Rhythms January-February 2022

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Best of 2021 Paul Kelly Elvis Costello Katie Bates Margo Cilker Charles Jenkins Don McGlashan Erin Rae Dom Turner ….and more.

HISTORY

Spencer P. Jones Vince Melouney Summer of Soul

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20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION

New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers Volume 2

Maria Muldaur Let’s Get Happy Together SPCD 1429

Fiona Boyes Blues In My Heart

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Guy Davis Be Ready When I Call You MC - 0088 3 CD + 2 LP

Alligator Records 50 Years Of Genuine Houserockin’ Music

Elvin Bishop + Charlie Musselwhite 100 Years Of Blues ALCD 5004

Volume No. 309 January/February 2022

HISTORY

ALL THE WAY WITH SPJ 52

An excerpt from the new biography of Spencer P. Jones and a run down on the tribute album. By Patrick Emery.

BRONX BLUES 58

Dion returns with a new album and at just the right age for a blues veteran. By Brian Wise

UPFRONT

09 The Word. By Brian Wise Sampler #16 Our Download Card!

10 Rhythms Only available to subscribers!

12 Readers Poll 2021 14 Writers Best Of 2021 20 Musicians Choices 2021 24 Mark Gillespie R.I.P. 25 Bluesfest Update 27 Nashville Skyline By Anne McCue

COVER STORY

28 WOMADELAIDE IN FOCUS

It’s the 30th anniversary of Womadelaide and Rhythms has been there almost from the start. We look back on the history of the festival and we also catch up with Paul Kelly and Gordon Koang.

FEATURES

The story of one of the most notable Australian guitarists of the rock and pop era. By Ian McFarlane

SUMMER OF SOUL 66

A vital documentary of a landmark concert that is finally getting recognition. By James Gaunt

COLUMNS

69 33 1/3 Revelations: The Upsetter. By Martin Jones Album: Deep Purple’s Machine Head.

70 ByClassic Billy Pinnell 71 72 73

Lost In The Shuffle: Willis Alan Ramsey’s lone solo album.

By Keith Glass

Underwater Is Where The Action Is.

By Christopher Hollow

You Won’t Hear This On Radio:

By Trevor J. Leeden

Twang! Americana Roundup.

pursue her music. By Denise Hylands

75

Musician Ed Bates.

Broadbeach . By Sam Fell

REVIEWS

BACKSLIDING AWAY 43

Dom Turner is one of the many acts at this year’s Blues On WANDERING STAR 44

After extensive travels and three EPs, Margo Cilker releases an impressive album. By Denise Hylands

BEST LAID PLANS 45

The musical evolution of Katie Bates has marched on unchecked

By Samuel J. Fell

CHARLES IN CHARGE 46

A radio gig inspires a surprising new album from Charles Jenkins.

By Jeff Jenkins

IS DON IS GOOD 48

A fourth solo album from a New Zealand legend, Don McGlashan.

51

SOUNDS OF THE CITY: VINCE MELOUNEY

75

SEEING THE LIGHT 42

Nashville born and raised; Erin Rae dropped out of college to

50

60

Waitin’ Around To Die: 2021 In Review.

Costello shows a musician busier than ever. By Brian Wise

49

thoughts on His Bobness.

74

ELVIS COSTELLO 38

Six projects in a year, including a new rockin’ album, from Elvis

Illustration by Leyla Bulmer leylabulmer.com

GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY 59

Some of the Australian cast members of the hit musical share their

By Chris Lambie

SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT!

JD Wilkes talks about the new Legendary Shack Shakers album, Cockadoodledeux. By Denise Hylands

JAN WITH A VAN

A rootsy road trip has inspired a rollicking new book by this radio presenter. By Jeff Jenkins.

COUNTRY LIFE

Born in Ohio, living in Montana and recording in Oregon, Riddy Arman is one of the discoveries of last year. By Denise Hylands

77

By Chris Familton

By Denise Hylands

By Nick Charles

FEATURE ALBUM REVIEWS:

Steve Tyson, Four Lions, Jamestown Revival, Swanee, GB3, Asleep At The Reel, Dave Wright & The Midnight Express, Richard Madden, The Blues Preachers.

88 GENERAL ALBUMS 91 Blues: By Al Hensley 92 World Music & Folk: By Tony Hillier 93 Jazz 1: By Tony Hillier 94 Jazz 2: By Des Cowley 95 Vinyl: By Steve Bell 96 Books 1 Hot Stuff and Long Players. By Des Cowley 97 Books Too! John Lurie’s The History of Bones. By Stuart Coupe 99 Film. The Beatles: Get Back. By Brian Wise 100 Hello & Goodbye By Sue Barrett

5

CREDITS Managing Editor: Brian Wise Senior Contributor: Martin Jones Senior Contributors: Michael Goldberg / Stuart Coupe Design & Layout: Sally Syle - Sally’s Studio Accounts: Alicia Wise Website/Online Management: Robert Wise Proofreading: Gerald McNamara

CONTRIBUTORS Sue Barrett Steve Bell Nick Charles John Cornell Des Cowley Stuart Coupe Meg Crawford Brett Leigh Dicks Chris Familton Samuel J. Fell Keith Glass Megan Gnad Michael Goldberg (San Francisco) Al Hensley

Tony Hillier Christopher Hollow Denise Hylands Jeff Jenkins Martin Jones Chris Lambie Trevor J. Leeden Warwick McFadyen Ian McFarlane Anne McCue (Nashville) Billy Pinnell Jo Roberts Michael Smith Bernard Zuel

2021 CMAA Golden Guitar, Australian Folk Music and Music Victoria Award Winners

CONTACTS Advertising: admin@rhythms.com.au Festival Coverage Contact: denisetwang@hotmail.com Rates/Specs/Deadlines: bookings@rhythms.com.au Subscription Enquiries: subscriber@rhythms.com.au General Enquiries: admin@rhythms.com.au

SOCIALS Facebook: facebook.com/rhythms.magazine Twitter: twitter.com/rhythmsmag Instagram: instagram.com/rhythmsmagazine

PUBLISHER RHYTHMS MAGAZINE PTY LTD PO BOX 5060 HUGHESDALE VIC 3166 Printing: Spotpress Pty Ltd Distribution: Fairfax Media 6

NEW ALBUM YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW OUT FRIDAY 4TH MARCH PRE-ORDER NOW!

“…up there with the finest Americana music you’ll hear this year.” - The Music

Album Launch SATURDAY 5TH MARCH The Thornbury Theatre, Thornbury, VIC with The Cartridge Family

www.theweepingwillows.com.au

tickets now on sale at dashvilleskyline.com.au

STUART COUPE PRESENTS

ALBERT LOSS With debut single Pupunya Road, Country singer-songwriter Albert Loss throws his Stetson into the ring of Australian folk storytellers. Over the last two years the Perth-based songsmith has quietly forged a reputation for his plainspoken and intimate tales of love, pain, and redemption, and on Pupunya Road his credentials are on full display. Opening down-and-out, Loss reflects on the trials and tribulations of life that find him drinking in a red centre roadhouse with nothing more than a dog and a car to his name. “Some people just attract hard times, ain’t nothing they can do” he ruminates over a strutting Nashville groove and a wandering pedal steel from the eminent Jy Perry-Banks before giving way to a yearning widescreen chorus replete with lush harmonies courtesy of fellow Perth prodigy Siobhan Cotchin. From world-weary meditation on misfortune to tender declarations of fatherly love, Pupunya Road showcases both Loss’ ear for infectious songwriting and his knack for heartbreaking honesty

COREY LEGGE Wollongong-based singer-songwriter Corey Legge releases his brand new single ‘What Now?’ on Friday 28th January 2022, via Good Stem Records (MGM). Recorded at Love Hz Studios in Sydney NSW with award-winning country producer Matt Fell, this 3rd single/title track from Corey’s forthcoming 3rd album is an upbeat bitter-sweet alt-country/rock song.

With its catchy vocal and lapsteel melodies, driving drums and poignant lyrics reminiscent of Paul Kelly and Bernard Fanning, this song tells a gripping tale of tragedy, loss and hope all in one. This heartfelt track is sure to strike a chord with anyone who lived through the Black Summer Bushfires. Corey will be opening the show for Amber Lawrence and Catherine Britt on Friday 4th February at Smokey Dan’s in Tomakin (NSW) to launch the single, with the album set for release in early March 2022. Corey’s merchandise, previous two albums, and show tickets are on sale now via coreylegge.com

THE KINDLY RAVENS Bittersweet Lie is the follow up to The Kindly Ravens debut single Silver and Gold, both of which will be on their forthcoming album, which will be released early 2022.

Whilst the song has a very upbeat feel, it has a duality in its meaning. On one hand it is about the way we tell ourselves little lies in relationships when things are going well, hoping that things will get better. It also touches on unrequited love. It tells how we can often lie to ourselves in hopeless situations, where you may love someone but it isn’t reciprocated.

The track was recorded at the same session as Silver and Gold along with other songs, Cemetery of Broken Hearts, Nevermore and a duet If I Let You. These were all done with Producer Jason Millhouse at Recordworks.

Fiddle was played by Pete Denahy and Jason played the Ganjo thekindlyravens.com

PETE CULLEN The Saltwater Cowboy Pete Cullen is back with his brand new single “Talkin’ Honestly”.

Pete has teamed up with long time mate Jy Perry Banks and Heartsville Records to deliver a fresh sound of Cosmic Coastal Country. Pete describes their working relationship, “It’s like a match made in The Eagles meets Kenny Rogers meets surfing vibes heaven.” The Talkin’ Honestly music video produced by Zac Walker is 5 stars, bringing back some late 70’s, even 80’s, vibes that will satisfy any country music lover.

Pete will finally be hitting the road in 2022 performing in Tamworth in January and Melbourne and Sydney in February. “It was pretty tough as I released High Tide in late 2019 and had tours and a writing trip to Nashville lined up before Covid struck”. Pete & Jy are currently working on an album which will be released September 2022, keep your eyes out for the new single Heavy Damage dropping in February 2022. instagram.com/petecullenandthehurt

WAYNE GILLESPIE AND FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT A track inspired by listening to African artists such as Papa Wemba and Kanda Bongo Man - Built around Rob Grosser’s drum rhythms and in the hands of Singer/ Songwriter Wayne Gillespie this track has become a blend of Folk/Rock/Pop and West African N’Dombolo dance music. Features the joyous vocals of Sydney vocalist Evelyn Duprai and the Saxophones of Rick Robertson (ex D.I.G). The second single from an album due for release in 2022 followed by live gigs for the band in 2022. famousblueraincoatfbr.com

NEW MORNING I

THE PLEASURES The Pleasures are Catherine Britt and Lachlan Bryan. It’s a collaboration that began with a few late night texts and quickly spiralled into a feverish week of writing and recording in Melbourne, where the pair would dream up songs into the early hours, then head to the studio next morning to lay them down.

First single, The Beginning of the End is exciting. Full of the sass and spark you’d expect from this pairing. Themes of recklessness and lust abound.

“Lachlan and I have always clicked in life and in song. These songs came so easy - they flowed out of us like a raging stream”, says Catherine.

“Catherine sounds authentic because she is authentic. When she opens her mouth and sings you can hear the neon lights buzzing, you can taste the tequila and you can barely see for the cloud of smoke”, added Lachlan. facebook.com/CateAndLach

t is difficult to believe that life is allegedly getting back to ‘normal’ - whatever the new ‘normal’ is. I am certain that things will never quite be exactly the same as they were prior to the pandemic. It seems a dream to consider that we will be soon seeing international acts back here after an absence of nearly two years. We are really looking forward to the forthcoming festival season and trips to Adelaide, Byron Bay and other Australian (and maybe New Zealand) locations. People were very excited as things got back into gear with the Out on The Weekend festival in Melbourne last month. It was like a reunion of old friends as we caught up with people we had not seen at gigs for 6 months or more. The forthcoming festivals will also be a celebration.

“The night passed away so quickly….”

– Bob Dylan.

Kudos to the promoters, venue owners, record labels and musicians who have managed to survive the past two years. I hope that 2022 is good to you and that the music scene thrives after what has been its most testing time.

Many of these companies have supported the magazine, despite their own predicaments, and we really appreciate it.

side benefit has been the time to work on the magazine and consider its future as one of the few Australian music magazines still in print. Of course, keeping a 104-page magazine going cannot happen without the writers whose knowledge and enthusiasm have helped sustain us. Part of the joy of editing the magazine is discovering, along with you, the music that is uncovered by our writers. On your behalf, I thank them for their contributions and astonishing ability to meet deadlines. A special thanks also to Sally, our graphic designer who has done a fantastic job with much grace under pressure. I am looking forward to another year. Then there are family members and friends who have been enlisted to help with the mailing of the magazine and must be thanked heartily for their unstinting efforts.

I must also once again thank the Rhythms subscribers for helping to keep the magazine alive. It has been a struggle but I have been lifted up by your support and your positive comments. Being somewhat accidentprone over the past year or so, I have had plenty of confinement time to read your emails and they have buoyed me. Another

Despite the pandemic and the lockdown – or perhaps because of them - there seemed to have been an incredible number of highquality albums released during 2021. This was especially true of the Australian contingent, and it was really pleasing to see Liz Stringer and Vika & Linda do so well. The Readers Poll results certainly reflect the quality of releases

during the year. But if you dig deeper into the choices of all the writers and musicians who have contributed their thoughts you will no doubt be amazed at the breadth of their choices. A friend confessed to me that when he was filling in the Readers Poll form online, he was surprised at just how many artists and titles were new to him. Mission accomplished!

As we approach the magazine’s 30th anniversary we have a chance to look to the future. Our immediate concern is to prepare the March/April issue and the magazine’s 30th birthday. There are a lot of other ideas to consider as well. We are still wrestling with the whole digital/print dichotomy and how we approach that. It would be great to have everyone as print and digital subscribers because we could then offer a lot more up to date editorial content. Over the next few months, we will certainly be placing some old issues of the magazine in the digital domain – although this involves scanning issues from the first few years because the pages were not always kept on a computer. I am sure that as we approach our fourth decade you will enjoy looking back on some of our earliest (and sometimes clumsiest efforts). I would be really interested in hearing your thoughts.

Welcome to 2022…….

I hope you have a great year.

Until next edition…….enjoy the music.

Brian Wise OAM, Editor admin@rhythms.com.au 9

16. Makin’ Memories

CE LE B R ATE SU M M ER A N D FR EE D O M !

W

Melissa Carper From: Daddy’s Country Gold.

(Love Police Records & Tapes).

BT From Love Police reckons she sounds something like “Karen Dalton cruisin’ through the Texas Hill Country. The sound of THAT VOICE (is) undeniable”. Melissa has been making waves in Nashville and Texas and we’ll be hearing a lot more about her here too! lovepolice.com.au

elcome to Rhythms Sampler #16 which not only contains some of the best tracks of 2021 but also some previews of what is to come. We have 20 hand-picked tracks for you to enjoy for the next two months until the next issue rolls around.

This download is available to all print plus print & digital subscribers ONLY. You can add the songs to your library, or you can also create your own CDs with the tracks (email us if you don’t know how).

If you are not a member of the Rhythms family, then you need to join to get a fabulous sampler each issue. Please go to rhythms.com.au/subscribe and join us.

Thank you to all the musicians and record companies that have donated songs.

Thank you also to all the subscribers who have made this possible.

SIDE A

5.

1.

2.

3.

4.

10

Hand Grenade Vika & Linda Written by Jemma Rowlands and Mick Thomas. From the album The Wait, released 18 years after their last studio album! After their anthology and gospel albums topped the charts this followed, making them Australia’s most-loved duo since Olivia Newton-John and Pat Carroll.

(We might be exaggerating slightly there!). Courtesy of Bloodlines Music.

Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young) Richard Clapton From: Music Is Love 1966-1970.

Don’t call him a heritage act! He’s still recording his own songs but here Ralph is taking a break to pay homage to some of the acts that influenced him in his youth. As he says: “doing this album was a way of connecting with my musical past, or, more accurately, my musical beginnings.”

The Ones We Love Georgia State Line From the album In Colour, this is yet another example of the great song writing and vocal talents of Georgia Delves who is a rising star and has made a great impression with this debut album.

Faded Roses (J.T.Earle) Rebecca Barnard with Shane O’Mara.

From: Music From Yikesville 2020.

Our tribute song of the year.

This is Rebecca’s superb tribute to Justin Townes Earle who left the building last year leaving a legacy of great songs.

The Yikesville compilation also includes superlative versions of some classic songs.

6.

7.

8.

Corner of Bent Street & High Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission From City’s Calling Me, this song was originally recorded by The Legends of Motorsport and just happens to be the Editor’s favourite track off the album. Another great lockdown release from one of Melbourne’s most respected songwriters.

You Will Surely Love Again Chris Wilson From Live At The Continental, one of the great Australian live albums of all time (if not the greatest). Featuring the magnificent and unique voice of Chris Wilson who walked like a giant on the Melbourne music scene. The re-released version of the album features many bonus tracks that add to its greatness. Available at: cheersquadrecordstapes.bandcamp.com Every Song I Ever Wrote The Luke Sinclair Set From: Heavy Dreams. Luke Sinclair has been making incredible music with his band ‘Raised By Eagles’ since their first Album release in 2013. However, during the lockdown Luke took the opportunity to release his debut ‘solo’ album and it is one of the year’s best. Available at: thelukesinclairset.bandcamp.com

Dandy Stomp Even

From: Reverse Light Years

(on El Reno). Melbourne indie icons led by Ashley Naylor - of Paul Kelly, Rockwiz, The Stems and The Church fame – Even have just released their first ever double album. The Guardian music writer Andrew Stafford has called it a “masterpiece” and it was their first ever ARIA Top 20 album.

Look out for January launches in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. elrenomusic.com.au

9.

Golden Spun Seasick Steve From: Blues In Mono (Cheersquad Records & Tapes).

As a surprise for his fans in lockdown, much-loved American bluesman Seasick Steve - who first played Australia for Bluesfest in 2008 - released a collection of solo acoustic blues as a digitalonly treat in November 2020. The album finally gets a proper release - on LP and CD - early December. cheersquadrecordstapes.bandcamp.com

10. Time

Alex Hamilton From: Sweetest Wine (Love Police Records & Tapes). Rapturously received in the Acid Country Bar at Out On The Weekend, Alex is a Melbourne scene regular best known as an accompanist (for Grace Cummings and others) - who has finally stepped out with an album of his own. Neil, Bob, and maybe a touch of ‘Soul Journey’ Gillian go into the mix. lovepolice.com.au

Cahill Kelly From: Classical and Cool Jazz (Cheersquad Records & Tapes). Kelly plays with Grace Cummings and others and makes classic rock/pop with strong roots and classic reference points including Randy Newman and John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band.

His debut album includes guest spots from Grace Cummings and Harmony Byrne and he’s launching it at the Brunswick Ballroom January 20. cheersquadrecordstapes.bandcamp.com

Don McGlashan From: Bright November Morning.

(MGM). Originally slated for late 2021 release, the new album from Internationally-revered New Zealand Singer/Songwriter Don McGlashan - ex-Mutton Birds and a frequent Neil Finn collaborator – is out Feb 25 and we’ll be seeing him at Port Fairy Folk Festival and elsewhere in March. donmcglashan.com

James Mccann (From Various Artists Album) From: All The Way With SPJ, Vol.1 (Beast Records/Spooky Records).

Coinciding with the release of Patrick Emery’s wonderful Spencer P Jones biography comes a new tribute album dedicated to the man and his songs. All The Way with SPJ includes exclusive tracks from the Violent Femmes, Jim Moginie, Alejandro Escovedo, Chris Bailey (from The Saints), Adalita, Kid Congo and others, including album co-producer James McCann.

All proceeds from Bandcamp digital download go to Support Act. spookyrecords.com

20. Sundial

Tumbleweed

From the Limited Edition 30th Anniversary 7” Singles boxset.

(Farmer & The Owl). Wollongong icons, Tumbleweed were Triple J faves back in the day and played many a Big Day Out; they even played with Nirvana and their heavy ‘60s psychedelic sounds have been hugely influential. Celebrating their 30th Anniversary, the band has released a deluxe box featuring 12 7” singles and are hitting the road for a big anniversary tour. www.facebook.com/TumbleweedGong

Subscribe to Rhythms Print or Print & Digital today and we’ll send you our EXCLUSIVE SAMPLER FULL OF GREAT MUSIC ....AVAILABLE ONLY TO SUBSCRIBERS GO TO: rhythms.com.au/subscribe

ANOTHER GREAT RHYTHMS SAMPLER! EXCLUSIVELY FOR RHYTHMS SUBSCRIBERS:

Vika & Linda, Richard Clapton, Georgia State Line, Rebecca Barnard, Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission, Luke Sinclair Set, Even, Seasick Steve, Alex Hamilton, Cahill Kelly, The Delines, Warumpi Band, Mylee Grace, Don McGlashan, Melissa Carper, Checkerboard Lounge, Delsinki, James McCann, Tumbleweed.

