Major Changes

“Ik leerde Marybeth d’Amico kennen in 2008, toen ze begeleid door mijn vriend en collegamuzikant Alex Akela optrad bij Roepaen in Ottersum. We raakten bevriend en speelden onder andere samen bij huiskamerconcerten gedurende haar Europese tournee in 2010. We hadden grootse plannen voor samen touren en schrijven van muziek, totdat het stil werd. Marybeth bleek een zeldzame vorm van darmkanker te hebben en verhuisde terug naar de USA.
Marybeth overleed in 2015. Vlak voor haar dood kreeg ik een foto onder ogen waar het leek alsof ze recht uit een concentratiekamp was komen vallen, afgezien van het feit dat haar ogen zacht en liefdevol stonden. De laatste maanden van haar leven besloot ze geen slopende behandelingen meer te ondergaan, maar vooral te genieten van de nabijheid van haar vrienden en dochters.
Major Changes gaat over het zien van die foto, het terugkijken op de goede tijden samen en het vooruitkijken naar de veranderingen die onvermijdelijk gaan komen.” JeeWee Donkers

“I met Marybeth d’Amico in 2008 when she was accompanied by my friend and fellow musician Alex Akela, performing at Roepaen in Ottersum. We became friends and played together at living room concerts during her European tour in 2010. We had great plans for touring and writing music together, until things became quiet. Marybeth had come down with a rare form of colon cancer and had moved back to the USA.
Marybeth died in 2015. Just before her death I received a photograph that revealed how frail she had become. It looked like she had come straight out of a concentration camp, apart from the fact that her eyes were still so soft and loving. During the last months of her life, she had decided not to undergo any more debilitating treatments, but rather to enjoy the proximity of her friends and daughters.
Major Changes is about seeing that photo, looking back on the good times together, and looking ahead to the changes that will inevitably come.” — JeeWee Donkers

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Major Changes – words by JeeWee Donkers, music by Live Poets Society

The way you lie before me
A sweet smile on your face
No one could prepare me
To find you in this place
You lay back in your pillows in understated grace
You’ve gone through major changes

You know we used to talk a lot
About the future in our stars
And how we sang your songs
About the past that’s in our scars
How we’d take the world with our voices and guitars
Talking major changes

Underneath your paper skin
I see the traces of the girl that you have been
The strong woman I have seen
Who’s gone through major changes

Your body’s been affected
By a long and dirty fight
But your spirit’s unaffected
And your eyes still shine with light
And now you tell me that you’re gonna be alright
Though you’re up for major changes

Underneath your paper skin
Remain the traces of the girl that you have been
The strong woman I have seen
Who’s gone through major changes

Underneath your paper skin
I can see your power shining from within
And in the end your love will win
But we’re up for major changes

 

JeeWee Donkers – vocals, guitars and octave mandolin
Peter Holen – keyboards
Ronald Voskens – drums & percussion
Martin Duarte Favaro – bass
Emma Donkers, Miriam Strous – backing vocals