Liverpool has produced generations of musicians whose stories have travelled far beyond the city. Siobhan Maher Kennedy’s journey is a particularly fascinating one.
Best known to many as the voice of River City People, Siobhan went from Liverpool’s music scene to major label success before eventually building a new life thousands of miles away in Nashville. Yet, as she explains in the latest episode of Misadventures in Music, Liverpool has never really left her.
Joining Ian Prowse and Mick Ord for a wonderfully warm conversation, Siobhan looks back over a life that has seemingly always had music running through it.
Growing Up Surrounded by Liverpool Music
For Siobhan, music didn’t begin with dreams of record contracts or appearing on television. It began at home.
Her father, Billy Maher, was a well known figure in Liverpool music and broadcasting, while both of her parents performed together on the city’s club and cabaret circuit.
Siobhan remembers watching them head out to gigs laughing and return home in the early hours still laughing. It gave her an early impression of something that would ultimately shape her own life: music could be a job, but it could also be enormous fun.
The stories from this period provide a fascinating glimpse into another era of Liverpool entertainment, when working men’s clubs, cabaret venues and packed social clubs provided regular work for some extraordinarily talented musicians and entertainers.
There are also some wonderful connections to Liverpool’s wider musical history buried within Siobhan’s family story, including one involving her father, a young telephone engineer and a certain Liverpool band who were about to change popular music forever.
We’ll leave Siobhan to tell that one.
Finding River City People
After studying film and television and briefly pursuing a career in broadcasting, Siobhan eventually returned to Liverpool with one ambition that refused to disappear.
She wanted to sing.
Finding like minded musicians back home eventually led to River City People, a band that would take Siobhan from Liverpool venues to a major record deal with EMI and national recognition.
For anyone who remembers the music industry of the late 1980s and early 1990s, this part of the conversation is particularly revealing.
It was an era before streaming, social media and musicians being able to build substantial audiences independently. Record companies could transform careers, and getting signed could feel like the dividing line between making it and disappearing.
More Than California Dreamin’
River City People will inevitably be associated with their successful version of California Dreamin’, but revisiting their catalogue reveals a band with considerably more going on beneath the surface.
Ian admits during the podcast that going back to those records reminded him how much political and social commentary could be found within the band’s songs.
Siobhan talks about some of those subjects and the decisions the band made when they felt strongly about an issue, even when doing so wasn’t necessarily the easiest option for a young group signed to a major label.
There are stories here that might surprise people whose memory of River City People begins and ends with their biggest hit.
There are also some extraordinary moments from touring at a time when history itself seemed to be changing around them.
But we’ll save those for the podcast.
Liverpool to Nashville
River City People represents only one chapter of Siobhan’s musical life.
Her journey eventually took her across the Atlantic to Nashville, where she has lived for many years while maintaining a strong connection with Liverpool.
Nashville opened another world of songwriters, musicians, producers and collaborations, and the conversation takes some wonderful detours into the people Siobhan has encountered along the way.
Her solo album Immigrant Flower perhaps captures that journey most clearly, exploring the experience of leaving Liverpool and creating a life in America.
Yet spending so much time around American musicians has also given Siobhan a different perspective on the city she left behind.
Sometimes it takes moving thousands of miles away to realise just how extraordinary Liverpool’s musical reputation is to the rest of the world.
That becomes particularly apparent when the conversation inevitably turns to The Beatles and the reverence that still surrounds Liverpool musicians in America
Bringing Two Music Cities Together
Today, Siobhan’s story is increasingly about connecting the two places she calls home.
Liverpool and Nashville are very different cities, but songwriting sits at the heart of both.
Siobhan talks about her ambition to bring musicians from the two cities together, creating opportunities for Liverpool songwriters to work with their Nashville counterparts and share ideas, experiences and songs.
It’s an exciting prospect and feels like a natural continuation of a journey that began watching her parents heading out to perform on Liverpool’s club circuit.
There might even be another chapter waiting for Siobhan herself on stage.
Towards the end of the conversation, Ian starts planting a few ideas about performing again and what a show built around Siobhan’s extraordinary musical journey might look like.
We’ll leave it there.
Misadventures in Music with Siobhan Maher Kennedy
What makes this episode such an enjoyable listen is the familiarity between the people in the room.
Ian and Siobhan have known each other for years, and Liverpool being Liverpool, names, bands, venues and musicians continually connect one story to another.
Mick occasionally has the unenviable task of trying to keep them both somewhere near the original question.
The result is exactly what Misadventures in Music was created for.
Not simply a discussion about hits and albums, but the stories that happen around them: the decisions, friendships, chance encounters, ridiculous situations and unexpected turns that make a life in music interesting in the first place.
From growing up immersed in Liverpool’s music scene to River City People, major label success, Nashville and what might come next, Siobhan Maher Kennedy has plenty of misadventures to tell.
Watch the full episode of Misadventures in Music with Ian Prowse & Mick Ord below.