Mylee Grace From: Whiplash In The Moshpit (Love Police Records & Tapes) Mylee Grace’s music has been described as “Music that makes you feel like you’re on holidays with friends.” It is in some ways a distinctively Australian sound, but not in any traditional way. It’s not country; more like country’s coastal cousin maybe. lovepolice.com.au

15. Go Back In

19. What Is Life In Jail

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 RHYTHMS SAMPLER #16

14. Call Me

11. Bluesday Chews

The Delines From: Sea Drift. (Love Police Records & Tapes). Second single from longawaited new album by Willy Vlautin (Richmond Fontaine and acclaimed author) and friends’ dark country soul combo. The album Sea Drift is out in February. lovepolice.com.au Warumpi Band From: Warumpi Rock: Papunya Session 1982 (Love Police Records & Tapes). The first ever complete release of the first ever Warumpi Band recording session sees the band get their ya ya’s out live to 2-track on a healthy diet of Chuck Berry, Stones and more. lovepolice.com.au

Checkerboard Lounge From: Sun Sessions. (Cheersquad Records & Tapes). The Melbourne blues/R&B institution – these days featuring Carl Pannuzzo, Shannon Bourne, Tim Neal and Amos Sheehan – journeyed to Memphis for the 2020 International Blues Challenge, and ended up recording an album at Sun! It’s out Feb 4. cheersquadrecordstapes.bandcamp.com

Delsinki

From: City / Country, out February 11. (Delsinki Records). Taken from the forthcoming new solo album from the enigmatic Melbourne singer/songwriter and member of Brooke Taylor & The Poison Spitting Gin Queens and Row Jerry Crow - who also happens to be the man behind the Keep The Circle Unbroken and Six A Song of Sixpence tours/shows.

‘Navigate The Night’ is a fun ode to Melbourne nightlife. Guests on album include Kylie Auldist, Monique Brumby, award-winning bluegrass musician Hamish Davidson and the late Dion Hirini. bfacebook.com/delsinkirecords

12. Past The Shadows

13. Carol

18. Navigate The Night

SIDE B

17. You Got A Way On You

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Paul Kelly Elvis Costello Katie Bates Margo Cilker Charles Jenkins Don McGlashan Erin Rae Dom Turner ….and more.

HISTORY

Spencer P. Jones Vince Melouney Summer of Soul

$12.95 inc GST JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 ISSUE: 309

READERS POLL

AUSTRALIAN ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

7.

Wonderful Oblivion Charm of Finches

INTERNATIONAL

1.

They’re Calling Me Home Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi

5.

Leftover Feelings John Hiatt & Jerry Douglas

9.

READERS POLL

Ramble In Music City Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers

BEST CONCERT/FESTIVAL

4.

In Colour Georgia State Line

1.

8.

First Time Really Feeling Liz Stringer

Heavy Dreams Luke Sinclair Set

2.

6.

Native Sons Los Lobos

10.

Barn

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Raise The Roof Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

5.

Things Take Time Take Time Courtney Barnett

Midnight Oil Tour, Womadelaide

BEST MUSIC BOOK

2.

9.

The Wait Vika & Linda

I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself Colin Hay

3.

The Million Things That Never Happened Billy Bragg

7.

J.T. Steve Earle & The Dukes

1.

Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of a Troubadour Rickie Lee Jones

BOX SETS/ RE-RELEASES

2.

1.

Beeswing: How I Lost My Way and Found My Voice, 1967-1975 Richard Thompson

Live At The Continental Chris Wilson

6.

3.

Bonecrunch Backsliders

3.

St George’s Road Black Sorrows

Nina Simone’s Gum Warren Ellis

10.

Under These Streets Emma Donovan & The Putbacks

4.

Georgia Blue Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit

8.

BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY

From Dreams To Dust Felice Brothers

2.

Springtime In New York: The Bootleg Series Vol.16 1980-1985 Bob Dylan

3.

Let It Be Beatles

12

The Beatles: Get Back Summer of Soul The Sparks Brothers 13

WRITER,S BEST OF

BRIAN WISE

ALBUMS - AUSTRALIAN 1. First Time Really Feeling - Liz Stringer 2. The Wait – Vika & Linda 3. I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself Colin Hay 4. Heavy Dreams - Luke Sinclair Set 5. In Colour - Georgia State Line 6. Living In Colour - Shane Nicholson 7. St George’s Road - Black Sorrows 8. Music From Yikesville - Various Artists 9. Live In B Town - Perry Keyes 10. Circling Time - Kutcha Edwards ALBUMS - INTERNATIONAL 1. Barn - Neil Young & Crazy Horse 2. Downhill From Everywhere - Jackson Browne 3. Native Sons - Los Lobos 4. Leftover Feelings - John Hiatt & Jerry Douglas 5. Raise The Roof - Alison Krauss & Robert Plant 6. First Agnostic Church of Hope & Wonder Todd Snider 7. The Moon & Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers Valerie June 8. Outside Child - Allison Russell 9. Dragnet - NRBQ 10. The Million Things That Never Happened Billy Bragg 11. The Horses and The Hounds - James McMurtry 12. Stomping Ground - Dion TRIBUTE ALBUM Highway Butterfly: The Songs of Neal Casal Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows Vol.2: The Songs of John Prine BEST BOX SET / COMPILATION Springtime In New York - Bob Dylan All Things Must Pass - George Harrison Let It Be - The Beatles BEST MUSIC BOOK Beeswing - Richard Thompson Unstrung: Rants and Stories of a Noise Guitarist Marc Ribot

14

The History of Bones - John Lurie Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of An American Troubadour - Rickie Lee Jones BEST BOOK (OTHER) Station Eleven – Emily St.John Mandel The Survivors – Jane Harper BEST MUSIC FILMS Without Getting Killed or Caught (Dir. Tamara Saviano & Paul Whitfield) The Beatles: Get Back (Dir. Peter Jackson) Love In Bright Landscapes: The Story of David McComb of The Triffids Karen Dalton: In My Own Time (Dir. Richard Peete & Robert Yapkowitz) Summer of Soul (Dir. Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson) BEST TV SERIES Shetland (and anything else set in Scotland).

The Sinner/Foundation BEST CONCERT/FESTIVAL Womadelaide Out On The Weekend / Boogie BobDylan 80th Birthday Bash – \Archie’s Creek Hotel Shadow Kingdom - Bob Dylan (Online) REDISCOVERY The Man In The Middle EP – Manfred Mann (1965) HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Surviving yet another year (just).

MARTIN JONES

BEST MUSIC FILM/S Summer Of Soul BEST FEATURE FILMS/DOCUMENTARY No Sudden Move BEST FESTIVAL/GIGS Jim White and Ed Kuepper, The Citadel HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Not getting a virus.

STUART COUPE

HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Publishing (With Brian Taranto) Patrick Emery’s Execution Days: The Life And Times Of Spencer P. Jones

DENISE HYLANDS

9. Shade - Grouper 10. Engine - American Music Club BEST COMPILATION REISSUES Let It Be (Super Deluxe) - The Beatles BEST MUSIC BOOKS Hollywood Eden - Joel Selvin When Can I Fly? - Michael Belfer God Is In the Radio - Barney Hoskyns BEST OTHER BOOK The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 - Rachel Kushner BEST MUSIC FILMS Velvet Underground - Todd Haynes Get Back, The Beatles - Peter Jackson The Sparks Brothers - Edgar Wright Shadow Kingdom - Bob Dylan HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Bob Dylan’s return to touring

ANNE McCUE

TOP ALBUMS OF THE YEAR (IN NO ORDER) 1. Topaz - Israel Nash 2. A Little More Time With Reigning Sound 3. Reigning Sound 4. Native Sons - Los Lobos 5. 10 Dubnamic Hits - Mick Dick 6. Things Take Time, Take Time - Courtney Barnett 7. Ten Songs - T Wilds 8. Lindsey Buckingham - Lindsey Buckingham 9. The Friests - The Friests 10. Delta Kream - Black Keys 11. Sweetest Wine - Alex Hamilton BEST COMPILATION REISSUES Déjà Vu - Crosby Stills Nash & Young Carlton Streets - Brian Brown Quintet Warumpi Rock: Papaunya Sessions 1982 Warumpi Band Springtime In New York - Bob Dylan Feel Flows -The Beach Boys

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1. Hey What - Low 2. New Long Leg - Dry Cleaning 3. Promises - Floating Points Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra 4. Things Take Time, Take Time - Courtney Barnett 5. Long Time Coming - Sierra Ferrell 6. From Dreams To Dust - Felice Brothers 7. The Marfa Tapes - Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert & Jon Randall 8. Raise The Roof - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss 9. Superwolves - Bonnie Prince Billy and Matt Sweeney 10. Looks Like Heaven - Kim Cheshire COMPILATION REISSUES Kid A Mnesiac - Radiohead MUSIC BOOK/S Last Chance Texaco - Rickie Lee Jones BEST OTHER BOOK/S The Living Sea Of Waking Dreams Richard Flanagan

BEST FEATURE FILMS/DOCUMENTARY Nomadland BEST FESTIVAL/GIGS William Crighton - The Great Club (Twice)

TOP 10 ALBUMS 1. Daddy’s Country Gold - Melissa Carper 2. Long Time Coming - Sierra Ferrell 3. Music City USA - Charley Crockett 4. The Waylon Sessions - Shannon McNally 5. These 13 - Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird 6. Ramble On - Charlie Marie 7. Bad Romantic - Summer Dean 8. 10 For Slim - Charley Crockett 9. Back Down Home - Tony Kamel 10. Vincent Neil Emerson - Vincent Neil Emerson FESTIVAL OF THE YEAR Out On The Weekend 2021 Boogie ‘21 HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Sweethearts @ Hotel Westwood – November ‘21 And Any Band I Got To See In Between Lockdowns…

MICHAEL GOLDBERG

BEST MUSIC BOOK/S Like Magic In The Streets - Tim Blanchard The History Of Bones - John Lurie Muse Odalisque Handmaiden: A Girl’s Life In The Incredible String - Band Rose Simpson Where The Devil Don’t Stay: Traveling The South With The Drive-By Truckers - Stephen Deusner Nina Simone’s Gum - Warren Ellis Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles Of An American Troubadour - Rickie Lee Jones BEST OTHER BOOK/S Always Crashing In The Same Car Matthew Specktor Jacket Weather - Mike Decapite Let The Lord Sort Them: The Rise And Fall Of The Death Penalty - Mauruce Chammah Afterparties - Anthony Veasna So Ghosts Of New York - Jim Lewis BEST MUSIC FILM/S Sound Of Summer I’m Wanita!

The Velvet Underground Without Getting Killed Or Caught Mccartney 3, 2, 1

TOP ALBUMS OF THE YEAR Live at The Continental – Chris Wilson Sarah’s Half Finished Love Affair - Elle Starski The Comet - Charlie Treat BEST OTHER BOOK/S The Ambassadors by Henry James Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe How We Fight White Supremacy by Akiba Solomon & Kenya Rankin BEST MUSIC FILM/S Karen Dalton: In My Own Time/Get Back BEST FEATURE FILMS/DOCUMENTARY Passing (Directed by Rebecca Hall) HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Playing a live outdoor Festival in Missouri with a band!!

WRITER,S BEST OF

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1. B-Sides and Rarities Vol 2 - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 2. Gold-Diggers Sound - Leon Bridges 3. Under these Streets - Emma Donovan and the Putbacks 4. Year of the Spider - Shannon and the Clams 5. All The Way With SPJ Vol 1 - various 6. Do the Understanding - Ron S Peno and the Superstitions 7. Comfort to Me - Amyl and the Sniffers 8. To Enjoy is the Only Thing - Maple Gl 9. Negativity - The Scientists 10. First Time Really Feeling - Liz Stringer BEST COMPILATION/REISSUE Hurtsville - Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders BEST MUSIC BOOK Tenement Kid – Bobby Gillespie BEST OTHER BOOK This Much is True – Miriam Margolyes BEST MUSIC FILM I am Wanita. It was triumphant and a punch in the guts. It’ll stay with you for a long time.

BEST FEATURE FILM I’m actually going to name a TV series as my favourite other viewing event of the year, namely, Midnight Mass. It’s been months now and I’m still thinking about it.

BEST FESTIVAL/GIG Cash Savage and the Last Drinks – Forum Theater January 2021 HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Seeing RVG play at the Malthouse – my first gig of the year. I was so overexcited, I cried like a baby.

SAM FELL

MEG CRAWFORD

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1. Promises - Floating Points w/ Pharoah Sanders 2. Springtime In New York - Bob Dylan 3. The Blow-Up - Television 4. Hey What - Low 5. Avengers (The Pink Album) 6. Things Take Time Take Time - Courtney Barnett 7. The Less An Object - Sleepers 8. A Love Supreme (Live in Seattle) - John Coltrane

TOP 5 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1. Charley Crockett, Music City, USA 2. GA-20, Does Hound Dog Taylor 3. Charley Crockett, 10 For Slim: Charley Crockett Sings James Hand 4. Eric Bibb, Dear America 5. Sam Teskey, Cycles >>>

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WRITER,S BEST OF >>> BEST COMPILATION / REISSUE Alligator Records: 50 Years Of Genuine Houserockin’ Music - Various

BEST FILMS Love In Bright Landscapes, The Story of David McComb of The Triffids The Sparks Brothers BEST GIG Midnight Oil, Mt Duneed Estate, March HIGHLIGHTS As ABBA would say, thank you for the music. It kept us going during difficult days, particularly career-defining collections by Vika & Linda and Even, and a comeback classic by Del Amitri.

JONATHAN ALLEY

BEST MUSIC BOOK/S The one I’m still workin’ on BEST OTHER BOOK/S Everything by Poe Ballentine (I came late to the party, a year or so ago).

Wind In The Willows, which I’ve been reading to Addy. Incredible language.

BEST FEATURE FILMS/DOCUMENTARY Not a film or doco, but a TV series - Yellowstone.

BEST FESTIVAL/GIGS Not a single one this year, alas.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR The pace of it all. Slow and steady. We’ve been lucky. I started writing fiction, and a little bit of it wasn’t too bad.

JEFF JENKINS

TOP 10 ALBUMS 1. The Wait - Vika & Linda 2. Reverse Light Years - Even 3. First Time Really Feeling - Liz Stringer 4. Fatal Mistakes - Del Amitri 5. Jack Chrome and The Darkness Waltz - The Morris Springfield Project 6. Downhill From Everywhere - Jackson Browne 7. Living In Colour - Shane Nicholson 8. Saint Georges Road - The Black Sorrows 9. Do The Understanding - Ron S. Peno and The Superstitions 10.Tex Perkins & The Fat Rubber Band - Tex Perkins & The Fat Rubber Band BEST COMPILATION/REISSUE The Life of Major Chord (2007-2013) - Dan Flynn BEST BOOKS Execution Days: The Life and Times of Spencer P. Jones - Patrick Emery Driving Stevie Fracasso - Barry Divola

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SUE BARRETT

FAVOURITE 2021 ALBUM/S 1. The Solution is Restless - Joan as Poiicewoman w/Tony Allen and Dave Okumu 2. Collective Flashed Glass - Sleep D and the Ad Lib 3. New Long Leg - Dry Cleaning 4. All the Way with Spencer P Jones (tribute) 5. Do Androids Dream of Electric Beatles - Bagful of Beez 6. Cong! - Josie Cong 7. G’ds pee at STATE’S END - Godspeed you Black Emperor 8. Open Fire - Mike Noga 9. She Walks in Beauty - Marianne Faithful and Warren Ellis 10. The Glorious Dead - Belle Phoenix 11. The American Negro - Adrian Younge FAVOURITE SONG Happy Song (I’ve Been Enjoying the Days) Maggie Alley BOOK (MUSIC OR OTHERWISE) The Survivors Jane Harper My Rock n Roll Friend: Tracy Thorn Driving Stevie Fricasso: Barry Divola Hellzapoppin’ The Art of Flying Nun Bunnyman Will Sergeant FILM Too busy finally finishing my own to look up, sorry. To be rectified in 2022.

REDISCOVERY Ote Maloya : Electric Maloya Music of Reunion Island 1975-1986 The early Moondog recordings made on the streets of NYC in the 1950s (various releases) Avant Gardening - New Age Steppers HIGHLIGHT OF 2021 Not dying.

HOPES/PLANS FOR 2022 Let’s get a beach-walk, a coffee, a quiet ale, a gig, and a movie in .... and then work upwards from there, shall we? Babysteps. It’s been a big old two years...

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1. I’ll Meet You Here - Dar Williams 2. Connectivity - Grace Petrie 3. Being Time - Jenn Kirby 4. Water - Kerryn Fields 5. Consequences - Joan Armatrading 6. Take Heed - Kristy Apps 7. Where the Quiet Can Hide - Montgomery Church 8. Let’s Get Happy Together - Maria Muldaur 9. When Summer Comes Again - Simon Mayor & Hilary James 10. Jack Chrome and the Darkness Waltz Russell Morris & Rick Springfield BEST COMPILATION 40 Years of CAAMA Music - Various BEST MUSIC BOOK The Electric Muse Revisited - Robert Shelton, Dave Laing, Karl Dallas, Robin Denselow BEST OTHER BOOK The Latin American Cookbook - Virgilio Martínez BEST MUSIC FILM Fanny: The Right to Rock HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR COVID-19 vaccinations. Virtual hugs. Family and friends. Workers and volunteers who have kept things going during the pandemic. Random acts of kindness. Courage and resilience within the arts community. The music line-up for the 2021 AFL grand final.

STEVE BELL

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1. Live At The Shoals Theatre - Mike Cooley, Patterson Hood & Jason Isbell 2. The Million Things That Never Happened Billy Bragg 3. Things Take Time, Take Time - Courtney Barnett 4. City’s Calling Me - Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission 5. Restless Dream - Bobby Weatherall, Halfway & William Barton

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Open Door Policy - The Hold Steady When You Found Me - Lucero Golden Doubt - Quivers Warumpi Rock: Papunya Sessions 1982 Warumpi Band 10. New Long Leg -Dry Cleaning BEST COMPILATION REISSUE Singles ’86 -‘96 - Ed Kuepper BEST BOOK Execution Days - Patrick Emery Where the Devil Don’t Stay - Stephen Beusner BEST FILM Love In Bright Landscapes: The Story Of David McComb Of The Triffids The Sparks Brothers BEST CONCERT/GIG Bobby Weatherall, Halfway & William Barton @ The Tivoli (Brisbane Festival) HIGHLIGHT: Another year without festivals or overseas and interstate bands was tough, but at least in Brisbane we could see our great local bands for much of the year. Highlights include the Restless Dream live reimagining at The Tivoli, Ed Kuepper and Jim White at The Triffid, a couple of great Screamfeeder shows, Sonic Masala and heaps more. Had some great instores in my record shop towards the end of the year including Troy Cassar-Daley and Russell Morris, two of the nicest blokes in the game.

NICK CHARLES

TOP ALBUMS OF THE YEARWay Out West - Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives Crowing Ignites - Bruce Cockburn In These Silent Days - Brandi Carlile Downhill From Everywhere - Jackson Browne Piano and Friends - Jools Holland John Sebastian and Arlen Roth Explore The Lovin’ Spoonful Songbook My Bluegrass Heart - Bela Fleck BEST COMPILATION REISSUES Guitar Man - Chet Atkins Jazz Pa Svenska - Jan Johannson Down in the Bottom - The Everly Brothers BEST MUSIC BOOKS One Two Three Four, The Beatles in Time Craig Brown The B Side - Ben Yagoda Long Players/Writers on the Albums that shaped them - Tom Gatti A Musician’s Alphabet - Susan Tomes BEST OTHER BOOKS Rather His Own Man - Geoffrey Robertson The Golden Maze - Richard Fidler BEST MUSIC FILMS ZZ Top, That Little Ol’ Band From Texas

Echo in the Canyon Linda Ronstadt, The Sound of My Voice BEST FEATURE FILMS/DOCUMENTARY The Starling Straight BEST FESTIVAL Blues on Broadbeach QLD HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Performing to crowds of music lovers, finally!

WRITER,S BEST OF

BRETT LEIGH DICKS

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1. Outside Child - Allison Russell 2. My Name Is Suzie Ungerleider - Suzie Ungerleider 3. The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers - Valerie June 4. Roses - The Paper Kites 5. Girl I Used To Be - Garrison Starr 6. In These Silent Days - Brandi Carlile 7. Restless Dream - Bob Weatherall & Halfway 8. I’ll Meet You Here - Dar Williams 9. Intimate Hinterland - The Aerial Maps 10. To Enjoy Is The Only Thing - Maple Glider BEST COMPILATION/REISSUES Like A Rose: The Classic 1976 Broadcast Recording - Linda Ronstadt BEST MUSIC BOOK My Rock ‘n’ Roll Friend - Tracey Thorn BEST OTHER BOOK The Night Always Comes - Willy Vlautin BEST MUSIC FILM The Go-Go’s (Netflix Premiere) BEST FEATURE FILMS/DOCUMENTARY My Name is Gupilil BEST FESTIVAL/GIGS The Waifs - Fremantle Arts Centre HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR The Go-Go’s finally being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1. From Dreams To Dust - The Felice Brothers 2. The Horses & The Hounds - James McMurtry 3. Big Grass - Family Jordan 4. Reservations - Suicide Swans 5. Ten Songs - T. Wilds 6. Riddy Arman - Riddy Arman 7. Vincent Neil Emerson - Vincent Neil Emerson 8. Earth Trip - Rose City Band 9. Way Down In The Rust Bucket - Neil Young & Crazy Horse 10. Restless Dream - Bob Weatherall with Halfway BEST COMPILATION REISSUES Déjà Vu 50th Anniversary - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young BEST MUSIC BOOK Rememberings - Sinead O’Connor BEST OTHER BOOK Haven’t read any books published in 2021!

