seriously. But it’s still having fun — that’s what it’s all about.”