When Phyl Lobl toured Australia for the Australian Folk Trust, the posters read simply ‘Phyl Lobl Songmaker’. I thought that was a fine way to describe just what this woman does. Song making is Phyl’s craft. She shapes words and music the way a woodturner works the wood, expressing the heights of joy in ‘Love is Like a Swallow’ or baring the depths of human frailty in the riveting song that gives this album its name. Sometimes her songs express universal themes and at other times have a razor’s edge contemporary relevance. In short, these are the essential works of one human being who has spent a lot of time, thought and feeling mastering her chosen craft of song. Reluctant though she is to admit it her songs frequently transcend the folk idiom in which she chooses to work. These songs have something to say to a lot of people and a lot to say to some people. They will outlast the mindless trivia with which the media of our mad world continually saturates us. For some of us this record has been a labour of love and that is the spirit in which it is offered. Graham Seal 1980