BURSTA Summerlander has turned the tragedy that faced this community during the wildfire into a piece of art.
Mandy Cole, a singer-songwriter from Summerland, has come out with a song called Small Town.
The song was written based on her own experiences and on the experiences of her neighbours and friends when the Bald Range wildfire forced the entire town to evacuate on Aug. 7.
“The verses in the song are all lines that have been shared with me in conversations with residents from Summerland who’ve lost their homes or have been evacuated. The chorus is about returning back after the evacuation and just seeing how our town has come together to welcome everyone back to show the appreciation for the firefighters and people who stayed to obviously save our town. And just to be supportive of the people who have lost their homes and to know that we’re going to support you through this time.”
Small Town, said Cole, is also meant to raise funds for individuals and businesses that have lost their properties due to the wildfire.
“I think about our community as a whole, and what do I have to offer that can heal the town? I have a tool of songwriting and singing. How can I best use that to raise funds to help people? Make a song, put it out there that if you like this song or you have any sort of connection to it, please donate to help, and it gets evenly distributed amongst the community, which I really like.”
Cole was performing at Noble Ridge when she first received news from her husband telling her that her friends from Faulder had lost their home due to the fire and that they were going to stay with them.
“I’m like, ‘oh, okay, absolutely, should I come home right now? what’s going on?’ He (her husband) said, ‘No, the fire’s in Faulder.’ He’s grown up in Penticton, so fires don’t usually go super fast like that.”
So, Cole went back to play the rest of her show. Half an hour later, her phone starts buzzing with texts from her husband telling her that they need to evacuate and that she needs to come home right now.
“I left my show really early and they were super understanding. I jumped in my car and, driving into Summerland, changing from daytime to nighttime was crazy. It was black (the sky), the blackest thing I’ve ever seen. Then my phone starts going off with the emergency broadcast system and I’m driving at the time. I can’t read it. I’m calling my brother. I’m like, this is bad. I’m freaking out.”
Eventually, Cole, her husband and two friends evacuated to Vancouver Island, where they stayed for two weeks before returning to Summerland.
When Cole was evacuated, she was in contact with her neighbours and friends, who had been sharing their stories with her.
One day, sitting in her car, the words and melody to the song just came to her, she said.
She recorded the song in her home studio with her guitar as the background instrumental and went on to record its music video with her phone.
“I went for my first walk. It was just a lot to process: the mountain and the area and to see how much had changed. I just really needed to do something with those emotions that I was feeling. So that’s kind of where the video came from, all the shots are of the route that I take. I start on Washington, and then I go up on Garnet. I go up through Cartwright, and then I come back down through the downtown court, and then back home. All those images are from that walk.”
Cole explained that she wanted the song to be authentic and genuine, not overproduced.
“I wanted it to be something that was really heartfelt. It showed who we are. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t about really the production or anything. It was about the songwriting and raising money to help our town,” she said.
Since its release, Cole said she has had multiple messages from residents in town, thanking her for writing the song and sharing their own experiences.
On Sept. 7, Cole will perform Small Town at the Mega Market which will be hosted on Main Street and Downtown Summerland.
“It’s a great way to build community. I really hope that the market is really well received. I want to see the town all come out and just celebrate our local businesses and artisans who lost revenue over that time.”
Small Town can be streamed on YouTube and residents wishing to donate to Summerlanders can do so at the SOS Wildfire Response Fund.