BEST MUSIC FILM Summer Of Soul BEST FEATURE FILM Nomadland BEST FESTIVAL/GIGS Infinity Broke @ Hiway Bikini Bar, Enmore HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Finally getting a new James McMurtry album!

AL HENSLEY

CHRIS FAMILTON ALBUMS 1. This Bitter Earth - Veronica Swift 2. Raisin’ Cain - Chris Cain 3. Early Risers - John Scurry’s Reverse Swing 4. Via de la Plata - Daniel Garcia Trio 5. Celebrate The Music Of Peter Green And The Early Years Of Fleetwood Mac - Mick Fleetwood & Friends 6. You Gotta Have It - Tia Carroll 7. Cloudland - Lars Danielsson Libretto 8. Volume 2 - New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers 9. Live - Chick Corea Akoustic Band 10. The Blues Album - Joanne Shaw Taylor >>>

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BEST NON-MUSIC BOOK Private Ryan and the Lost Peace: A Defiant Soldier and the Struggle Against the Great War, By Douglas J. Newton

WRITER,S BEST OF

ANDRA JACKSON

BEST MUSIC FILM Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) The Beatles: Get Back BEST GIG JC Stylles, Jason Morphett, Tommy See Poy & Joe Vizzone, Cairns Colonial Club, October 15

>>> BEST COMPILATION/REISSUES Alligator Records: 50Years Of Genuine Houserockin’ Music - Various Artisis Six String Soul - Dave Specter BEST BOOKS Bessie Smith – Jackie Kay (Music) Charles Kingsford Smith – Peter FitzSimons (Other)

HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Witnessing the renaissance of the Cairns live jazz scene.

CHRISTOPHER HOLLOW

BEST MUSIC FILM Live At Kitchen Studio - Håkon Høye & The Honeytones BEST FEATURE FILM/DOCUMENTARY Hitsville: The Making Of Motown BEST CONCERT/GIG Sunshine Coast Blues Club monthly jams Palmwoods Bowls Club, Qld. HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR 25th anniversary of my weekly Noosa FM blues radio show Blue Monday

TONY HILLIER

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1. Azwan, Pierre Bensusan 2. Cairn, Fergus McCreadie 3. Estren, TEYR 4. Hope In An Empty City, Joseph Tawadros 5. Medicine Man, Martha Marlow 6. Minka, Eva Quartet 7. Palabras Urgentes, Susana Baca 8. SuperBlue, Kurt Elling 9. Via de la Plata, Daniel Garcia Trio 10. When Summer Comes Again, Simon Mayor & Hilary James BEST COMPILATION REISSUE Global Afrobeat Movement Vol 2, Various Artist BEST MUSIC BOOK Joni On Joni - Interviews and Encounters With Joni Mitchell Edited by Susan Whitall

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TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1. I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A. Dean Wareham 2. De Película - The Limiñanas & Laurent Garnier 3. Tele Novella - Merlynn Belle 4. Two Years - Whitney K 5. Mercy - Natalie Bergman 6. In Your Hands - Lewsberg 7. Sleepless Night - Yo La Tengo 8. Magic Mirror - Pearl Charles 9. Magic Touch - Jack Name 10. Impression - Sugar Candy Mountain BEST COMPILATION/REISSUES Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971 - The Beach Boys Dreaming of You (1971 - 1976) - Karen Black BEST MUSIC BOOK Roadrunner: A Song By Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Joshua Clover BEST OTHER BOOK I only just read Trains Dreams by Denis Johnson, released in 2011, which I loved.

BEST MUSIC FILM Get Back:The Beatles BEST FEATURE FILMS/TV Hacks: Season One BEST FESTIVAL/GIGS The Sand Pebbles played one ripping show in this cursed year at a small festival in Bambra on the Surf Coast. The fellow, Gavin, built his own stage and put on a party for his friends on Easter Saturday. It was magic.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Turning the big 5-0 with people I love around me.

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR Promises (Floating Points) - Pharoah Sanders with the London Symphony Orchestra Tone Poem - Charles Lloyd and The Marvels Sounds From The Ancestors - Kenny Garrett et al Chick Corea Akoustic Band Live Grand & Union - The Andy Sugg Group with Brett Williams SuperBlue - Kurt Elling Salswing - Ruben Blades y Roberto Delgado y Orquestra Lowlights - Spirograph Studies Systems Over-Ride - Andrea Keller and Wave Rider Oaatchapai - Sam Anning on Earshift Music BEST COMPILATION REISSUE Live-Evil (1971) Miles Davis. Legacy (Sony) BEST MUSIC BOOK Harlem Nights; The Secret History of Australia’s Jazz Age by Deidre O’Connor (Melbourne University Press).

BEST OTHER BOOK The Lady Swings. Memoirs of a Jazz Drummer by Dottie Dodgion and Wayne Enstice (University of Illinois Press) BEST MUSIC FILM The United States Vs Billie Holiday BEST FEATURE FILM/DOCUMENTARY Oscar Peterson: Black and White. (Directed Barry Avrish) BEST FESTIVAL/GIGS Opening of the Melbourne International Jazz festival with a star studded cast of he jazz artists and he Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and arrangements

by Vanessa Perica and Christopher Crenshaw.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR: The chance in between Lockdowns, to hear live, some of the visiting overseas musicians stranded here by Covid departure restrictions: US pianist Brett Williams (ex Marcus Miller) and Cuban bassist/composer Yunior Terry at Jazzlab, Brunswick

CHRIS LAMBIE

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1. Sleeping Like A Maniac - Justin Bernasconi 2. Circling Time - Kutcha Edwards 3. First Time Really - Feeling Liz Stringer 4. Bright November Morning - Don McGlashan 5. The Wait - Vika & Linda 6. Let Me Grow My Wings - Ajak Kwai 7. Reverse Light Years - Even 8. Long Road Back Home - Dave Brewer 9. Fat Rubber Band - Tex Perkins & The Fat Rubber Band 10. Southern Gothic - The Weeping Willows BEST REISSUES Movin’ In & We Are Stronger - Strange Tenants Warumpi Band: Papunya Sessions 1982 - Warumpi Band I Wish Life Could Be - Swedish Magazines BEST MUSIC BOOKS Some Memories Never Die - Jeff Lang Last Chance Texaco - Rickie Lee Jones BEST OTHER BOOK When He Came Home: The Impact of War on Partners and Children of Veterans - Dianne Dempsey BEST MUSIC FILMS Zappa Count Me In Respect BEST FEATURE FILM Nomadland BEST FESTIVAL/GIGS The Cartridge Family – Red Hill Hotel, Chewton, VIC HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Music Victoria’s ‘Gold Sounds’ Music Conference in Castlemaine in November. (It’d been a long time since I’d put my arm out to be wrist-banded.)

Guest speakers included Liz Stringer, Jen Cloher and Eliza Hull.

TREVOR LEEDEN

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1. Circling Time - Kutcha Edwards 2. Truer Picture - Graham Sharp 3. Sharecropper’s Son- Robert Finley 4. Hardware - Billy F Gibbons 5. Rose Songs - Clint Roberts 6. Be The Love You Want - Southern Avenue 7. The Forgiver And The Runaway- AJ Fullerton 8. Little Black Flies - Eddie 9V 9. Gotta Have The Rumble - Brian Setzer 10. Medicine Man - Martha Marlow BEST COMPILATION/REISSUE John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band All Things Must Pass - George Harrison

BEST BOOK (An ordinary year for music related tomes).

Farmers Or Hunter-Gatherers? The Dark Emu Debate - Peter Sutton & Kerryn Walshe Apocalypse Never – Michael Shellenberger BEST FILM The Beatles: Get Back - directed by Peter Jackson.

At time of writing it had not yet been released, but the Trailer far exceeds any other film released in 2021.

BEST CONCERT/GIG Mark Tinson and friends, Lizotte’s Newcastle February. For some obscure reason the only gig I managed to get to in 2021.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Finally, after 57 years of turning failure and mediocrity into an artform, the drought is over!

Between lockdowns 4 and 5, I somehow managed to squeeze in an eight-day inaugural trip to the Red Centre. Spectacular doesn’t cut it, a truly magnificent experience.

IAN McFARLANE

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 1. The Lives Of Others - You Am I 2. Hall Of Counterfeits - Steve Kilbey and The Winged Heels 3. The Wait - Vika & Linda Bull 4. Reverse Light Years - Even 5. No Sir, That Riff’s Been Taken - The Hard-Ons 6. First Time Really Feeling - Liz Stringer 7. Stellar Lights - Brigitte Bardini 8. Saint Georges Road - The Black Sorrows 9. Celebrate The Music Of Peter Green And The Early Years Of Fleetwood Mac- Mick Fleetwood & Friends 10. Music Is Love 1966-1970 - Richard Clapton BEST COMPILATION REISSUE Choice Cuts (50th Anniversary LP Edition) Master’s Apprentices BEST MUSIC BOOK/S Suburban Songbook - Clinton Walker Fraternity - Victor Marshall Way Out West The West Australian Pop Rock Blues Music Scene 1960-1979 - George Matzkov BEST OTHER BOOKS Driving Stevie Fracasso – Barry Divola BEST MUSIC FILMS The Sparks Brothers - Dir: Edgar Wright The Velvet Underground - Dir: Todd Haynes BEST FEATURE FILMS The Dry - Dir: Robert Connolly My Salinger Year - Dir: Philippe Falardeau

WRITER,S BEST OF

BEST FESTIVAL/GIGS You Am I - Night Cat, Melbourne (May) HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR Being able to go to gigs again, post-lockdown

BILLY PINNELL

TOP 10 ALBUMS: 1. Ocean To Ocean - Tori Amos 2. Common Ground - Big Big Train 3. For Free - David Crosby 4. They’re Calling Me Home - Rhiannon Giddens 5. 662 - Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram 6. Outside In - Andrea Keller & Tim Wilson Duo 7. Native Sons - Los Lobos 8. Letter To You - Bruce Springsteen 9. Music From Yikesville - Various Artists 10. Carnegie Hall - Neil Young BEST COMPILATIONS / REISSUES Big Science - Laurie Anderson Bon Voyage - Mackenzie Theory Alligator Records:50 Years Of Genuine Houserockin’ Music - Various Artists BEST MUSIC BOOKS Chasing Music - Jan Dale Loud - Tana Douglas Stranded:Australian Independent Music, 1976-1992 - Clinton Walker BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY Karen Dalton: In My Own Time BEST GIGS Nat Allison (Union Hotel) Debra Byrne (Chapel Off Chapel) Ruth Roshan (Paris Cat) Chris Stockley Band W/ Kelly Auty (Memo) HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR. Seeing The Above Artists Performing Live

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MUSICIAN BEST OF

MAGGIE ALLEY

And it was amazing to be able to steal some vinyl from my family’s collection. I had it on repeat during lockdown, and it made life feel bright and alive again. For me, it really brought out the magic in the mundane of a grey, lifeless Melbourne winter.

HIGHLIGHT OF 2021 Playing the Brunswick Ballroom supporting Lost Ragas. And as a result, putting out a live EP from that gig. It was the biggest crowd I’ve ever played to, and it was amazing to play with one of my favourite bands containing one of my favourite people (Matt Walker).

And in my favourite Melbourne music venue.

PLANS FOR 2022 I’ll be recording and releasing my debut album, She’s The Noise. It’s all written and ready to go!

NICK BARKER ALBUM Hounds of Love – Kate Bush Always medicine. Kate will never not be my medicine.

SONG ‘Love Again’ – Fenn Wilson I’ve admired Fenn’s work for a while now. Saw him for the first time when I was about 16 at Some Velvet Morning and he was insane.

‘Love Again’ was the first work of his I’d heard with drums, and for me, it just ticked all the boxes. It went from loss, longing, defeat, and wonderment, and then rose to hope and elation. It was bloody brilliant.

BOOK Skeleton Woman It’s a short story rather than a book, and is based on an old Inuit tale, retold by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. It also led me to write a song based on the story, which is about regeneration, the value of life, and healing through love after heartbreak and loss.

FILM Love in Bright Landscapes It’s a documentary about David McComb of The Triffids. I’ve loved David McComb and the Triffids since I could remember, and seeing this film finally come together was a big thing that happened this year. Both personally speaking, and for all who knew David McComb.

TV SHOW Britannia This TV show introduced me to so many cool new concepts and was both thrilling and bloody hilarious.

And Marc Bolan’s ‘Children of the Revolution’ was a brilliant theme song!

REDISCOVERY King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown King Tubby has remained a legend in my household for many years.

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ALBUM Holy Smokes Future Jokes – Blitzen Trapper It probably came out late 2020, but I have caned it in 2021 on my runs around and around and around the local park.

SONG ‘Shaker’ - Silversound (‘Yarraville is the new Seattle’).

BOOK The Shortest History of War – Gwynne Dyer Depressingly informative!

FILM Phil Lynott: Songs For While I’m Away This documentary is a heartbreaker.

Anyone who likes Thin Lizzy should see it, maybe even if you don’t. The complex double-edged sword of success.

TV SHOW Narcos: Mexico I’m a big Narcos fan, so series three of Narcos: Mexico has been my favourite of the year. Dunno why I love coke-addled maniacs with guns so much. I blame Al Pacino.

REDISCOVERY Probably late ’80s/’90s British guitar bands. I’ve always been a Swervedriver fan, but I went back and listened to Ride, Catherine Wheel, Stone Roses and a bit of Primal Scream.

HIGHLIGHT OF 2021 Well, as I write this, it’s not over yet, and the bar is pretty low, so it won’t take much!

PLANS FOR 2022 Finally release the record that has been chugging slowly up the hill, and to talk about it on Off the Record on Triple R.

REBECCA BARNARD

ALBUM Happy Abduction – Victoriana Gaye Jeff Raglus and Vicki Philipp continue to make interesting albums. Dream pop that transports you with every listen. Great songs.

SONG ‘Chaise Longue’ - Wet Leg Female duo from the Isle of Wight. I just love them. Kind of deliberately naive. They look like spunky Quakers and have a unique sound. And what a name!

BOOK Animal by Lisa Taddeo This is a confronting read. Revolves around abuse and control but ultimately about female power and not being bound by the desires of men. I was absorbed by every character, especially the protagonist, Joan.

FILM The Most Beautiful Boy in the World I remember seeing Visconti’s Death in Venice as a teenager and I couldn’t take my eyes off the 16-year-old boy, Björn Andrésen. This film is about how becoming famous at such a young age ultimately damaged him beyond repair.

Fascinating.

TV SHOW The White Lotus Just watch it!

REDISCOVERY We started recording songs during Melbourne’s first lockdown for Brian Wise to play on his 3RRR show Off the Record. My son Harry suggested doing a Bill Withers song, ‘Grandma’s Hands’, which took us on a Bill fest! I’d forgotten how great his songs were and what a groove he had. Brilliant.

HIGHLIGHT OF 2021 Squeezing in a significant birthday party with my nearest and dearest one week before lockdown! It

emphasised how important family and friends are to me and how lucky I am.

PLANS FOR 2022 I hope to finally put out my album of covers and get back to performing live music. I’ve got heaps of ideas for various projects and just want to get cracking as I am increasingly aware that life is too short.

SARAH CARROLL

ALBUM Wonderful Oblivion, Charm Of Finches. I’ve chosen this album because I’m so impressed by the quality of everything about it. The song craft, production, performances, even the accompanying videos, are all worldclass.

Honourable mentions also to Bones And Jones, for their huge-hearted album Ginger Gold, recorded over months of lockdown; Grand Pine, who have just released a gorgeous original pop album called Hold Me Down; First Time Really Feeling by Liz Stringer, whose command of genres from folk to soul is incredible; and Sierra Ferrell, who released Long Time Coming this year, and whose song writing and singing I just adore.

SONG ‘Love Again’ - Fenn Wilson I played this song, which Fenn wrote for me, to my dear friend Gary Young, whom some of you will know, and his first response was, “Fantastic!! Who’s playing the drums?” (it’s George, who’s just switched to that instrument in Fenn’s band full-time) BOOK The Blues Portrait series, currently at 3 volumes, which contain really deep, personal mini-memoirs from some of Australia’s most important artists. I love the way author/editor Pauline Bailey has cast a wide net and included musicians from such a variety of genres, who all have something fascinating to say about the place blues music has in their lives.

FILM I have not seen this yet but I know it’s going to be my favourite so I’m putting it here: The French Dispatch, Wes Anderson. Also dying to see Get Back.

REDISCOVERY A beautiful film from 2009 called Stranger Than Fiction, starring our family favourite Will Ferrell in a perfect performance; the whole cast and the story, the music and design…utterly sweet and moving.

HIGHLIGHTS 1. Touring with Fenn, Brooke Taylor, Tim Rogers, Bobby Valentine and the stellar Row Jerry Crow, led by utter champion Delsinki, as part of Keep The Circle Unbroken in March. I love spending time on the road with my boys.

2. The twice-deferred, muchawaited Cartridge Family show at Archies Creek in April. We played to a damp but very enthusiastic crowd, and local legend John Kendall joined us for a fiddle duet with our dear Gregsie.

3. Driving to Bourke with musician friends to play one gig with my dear mate Leigh Ivin, also in April. Tops company, scenery and music.

4. Andy Baylor’s Reel Of Joy at Memo Hall in June. An absolute delight from start to finish.

5. The show with Shannon Bourne, also in June, at gorgeous new venue George Lane. The best listening audience I think I’ve ever played to!

HOPES/PLANS FOR 2022 I’m starting work on a new album next week and hope to release it mid next year. I’m also going to spend two months working and playing with my darling Gleny Rae in and around Alice Springs next autumn and am so happy to be able to go and immerse myself in culture and Country I have never seen before.

STEPHEN CUMMINGS

ALBUM The albums I played the most were both Australian. Geoffrey O’Connor’s album of duets, For As Long As I Can Remember, and the Brisbane-via-Melbourne weirdo country outfit Dag (aka the Dusty Anastassiou Group). Their sophomore album, Pedestrian Life, was rarely off my sound system.

SONG ‘Patterns of Nature’ - Sweet Whirl ‘Foolish Enough’ Geoffrey O’Connor (featuring Laura Jean) I have been a fan of Geoffrey O’Connor for years, his work with The Crayon Fields and Sly Hats.

BOOK I really enjoyed John Lurie’s 1980s NYC memoir, The History of Bones. He co-founded the Lounge Lizards ensemble; acted in 19 films, including Stranger than Paradise and Down by Law; composed and performed music for 20 television and film works; and produced, directed and starred in the Fishing with John television series. In 1996 his soundtrack for Get Shorty was nominated for a Grammy Award.

FILM Minari Korean writer-director Lee Isaac Chung based it on his childhood growing up on a farm in Arkansas in the 1980s. It was an uplifting, vaguely sentimental film, which was a tonic to this lonely Melburnian.

TV SHOW Succession REDISCOVERY Adventure by Television HIGHLIGHT OF 2021 Learning to sing again after my stroke has certainly been my highlight. It looked hopeless at first, but I worked myself back into a positive state of mind.

HOPES/PLANS FOR 2022 Hopefully, to make one more album with my pals Robert Goodge and Simon Polinski. Robert has been co-writing the songs with me on a tiple, a Latin American instrument; it’s progressive funky folk music and the mood is everyday ethereal.

BOOK Unashamedly, I spent most of 2021 watching reality TV and unfortunately didn’t pick up a book. BUT I have been using Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run memoir as the weighted-object that keeps the ‘on’ button of my lamp pushed in - and it’s been working a treat.

FILM I recently watched a short film as part of Sydney Film Festival, ‘Deafying Gravity’ by local filmmaker Sam Martin (Sam I Am).

It focuses on Deaf queer artist and aerialist, Katia Schwartz and is a brilliant insight into their story. Go watch!

REDISCOVERY I keep coming back to Emma Swift’s Blonde On The Tracks. I think it’s such a wonderfully produced and arranged album. AND Laura Jean’s 2018 album Devotion. It’s super creative and there are lots of catchy synthy songs.

HIGHLIGHT Releasing the all-consuming album that myself and the band have been working on for the past 2 years.

HOPES/PLANS FOR 2022 A holiday to a sunny place and finally touring the new album (In Colour) near and far!

GEORGIA DELVES

ALBUM Wonderful Oblivion - Charm of Finches Very talented sisters from Melbourne, beautiful harmonies, great folk songwriting. Definitely one to watch.

SONG ‘Canyon’ – Charm of Finches.

BOOK My Friend Fox – Heidi Everett A wonderful memoir and reminder of the power of music, told by a songwriter caught in the hellish system that we call “mental health treatment”.

FILM I haven’t even seen it yet, but I know it will be Dune!

TV SHOW Succession An amazing window into the life of the super-rich. All the characters are extremely unlikable, but I love them

ALBUM Virgo - Sarah Klang This Is Really Going To Hurt - Flyte Ten Thousand Roses - Dori Freeman Ignorance The Weather Station SONG ‘Thumbs Again’ - Lucy Dacus. It’s such a well written song.

DAN FLYNN

MUSICIAN BEST OF

all! Fantastic script, excellent actors and all-round great show. Great to see Australian actor Sarah Snook doing so well.

REDISCOVERY Well, 2021 has been the year of rediscoveries. I rediscovered a band called Led Zeppelin, you may know them. Seriously, though I was aware of the ubiquitous ‘Stairway’ and a few others, I never really gave them much time until now. Led Zep 2, 3, 4 are phenomenal albums!

