By Ashleigh Fielding | posted on January 23, 2020
FOR those lucky listeners tuned into our radio station Gold MX on Tuesday morning, there was a surprise live performance from Albany’s own The Waifs singer Vikki Thorn.
The band – comprised of Thorn, sister Donna Simpson and Josh Cunningham – is in town for a concert on Saturday at the Albany Entertainment Centre.
Gold MX listeners were treated to Thorn’s singing and guitar playing of Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and a new composition she has been working on.
The Bob Dylan classic was the first song she ever learned to play.
“Donna borrowed a book from the ASHS school library for a couple of years, it was Bob Dylan’s song book,” Thorn reminisced with Gold MX broadcaster Sam Haell.
“She left it laying around so I picked it up and that was the first song I learned.
“Then about three years ago, we came to Albany for a gig and a friend of ours had the book!
“And it was still stamped with the ASHS school library stamp.”
But the real bookend to this story, Thorn says, is the fact that The Waifs got to tour with Dylan himself.
“We had 30 dates through America and on the last night, he got us up to sing Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door with him,” she said.
“I had this incredible moment onstage … Bob Dylan’s right next to us and I had this moment of remembering how I picked up the guitar and played those chords and it all came rushing back to me and I thought, here I am, standing next to Bob Dylan. It was very, very cool.”
