The Victoria Harbour Sundowners Sessions #10

A few years ago, while I was still living and working in Cape Town, I was traveling on the N1 near Tygervalley when I tuned into the local P4 radio station.

I was listening to Shado Twala who was having a chat with a local songstress called Tina Schouw.

At the time, while I was familiar with the name I couldn’t say that I knew much about her music.

To say that I was smitten while listening to Tina over the airwaves would be a understatement.  I fell in love with the voice and the person behind the voice.

Even before she sang a note.

I have loved the way she sings, what she sings about as well as her passion for her craft ever since that day.

By the time I reached the N1 City Mall, Shado’s show was over.  I turned off the freeway and found my way to the nearest Musica CD store and promptly bought Tina Schouw’s album called “Bleed.”

What made Bleed such a special album is that my family had also fallen completely in love with it.  My daughter Micaela was only about five years old and my son Ethan still in diapers but they too adore Tina and promptly dubbed her the “Tick-Tock Lady” after their favourite track, needless to say, called Tick Tock.

Shortly before we left Cape Town for the Far East a few years ago, we were excited to hear that Tina was going to be performing at (if my memory serves me right) the Canal Walk shopping mall. Needless to say we attended the performance and were not disappointed as she sang almost all the tracks from the Bleed album.  What made it such a special occasion was that Tina even came over, had a chat and promptly signed our CD!

That CD has pride of place in my music collection and has traveled with me all over the world.  I fondly remember sitting on my backpack on the floor at Amsterdam Sentraal Station, having arrived in the Dutch capital by coach from London in the wee hours of the morning, listening to Tina Schouw on my CD player while the city woke up around me.

The Missus and I again had the pleasure of attending a performance by Tina, together with Dave Ledbetter at the lovely Kirstenbosch Restaurant on an annual visit home to Cape Town a couple of years ago.

It was a typical winters-evening at the foot of Table Mountain.  It was cold and wet outside but inside Tina Schouw, a cozy fireplace and some fine locally-bottled reds made it all good.

I am proud to call Tina Schouw my Cape Town connection and FaceBook friend and would like to introduce her as this weekend’s featured artist on the Victoria Harbour Sundowner Sessions:

Not like you (Tina Schouw)

Miss Jones from Fish Hoek says:

Catch more on Tina Schouw on her website or on Music.org.za

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Howzit-HongKong.com will feature a YouTube clip of one South African music legend every Friday as part of what we like to call The Victoria Harbour Sundowner Sessions. I am fortunate to be living right next to one of the most stunning working harbours in the world… Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. I often find myself staring across the Harbour at night, with the lights dimmed and one of my favourite musicians from home over the speakers. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do…