HIGHLIGHT The word “highlight” and 2021 don’t really go together, but if I had to choose one it would be re-watching Game of Thrones with my 13-year-old son (covering his eyes during certain bits of course).

HOPES/PLANS FOR 2022 To buy more instruments and make some music. 2021 was a crap year for song writing, in my world anyway, so hopefully 2022 opens up the flow!

DAVE GRANEY

ALBUM Everything Was Funny Dave Graney and Clare Moore This happened in a roundabout way because of lockdowns etc. (I was, and am, totally in favour of lockdowns, by the way.) We were going to do an album with our band the mistLY but couldn’t rehearse, let alone record, so we just did this album while we did 110 (so far) online gigs as well. We played everything and recorded and mixed it and the cover is by my second cousin Kristyn Jones from regional South Australia. This is a high point in our career, 35 albums in.

Otherwise, The Yugoslav Attack put out a great album.

SONG ‘Robin Bird’ Malcolm Hill & Live Flesh >>>

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MUSICIAN BEST OF

FAVE 2021 BOOK

I tried James Joyce’s Ulysses three times and chucked it away around page 400 every attempt. I guess it would be Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. It’s like a road trip through 1948 USA. Of course, the narrator is a disgusting paedophile and his voice is right up there in your face as well. I also read two books by Rose Macaulay – They Were Defeated and The Towers of Trebizond and look forward to discovering many more. Unique. I tried more Nabokov but couldn’t get into them. I read some short stories and a novel

by Doris Lessing, who is one of my favourite authors, and another by my absolute favourite, John Cowper Powys.

FILM Can’t say I kept up with much. There was a great 1980 film called Nijinsky on YouTube. Starring Alan Bates as the impresario from the Ballets Russes. Great film.

TV SHOW Survivors A 1975 BBC TV series about a pandemic that wipes out most of human life. There are three series of it on YouTube.

REDISCOVERY My Maton Alver acoustic guitar. It’s been an ornament in the corner for decades. I had it fixed a while ago and started to fool around on it with different tunings and had a pickup put into it. It sounds lovely.

HIGHLIGHT I quite enjoyed the whole lockdown experience. I still hope that it changed people’s perspectives in a permanent way. It’s awful when people talk of life “snapping back” to what it was, because that was hardly perfect. I hope people have seen through the Liberal National Corruption for what they are.

Getting our album Everything Was Funny together. Recording and releasing it. On Compact Disc.

PLANS FOR 2022 We are going to record the album we had ready to drop with our band the mistLY, which is an up-tempo

22

rock set of songs. Also planning for Clare Moore to continue work on a solo album and I am halfway through an album of weirdness songs. I also did an album with UK electronic artist Scanner which may come out at some point and there is also the album I have been working on for a few years with Will Hindmarsh as WAM AND DAZ which should also be coming out in some form. Clare Moore and I have also been working on a track with Catherine McQuade which we are doing a clip for very soon.

JACK HOWARD

ALBUM Sympathy For Life Parquet Courts Under These Streets - Emma Donovan & The Putbacks Scratchcard Lanyard Dry Cleaning

PERRY KEYES

SHANE O’MARA ALBUM From Dreams to Dust The Felice Brothers SONG ‘We All Need to Know There’s Someone Out There In The Night’ – The Aerial Maps BOOK Cherry - Nico Walker (published in 2018) FILM The Many Saints of Newark TV SHOW NRL Preliminary Final - South Sydney V Manly Warringah REDISCOVERY The Commodores’ Machine Gun from 1974.

HIGHLIGHT OF 2021 Died Pretty live at The Factory in Sydney.

PLANS FOR 2022 Finishing an album or two. Maybe a show at some point.

ASHLEY NAYLOR

SONG ‘The Metrologist’ - Liz Stringer BOOK The Rain Heron - Robbie Arnott On The Plain Of Snakes – Paul Theroux The Bass Rock - Evie Wyld FILM The Dig, I Called Him Morgan, Shang-Chi TV SHOW Mr Inbetween, Money Heist, McCartney 3,2,1 REDISCOVERY The trumpeter Lee Morgan after watching the film I Called Him Morgan – the warmest and most beautiful trumpet tone ever.

HIGHLIGHT A brilliant month of gigs in Feb/ March before it all went to Covid shit again. Losing 13 kgs!

PLANS FOR 2022 The release of a new record, Lightheavyweight 2, in May; H&C doing the Red Hot Summer Tour; watching Carlton make the finals!

album with Even, Reverse Light Years, and seeing it chart. Exciting times. Oh, and Mason Cox signing a new contract with Collingwood.

PLANS FOR 2022 Play shows with Even, PK, The Church, Vika & Linda, release new music with The Ronson Hangup, Monterey Honey and more instrumental releases.

ALBUM Do Androids Dream Of Electric Beatles - Bagful of Beez SONG ‘Please Walk Away’ Bagful of Beez BOOK The Beatles: Get Back The Beatles FILM The Beatles: Get Back TV SHOW Antiques Roadshow repeats REDISCOVERY ‘Do You Feel Like We Do’ – Peter Frampton HIGHLIGHT OF 2021 Releasing my first ever double

ALBUM Simulation Ride - Merpire I was drawn in by the thoughtful lyrics and memorable melodies. I love Rhiannon’s voice; she draws the listener in to every word she sings. ‘Easy’ was a real standout – a gorgeous stripped-back intimate moment.

SONG ‘Those Stories’ - Brandon Poletti Brandon Poletti is a brilliant WA singer/songwriter. His countrytinged folk-rock style is so endearing, and this song has a chorus that is etched in my brain!

BOOK The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo -Taylor Jenkins Reid

ALBUMS Wonderful Oblivion Charm of Finches First Time Really Feeling Liz Stringer Outside Child - Alison Russell SONG Victoria - Liz Stringer True Love’s Face - Erin Rae BOOK Beeswing - Richard Thompson Unstrung - Marc Ribot FILM 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything The Velvet Underground Get Back REDISCOVERY Blue - Joni Mitchel Talking Book, Innervisions - Stevie Wonder Magical Mystery Tour HIGHLIGHT Listening to Off The Record RRR Saturday morning 9-12 : essential listening Performing ‘Murder Most Foul’ with Tim Rogers with me band ‘The Luminaries’ for the annual Dylan celebration - Tim was simply extraordinary.

HOPES/PLANS FOR 2022 A change of Federal Government …. FFS !

HELEN SHANAHAN

This book took me by surprise! I had no idea what to expect – but then it played out like a Hollywood film.

The characters were so complex, and the world she created was so detailed. There were so many twists and turns, but ultimately it was a story about love – and the lengths you’ll go to keep it when you’re in the spotlight.

FILM Girl Like You This is hard, as I am a new mother, and I don’t think I sat down once to watch an entire film! I just watched an insightful documentary called Girl Like You on the ABC, which I highly recommend. A deep (and at times heart-wrenching) insight into changing genders and navigating relationships because of it.

TV SHOW Ted Lasso I have just jumped on the Ted Lasso bandwagon – it is wonderful.

There’s so much I love about the protagonist’s positivity and infectious humour, paired with his troubled past.

REDISCOVERY Powderfinger. When I was driving the other day, ‘Love Your Way’ came on the radio. It made me listen to their album Vulture Street on repeat, and I fell in love with it again.

HIGHLIGHT OF 2021 Getting to sing backing vocals for Tim Minchin, then supporting my biggest inspiration, Missy Higgins! It didn’t get much better for me than that.

PLANS FOR 2022 I am excited to release my sophomore album, Canvas, in March 2022. I recorded it remotely with producer Brad Jones in Nashville. I have also started a monthly night called ‘The Songwriters Café’ in Perth – emulating the Nashville “in the round” format. I’m excited to have quality WA acts play and hopefully some touring acts (thinking positively for 2022!).

MICK THOMAS

ALBUMS No-No Boy - 1975: a record that grew from a project inspired by the classic American novel No-No Boy. Beautiful songs exploring a whole heap of issues to do with Asian/ American identity. Lovely to hear a project record that is still compelling and basically musical.

Full Power Happy Hour (self titled): Jangly indi countrified pop music out of Brisbane (of course). Great songs and a really joyous delivery. Can’t wait to see them play.

SONG Dan Tuffy - Eternity (from the Letters of Gold album). Somehow writing from his long-time home in central Holland Dan has been able to hone in on Australian subject matter in a way that is incredibly potent.

Love the way he sings the opening line - My old mumma, my old poppa, all my sisters and all my brothers were alcoholic wrecks.....

BOOK Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.

A beautiful imagining of the life and inspiration behind one of literature’s most enduring pieces of work (Hamlet). There’s so much in this novel for anyone who sets out to write or perform from a position of emotional honesty. Or for anyone who has found themselves involved with the arts on any level.

FILM The Mystery of Henri Pick - a partial farce that explores the vagaries of publishing and posthumous fame.

Entertaining, amusing and weirdly thought provoking.

REDISCOVERY The Broken Road Patrick Leigh Fermor.

This is the third book in the trilogy that began with A Time of Gifts. Far from being the inferior piece of work many judge it to be (it was cobbled together from his notebooks after he died) I increasingly find it instructive as a treatise on memory itself. The first two books of the series were written from extensive notebooks years after the journey that is their subject matter had taken place. They are crafted, detailed and considered - the timeline of them is logical and linear.

This third book jumps forward and back with the author eventually

questioning his own recollections and methodology and the general youthful world view of his former self. It is the uncertainty of it that I find so compelling. I intend to re-read it (along with the two companion books) a few more times before my journey ends.

HIGHLIGHT Managing to get a second album in two years - City’s Calling Me released somehow and then the couple of full band shows we played at the end of July were special but bittersweet. We got to play Kangaroo Island and do a few on a riverboat on the Murray early in the year which were great - but we lost a lot more than we ended playing and I can’t believe how frustrating it has been. It’s drawn some blood.

HOPES/PLANS FOR 2022 On the eighth of March 2020 we ran into Tim Rogers and Steve Cummings in the Virgin Lounge in Brisbane. A couple of days later it all went belly-up. Since then there’s been so much extraneous stuff to deal with and I’d just like to run into either of those fellas and not talk about fucking pandemics or vaccination. Preferably in the Brisbane Virgin Lounge.

Mick Thomas & The Roving Commission’s latest album is City’s Calling Me.

MATT WALKER

MUSICIAN BEST OF

Very entertaining book from one of my all time favourite artists.

I would’ve been devastated if it was crap, but of course I knew it wouldn’t be.

FILM I don’t think I watched a movie made in 2021....so I’m gonna say The video clip for Catching Smoke King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard,

by Danny Cohen.

REDISCOVERY Undercurrent - Bill Evans and Jim Hall (1962) Unconventional in the jazz tradition, this album of piano and guitar duets was a 2021 revelation to me. The ascending guitar melody at the 4:53 mark of the piece titled Romain harnessed so much emotion I almost couldn’t cope, over and over again.

Thanks to my friend Jimmy Dowling for turning me on to this album in 2021.

HIGHLIGHT It’s complicated.

HOPES/PLANS FOR 2022 I don’t plan that far ahead.

ANDY WHITE

ALBUM Bittersweet Demons - The Murlocs Game changing album for these lovable lads. They’ve hoisted their familiar jangle aloft, to find their new stomp in a more poetic world of thought that leaves one feeling an instant nostalgia perceived from an unknown future. ”Live out of love, not reward, you’re the angel I adored Lionized through the eyes of the ones left behind” From the title track ‘Bittersweet Demons’.

SONG Dangerous - Liz Stringer Why Liz is not a worldwide superstar is a mystery to me. Perhaps the feeling is mutual, and I am a mystery to the world. Yeah, that must be it.

BOOK Unstrung - Marc Ribot

ALBUM Collapsed in Sunbeams - Arlo Parks SONG ‘Zu Asche, Zu Staub’ - Severija BOOK Frankenstein - Mary Shelley FILM Gomorra (the TV series) REDISCOVERY Plastic Ono Band - yes!!!

HIGHLIGHT OF 2021 St Patrick’s Day Show, March 17. The only gig I played Dec 31 2019–Dec 12 2021 unbelievable!!!

HOPES/PLANS FOR 2022 This garden is only temporary.

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Photo by Jacqueline Mitelman

MARK GILLESPIE R.I.P.

A

ustralian singer-songwriter Mark Gillespie passed away on Thursday November 11 in hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the country in which he had lived for many years.

Gillespie’s death was confirmed by a relative and also by musician Joe Creighton who worked on Gillespie’s early albums. A friend of Gillespie’s, who was working for British Airways when he met him in the early ’80s, recalled that Gillespie was working as a volunteer in a children’s home in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and helped build and run a new home in the village of Sreepur. “Mark played a vital part in establishing what became a safe and secure refuge for hundreds of vulnerable women and children,” he recalls. He added that Gillespie “later married a local woman and lived in a typical rural village close by with none of the trappings of western life.”

In recent years Gillespie’s health declined, which he reported to Rhythms, while late last year his wife died.

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Gillespie’s first recordings appeared on a various artist’s compilation called ‘The Debutantes’, released by the Oz label. The compilation featured two of his tracks, ‘I’m A Kite (Won’t You Be My Hurricane)’ and ‘The Joke’s On You’.

Around the same time Gillespie published a collection of prose and poetry through the small publishing company Outback Press.

In 1978 Mark Gillespie and the Victims released ‘Savonarola’, his first single. The Victims included Mick ‘The Reverend’ O’Connor on keyboards, Peter Reed on drums, and Bruno DeStanisio on bass.

Gillespie released four studio albums in all plus the compilation Small Mercies. Three albums were released between 1980 and 1983 with Only Human, generally acclaimed as one of the great Australian debut albums. Gillespie played guitars, synthesisers, keyboards, piano and mandolin on the album. The album also featured Ross Hannaford (Daddy Cool), Joe Creighton

(Black Sorrows, Tim Finn) and Mark Meyer (Stylus, Richard Clapton). He also made his first visit to Bangladesh around this time. The followup Sweet Nothing was released in 1982. (The first two albums were re-released with bonus tracks in recent years by Aztec Records). A third album, self-titled but known as Ring of Truth was released in 1983. Gillespie’s final album, Flame came out in 1992 when he had returned to Melbourne for a few years.

As well as his recordings, Gillespie also toured Australia supporting Tom Waits, Maria Muldaur and Rodriguez and did a number of notable residencies. After his final album he also did some gigs at The Continental Cafe with the band The Casuals during which they performed an epic version of Dylan’s ‘Masters of War.’ Mark kindly donated that version of the song to the iTunes version of the Woodstock Sessions album. In 2020, Gillespie also allowed Rhythms magazine – which put him on the cover back in 1993 - to showcase some of his archived recordings in conjunction with a major feature on his career.

In fact, Mark made videos for many of these recordings and you can find them online.

“Mark Gillespie created a remarkable body of work in a short space of time but he was a reluctant rock star in many ways,” wrote one critic. “His recorded legacy should not be overlooked. He was a heartfelt singer / songwriter and Only Human is a classic debut album.”

Joe Creighton also added of Gillespie that: “Going to Bangladesh was a bit of a spiritual quest for him, he just wanted to do something completely different. He was a reluctant rock star. That whole thing of rock ’n’ roll, management and the press, he was anti all that. I don’t want to speculate too much, but this is what it seemed like to me: he just wanted a break from it all. And then he would come back, record a bit more and then he went again and just didn’t come back.”

Perhaps the best description of Gillespie came from Creighton who has said that Gillespie, “came across as a tortured soul with an air of mystery about him.”

MARK GILLESPIE DISCOGRAPHY Only Human, 1980 Sweet Nothing, 1982 Ring of Truth, 1983 Flame, 1982 Plus: Debutantes (two tracks), 1977 Black Tape (cassette), 1978

Peter Noble

INTERNATIONAL ACTS ARE ON THEIR WAY!

Things were looking good for Bluesfest last year – until they weren’t. Cancellation at the last hour devastated everyone: the festival staff, musicians, stall holders and local businesses that rely on the influx of music fans. It also affected Rhythms because we still have 6000 copies of our special March/ April Bluesfest edition sitting up there on site!

“We were set up the day before the event, ready to open,” recalls Bluesfest Director Peter Noble. “There was one case of COVID about a 40-minute drive away from our site.

It wasn’t a ticket buyer and, even though all sporting events in the state happened and the Royal Easter Show with 60,000 a day - people jostling shoulder to shoulder occurred, our all-seated event wasn’t given an opportunity to proceed. The simple decision should have been, Hey, let’s wait a day. See if it spreads in the community and if it doesn’t, which it didn’t, off you go.”

Noble was remarkably diplomatic at the time of the cancellation – which probably helped maintain his relationship with the State government – but he is definite about the detrimental effects of the lockdown.

“What that did to our industry was tell everybody, ‘Don’t invest in the music industry. You won’t be treated with respect. You will be shut down on the whiff of something wrong, even if it’s hard to connect it to your event.’ That is the truth.

That’s what happened. The fact that I’m still here is a Testament to my staff and the fact that we said, ‘We’re going to get through this. We’re coming back’.” We are the most cancelled event of any event. That’s just the way it is, and we can all cry in our beers, but the bottom line is we do shows and we’re doing shows, moving ahead proudly about it.”

Moving ahead for 2022 now involves bringing in international acts – for the first time since 2019!

“Those artists have been rescheduling since the original Blues Fest was the first cancellation in 2020,” notes Noble, “and some we’ve kept the tickets on sale, some we haven’t. Of course, there are tours around all those shows too. But we are just trying to get back to what we do, which is we promote shows and put on festivals that when the

Australian border opens. I just went, ‘Shit, I’ve gone and booked the best bloody Aussie festival ever and now the internationals can come’.”

It will be the first time Noble has toured George Benson but he has worked with some of the forthcoming international acts before and The Wailers are one of his alltime favourites.

“The Wailers are in a very interesting part of their career now,” he explains. “Members of the band are getting older. Whilst there still remains original members that were in Bob Marley and The Wailers, now we’re seeing the sons of Wailers being in the band. But it’s always been about keeping the music of Bob Marley alive. I will support that as long as I’m in this business because Bob Marley’s music is too important not to be heard live by the people that created it or taught other people to play it in the right way. There is only one Wailers. There are other bands that go out there and call themselves original Wailers or whatever who are not Wailers.

“There is only one band, the band led by Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett. That is The Wailers. He was Bob Marley’s producer, he

was his band leader, he wrote songs with Bob and he continued to keep his promise to Bob on his deathbed: ‘I will play your music as long as I can.’ Now that Family Man’s getting older, he still comes to the shows but he can’t get up and perform anymore. But you’ll still see him there because he keeps his promise. They are on a mission and that mission will be that the music of Bob Marley will never stop being played live by them. No matter how many generations there needs to be of people who are dedicated to do that. So, that’s why I love it.

“One lesson I learned a few years ago, I put them in a stage that held about 3000 people and you couldn’t get near the place. I learned that they can play four times at Blues Fest, which they will, on bigger stages and then they can focus on albums and you’ll hear the whole album get played one night and then a different album the next and it’s so special.

And it’s real. This is not a tribute band. It’s just incredible. It gets me every time. I’m lucky enough to be working with him now for 30 years and I just can never wait until next tour. It’s that’s special”.

“He’s never played Blues Fest,” says Noble of guitarist George Benson, ‘and he is just another one that just has taken the time, since the original cancellation last year, to say, ‘Just count me in. I want to come to back. I’m coming back.’ I can’t wait to work with professionals like that. And the last album I heard from him, that Live in London, he cut at Ronnie Scotts. I mean, that’s incredible. The one before that, Walking to New Orleans, amazing. Here’s a man in his seventies still doing music, in my opinion, as good as he’s ever done. He’s a master.”

THE-WAILERS 25

THE NEW ALBUM FROM TENNESSEE’S ERIN RAE

A Song Being Born Every Moment The new album from Texan Superstar Duo Available on LP, CD & all streaming platforms from Jan 14

BY ANNE MCCUE

K

AVAILABLE ON LP, CD & ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS FROM FEB 4

aren Dalton’s song comes out of the dark night of experience, singular and alone and very human and speaks directly to our souls.

We hear every emotion, not a performance, just a song being born every moment. The song of authentic experience.

If only we could hear more voices like this.

If so, perhaps humanity might slow down and take more of a reckoning of the truths of existence - the heart, the soul, the implications of one life upon another life.

If only we could hear more voices like this.

But how can we? Everywhere we go we hear the sound of shallow. The supermarket, the gas station, even the garden beds at the Nashville Malls spew the ugly sounds of bro country at our victimized ears.

The sound of so-called popular music attacks us everywhere. Shallowness rises to the top and clangs like an ugly bell, “Look at me, look at me!”

Empty vessels making the most sound and rising to the top of those playlists clanging in our ears, “Look at me, look at me!” Not truly popular, but actually enforced.

Karen Dalton’s voice. If only we could make the space for more voices like this.

Real voices, true voices, women’s real voices.

The voices of humanity, not music business.

A music business that historically has told women to put down their instruments and just sing… and dance and wear brightly coloured clothing. And to sing “perfectly,” not like true perfection, but like wonder bread, which dissolves in an instant because it is hardly there. A business that celebrates copies rather than originals.

Karen Dalton’s voice, not separated from her instrument - guitar or banjo - but the same one sound, the same one song. Not one apart from the other but interwoven, threading and plaiting.

