If you’re already a member of the Dr. Bonnie Henry Fan Club, you’re really going to enjoy this.
Order of Canada jazz musician Phil Dwyer, who also happens to be a lawyer from Qualicum Beach, has written a heartfelt tune aptly named ‘The Ballad of Bonnie Henry’ with the help of a few other dedicated musicians.
The song was written as a tribute to B.C.’s provincial health officer and features Tina Jones on voice and banjo, Daniel Lapp on fiddle, Ben Dwyer on acoustic bass, with Phil Dwyer on the music, lyrics and production.
Rick Salt from Mountainview Studio mixed and mastered the recording in Nanaimo.
Dwyer originally crafted the lyrics to the song in his head after a concert in Qualicum Beach – the next morning, he got up, wrote the lyrics, and posted them online.
“I thought, I’m just going to pop this on the interweb because it’s gotta be better than looking at some clip of a Donald Trump press conference,” Dwyer said.
“And a couple of friends of mine got back to me right away.”
He was then able to quickly put together a crew musicians to set the lyrics to music, and the ballad was created.
You can listen to the doctor-inspired masterpiece here:
And here are the lyrics:
She comes on the radio, just around 3
with the public health news for the folks of BC
and to talk of a crisis, of a scope yet unseen
with an ungainly moniker, COVID-19
From the start, at the top of her list of demands,
was we lather with soap and please wash off our hands,
and as things took a turn for the worse day by day,
that we keep friends and neighbours a good six feet away
She’s had lots of help in her search for a fix,
not the least of whom is Mr. Adrian Dix,
in the eyes of the public though, she’s been the one
that has been with us since this whole thing has begun,
As nurses and doctors proceed with their tasks,
and pray for enough ventilators and masks,
she asks us to all help and flatten the curve,
and that from her health policy we do not swerve,
If we all stick together and see this thing through
we can show what a civil society can do
when it’s faced with a threat that first seemed unreal
but that now, it is obvious, is the real deal
So please follow the guidelines that she has laid out
it is going to be worth it, of that there’s no doubt
and if you turn on your radio, just around 3
the voice that you hear is of Bonnie Henry
