When House of Songs opens the Cactus Café doors on Thursday night, the welcome mat will be bilingual – English and Danish. That’s because House of Songs is an Austin-based artist-in-residence program for Danish singer-songwriters.
It’s Troy Campbell’s baby, one with a guardian angel named Robin Shivers on its shoulder. Before her untimely death in October, House of Songs was one of the projects she was focused on and Campbell, who was managed by Shivers, intends to see it through.
The House of Songs is sponsored by Denmark’s government to support and cultivate the creativity of Danish arts and artists. The program creates a year-long partnership with Danish songwriter guilds, Austin-based songwriters and producers, and it kicked off here in September.
Think about the foreign exchange student programs in high school. House of Songs is similar: 12 Danish artists have visited here, staying for nearly two weeks in a South Austin house where they can immerse themselves in the best our city offers. While here, they compose and finally perform live. In addition to Campbell, David Garza, Matt the Electrician, Johnny Goudie, and Kacy Crowley are participating. Five other artist-in-residence programs have also been created in New York, Los Angeles, Spain, Portugal, and Greece.
On Thursday evening, Ane Trolle and Gudrid Hansdottir from Denmark join Campbell and fellow songwriters Michael Ramos, Matt the Electrician, and Danny Malone at the Cactus, 8:30pm. No big record company bucks here, no corporate dollars, just a homegrown effort in the international language of music.
This article appears in November 27 • 2009.