At age 32 her voice is a kind of ancient. She sounds like a woman who has a thousand years of experience singing a song of all ages.

If we could hear more voices like this with the silence in between. Imagine if humans were comfortable with the truth and with the silence.

But the vacuous clang clang clang of contemporary existence fills our ears so that we forget what a song is meant to be - that human being aliveness.

Imagine if people only made records when they had something to say and something to sing?

That is, real people living genuine lives and every now and then making a record. Not dressed by stylists, tuned by engineers and photoshopped by graphic artistes. Imagine if the goal wasn’t fame and fortune?

Heroin, hard drugs, amphetamines. There but for the grace of the goddess go many of us who thought we were immortal when we were young, or who didn’t care whether we lived or died, who were on that quest for an interesting life, who would try who knows what to feel that next experience. And while upper class opioid addicts called their doctors for a prescription, artists like Karen Dalton and Kurt Cobain grubbed around the streets only to find black gunk to shoot into their veins. Imagine if they could have just got good quality drugs and continued with the rest of their lives?

Saw a friend the other day He was sorry I’d gone astray…

My sin was the sweetest love ~ Karen Dalton The soft voices are there. It’s just a matter of dulling out that clang clang clang of the mainstream and listening, really listening.

Searching out and finding that new music from the past.

The reluctant performers play best around a backyard fire when hardly anyone is there.

Reluctant performers shy away from the light and seek the darkness. They do not crave the spotlight and all the attention, they do not crave the praise of shallow star fuckers…

Karen Dalton is the kind of artist who was drowned out by loud people with big elbows. But her beauty is infinite and now we can hear it.

All that shines is not truth All that glitters does not shine Real beauty rarely glitters So refined Real beauty rarely glitters So I find ~ Karen Dalton The film Karen Dalton - In My Own Time is out now.

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B

otanic Park was already a wonderland: the native plants. The springy couch grass. The oaks, elms and ghost gums, and majestic Moreton Bay Figs. But in 1992 came further magic, hints of an event so visionary, so spectacular, that it would change the face of a city and open the ears and hearts of a nation.

There amid the 34-hectare expanse called Tainmuntilla by its original Kaurna inhabitants, were three separate stages.

Sound checks charged the air with curious tones: the slap and boom of a West African djembe; the heavenly octaves of Sufi Qawwali singing; the ethereal beauty of a Chinese dizi bamboo flute.

‘WOMADelaide Festival 1992’ read banners decorated with a lion logo and geometric slashes of red and green.

When the gates opened a crowd of adults and kids poured in for what the Adelaide Festival billed as ‘a spectrum of world sounds in one weekend.’ People knew headliners Crowded House and Anglo-Irish outfit the Pogues. But Youssou N’Dour from Senegal?

Pakistan’s Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan? A Chinese flautist named Guo Yue? This was a voyage of discovery, a leap into the unknown.

YOUSSOU N’DOUR 1992 Organisers took a punt on that first WOMADelaide. Presented as part of the 1992 Adelaide Festival of the Arts in a joint venture with the UK-based WOMAD organisation – and with sponsorship from the National AIDS campaign (“Play safe stay safe”) and radio station SA FM - WOMADelaide was guided by a faith in music’s ability to connect. To promote peace, love and cultural understanding.

WOMAD (World of Music Arts and Dance) had been co-founded in England a decade earlier by the Grammy-winning rock musician Peter 28

Gabriel: “Music is a universal language,” said Gabriel early on. “It draws people together and proves, as well anything, the stupidity of racism.”

Not that Rob Brookman, as incoming artistic director of the 1992 Adelaide Festival, had heard of WOMAD when he considered programming a mini-festival of music from elsewhere, to be staged outside the confines of the concert hall.

ROB BROOKMAN “The Internet didn’t exist back then,” he says. “There was no email. I was flicking through (British entertainment newspaper) The Stage when I saw a tiny article about a music festival called WOMAD happening in the UK. I thought, ‘That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking about doing’. So I sent off a fax.

“I flew over and met Thomas Brooman, WOMAD’s artistic director, at a WOMAD event in Morecombe Bay in northwest England,” he continues. “I remember it was fantastically exciting to see an audience embracing music that perhaps they weren’t aware of.”

THOMAS BROOMAN Brooman was on a mission to take WOMAD to the world. As well as the main festival in Reading outside London (since 2007, in Charlton Park in Wiltshire) and its now defunct Morecombe Bay event, there were WOMADs in Spain and Singapore and countries yet to come. A WOMAD in Adelaide – WOMADelaide, as dubbed by festival marketing director Colin Koch made sense.

Beside, something was in the ether in Australia in 1992. Alongside the inaugural Big Day Out in Sydney, WOMADelaide heralded a new era of large-scale outdoor performances with multiple stages and a multiplicity of voices. Festivals that would eventually dispense with the need for headliners, evolving to become brands guaranteeing quality, variety and life enhancing good vibes.

CROWDED HOUSE 1992 (Pic by Mark Kimber) “WOMADelaide was a huge bonus for the Adelaide Festival and so far from the mainstream approach,” says Koch. “Even Neil and Tim Finn from Crowded House seemed in awe of all the unknown talent and at the last minute decided to do a stripped back acoustic set.”

Brooman and Brookman created a line-up of artists they sourced from the existing WOMAD circuit and Brookman’s contacts, folding in several acts – Paul Kelly, Indian violinist Dr L Subramaniam, the Mapapa acrobats of Kenya –booked to play the Adelaide Festival. A site was found at Belair National Park, 13 kilometres south of the city. But with a few weeks to opening, and with the locale printed in the programme and on the tickets, organisers were told that if the weekend coincided with a Total Fire Ban, the park would stay closed.

Festival partner Ian Scobie, general manager of the Adelaide Festival, was tasked with finding a new venue, fast: “I got into my car with a Gregory’s street directory and drove around,” he says. “When I passed Botanic Park, which was run by the Botanic Gardens, who we’d already worked with, I thought, ‘Wow.’”

IAN SCOBIE 29

For Paula Henderson from WOMAD, Botanic Park was a revelation. “It was the most beautiful site I’d ever seen, and a vision after the longest flight I’d ever been on,” she says, having obtained visas for, and flown down from London with, artists including Tanzanian singer/composer Remy Ongala and Guo Yue (“A character; he was so bored on the plane that he washed his socks in the sink”).

WOMADelaide shared similarities with its mothership. There was the official lion logo. The Global Village of food, retail and community stalls. But unlike WOMAD there was no camping. Arts-based projects – dance, installations, orchestras, roaming performers and large-scale performance were borrowed from the Adelaide Festival.

Stage crews came with theatre resumes.

Things happened on the ground, in the park, not just on the stage.

“It had the feel of WOMAD,” says Henderson.

“But it also had its own identity.”

In uniqueness and scale WOMADelaide offered a perfect example of what festivals could achieve. It even woo-ed the neighbourhood: “One of my roles was drive out to nearby residential areas like Hackney and St Peters and assess the noise spill,” says Colin Koch. “I’ll never forget the serene sound of Nusrat’s voice floating across the rooftops. People were out in their gardens, rapt.”

THE WOMAD INDIAN-PACIFIC TOUR (Pic by Colin Koch)

PETER GABRIEL 1993

WOMADelaide was only meant to be a oneoff, an Adelaide Festival highlight. But with crowd enthusiasm palpable, organisers jumped onstage on closing night and pledged that it would return the next year as a stand-alone festival.

“Which was a bit rash,” says Brookman; who, following his (then customary) year-long stint as director of the Adelaide Festival, became director of the Adelaide Festival Centre. “A lot of fancy footwork had to be achieved.”

And so it was. “Colin, Rob and I went to see Mike Rann, who was Minister for Tourism at the time and a huge supporter of what we were doing,” remembers Scobie. “He personally wanted Peter Gabriel to come and chipped in to make it happen. It was a major moment in securing WOMADelaide’s future.”

Presented by the Adelaide Festival Centre, WOMADelaide 1993 was buoyed by commitment from government at State, Federal and local levels, sponsors including the International Year for the World’s Indigenous People initiative, and by media who appreciated that great music from everywhere. Artists that year ranged from British Asian diva Sheila Chandra to Malian crooner Salif Keita and indeed, former Genesis frontman and A-lister Peter Gabriel.

“We were so lucky to get Peter,” says Brookman. “He had a rare free date in his diary the weekend before he was attending the Grammys, our weekend, so we shared the travel costs.

“If 1993 hadn’t worked,” he adds, “then WOMADelaide would have been over.”

NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN 1995

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A village fair atmosphere was part of WOMADelaide’s early charm; ‘Come and

meet your neighbours’ was a tagline coined

by Koch. Still, its existence depended on meeting box office targets. The small revenue made in 1993 became risk capital bolstering the next WOMADelaide in 1995 - an alternate year to the then-biennial Adelaide Festival (and the year Stage 4 was created).

No matter that those gap years were peppered with often unprofitable, albeit creatively brilliant, events. Most notably, the 1996 WOMAD Indian-Pacific train trip from Perth to Adelaide, an all-aboard-adventure with a stop-off concert at the remote settlement of Pimba. Passenger/performers included the Bauls of Bengal, Tuvan throatsinging ensemble Shu-De, Scottish band the Well Oiled Sisters and – collaborating with all en route - Paul Kelly.

“I sat down with Australian National Railways and talked them into giving us a train,” says Colin Koch, whose idea it was.

“The journey with those musicians was a once-in-lifetime experience, a real hoot. The best 50k we ever lost.”

There were one-off projects at, variously, the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne’s Myer Music Bowl, Perth’s Belvoir Amphitheatre and the vineyards of McLaren Vale outside Adelaide.

WOMADelaide’s influence continued to spread: in 1997 the first WOMAD New Zealand ‘sister event’ was staged in New Plymouth on the weekend after WOMADelaide. >>>

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Irish band Kila got out a soccer ball. Members of Baaba Maal’s Senegalese band joined in dressed in their flowing robes and before long there were about 35 people playing. No sides, no goals, just lots of passing the ball around.”

A sense of intimacy continued to prevail.

Workshops brought artists up close, and encouraged people to engage with each other. Shared environmental concerns were seen, heard and validated by WOMADelaide 2001 – Australia’s first major ‘green festival’.

That same year, the United Nations Year of Volunteers, 18 volunteers operated the Information Booth.

Angus Watt worked with Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara women artists to create new flags that stood, rows and rows of them, fluttering in the golden Adelaide light - as if acknowledging victories won, and heralding spectacular things to come.

TINARIWEN 2004 (Pic by Tony Lewis) >>> By this time events company Arts Projects Australia (APA) had been formed with a team of former Adelaide Festival colleagues Rob Brookman, Steve Brown, Colin Koch and Ian Scobie. For a few years APA presented WOMADelaide in partnership with the Adelaide Festival Centre (then with the Government of South Australia and later, with South Australian Tourism). By 1999 WOMADelaide was part of the fabric of its host city. A glorious cornucopia of sound, sight and taste. A microcosm of a world we all wanted to live in.

MAVIS STAPLES 2008 (Pic by Tony Lewis)

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A world with a a KidZone children’s area, a WO’Zone nightclub (which ran off-site until 2004), giant silk flags on poles (courtesy of WOMAD artist Angus Watt), an extra fifth stage and a good-natured ambience that was carefully nurtured: “Part of building the ethos of the festival was establishing a sense of relationship,” says Brookman. “We tried to keep as many musicians onsite across the weekend, even if they had no further performances.

“One of my favourite moments was the football match that erupted backstage when

By its second decade, WOMADelaide was a brand. A byword for quality. A guarantee of good times. An acronym – World of Music, Arts and Dance – that did what it said on the tin. No matter if you didn’t know, or couldn’t pronounce, many of the names on the bill. Each artist was a gift and very often, a discovery. Each opened a window onto a living culture, to stories from near and far, to traditions both ancient and modern.

JIMMY CLIFF 2006 (Pic by Eyefood)

Having come on board via the Adelaide Festival, critics and journalists had their horizons broadened. Their affection for WOMADelaide, and their understanding of sounds from around the world, developed and grew.

“Lying on the grass in Adelaide’s beautiful Botanic Park, surrounded by huge and ancient fig trees and listening to great music is as close to heaven we can hope for in this lifetime,” wrote Bruce Elder in The Age in 2003 - the year that WOMADelaide went annual.

Like the crowds, back the media came each year. Waxing ecstatic about the music of the planet. About the classical orchestras and dance companies; the roving performers and visual art installations; the workshops and children’s parade and huge al fresco spectacles.

“WOMADelaide’s roots in the Adelaide Festival made the idea of crossovers between western art music, western classical music and music from around the world very attractive,” says WOMADelaide co-founder Rob Brookman. “Bringing the likes of Bangarra Dance Theatre or Meryl Tankard’s ADT onstage meant you got to experience acts that you wouldn’t ordinarily find at a music Festival.

“It helped us make the demographic as broad as possible, which we wanted,” he continues.

“You could basically track two independent pathways through the Festival. Older people who came for the classical music and dance companies then began exploring world cultures. And another completely different group were there for the drums and bass, the beats and the DJs.”

ANNETTE TRIPODI

Annette Tripodi was programming the Festival’s Australia-based content, and working with WOMAD UK to manage the international artists, when she founded the late night WoZone club that ran from 1999 to 2003 inside the Student Union of nearby Adelaide University.

“I didn’t want to go home at 11pm, which was the curfew at the time,” she says. “We had the club run from midnight until 5am on Fridays and Saturdays: three rooms with DJs, live bands and a chill out space with projections.

“In 2004 we teamed up with the Adelaide Festival, running two WoZone nights as part of their Universal Playground club,” she continues. “In 2006 we did a late night DJ set (Talvin Singh on Stage 3) to test the waters.

It was hugely well received and since 2007 we’ve programmed DJs in Speakers’ Corner – the first new area of the park we expanded into.”

There were those who’d doubted the wisdom of positioning a sixth stage amid the tall pine trees on the opposite side of Botanic Park.

Said the locale was too remote. Doubted that anyone would want to walk that far.

“We crossed our fingers,” says Ian Scobie.

“Partly because the park is so beautiful, people were just really happy to explore different areas. One of the delights of producing the event has been finding new nooks and crannies where people can happen upon a performance.

“To walk through the park when the Festival is in full swing is to see a whole range of ages

and emotion. There are so many animated faces, lots of talk of ‘Wasn’t that amazing?’

It’s this constant live exchange.”

There was just so much to take in: the Artist in Conversation sessions at Speakers’ Corner. The food, fashion, art and trinkets in the Global Village area. The Taste the World stage, where artists chatted and cooked up a storm between intimate musical shows – a concept dreamed up for the 2004 Festival by marketing manager Sandy Verschoor (the current Lord Mayor of Adelaide) that has gone on to become a fixture of WOMADs across the world.

In 2004 the WOMADelaide Foundation - the non-profit body that now presents the Festival - was established, buoyed by a remit to foster cultural understanding within and outside the Festival. That same year the Festival began an annual cycle of presentation – a move that was subsequently followed in 2007 by the Adelaide Fringe and in 2013, the Adelaide Festival.

In 2005 the first week-long visual arts workshop (featuring Cuban papier-mâché artists, the Mora Brothers) was presented with Adelaide’s Community Arts Network.

The Foundation’s outreach programmes became intrinsic to the Festival’s identity: in 2007 a local artist visited the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) lands of the tri-state central desert region to work with the Tjanpi Desert Weavers, returning for large-scale workshops with Community Arts Network, creating pieces on-site. >>>

SHARON JONES & THE DAP KINGS 2008 (Pic by Tony Lewis)

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>>> In 2010 artists from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands of remote northwest South Australia based themselves at Better World Arts in Port Adelaide, creating a set of sixty handpainted flags in workshops facilitated by WOMAD UK’s Angus Watt, their creations flying alongside Watt’s iconic flags – as they have done ever since.

WOMADelaide went carbon-neutral in 2005 through an active program of tree planting and reforestation. It was a move that underscored the Festival’s commitment to sustainability, nurturing the sort of environmental awareness that saw people picking up what might have been left behind, and leaving the site as pristine as it was at the outset.

“WOMADelaide was the first Festival in the country to pay proper attention to simple stuff like separating waste streams,” says Brookman. “We always tried to be inventive in our approach to carbon neutrality – the crazy idea of compostable plates and cutlery, say - and in our efforts to inspire change. It’s something that has gone into the DNA of the organisation.”

By the end of the second decade, Ian Scobie and Annette Tripodi had assumed full responsibility for the programming of the festival.

“Technology was getting better all the time in terms of connecting with artists, accessing their materials, sorting out their visas and the like,” says Tripodi. “To think that in 1995 we had Adelaide company Virtual Artists set up what sounds like a foil satellite dish to beam a live show via this thing called ‘the Internet’, back before most people had email addresses!”

In 2010, ostensibly to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Adelaide Festival, WOMADelaide extended to four days.

The Festival’s enormous popularity, along with the public holiday on the Monday, has ensured its four-day length ever since.

“The pace of WOMADelaide changed with that extra day,” says Tripodi. “We could schedule two shows by the same artist, who the audience might see on the Friday and again on the Monday; in between they’d do activities or watch other artists. There was more chilling, mingling and opportunities for collaboration. One artist likened it to a summer camp.”

By 2011 around 50% of attendees were travelling from interstate or overseas.

Buoyed by a reputation for distinguished environmental sensitivity, the one-off threeday WOMAD Earth Station sister event took place later that year at Belair National Park – the site originally planned for the inaugural

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THIRD DECADE WOMADELAIDE

FEMI KUTI (Pic by Josh Hmmings) WOMADelaide before it was abandoned due to threat of bushfires.

Earth Station’s focus on sharing concern and ideas for sustainable life on our earth was a catalyst for WOMADelaide’s wildly successful Planet Talks program, which debuted in 2013.

2012 was WOMADelaide’s twentieth anniversary. By which time the Festival was entrenched in the national arts calendar as a must-see event, a celebration of our global community in one of the most beautiful locales in the country and possibly, the world. Among the historic memories absorbed by Botanic Park that decade were private celebrations: weddings, three of them, complete with marquee, celebrant and flowers, and catering by Global Village stallholders. There was the generational shift that saw kids who came with their parents in 1992 return over the years as tweens, teenagers and young adults, with or without children of their own. The personal highlights: the excitement of discovery; the glimpses into lesser-known musical traditions; the bursts of on-the-fly creative brilliance.

The sense of belonging. Of being at the centre of a world we would all like to live in.

“People would walk into Botanic Park and immediately their minds and hearts seemed to open,” says Tripodi. “You could almost feel the joy.”

The joy has continued and even intensified, what with the combination of memories and experiences accrued over the decades and the steady influx of new audiences.

WOMADelaide’s stellar reputation (“Uplifting, political and expansive festival offers hope amidst the doom,” wrote the Guardian in 2020) owes much to the bluesky thinking of its organisers. A long-time crew for whom WOMADelaideans – the festival-goers themselves - are key.

“Never underestimate the audience,” says Director, Ian Scobie. “That’s something that often gets forgotten. We can be too mindful that people have to like what we put on or there is no point in programming it. The first questions we ask are, ‘Is the work good?’ ‘Is it enriching and sustaining?’

“Art and music must have meaning,” he continues, “whether it is traditional rhythms (Master Drummers of Burundi, 2012), protest dance music (Palestinian Jordanian outfit 47Soul, 2016) or leftfield French pop (Christine and the Queens, 2019). We want people to feel moved, to connect and feel better for being there.”

WOMADelaide has worked to maintain its optimum vibe: in 2012 ‘Sounds of the Planet was replaced with the new WOMAD-wide tagline, ‘the world’s festival’, and in 2017 the festival extended into neighbouring Frome Park.

This increased the possibilities for large-scale performance and with the presentation of France’s Cie Carabosse Exodus of the Forgotten Peoples – a sprawling, immersive fire installation about the plight of refugees.

In Frome Park in 2018 a multi-storey ‘jewel box’ stage was purpose-built for The Manganiyar Seduction, an audio-visual feast created by Indian theatre director Royston Abel. In 2019 Stage 6 moved from its position down by the creek near Speaker’s Corner (Stage 7) to become the bigger, better Frome Park Pavilion.

Elsewhere, the WOMADelaide Community Access Program continued opening doors to those who wouldn’t ordinarily attend the festival. In 2019 almost 300 tickets were distributed to a range of community groups including young refugees, Indigenous communities and survivors of torture and trauma.

“Coming to WOMADelaide is a luxury for many, particularly for those on a low income,” says Scobie. “We proactively try to make it as accessable as possible.”

In 2021 came the WOMADelaide x NSS Academy, a training and development program for emerging South Australian First Nations and multicultural artists run in partnership with youth-focused music hub Northern Sound System, based in Elizabeth in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.

“Over the years we’ve nursed an ambition to help build the future careers of young musicians,” says Scobie of a scheme that has so far welcomed the likes of Malaysianborn chanteuse Estee Evangeline and DEM MOB from the Anangu Pitjanjatjara Yankunytjantjara Lands - the first group to rap in Pitjantjatjara.

“Professional mentors are paired with NSS’s training initiatives, further building WOMADelaide’s connection with local emerging talent and audiences across the community to help lift them up.”

