The Man Across The Street

We know amber as a mineral that was used as a healing agent in folk medicine, and in a way that attribute of healing agent can be observed in country music singer Amber Lawrence who I had the privilege of speaking to recently. Amber is hoping to visit Tasmania next year in her role as entertainer but she remembers visiting 10 years ago and the beautiful scenery of the triumphant boats on the waterfront from the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. It seems fitting as Amber’s own life has had its triumphs and trials and she has had the ability to get up and try again when necessary. Perhaps that is why she naturally felt closeness to those with a competitive spirit such as the children of the Special Olympics for whom she is a special ambassador and has written and performed the theme song for the games later this year. Her song is called ‘Try’ and was co-written with Drew McAlister and Tamara Stewart.

Amber calls the young special Olympians ‘awesome kids’ and ‘amazing’. Naturally,the song is naturally positive and Amber hopes it will connect with the wider population.

Amber isn’t your natural country singer, for one thing she is a city girl from inner city Sydney and often hears the planes flying over her house, fitting in a way, as this young lady was once a high flying chartered accountant for Qantas!

Amber walked down the country path when her singing teacher encouraged her to try something different, a genre that she previously had not explored and so it came to be that Amber became one of Australia’s next biggest country success stories.

In fact Amber wasn’t even musically inclined until she was presented with a guitar at 22 by her then boyfriend, with whom she later parted company, but he left her with this wonderful musical gift.

Amber was on the receiving line of perhaps the greatest gift very early on in life, in fact when she was a baby. Amber had somehow stumbled through an opening in her house gate and on to the road. It was the quick action of the man sitting on his porch across the street running across to rescue her. This event is now immortalised in her song co-written with Colin Buchanan and titled ‘The Man Across the Street’.

Amber would later learn this man was a Vietnam veteran and the song is in part a tribute to him and his colleagues in all conflicts that risk their lives to protect us on a macro level as well as the sacrifice demonstrated by this particular individual man on the micro level who saved Amber’s life.

Amber’s album her third, is suitably called ‘3’ and is out now.

Paula Xiberras