Record shop owner Brian “Frog” Harris is rolling up his sleeves and personally supporting Believe, the first album in 11 years from star singer John “Swanee” Swan. 

And believe Frog does, himself a veteran of more than 45 years in the music industry.

“Swanee is one of these characters, these legends, that have been out of the spotlight for a whole stack of reasons for a long time, but remains much loved,” says Harris, a former record company executive and long-time owner of Songland Records in Cooleman Court, Weston Creek.

Swanee, the older brother of singer Jimmy Barnes, is known for his ’80s hits If I Were a Carpenter and Lady What’s Your Name. He replaced Angry Anderson as lead singer for the Party Boys, scoring a number one hit with He’s Gonna Step On You Again, before going solo after two years with the band in 1989.

He was SA Senior Australian of the Year in 2015 and in 2017 awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM), “for service to music as a performer, and to the community through charitable organisations”.

“[Swanee] has an amazing pedigree in the music industry, and though that should stand up on its own, the music is also something else,” says Frog. 

Believe features 16 tracks, 15 duets and 14 covers of music by the likes of Santana, Stevie Wonder and Ian Moss. 

Singing with Swannie include family members Jimmy, Alan and Mahalia Barnes and mates Kevin Borich, Joe Camilleri, Diesel, Colin Hay, Jack Jones, Wendy Matthews, Russell Morris, Ian Moss, Melinda Schneider and Rick Springfield. 

Frog says his industry experience as someone working in the “grey area” between artists and people who buy their music has given him a good idea of what the public likes to listen to. 

Joining the process two thirds of the way into its recording, Frog says Believe is something truly special. 

“When [Swanee] played me the songs he had already worked out, I said they were great songs, but the album needed to be balanced,” he says. 

“I suggested some songs to him and he took all of those requests on board.

“Those songs were added into what he already had and that made the package we have today.

“Every track on the record is warranted and there for a reason.” 

Similar to Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, Frog says Believe takes listeners on a journey. 

“It’s sequential,” he says. 

Once the tracks were finalised, Frog took over running the project to organise the packaging, manufacturing, promotion and contact with Swanee’s fans. 

Unlike most new releases, Believe will not be made available on streaming platforms for “a long time, if at all”.

While the norm for many new releases is to stream them automatically, Frog has put his foot down. 

“I don’t care about [streaming] simply because the artist won’t make enough to even buy a Chiko Roll,” he says. 

“Swanee and I spent two years creating this magnificent album, and I’m not giving it away.”

Available on vinyl and CD, Frog says the permanency of buying music is a much more special bond for listeners than simply streaming a song or two. 

“It’s really important that a person is acknowledged as both a musician and as a human, and [Swanee] totally deserves the permanency in someone’s life,” he says. 

Although hard to choose a favourite song, Frog has a soft spot for Brother of Mine, a song by Steve Kipner and Tommy Emmanuel, sung with Swanee’s brothers, Jimmy and Alan Barnes. 

“That was the start of the project,” says Frog. 

“This album is about family, it’s about friends and it’s about soul, because the whole seed for this project was that he wanted to record a song with his two brothers.”

Believe’s first pressing sold out after its August 1 release and they’re now well into the second.

Believe, available at johnswan.net.au, Songland Records, Cooleman Court, Weston Creek and record stores.