Community projects have remained paramount. In 2013 WOMADelaide was the winner of the Partnerships Project (part of the SA Premier’s Natural Resources Management Award) for its relationship with Greening Australia, with whom it works to offset the festival’s carbon footprint. Two dollars from every ticket sold have to date seen well over 70,000 native shrubs and trees (she-oak groves, mallee trees) planted in regional South Australia, a WOMADelaide forest like no other.

In 2018 Botanic Park was transformed each night of the festival with the event’s most

BAABA MAAL 2012 (Pic by Charles Seja)

ambitious performance art project, Place des Anges by French aerial artists Gratte Ciel, an overhead aerial ballet of swirling Angels and feathers!

The following year, French experimentalists Le Phun presented The Leafies: sculptures made from tonnes of disintegrating leaves collected from Botanic Park over the previous autumn and stored in a warehouse in purpose-built containers.

“Le Phun arrived from France two weeks before the festival began to do workshops in our warehouse and on-site with the Adelaide Central School of Art,” says Tripodi.

“They created 150 Leafies that popped up around Botanic Park in different guises then ‘migrated’ across the city for the next few weeks.”

This most recent decade was also the period in which the precedents set early

by WOMADelaide – that is, its role as an influencer – were now clearly reflected in the aesthetics and diversity of other Australiabased festivals.

Still, no other festival could ever bottle the essence – and resilience - of WOMADelaide.

The festival has navigated everything from world politics (caught up in the conflict in Mali, desert blues band Tinariwen cancelled in 2012 then played in 2018) to unusual artist riders (cigars, cognac and crème brulee for the late Cape Verdean diva Cesaria Evora) and the challenges of flying artists in from such far-flung locales as Yakutia in Siberia (Ayarkhaan, 2013) and Nouakchott in Mauritania (Noura Mint Seymali, 2018).

Not to mention getting equipment and accoutrements past customs officials with almost permanently raised eyebrows.

Among the items that have been brought down in flight cases or sourced locally (as requested in 2020 by Belgian metal-rockelectro-Balkan outfit KermesZ L’Est) are maracas, megaphones and bouquets of synthetic roses; a goat’s skull, two boar’s teeth and three stuffed martens; human dreadlocks, half a mirror ball, a fishing rod and a bicycle pump.

In 2021, in the midst of the global pandemic and unable to secure permission from SA Health for a full-scale event in Botanic Park, WOMADelaide defied all odds to present a series of reserved seating sunset concerts at King Rodney (Ityamai-itpina) Park over four nights.

ARCHIE ROACH 1992 (By Colin Koch) They featured the same high production values WOMADelaideans have come to expect, with a line-up of domestic icons including Midnight Oil, Sarah Blasko and Archie Roach – whose poignant farewell concert, coupled with his performance at the first festival in 1992, seemed like a spiritual bookend.

Welcome back to Botanic Park, WOMADelaide 2022 - and happy 30th birthday.

Felicidades to a festival that has developed alongside its audience: embracing change, enabling discovery, reinforcing connection.

Offering food for thought, reasons to dance and incentive to grow. Generating countless wow moments. Becoming even more beloved along the way.

Here’s to the next 30 years, and the years beyond that. Here’s to future WOMADelaideans, those yet to encounter its charms.

Do they have a treat in store.

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Paul Kelly returns to Womadelaide with his latest album - a Christmas offering – as diverse as the festival itself.

By Brian Wise

W

hile Paul Kelly’s latest chart-topping album, Christmas Train, will not quite be timely when he appears at Womadelaide with his band its diversity certainly reflects the spirit of the festival. Kelly is no stranger to Womadelaide and not only has fond memories of his appearances there but also of his time on the legendary train journey that took a host of musicians across the continent.

“I’m really looking forward to that,” responds Kelly when I mention that he returns to the festival after a long gap. “I think it’s probably one of my favourite festivals. It’s one of those festivals where you always discover something great that you hadn’t heard of before. I remember seeing one of the greatest concerts I’ve ever seen with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Youssou N’Dour, who’s one of the early ones.

Subramaniam. So, I’m really hoping that we get some time - apart from playing - to go and hear and see some of the other acts.”

It sounds as if Kelly has taken the time to go and check out some of the acts when he has been at the festival, something that also reflects the fact that he is a real music ‘fan’.

“It is not always the case at festivals, it’s hard to get around and see other stuff,” he responds.

“But I’ve done that before way back.

“But another strong memory is of being on the train, the WOMAD train from Perth to Pimba in the north of South Australia. I think that was

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an in-between year we did it. We had Archie Roach, Lucky Oceans, the Bauls of Bengal, Remmy Ongala, the Tuvan throat singers…...

But we were all on the train traveling together for three days and got the chance to meet all those people and play music with them. That was a real highlight for me.

Kelly agrees that it was an incredible experience. “Because Lucky Oceans and I, we were sort of freewheeling because we were both solo, but easy for us to join in with other people or for them to join in with us. So, Lucky is one of those musicians who can play with anybody, even if he knows the song or not. I remember I could choose songs of mine that didn’t have a lot of complicated chord changes - and there’s quite a lot of my songs are like that, so they work well playing with other people.

“I remember playing ‘Careless’ with Remy Ongala and his band. The chords go round and round and round and they just jumped on board. It was fantastic. Played Maralinga with the throat singers as we were traveling on the train through that country.

“And to be next to a throat singer when they’re making those sounds is the weirdest thing ever. Being a couple yards away from someone when they start off and they’re making their sound - making this drone - and then you can hear this sort of other whistling sound come in over the top of it. There’s two sounds

coming out of the same head and body. Quite extraordinary. Yes, there were some really great collaborations on that trip.

Does it reinforce the fact that often music has an emotional impact that transcends lyrics?

You may not understand what they’re singing about in terms of the lyrics but you can feel the emotional impact.

“Oh, yeah,” agrees Kelly. “A lot of music I listen to at home is not in English. It’s good to have a break from your own language. And also just to, like you said, experience it as sound and feeling. Probably my favourite style of music in the world - if you can reduce it that much - but I love Brazilian music. To me, it’s got all kinds of music in it: really great rhythms, complex harmonies, some great songwriters. I don’t understand Portuguese but the music to me is just the perfect blend.

I guess at WOMADelaide we can’t expect you to be highlighting the Christmas Train album, can we?

“We’ll play ‘How to Make Gravy’ but that’ll be the only Christmas song we play,” notes Kelly. “But we play that all year round anyway so that will be in the set. We’ll have Vika and Linda with us so they’ll sing a song each. It’ll be sort of as normal a set as we can get, whatever that means.”

Paul Kelly and his band will be appearing at Womadelaide and Bluesfest.

“I miss my audience so much!”, Gordon Koang confesses. He is calling from his apartment in Frankston where he’s spent most of Victoria’s lockdown but is preparing to tour again soon.

It’s been over a year since Gordon released his album Unity, and after the album’s tour was postponed, he is excited to be playing live in front of audiences again soon, including at his upcoming appearance at WOMAD. “I can’t wait! We have the show in Adelaide, then one in Sydney and Brisbane, so many places. It’s been a long time, but I can’t wait to hear my audience’s voices,” he said.

Born in the Nile Valley in what is now known as South Sudan, Gordon has been living in Australia for the past eight years and received permanent residency in 2019. That year also saw the first of his new music released on Music In Exile, an Australian not-for-profit record label specialising in music from culturally diverse communities within Australia.

These early singles led to the album Unity, which released in 2020 to rave reviews, and received nominations for the Australian Music Prize and Music Victoria Awards. But while it was his first album for Australia, Gordon had already released another ten albums overseas, with Unity becoming his eleventh so far.

“My song writing here in Australia begins with album eleven, and a song called Stand Up (Clap Your Hands),” he said. “Now I recorded album number twelve, but I didn’t release it yet, and

there’s also a second album, a community album, to come out next year, I think.”

His work with Music In Exile has seen him collaborate with several indie-rock musicians in Melbourne, as well as a diverse group of producers from across Australia who have remixed and reimagined his music into club ready tunes.

But Gordon’s main musical collaborator is his cousin Paul, who appears on Unity and in Gordon’s live shows. They sing in English, Arabic, and Nuer, the language of their people back in South Sudan. It’s also where Gordon’s main instrument the thom originates from.

The traditional instrument is similar to the lyre harp, and Gordon has spent thirty years mastering how to play it, after another of his cousins introduced him to the thom when he was young.

“The Nuer tribes love the thom,” he said. “It’s very popular there because even when you don’t have any person near you, it can feel like it’s a person. It gives me a lot of energy when I play. I love the voice of it.”

The extended lockdowns in Victoria over the past two years meant Gordon had lots of time to spend with his thom, and he released two new songs Coronarvirus and Disco at the end of 2021. They feature Gordon’s signature upbeat lyrics, such as when he sings “I love you and you love me, and I want you to be my friend” on Disco. It’s the type of positive message

typical of Gordon, who told me when he returns to the stage for WOMAD he wants to make his audiences happy too.

“When my community listen to my music, they feel it, and they only miss it because of the risks. But they will all come again soon because they love the music so much,” he said.

“Sometimes I play solo with Paul, but I want to do something huge, so we will tour with a band and play happy music to make the audience happy.”

After earning a following in South Sudan, where he was given the title King of Music, Gordon and Paul began to tour internationally, and spread their positive message and sound around the world.

It’s a job he’s eager to return to, after spending so much of the last two years in his apartment patiently waiting to go back into the studio, and back on tour.

“Sometimes it’s good for us, because if you’re a musician and you’re isolating, then you will do more when no one can come and interrupt your thinking,” he said. “But when our tour finishes, I think we will record another album because I write so many songs.”

Following his upcoming show at WOMAD, Gordon hopes to resume his postponed album tour. With plans to perform across Australia, Gordon and his band will continue to spread his messages of friendship, love, and unity across Australia.

THE

KING

OF MUSIC

Following his upcoming show at WOMADelaide, Gordon Koang plans to resume a postponed album tour across Australia. - By James Gaunt 37

Elvis Costello’s new album, The Boy Named If (and Other Children’s Stories), is his sixth project in 15 months.

Not bad for a musician who just a few years ago considered not making any more albums at all!

By Brian Wise

A

decade ago, having just released his twenty-third album National Ransom, Elvis Costello announced that he was finished making albums. It wasn’t profitable, the music industry was changing, he had other priorities. For the most part, he kept to his word for the next eight years with just a few collaborations, extensive touring and completing his voluminous memoir. Then in 2018, Look Now signalled his return to recording, followed by Hey Clockface two years later.

Now, The Boy Named If (And Other Children’s Stories) follows an absolutely feverish eighteen months of activity during which he has also released The Spanish Model (This Year’s Model in Spanish), a French language EP, a comedic Words & Music podcast (How To Play Guitar & Y), and the Armed Forces box set.

Prior to the end of 2021 he also completed a US tour with his band featuring guitarist Charlie Sexton (guesting while Dylan was off the road). At the age of 67, Costello is busier than ever!

“That’s not all of it either. There’s more,” says Costello when I mention that he has been phenomenally busy in the past two years. “It’s just a period where we weren’t on the road.

But I had all that music, and I had to make sense of that when we were forced to come home. Then I had a stack of ideas more than finished songs, and then I finished those.

“I suddenly had a period where I wrote a group of songs. I had a guitar in my hands for songwriting for the first time in a number of

years, and that changes it a little bit. Around the time that Pete Thomas [The Imposters’ drummer] said, ‘I’m fed up going down in my basement, playing every day, playing along with my favorite records. There’s nothing more to play.’ And I said, ‘Well, how about this?’ The next thing we were making this, having this conversation and sending it back and forward. It wasn’t really much different than if I’d charted the songs and we’d gone into the studio and cut it.

“Pete and I cut a whole album in two days once, with just the two of us, an album of demos for a record I wrote for a singer called Wendy James. So, I know that we are a good rhythm section, even if it’s just me singing and him playing drums and me filling out the guitar and on occasion add the bass even.

Of course, we just sent it to Davy [Faragher, bass] and then sent it on to Steve [Nieve, keyboards], who at first did have a complaint that we hadn’t left anything for him to do. Of course, he quickly found something great to do.”

So, was he misquoted some years ago, when it was reported that you weren’t going to make any albums anymore?

“But it was sort of true. It was true for a couple of years,” responds Costello. “I think sometimes the business side of music gets in your head a bit. I didn’t feel as if I had a sense of entitlement to ever do anything. I knew I had to earn it. I had made this record in 2010, which I thought was as good as I could write, and I had been on the road with a

PHOTO: COURTESY DIANA KRALL PHOTO: COURTESY MARK SELIGER

really interesting, very wonderful band, which was an acoustic band, and we had had some tremendous shows. We’d made two albums in quick succession, the second of which was National Ransom. If you held a gun to my head and said, ‘Name 10 songs that you would stake your reputation on,’ at least three from that record would be in 10 out of 45 years. So, that’s quite a high strike rate when you think what else there is.

“The rhythm of my working life had been about making records and then going and playing that music. So, I figured that must have come to an end.”

“But the release of that record didn’t call for us to play one performance from the week after the record came out. The band basically broke up because they had lots of other things to do. I thought that was too bad and I was discouraged. The rhythm of my working life had been about making records and then going and playing that music. So, I figured that must have come to an end. I don’t know, maybe this is something to do with the way everything about the business is changing, and you could say evolving, or certainly I’m not needed here.

“So, maybe I should put my energies into making the shows exceptional and that’s what I did for the next few years. I created stage shows like an impresario, one of them being the Spectacular Spinning Songbook revival, the second being Detour. I had a ball, because I could put all of my repertoire in play, either by chance or by theme, and I had lots of different ways to play them. Just when I thought I wasn’t going to do anything else in the studio, I got invited in to do Wise Up Ghost with Steve Mandel and Questlove. No sooner had we done that than T Bone [Burnett] rang me and said, ‘You want come into this band and play these Bob Dylan lyrics and turn those into songs?’ Well, why would you turn that down?

“It was wonderful to be part of that unit that assembled around that notion. I got to play with some people I didn’t know, a couple I did.

And of course, all of that just reintroduced how great it is to make records. By which point my friendship with Sebastian Krys had given me a couple of opportunities to make records. And we made Look Now, which was a sort of summary of one approach to pop songwriting that I really appreciate, which is the sort of uptown pop song, orchestrated pop song with a strong rhythm section.

“I don’t know what happened after that. I just suddenly, I guess it caught my fancy again to make records, and next thing I know we’re making them every day. It seems like we’re constantly recording.”

Costello struck up a friendship with producer Sebastian Krys who had worked with a variety of Latin artists and who suggested they record a Spanish version of This Year’s Model, Costello’s second album that was released in 1978, enlisting some guest singers. >>> 39

algebra. It takes all that magic away, around the same time that maybe you sense desires and impulses that you don’t understand properly. In the period of ignorance before you understand them or even can control them, there are times when other people can use that ignorance against you, and it can be an innocent thing or it can be a mischievous thing, but it is a real thing. It’s not abuse I’m talking about. I’m talking about just a sort of slight cruelty that can be between children.

When I say children, I’m talking about people around 13.”

PHOTO: COURTESY DEXTER MACMANUS

“You can versify, pull funny faces, draw fantastic inventions that can’t possibly exist in reality. Then they force you to learn algebra.”

>>> “Sebastian’s reaction was, ‘Yes, it is an insane idea, but let’s do it anyway, because I think I know who you could approach.’

He has been a tremendous friend in many, many ways, both in finding the way for The Impostors to make a record at the level of Look Now, where their individual talents are heard as they are today, not in a reference to the way two or three of us used to play a long time ago.”

Krys also works alongside Costello on the production of The Boy Named If, a collection of thirteen ‘snapshots’ that according to Elvis’s notes, “Take us from the last days of a bewildered boyhood to that mortifying moment when you are told to stop acting like a child - which for most men (and perhaps a few gals too) can be any time in the next fifty years.”

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The album will be released with an 88-page hardback storybook edition - each one numbered and signed by Costello - featuring thirteen illustrated short stories, which have the same titles as the songs on the record.

Costello’s recent energy is certainly imbued in The Boy Named If (And Other Children’s Tales), which features songs that burst out of the speakers and are reminiscent of his early work. There are also the requisite number of touching ballads at which he is so adept. The IF in the title is a name for an imaginary friend.

“There’s something endearing about the notion of a child excusing certain things or having certain flights of fancy that involve an imaginary presence,” explains Costello. “I don’t know what psychologists think that is.

There’s also a slightly sinister element to it

that I sort of feel is a bit like Turn of the Screw.

You can look at it like that. And as you get older and when you continue to advance this alibi for your transgressions, I think it becomes much less endearing. When it becomes, ‘Oh, I had to stay out all night. Oh, I had to sleep with her, she made me do it’ - that’s just bad behavior, that is immature, would be the way people sometimes describe it. Willful would be another way, cruel sometimes.

“I suppose that thread of musing on this period in life is partly about the departure from innocence and a sort of unselfconscious access to imagination and wonder, when you can dance or skip or stand on your head without in any way feeling foolish. In fact, you love to do it. You can versify, pull funny faces, draw fantastic inventions that can’t possibly exist in reality. Then they force you to learn

“So, that’s what is described in the refrain of ‘The Death of Magic Thinking’: ‘She took my hand in an experiment / put it where it shouldn’t be / put in underneath her dress and waited to see. I didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t know what to say. It was just a game, I guess, one I didn’t know how to play.’ It’s not a crime, and it’s not a judgment, it’s just something that happens. There are so many songs in popular music that portray the female object in the song as a temptress, and sadly, many more recently that speak of some cruel and wicked imbalance of power between men and women and all sorts of things that acknowledge the advantage taken by a man of a woman. But not so many that speak of this moment of uncertainty and vertigo.”

“But of course, there are other songs that are describing other times in life: a young, irresponsible adulthood, older unrepentance, scandalous scoundrel living in exile, looking back on having tempted a novice into a love affair, betraying her vows. Then later on when he’s kind of in exiled hiding, thinks back over his crimes and still thinks of her. Maybe he actually had some sincere feeling for her, but he never knew how to express it. He only knew how to take advantage of her. So, that’s that story, which is the song ‘Mr. Crescent’, which closes the record. There’s no particular significance of that being the last song, other than it sounded like it should be the last song.

Sometimes we had to take the lead of what the music told us.”

‘Mr Crescent’ is just one of several great ballads on the album, along with ‘Paint the Red Rose Blue’ (which sounds like a classic that many others will record in future).

“They’re both musically quite simple,” explains Costello when I ask how difficult it is to write a memorable ballad. “They don’t really do anything that harmonically unexpected. ‘Red Rose’ has some very unusual things in the bridge, but I wanted the songs to carry the story. The red rose is usually a symbol of romance, isn’t it? It’s like the rose you give at Valentine’s Day or on a birthday. It turning blue isn’t about a change of allegiance or anything to do with flags or

malice, it’s totally to do with the mood that’s usually represented with blue, melancholy.

And the story is about a couple who have been through some sort of terrible sorrow, to the point that they’ve actually lost the place in love between them, and they’re trying to find it.

“That’s why the rose has turned blue. That’s a quite simple idea in some ways, but it’s also maybe a portrait of, at least the man maybe, as somebody who has actually flirted with darkness as a kind of, like it says, theatrical blood is convenient to spill, has actually maybe invited that kind of darkness in. When it arrives with full force, it’s overwhelming and you have to rebuild belief. It’s not an easy topic for a song, so I thought it should have a melody that really fell on the ear invitingly, and I believe it does.”

Nick Lowe said that when he writes songs, he’s always thinking that someone else is going to record them. ‘Paint The Red Rose Blue’ has a lot of longevity to it and I wonder who Costello would like to record it as well.

“Well, anybody that really would take it on sincerely,” he replies. “Not a lot of people record my songs. I think how many that I’ve written, they obviously present a challenge, in many cases because of the volume of words, which is more than some singers want to negotiate or can’t negotiate, because rhythmically, they just don’t do that. Some of the songs that I wrote with Burt Bacharach are actually quite difficult to sing and even superficially more accomplished singers than me have tried and failed to sing them.

“I’ve written lots of songs with somebody in my mind, even somebody that I never did know and would never meet, and some people that had already left this place. But I hadn’t really thought of that, to be honest but if anybody did want to sing it, I’m sure it would be lovely. I didn’t imagine anybody else singing these songs, because I was working quite quickly, and as I had finished them, we began recording them. Next thing I knew, we’d finished the record. It didn’t really take very long. So, maybe I didn’t even have time to think about that, but it’s a nice thought.”

The 88-page book that comes with the album adds a whole new dimension to the lyrics as well, with accompanying superb illustrations

by Costello.

“Well, it’s something at the time when we were making it, there was a sort of a vinyl scare, so to speak,” explains Costello. “These days, the physical object at the center of the story of a record release, I think needs to be something you can physically hold in your hand. It’s very hard to catch hold of the bytes, a download, let alone a stream, that you can’t hold that in any way. It encourages the feeling that music is ephemeral.

“My chosen delivery for records these days is vinyl again, because I like the scale of it for the artwork, and I like the sound of vinyl better than CD. That’s my preference. Not everybody agrees with me on that. I was told that we could have CDs, and I thought, well, they’re little things that aren’t very substantial to hold, and the title of the record

is The Boy Named If (Another Children’s Tales).

So why not make that a reality, create this book? I fully expected somebody to say, ‘Oh, that’s ridiculous. That would just be too expensive’ or, ‘We could never do that.’ But much to my surprise, everybody said yes. I wrote the stories with the same title as the songs, sometimes setting the scene for the song, sometimes a postscript to the song, sometimes background detail to the song.

