A Lanarkshire writer will release an emotional song about Hamilton this week.
Poet Martin Stepek wrote the lyrics to the track titled Hamilton Rain to highlight the topics of fear, trauma and recovery ahead of this month's Mental Health Awareness Week.
The song is narrated by a soldier serving abroad and at the end of his tether, as he yearns for his home in the Lanarkshire town.
Inspired by his own heritage, as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine, Martin tells a heart-wrenching story through his lyrics with several local landmarks referenced such as the Mausoleum and the Cadzow Burn.
It is performed by Motherwell singer Pat O'Neill after being professionally recorded at Foundry Creative Alchemy's studio, and is expected to be officially released by the end of this week, available on Spotify and Apple Music.
Martin, 63, is also a mindfulness teacher and author, and will hold a special event on May 12 at the Burnbank Centre as part of this year's Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival.
Here, he will discuss the making of the song while bringing attention to important issues surrounding mental health.
Martin told Lanarkshire Live : "I remember thinking I don't know a single song about Hamilton, where I live.
"So the thinking was telling the story of the horrors of war from a soldier's point of view, and now with the situation in Ukraine, which is where my dad happened to be born by total coincidence.
"I'm a mental wellbeing teacher so the issues of trauma and fear I know about, and then also a song about Hamilton is well overdue."
In the song, Martin writes "Oh Hamilton, I need you. Your lions and the dome", as well as giving a nod to other local references: "I want to watch the Cadzow Burn flow, and let it heal my broken state."
Now he hopes people can engage with the mental health side of the song at a local level.
Martin explained: "I thought this was a very good time to discuss creating a song about mental wellbeing as the lyrics are both very dark but left again towards the end.
"The whole idea is basically getting people to be empathetic towards others who are struggling, and the also to show people there are routes to recovery.
"My dad was not only born in what is now Ukraine at the start of the Second World War, he and his family were taken to Russia to labour camps. His mother died of hunger and his father died in the Polish Resistance in their 30s and 40s.
"That is my heritage, so it does touch me quite a lot when I see things on the news and it becomes a reflection about my own history.
"It's really just an awareness that tragedies like this and traumas is not just a thing of the past, it's still there, and there are still people living in Hamilton who are probably still trying to recover from having served in places like Afghanistan or places even earlier."
You can search for the song Hamilton Rain on the usual streaming services from Friday, May 6, under Pat O'Neill.
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