Dyson, Stringer, Cloher: Dyson, Stringer, Cloher

- With Dyson Stringer Cloher releasing their first full-length album amidst a Seeker Lover Keeper tour, it seems the taste for supergroups is back. While modern iterations of the format are sometimes criticised for failing to live up to the sum of their parts, there’s something to be said for the power of best mates Mia Dyson, Liz Stringer and Jen Cloher joining forces again.

The self-titled album is like a magic telephone between generational realms. On lead single and opening track Falling Clouds, Cloher pays tribute to Suzie Higgie, Jodi Phillis, and Trish Young, who she watched tear up the stage at an Adelaide gig in 1991. Underage and pumped with UDLs, front row for The Falling Joys and The Clouds was the first time she’d seen women play guitars, unapologetic and proud. In crisp harmony on the track, the Dyson Cloher Stringer trio sing “You kicked the door wide open so I could walk onto that stage”.

Believing they had a right to be in bands was one thing, but their experiences recording, releasing and playing music over the years has been another. Falling Clouds ends on the couplet “Nothing against Paul or Nick / But if you want to be remembered then you better have a dick”. Cloher has previously questioned the absence of women and gender non-conforming artists within the Australian music canon; when we talk about greats like Paul Kelly and Nick Cave, where are their female counterparts? Who’s the Aussie Joni Mitchell? Patti Smith? Nina Simone?

Like Camp Cope on last year’s The Opener, Dyson Stringer Cloher are adamant they’ll get on with the job regardless of support from traditional gatekeepers, reclaiming power by pulling it from other sources. On Believer, the rumbling drums of Wilco’s Glenn Kotche simulates the mutual transfer of energy between performer and audience, who “rise as one / as elation overcomes/ the menace of the feeling that we’re all alone”. The grungy With My Hands sees the trio “take [their] place within [their] own skin”, wearing self-knowledge like an amulet, embellished by Dyson’s formidable guitarwork.

Later, on the finger-plucked, Dixie Chicks redolent Young Girls, DSC continue their intergenerational dialogue, addressing women coming up in music today: “I hope one day you’ll see / When you’re at the crossroad, crossroad / You’re all that you’ll ever need”.

The band released their original three-track EP in 2013, and shortly after embarked on a huge regional Australian tour. In the interim, they’ve put out a combined six studio albums as solo artists. They’ve also stepped into the trailblazer roles their idols once held, as visible ambassadors for collaborative, inclusive, independent musicians. Running For The Feeling perhaps captures best the love all three women share for their community, and their optimism for its future, despite the tug of regret over the obstacles they faced coming up. There’s the acknowledgement that glory is ultimately useless after death, alongside the anticipation of “a thousand doors” opening where they were none before; and then there’s the unbridled freedom of three voices swelling and settling with the refrain “Like a dog let off the lead/I’m running for the feeling”.

- Aleisha McLaren.
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