“Sometimes the relationship of the song and the story might not be that obvious to the reader, because I didn’t want to make it a necessity that you read it. You could enjoy the song without ever reading those tales.”

“That’s something that I’ve done over the last few years,” admits Costello when I ask him about the illustrations in the book. “I find a lot of comfort in just drawing. I never learned any technical skills. I didn’t go to art school or anything. I don’t know. I couldn’t do any of those things with a pen or a paint brush, but I can do them with an electric pencil, which allows you access to the imitation of various pictorial techniques without learning how to actually do them with something as wet as paint or ink. But then David Hockney paints on an iPad, so I’m absolved from any guilt.

“If you really want to know, in 2018, it was a year of some challenge. I had an operation, which was something which avoided serious illness. Nothing more need be said about that.

It was something nobody would’ve known about if I hadn’t had to cancel some shows.

But then in the summer, my mother had a very serious stroke, and being in her nineties, there was a good chance she wouldn’t recover. I of course went to England, sat with her, and ended up sitting in the hospital ward for five weeks. Although she was seriously impaired, she did regain a lot of cohesion to her thought and even, with difficulty, speech. It gave her two more years. She passed in January. While I was there, you can’t sing, you can’t be in a hospital ward with other people screaming, sleeping, moaning, complaining, whatever.

You can’t make a lot of noise. Often, you’re watching that person sleep, and you don’t know when they’re going to wake up, so it was good to have something that was involving and some way, I guess, consoling.

“I started to do these cartoons for all sorts of occasions. I put them on record sleeves. I put them on the video backdrop. They amuse me, and they annoyed some people, which made me just want to do more of them. Then with this collection, I had really a reason to do them, but they came from a really personal place. They’re not of any value artistically, but they are of value emotionally to me, because of the origin of them, particularly all the more now. So, I thought, well, as there are themes of the emergence of childhood, it’s an appropriate moment. Even though I’d written all the songs before my mother passed, it’s not without dishonor that this record and the whole thing should exist, really. I think she would’ve got a kick out of it.”

The Boy Named If (And Other Children’s Tales) is available through EMI in all permutations.

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SEEING THE

LIGHT

PREVIEW – Blues On Broadbeach Dom Turner will team up with hill country blues icon R.L.Boyce as the Blues On Broadbeach festival celebrates its 21st, writes Samuel J. Fell

A Nashville born and raised; Erin Rae dropped out of college to pursue her music.

By Denise Hylands

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ashville born and raised; Erin Rae grew up in a musical home, but it was hanging out with the hippies at college singing Bob Dylan songs that made her drop out after one semester to pursue music more seriously.

From studying psychology to performing her own music as therapy, this is Erin Rae. Rae’s 2018 release, Putting On Airs, was a breakthrough album for and gained her a nomination for Emerging Act of The Year at the 2019 Americana Music Awards. A great acknowledgment from her peers. So, 2020 was looking like it was going to be Rae’s year and then, well, 2020 happened… After listening to Rae’s new album, Lighten Up, I can say one thing that came out of 2020, was that she has created an absolutely beautiful album.

“Thank you very much. Thanks for listening to it,” says Rae. “Yeah. I feel like it, in many ways, was such a bummer obviously, to use a very light word to describe it. I’d been on the road pretty consistently since the release of Putting On Airs, opening for people, and just figuring out how to navigate time on the road and time off. And so, it ended up being a good thing, I think. Getting to finish some songs and be really choosy about what I wanted to have on the next record. And of course, the opportunity to work with Jonathan Wilson popped up. I feel like it all worked out.”

Jonathan Wilson’s name keeps popping up, particularly in demand for his production

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work. What was it that was special about working with Jonathan with this new batch of songs?

“I got to meet him through our mutual friend, Mike Taylor, from Hiss Golden Messenger, at Newport Folk Festival in 2019, and we just stayed in touch. I love his production. He did a record called Automechanic with Jenny O, his work with Father John Misty and he did a record with a woman named Leslie Stevens, that’s really incredible. He has a long, long list of credits and I just was excited to experience something outside of my realm, my comfort zone, more or less. So, we swapped songs back and forth via text, just different things that we like to listen to. We figured out all the nitty gritty and I got to go and record in February.”

What was the music that Rae and Wilson were both sharing and listening to that helped her form these songs on this new album?

“I think the last couple of years, one artist that we have in common in a major way is Scott Walker and The Walker Brothers, that cinematic folk pop. Love songs by Tim Hardin.

I went down an English psych folk kind of deep dive, I guess a couple of years ago now, but that has stayed with me a lot. Like Pete Dello and Friends, and Kevin Ayers, and Bridget St. John, and the list goes on.”

“There were several that were new,” says Rae of the songs on Lighten Up. “Some of them I had written in January, just before everything,

like ‘Cosmic Sigh’, and ‘California Belongs To You’. ‘Cosmic Sigh’ especially. I was torn about whether to maybe call the record that, at one point, because even prior to the pandemic, I was mentally wanting to shift gears, and move into this space of just living with a more outward focus. Into connecting with other people and relax. I have a habit of always processing how I’m feeling, what I’m doing, how I’m doing, am I a good person or not? And I really wanted to release a lot of those habits of thought, and just be like, “Oh, wow. Okay, cool. I’m a human. I would love to connect with other people more, rather than spend these precious years being critical of myself.”

“So, 2020 for me, I already had that in mind and it gave me the space to try to carve out some new ways of operating, which I think, for a lot of people, we weren’t required to maintain the same schedule. But we needed to, and so we could be like, okay. How am I showing up in these different relationships?

Or how am I showing up for my work, and is this what I want to do for work? What’s important to me? And then I feel like several songs I was able to finish from that place. But a lot of them had been written before the pandemic.”

Erin Rae will be touring Australia with Courtney Marie Andrews in March. Presented

by Love Police.

s it stands right now, as the year winds down and people pause to take stock, to regroup, to rest and recharge before 2022 begins, things are looking brighter for live music. Arguably one of the hardest hit industries on the planet over the past couple of years, there is movement at the proverbial station; gigs are being booked, people are heading out to see music, there’s a tentative rebirth afoot.

Part of this, of course, is the re-emergence of festivals – Byron Bay’s Bluesfest has loudly been proclaiming its comeback event over Easter 2022, and as well, one of the country’s largest free festivals in Blues On Broadbeach, has released the lineup for its 21st incarnation in May. In truth, no one knows if these events will actually run, but as it stands at time of writing, there’s more hope than there has been for some time.

Blues On Broadbeach director Mark Duckworth is cautiously optimistic, flagging that international artists have been locked in for appearances, adding via press release, “the month of May wouldn’t feel the same on the Gold Coast without music taking over the streets of Broadbeach and this year’s lineup of acclaimed performers will continue the pilgrimage of blues fans from around the country and beyond.”

“There’s an incredible excitement, you can kind of feel it already,” Dom Turner says, echoing Duckworth’s sentiments. “It’s just great to get back to doing gigs again, and people are probably more appreciative in many respects, because something was taken away. [And Broadbeach] has really come into its own, it’s gone on to another level, it’s become an international festival, really.”

Turner is, of course, co-founder and guitarist/ vocalist for seminal Australian blues band Backsliders, although as he gears up to play the 2022 Blues On Broadbeach (he’s lost count of how many times over the past two decades he’s played this gig), it’ll be in a different form as he teams up with North Mississippi hill country blues icon RL Boyce.

“I’ve known RL for a number of years through regular visits to Mississippi,” Turner says on the pair’s partnership. “It was through contacts… he’s from Como, Mississippi, a small town, and through friends I met RL. He’s incredibly important in terms of the connection to the past.”

Boyce, the next generation on from hill country blues greats like RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and ‘Mississippi’ Fred McDowell, is indeed an incredibly important figure in terms of the heritage, legacy and survival of this rhythmic, trance-like form of the blues.

As Turner says, Boyce lives it, he grew up with it (playing drums for his uncle, legendary fife player Othar Turner, as well as Jessie Mae Hemphill), and to play with him is ”an honour.”

The pair, who have toured in Australian together before, back in 2019, as well as a few festivals in Mississippi, have differing styles, albeit styles cut from the same cloth, which adds a new element to their interpretation of this music. As Turner says of their upcoming sets at Broadbeach, “The thing with RL’s music, it’s not like he’ll come to Australia and

modify his music, it will just be the way he’d play on his front porch, which is marvellous.”

Turner says Boyce never bothers to write a set list, and so when I ask what they have in store for festival audiences, he smiles and basically says he has no idea. Which indeed, is part of the appeal of this form of the blues – largely improvised, always from the heart. And to hear these sounds at a music festival, in the flesh, is icing on the cake.

Blues On Broadbeach runs May 19-22, 2022

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C

alifornia-born, now Washington state-based, Margo Cilker’s travels took her across the US and the Basque country of Spain, where she formed a covers band before her love of Woody Guthrie, Gillian Welch and Lucinda Williams, inspired her own songs.

“I wanted to get out of the Bay Area in California,” explains Cilker about her travels. “That’s a busy place where I grew up and I felt drawn to get out of there and just see what else was out there. So, I moved to South Carolina and I studied Spanish, and I started traveling. I went to Spain for a year, and I just loved it there, I love the street culture and just being outside of a deeply religious place. It’s mind boggling, it blew my mind.

It was like an immersion. I was doing a lot of studying, but then I was doing a lot more music.”

“My parents really liked music and there was a lot of music in the church,” explains Cilker. “So, I sang in the choir as in the church band.

And my grandmother is very musical and she plays a ton of instruments, she’s always singing with me. She’s 82 I think now, and we’re always singing together. It’s really fun.”

Cilker finally got around to releasing her debut album this year but was it her aim to really focus on being a musician and releasing records and going on tour?

“I think once you get into the world of booking shows, it’s a hard drug to put down,” she replies. “It’s funny, I love the album that we created and it was very cathartic to make it and I just feel very blessed. But part of me laughs because it’s almost like, did I just make this so I’d have something to send to bookers? Is the end all just booking better shows?”

“I could never say she didn’t influence my music, and the influence is right there,” responds Cilker when I ask about the influence of Lucinda Williams. “I just like her song craft. I’ve spent hours and hours of my life paying attention to what she does with lyrics especially, and hooks, her use of melody and repetition. Just her life story, she also studied anthropology as a girl and it’s really interesting.”

“I think also, country music, it can be so oppressively insular, and I hate that about it,” she adds. “I know it’s one of its strengths, the pride of place and everything, but it can be very, just exclusive and it seems like it’s the only genre that exists within it. But I like stepping outside of it

THE WANDERER After three EPs, Margo Cilker releases the impressive album debut Pohorylle, an album of original songs reflecting her experiences as a touring musician and influences such as Lucinda Williams (her backing band is The Drunken Angels), Townes Van Zandt and Gillian Welch.

By Denise Hylands 44

and seeing the world and seeing country music on the greater world scene and not just the end all.

The word ‘troubadour’ comes to mind when thinking about Cilker, her travels and writing about the differences she sees in people and the different landscapes.

The musical evolution of Katie Bates has marched on unchecked, despite the global interruption that’s thrown a spanner in the works, writes Samuel J. Fell.

“It’s like Ramblin’ Jack landed in Belgium at some point in his travels and he just stayed there for a while,” says Cilker, “and the person he was travelling with stayed in Belgium forever. Sometimes you go out and you don’t come home.”

“I am amazed at how much energy I put into this project, it’s been the biggest undertaking of my life so far,” says Cilker when I ask her about recording and releasing Pohorylle, which was produced by Sera Cahoone.

“I would’ve lost it if it weren’t for Sera,” says Margo. “She was very patient and I trusted her when she said, ‘It’s okay to wait until we put this out on the right terms, it’s okay to wait. She’s a veteran, she knows that good things take time. And I have to say, hearing people’s take on the songs brings a new life to them. It’s exciting to hear people’s interpretations and I’m not as sick of the songs as I thought I would be honestly.”

“I had finished recording the album and I went to the Basque Country to spend the holiday over there,” explains Cilker when I ask her about the album title, “and my partner and I were walking down the street in San Sebastian in the Basque Country and we saw the name Pohorylle up on the storefront. It was like, what is that word? It totally stopped us in our tracks because it’s a strange, beautifully ethereal word. It’s like you can’t pronounce it, it’s haunting almost. We looked up what the word came from and the story was of Gerda Taro who was the first female photojournalist to die covering a war - and that was the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish civil war is almost glamourised, it’s like Ernest Hemingway was part of the war. Well, it’s war, obviously there are a lot of men glorified in war. I’d never heard about this story. So, it just seemed like a cool tribute to a cool woman. It’s a little bit left field.”

Pohorylle is available now through Spunk/Virgin Records.

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his isn’t really how it was all supposed to turn out, but Melbourne-based artist Katie Bates has grasped the silver lining; anything is better than nothing.

In 2018 Bates, whose influences run the gamut from country to grunge and most points in between, presented her debut EP, New Gold. It was received well, a lithe Americana-styled release that showcased her voice and a burgeoning songwriting talent. She toured off the back of it and her fledgling career began in earnest.

What to do next then, in order to capitalise? Time for a full-length record. Bates and band stepped into the studio, laid down five tracks, and then the world stopped; a halt was called to proceedings. “Yeah, we started recording in September 2019,” Bates smiles. “So we had five tracks, which was the first half of the album done, but then of course covid hit, and it was a lot harder to get into the studio.”

As a result, what was supposed to be an album, became another EP, Until The Day Dies; those five tracks originally slated to become the first half of a full record, instead of being cast by the wayside or stowed away on a shelf, found a home any way they could; Bates has grasped the silver lining.

Of course, things remained disjointed and so Until The Day Dies is only now being released, and as well, over the course of time since the release of New Gold, Bates has evolved as a musician, her sound changing, different influences coming to the fore. “Yeah, New Gold, I barely play any of that stuff live now,” she concurs. “I feel like I’ve completely moved on.

“This new EP, I’m so glad it’s out and I’m really proud of it and all the people who worked on it with me, but in saying that, it’s been two years and I’ve written a whole new album since. [But] it is nice for people to be able to hear these songs as I intended them to be heard.”

Nice indeed, but as she says, she’s moved on and is very much focused on what’s next. What is next seems a natural progression for a player like Bates, with the musical influences she draws from.

Until The Day Dies shows this evolution already underway; where her debut was very much in the alt. country / Americana vein, this new one is already showing signs of the ‘90s guitar rock Bates is also very much across – tracks like ‘Self Proclaimed People Pleaser’ and ‘Polka Dot Dress’ are much grittier, heavier, with more of a nod perhaps to PJ Harvey, as opposed to Gillian Welch.

“I tend to just write, and whatever I’m listening to subconsciously influences me at the time,” Bates says on the growth and ongoing change within her music. “Kurt Cobain was pretty much the reason I started playing guitar when I was seven years old, so I’ve always had that gritty influence in anything I write, I’ve always liked to have a bit of an edge.”

Bates goes on to say that, even though her father introduced her to country music when she was growing up, it wasn’t until she heard the likes of Welch and Dave Rawlings that she felt it was a style she would ever play. “Yeah, I was like, this is just incredible. And then I started going to country gigs and was introduced to bands like The Byrds, and they weren’t always country, they were doing their psychedelic rock, and [I realised] you can do both, you can cross genre, and it’ll always be interesting, someone will always listen.”

Until The Day Dies is a glimpse of Bates, the artist, during a time and place. The EP is solid, it continues to showcase her voice and songwriting talent, but the focus is now very much on the future. I venture, given her evolution thus far, that her next release (which wouldn’t be too far off, one would think) will be a bit harder, a bit grittier, definitely less country.

“Yeah, that’s fair to say,” Bates laughs. “I still want to keep it all under the same umbrella, but not have it be the same… I still want my [live] set to flow and intertwine nicely.” She’s treading a fine line, ambition is high, but based on the evolution showcased thus far, Katie Bates looks to have it well in hand.

Until The Day Dies is available now independently.

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CHARLES

F

IN CHARGE

A radio gig inspires a surprising new album for this masterful Melbourne songwriter.

By Jeff Jenkins (no relation)

or the past 18 months, listeners to Melbourne’s Triple R on Sunday afternoons have been greeted by this message from announcer Jonnie von Goes: “It’s time to delve into the Charles Jenkins songbook …”

The show, JVG Radio Method – “a thematically blended hotchpotch”– engaged the Melbourne artist to perform a song each week to match the theme. If he didn’t have one in his catalogue, he’d write and record something new.

“You provide the two essentials for songwriting,” Jenkins told the host.

“You provide the idea. And you provide the deadline.”

Jenkins laughs when he recounts Cole Porter talking about songwriting: “My sole inspiration is a telephone call from a director.”

Jenkins’ radio work has now become a sparkling new album, Radio Sketches.

As well as the songs, the JVG segments feature ramblings about life (“Do you think the world is on the brink of collapse?” “Yeah, I think we’re stuffed”), gigs (“If I have a good one, the next few days are great; it’s a wonderful feeling”), politics (“Scott Morrison’s religiosity scares me; there’s an undercurrent of evil”), music (“I love Joni Mitchell, I listened to Blue every day for a year”) and hospitality workers (“God bless them, they’re all heroes”).

During the “name” episode, Jenkins reminisced about his school days when he was known as “Little Jenks” at his Catholic school in Adelaide. “I was the youngest of three boys and everyone thought they were getting another sporting dynamo. Little did they know …”

Jenkins was known as Chuck when his music career kicked off. But after relocating to Melbourne and launching the Icecream Hands, he reverted to Charles. “I thought, ‘This is a class act, I should change my name.’”

Jenkins has become known for naming places in his songs and he aims to sing his way around Australia. “I remember realising you could sing your way across America and I kind of got a bit jealous, so I thought, I’m going to do my best to make sure we can sing our way across Australia.”

An inspiration was English author Bruce Chatwin, who wrote the 1987 book The Songlines. “He wrote about how the Indigenous people would sing their way through the country, so they knew where they were going. I thought, ‘What a beautiful idea, I’m going to do that.’”

Jenkins is also the master of the sad song. Radio Sketches concludes with ‘Lover On The Losing Side’, where he laments: “You’ve joined a special club where the membership is strong/ You’d be surprised at how many of us know the team song.”

The album also includes a track called ‘Do The Collapse’. When Jenkins forwarded it to a friend, he replied, “Are you OK?” But Jenkins says he enjoys sailing “the sea of sadness”.

“I enjoy that aspect of songwriting, how you can exaggerate things that are happening in your own life. And it always makes me happier when I get that stuff out.”

Reflecting on his craft, Jenkins says: “The excitement is in the little side trips that you take. You’ve got to start somewhere and then you often end up somewhere else. You have to take the listener, and yourself, on a little journey. That’s the way I look at it.”

Jenkins lifted the ‘Collapse’ title from an album by American band Guided

By Voices. And one of the lines in the song – “Some will do the police in different voices” – was inspired by “He Do the Police in Different Voices”, which was T.S. Eliot’s working title for The Waste Land. Eliot himself had nicked the line from Charles Dickens, who wrote in his final novel, Our Mutual Friend: And I do love a newspaper. You mightn’t think it, but Sloppy is a beautiful reader of a newspaper. He do the police in different voices.

“That’s the art of writing,” Jenkins smiles. “You keep on stealing.”

The album’s opening track, ‘Ray Winstone’, was inspired by that week’s theme – Ray. “Nobody gets in the way of Ray Winstone,” Jenkins sings about the hard man of cinema.

The English actor managed to hear the tune and he sent Jenkins a note from a film set in Lithuania. “Love it! Made me laugh and was very flattering at the same time. Thank the boys for me and wish ’em all the best.”

Jenkins pays tributes to his collaborators. “To just have my name on the front of this record is a bit rich, for were it not for the brilliant talents of [the Icecream Hands’] Douglas Lee Robertson, [You Am I’s] Davey Lane and [Boom Crash Opera’s] Pete Farnan, this record would not exist.

“I’m happy just doing the vocal and guitar version, but I’m lazy when it comes to recording,” Jenkins adds. The “fairy dust”, he believes, can turn “an okay song into a work of art”.

The program director of the Port Fairy Folk Festival, Justin Rudge, got to know Jenkins when he booked him to play at the Standard Hotel in Fitzroy many years ago. He ended up managing Jenkins and the Icecream Hands, as well as producing several of Jenkins’ albums.

“His songs have an immediate impact on everyone who hears them, and once they’re hooked, they never stop,” Rudge says. “Charles should be a household name in the realm of Paul Kelly. That he still feels like our little secret is equal parts a blight on the music industry, and a blessing for those who know better.”

Mark Seymour is also a fan. His most recent album, Slow Dawn, features a song he wrote with Jenkins, ‘Joanna’. “I was being encouraged to do some co-writes,” Seymour explains. “And there were overtures to many famous people, which all went pear-shaped. In the end, I thought it was all a bit hypothetical and a bit of branding going on; I couldn’t believe in the process. I’ve had a long-standing relationship with Charles, so I just contacted him. I thought, why don’t I write with someone I respect and know really well?”

Radio Sketches is the second album to arise from the JVG show, following Dan Warner’s Warner Corner collection, which was released in 2001.

Jenkins has recorded many more songs for the program, including ‘Walk of Shame’, ‘I Aimed The Blame At Everyone’, ‘Mean Boss’ and ‘Normal Body Temperature’, so don’t rule out Radio Sketches Volume 2.

