Angel's Hand

ANGEL’S HAND
(Written by Andrew Carswell, Nadine Budge, John Bartholomeusz)

Andrew Carswell was the original mandolin player with the The Stetson Family, and a multi-instrumentalist with two iconic Australian bands, Not Drowning, Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake. He was a life-long friend of Stetson Family member John Bartholomeusz, starting school together when they were five years old. He was one of the funniest, kindest, cheekiest, most intelligent people I’ve ever met! We had so much fun together, playing, writing and touring. In 2012 Andrew was diagnosed with liver cancer. He chose to keep this quiet for as long as possible and kept playing and touring as much as he could whilst having treatments. Angel’s Hand was a song he’d part written in the early days of his diagnosis. John, Andy and I had played it around the kitchen table, and then, for some reason, we never finished it. Andy sadly passed away in 2016, on his own terms, having played his last show with us only five days before he died. As I was going back through an old computer looking for photos of us for his memorial, I came across the recording of Andy, John and I playing the unfinished version of Angel’s Hand. I finished the words, took it to the rest of the band, everyone putting their personal touches on it, and now here it is on The Stars, If You Look Closely. We send it out to Andy and really hope he likes it!