“It’s become the highlight of my week,” Jenkins says of his JVG appearances. And then he deadpans: “And I lead a very exciting life.”

Radio Sketches is out now on Silver Stamp Records.

RADIO WAVES The songs on Radio Sketches and the themes that inspired them: ‘Ray Winstone’ – Ray ‘Float Away’ – Inflatable things ‘Waterfall’ – Water ‘Maypril’ – Made-up words ‘My Darlin’ Gal’ – Commissioned to celebrate a 65-year romance ‘Calling Your Name’ – Names ‘Augustine Aubergine’ – Dinner dates ‘Separation Street’ – This place ‘Do The Collapse’ – Collapse ‘I’m All Yours’ – Triple R’s Radiothon – It’s Your Station ‘Reba (Knock Off Drink)’ – Hospitality workers ‘Lover On The Losing Side’ – Time ESSENTIAL JENKINS Radio Sketches is Charles Jenkins’ 20th studio album. So where do you begin if you’re a newcomer to his work? Here are three classic albums to get you started: Icecream Hands – Sweeter Than The Radio (1999) The title was a parody of The Byrds’ Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, and this album sits comfortably alongside that band’s finest work. Features the band’s biggest radio hit, ‘Nipple’, one of the greatest pop songs written about a body part.

Charles Jenkins and The Zhivagos – Blue Atlas (2008) Jenkins’ third solo album, the first to be credited to The Zhivagos, was aptly titled as it took the listener around the world, from Johnston Street in Melbourne to Brisbane, Houston and New Zealand. It’s also a “namedropping extravaganza”, with songs about the Brothers Gibb, Shelley Winters, Caravaggio and Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Charles Jenkins and The Zhivagos – Walk This Ocean (2010) Arguably Jenkins’ finest solo work and his most rock, with a fired-up Davey Lane on guitar – check out his blazing solo on ‘Accustomed To The Dark’.

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SOMETHING TO A quarter of a century is a long time for a band to survive. So, it’s no surprise J.D. Wilkes wanted to celebrate that milestone for his band, the Legendary Shack Shakers and the title of the new album, Cockadoodledeux, is a nod to the 2003 album, Cockadoodledon’t.

CROW

ABOUT!

By Denise Hylands

I

n 2020, the tyranny of distance raised it head anew for Antipodeans.

Before then, legendary New Zealand singer-songwriter Don McGlashan was based in Auckland and Vancouver for some years.

His Canadian wife works in the latter and McGlashan could move about more because, he says, “I am my job.” Instead of his usual six monthly ‘commute’, he found himself writing songs more than usual.

He tried out new material with his current band. “An Aussie guy living in Toronto put a system together where musos like me can rehearse with other musos from their own homes. Like a Zoom meeting.”

The result, his fourth solo album Bright November Morning, was recorded in Aotearoa and Vancouver with new band The Others: Shayne P Carter (Straitjacket Fits, Dimmer), Chris O’Connor (SJD, Phoenix Foundation) and James Duncan (SJD, Dimmer) with vocal guests including by Hollie Smith. Multi-award winner McGlashan was in ‘80s duo The Front Lawn, seminal ‘90s band The Mutton Birds and collaborated with Neil Finn on stage and in the studio. McGlashan toured here after the release of 2015 album Lucky Stars. His 2022 Australian tour plans include the Port Fairy Folk Festival. He’ll happily return to a life lived out of a suitcase.

“It’s rare for me to have enough songs to make an album. I’m quite slow.

But I had 15 or more for this one which I cut to ten. After the recording process, I wrote two others I liked better.” The accompanying video for single ‘Go Back In’ features a nostalgic coastal montage. Like many NZ songwriters, landscape informs much of McGlashan’s lyrical and sonic imagery. “I was always drawn to songs that transported me somewhere - whether Liverpool or Southern USA. I found them more interesting than claustrophobic relationship songs, although I do write love songs too. I always liked songs where you knew quite early on where the singer was standing and what they were looking at.” The epic ‘Shackleton’ was inspired by time spent in Antarctica.

“I went in about 2012 and wrote bits and pieces in a notebook. After my return, my backpack (with the notebook) was stolen. The idea for ‘Shackleton’ was something I did remember. I’m sure other things will come out later. My time there shook me to the core and the experiences had to go in and sit for a while.”

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‘John Bryce’ tells of the role of New Zealand’s Minister of Native Affairs (1879-1884) in the invasion of Parihaka. As in Australia, history taught in schools was a one-sided whitewash. “As kids we weren’t told. We knew more about the Napoleonic wars. The education system is changing now, teaching more local history. I wanted to write a song from a Pakeha (whitefella) perspective because Māori do not need Pakeha to tell their stories. But I wrote a song specifically about Bryce, what he did on that day. Also as a simple song to ask the question, ‘Are we celebrating the right thing on the fifth of November?’ It needed to be simple because these songs are signposts not sculptures. I would love Parihaka Day to be a time when everybody in Aotearoa remembers the peaceful resistance of the people of Parihaka and celebrates what they did. The song kind of ran away from me a bit and came out more angry than I meant it to be. I’ve always had trouble getting anger into a song but this one had plenty without me trying for it,” he notes.

There’s a fair swathe of rock edge to some of the new tracks. “It’s a bigger palette because I knew I was going to be working with a proper rock band. It changes the way you write. I wanted to be up on stage with those people telling stories.” Single ‘Now’s the Place’ is a fine example. “I suddenly thought it would be cool to write a big rock song about living in the moment.” He laughs, “Normally that’s some sensitive little song with mandolin and guitar. Drawing inspiration from each bandmate, he adds, “I’ve collaborated with [drummer] Chris for about 20 years. He challenges and pushes me.” Tracking was done with Ben Edwards (Nadia Reid, Marlon Williams) in Lyttleton, an isolated coastal settlement near Christchurch. “I worked in Auckland with engineer Bob Frisbee who has a great pedigree. Then back to Canada for the final mix with Luke Tomes. It’s probably the first album I’ve made where I wanted to immediately make the next one.”

McGlashan also composes music with Harry Sinclair for Kids TV series ‘Kiri and Lou’. “It’s a huge amount of fun. The songs are only one minute long but we’ve got to write a lot of them. It’s kind of like going to the gym. You feel really fit in terms of songwriting.”

“I mean it’s only 25 years, it’s only remarkable if you take it as a band name that has continued on,” says the band’s founder Joshua (J.D.) Wilkes, “but really it’s what I’m going to call the band of guys or girls that want to play music with me, as long as I’m alive, and I don’t know how to stop even if I wanted to.”

The Legendary Shack Shakers are a band that incorporates many styles of music and have been described as “a mind-blowing assault on bluegrass rhythms, cowboy country, roadhouse blues and sweaty rock and roll fury.

Makes Reverend Horton Heat sound like The Eagles.”

“That’s funny, yeah,” laughs J.D. “You could even throw in gypsy jazz and some world music in there, it’s all music of the people, like folk music. What folk music actually is.

It isn’t Peter, Paul and Mary, it’s the music of your ancestors and it’s in your blood. There’s a painful element to it, a soulfulness that breaks into it that called my name. It’s the music of historical pain of any group of people. So, I love blues, I love punk music, I love old country music and ballads, and they all have this thing in common.

The new album Cockadoodledeux is out on the Alternative Tentacles Record Label, which is not the first album that Wilkes has released on Jello Biafra’s label. How did that connection come about?

“We were playing at South by Southwest, I guess back in 2005 or six or something like that,” explains Wilkes. “We were playing a showcase and it just so happens that Jello Biafra was in the crowd. We had a great show and he needed to know who we were and wanted to shake our hands and loved, loved, loved the show. From that point on, we became sort of pen pals on email and he always wanted to put a record out by us, and he always showed up at our shows in San Francisco to join us on stage, to sing a song or two. So, he just is a fan, he’s not too cool for school, if he likes something he tells you, It’s just kind of like a mutual admiration club, I guess now.”

Jello Biafra is mainly known for his punk rock and the Shack Shakers have an incredible energy about them in their performances, and

a punk attitude, something that must have appealed to him.

“Yes, well I think what that is, and I had my own theories,” says Wilkes. “I just got drawn to punk as a music form because I was not exposed to much of it as a kid, my conservative upbringing, but I could relate to the energy that I saw at punk rock shows which I would go to. I wouldn’t know what song they were playing, but I would love, love, love watching them. Even though I did not know anything about the genre, I felt that energy inside my body.”

Cockadoodledeux starts with a version of ‘Rawhide’ with Biafra as guest. Wilkes was unaware that the Dead Kennedys – Biafra’s former band - had done a version.

“I guess I might have known that and forgotten,” he says. “I guess I should have learned that a long time ago. I just don’t have a very photographic memory. He never brought it up that he had already done it. I think he knew that I didn’t know and he was sparing me from being embarrassed. So, now I appreciate him having done that, I feel a little silly, but it came out so great anyway.”

Having crossed over so many genres in the past quarter of a century, Wilkes decided to make a country album and then you’ve ventured into the many sub genres within that. “There’s a bunch of genres in country music,” he notes.

“There’s different pockets of America that have their own different style, Bluegrass in Kentucky, Bakersfield honky tonk, and western

swing, and rockabilly. They all go in that big category of country and western music, and you really don’t hear a lot of Western music anymore, unfortunately, which is a shame because that was a whole genre that was part of the category. All you hear now in pop country is a whole other conversation, but it’s good to bring back some Western music too which we make sure to do. “After a while the country songs started adding up, I had them lying around. There was never a place for them to fit on a solo project or on a Shack Shakers record. So, they were kind of like what Tom Waits would call orphans. So, they were like country music, orphans. Then when the 25th anniversary started coming around, I said, oh, it’d be nice to do a country record with all these tunes, because what’s better at an oldtime family reunion than some country music.

The new album is also like a family reunion of the 25 years of the Shakers, bringing in some past members to the recording. “The original line-up that I started the band with back in 1995, they came back - Mark Robertson, Rod Hamdallah, Brett Whitacre - the ones that most people would know from our glory days and the current line-up. Chris Scruggs, Earl Scruggs grandson, of course, he was with the Shack Shakers when he was a teenager playing lead guitar and Morgan Jahnig, member of Old Crow Medicine Show.” Wilkes also brought in some older performers too, like Stanley Walker and Jack Martin, who are legendary players.

Cockadoodledeux is available now through Alternative Tentacles.

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Riddy Arman’s song writing is very personal but informed by her life in the country.

By Denise Hylands

J

an Dale fell in love with American music as soon as she heard Elvis’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. “I also loved it because my parents hated it,” she smiles.

Jan, the daughter of a Methodist minister, had a strict upbringing in Melbourne. It was like an Aussie version of Footloose. “Dancing wasn’t allowed in my family,” she points out in her book, Chasing Music, which documents a remarkable freedom ride in the US. Footloose and fancy-free, Jan buys a VW van and does 160,000 miles across 48 states, visiting music’s sacred sites.

She grabs a map when she arrives but doesn’t make any plans, vowing to “just take things as they came”. She was a stranger in a strange land, “not from around here”, but she knew – and loved – the music, and she literally dances her way across America.

In Arizona, she attends the Wild Wild West nightclub, which promises “one acre of dancin’ and romancin’” and has a $4 all-youcan-eat buffet.

In Roswell, the famous UFO town in New Mexico, she drops into Bud’s Bar, “which changed my life forever”. She is the first Australian woman to visit the bar, where she dances with genuine cowboys and discovers line dancing. “I danced at Bud’s Bar every night until I literally had blisters on my blisters.”

In Texas, she attends the world’s biggest honky-tonk, Billy Bob’s, where Merle Haggard once entered the Guinness Book of Records for buying the largest round of drinks – 5095 shots of Canadian Club.

She sees R.L. Burnside perform at Junior Kimbrough’s Juke Joint at Holly Springs, Mississippi, attends three Jazz & Heritage Festivals in New Orleans, goes on the road

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with the traditional bluegrass band Sand Mountain, and learns that it’s never OK to dance to gospel music at a bluegrass festival.

The locals compliment her on how well she speaks English, and she enjoys the food, deciding to order “the lot” when it comes to hash browns, just to hear the waitress yell: “One regular golden brown hash brown, large, scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, topped and diced!”

The only problem is her van, which she lovingly calls Horace, is continually breaking down, including in Eureka, Nevada, which proudly calls itself “the loneliest town on the loneliest road in America”. Stranded, she discovers the “magic phone box”, which returns all of her coins even when she phones Australia.

All up, Jan spends about six years away from home, and learns many lessons along the way.

When times get tough, she reminds herself “that people often miss out on so many of the joys of life by worrying too much about the comforts”.

The trip, from 1992 to 1998, informed Jan’s bluegrass show on Melbourne’s PBS FM, Southern Style, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.

The book highlights the passion, eccentricities and obsessiveness of the great community radio presenters, and Jan learns that she coped “reasonably well with all kinds of problems and situations, and made some difficult decisions, which somehow usually turned out to be the right ones”.

“I was more self-reliant, determined and resilient than I had ever realised,” she says.

Chasing Music is out now, published by Busybird Publishing.

JAN’S TOP TRAVEL TIPS If you’re planning a music drive across America: Hire a reliable vehicle. Unless you intend travelling for more than a couple of months, in which case you could think about buying one.

Consider buying basic camping equipment (tent, etc). Many festivals have on-site camping, and after-hours is often when you will have the most fun – particularly at bluegrass and old-time festivals where jamming takes place 24 hours! If needing accommodation, remember it will often be a drive away and you will need to book well ahead.

Try to avoid summer, especially in the southern states, as it will be hot and humid and crowded.

And it’s always advisable to check whether festival tickets need to be booked in advance.

THE CHASING MUSIC PLAYLIST It was so hard narrowing it down to only five!

Ernest Tubb – ‘Waltz Across Texas’ (One of my favourite dancing numbers) Jean Prescott – ‘Cowgirl Blues’ (I learnt to yodel while I was driving and listening to this) Kenny Neal – ‘Going to the Country’ Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys – ‘Mamou Hot Step’ (Ah, that Cajun music and dancing, especially in the little town of Mamou) Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys – ‘Footprints in the Snow’

A

real ‘ranch hand’ who writes from the heart! Introducing Riddy Arman, who has joined some great talent like Colter Wall and Vincent Neil Emerson on the La Honda Records label for her debut self-titled album.

Recorded at Mississippi Studios (which is actually in Oregon) and produced by Bronson Tew, Arman penned eight of the nine songs with a version of Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’.

The opening song on Arman’s debut album is the song ‘Spirits, Angels, Or Lies’ inspired by the true story of her father’s passing. The story she weaves details the final moments and visual hallucinations experienced when Johnny Cash visited her father on his deathbed. Arman had a childhood full of folk and country music, growing up in Ohio. “I grew up spending most of my free time down at the barn where I rode horses,” she explains.

“It was owned by these folks and they would play the old Western AM radio stations. Old classic country western. That’s where I really first heard that type of music. My parents were more into, Neil Young, Bruce Cockburn and Joni Mitchell. So, I got folk and lots of old blues, R&B and Motown, because I grew up quite close to Detroit.”

“Well, I myself would identify as a ranch hand,” replies Arman when I suggest that she is a real true ‘cowboy’. “I’m not sure calling myself a cowboy is right, it’s like a title of such honour. Although others may call me such.

I’m not out on summer allotments camping with the herd, I’m doing everything else with the herd. So, I would just say ranch hand, but cowboying is what a lot of people would see it as, yes. “I’ve always been very interested in agriculture, specifically agriculture relating to animal husbandry. Cattle was just a bit of the next step in me pursuing my interest within agriculture. It was a dream un-actualised,

until I received this job offer, I didn’t know how perfect of a position it was for me until I was amidst it. It was a dream job and it is a dream job. It’s the perfect job for me. I can’t imagine doing anything else besides playing music. So, when was it that she decided that you wanted to be a musician, a singer, a songwriter? “Well, I’m not sure that I ever made the decision that it was part of my identity,” says Arman. “It’s been more of a hobby of mine I would say but something that I do very regularly. I’ve always been writing songs and playing guitars as part of my nightly or daily routine. A lot of my friends are musicians, so it’s playing around campfires and sharing my music with musicians. They’ve all really pushed me to be more public and share. If I didn’t have them, I may just still be doing it as more of a hobby.

“I went to Portland Oregon, and I had this money I had been saving up, and I spent my savings on recording this album in hopes that I could get my money back and just put it up on band camp. And simultaneously my friends were in New Orleans all being filmed by the Western AF folks. They slipped my name to them and told Mike Vanata, who is the cinematographer for Western AF, they had to come out to Montana to find me. So, I had recorded the album, then I get home and these folks come out and film me. Once that hit YouTube it changed my life I’d say. Because that’s how LA Honda Records found me and it’s just really what got me out there.”

On a session Western AF (the website documenting modern singers and songwriters) Arman sang the song ‘Spirits, Angels, Or Lies’, which is such an incredible song, a very personal song and in the video, she is obviously emotional.

“It is an extremely personal song,” says Arman. “Oh man, so I guess I’ll just get a

little bit into how I even came to write that song. I was sitting at a cafe drinking coffee one morning. And I’m not the type to really go write at a cafe or bar. I know it’s such a romantic image. I prefer to write at home.

Although I was looking at Rolling Stone and they had an article memorialising Johnny Cash. And it reminded me that on that exact day that he died, I think it’s been like 15 years now, that story, this story that my dad told my mom occurred.

“So, I called my mom and she rehashed the story and I just wrote this song right there.

It really did just, it just came to me. I think the whole point of this song is to remind us all that when someone is dying and in that state, we don’t know what they’re seeing or even where they’re going to go. Death can be a beautiful process even though it’s the hardest thing to see someone go through.

It definitely shaped me. My father’s death shaped me more than anything else in my life I’d say so.” The songs are very personal but are they all autobiographical? “Yeah, most are,” responds Arman. “That’s what inspires me to write, is expressing my personal emotion.

I guess that’s the catalyst foremost of my writing. Although I have been experimenting in writing from more of a character point of view because I find it gets my creative juices flowing. So, I’ve been just experimenting with that a bit, but yeah, they’re mostly all very personal.

“It’s a wild ride. I’m so excited. I’m super proud of the album and I’m just astounded at the reception and feel so thankful and blessed.”

Riddy Arman is available on La Honda Records.

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Spencer at IDGAFF

Based on over 150 interviews with Spencer and more than 150 family, friends and bandmates and illustrated with a treasure trove of previously unseen photos, Execution Days by Patrick Emery traces Spencer P. Jones’ life from his childhood in New Zealand to his evolution as a musician in Australia to his profound impact on those around him. Along the way there are stories of irreverence and excess, of frustration and heartache, of friends loved and lost.

G

reg Perkins had a problem. Perkins’ garage-country-swamp group, Tex Deadly and the Dum Dums, weren’t especially impressive, but they had managed to secure a series of gigs in and around the innercity Sydney suburb of Surry Hills. But a few hours before a scheduled show in early July 1983, half the Dum Dums had decamped back to Brisbane. To make matters worse, Perkins had just secured the Dum Dums a Sunday night residency at the Strawberry Hills Hotel. The Dum Dums had to cancel their upcoming show but Johnnys guitarist Spencer P Jones offered to help out with the upcoming residency. Dum Dums drummer Peter McGregor, aka ‘Fruitcake’, was still around, and they’d get a bass player and play a set of covers. Soon they had a name, too, courtesy of the headline of an interview with Gun Club lead singer Jeffrey Lee Pierce in an English music newspaper: ‘Beast of bourbon’.

Beasts of Bourbon was, in many ways, the organic product of an alternative music scene in the inner Sydney suburb of Surry Hills that some believed was as impressive as anywhere in the world. “Everyone lived in Surry Hills back then,” says Boris Sujdovic, who, along with fellow Perth punk diaspora members James Baker, Kim Salmon, Roddy Radalj and Dave Faulkner, had moved across at the beginning of the decade. “[The Surry Hills scene] was just what I imagined Liverpool to be like in the 1960s,” recalls Billy Pommer.

The spiritual home of the Surry Hills scene was the Sydney Trade Union Club, host to a motley collection of rusted-on unionists, pokie-playing pensioners and irascible rock’n’roll fans and musicians spread out over the Trade’s three floors, taking advantage of the club’s extended liquor licence. “You could wander through the three floors throughout the night as your mood chose, or duck out to a house nearby for a joint or quick shag – if the broom closet between the toilets on the top floor was already occupied,” John Foy says. And if you weren’t at the Trade, you’d probably be at the Strawberry Hills Hotel, a five-minute walk – or drunken stumble, depending on the hour – from the Trade.

Greg Perkins was a 16-year-old high-school drop-out when he started fronting the Dum Dums in Brisbane in 1982, eventually taking on the stage name ‘Tex Deadly’ because the group already had a couple of Gregs. With a repertoire comprising a blend of scrappy country-stained originals and obnoxious interpretations of Elvis, Johnny Cash and Perry Como, a band like Tex Deadly and the Dum Dums was only going to attract attention in Queensland for the wrong reasons and by March 1983 the band had relocated permanently to Sydney. Perkins soon bonded with Spencer, briefly sharing a house with him in Crown Street.

“Spencer was full of beans, full of mischief, pretty fun, he was up for anything. He was really good company,” Perkins recalls.

Beasts of Bourbon’s inaugural gig at the Strawberry Hills Hotel was drunken, sloppy and a shitload of fun – so much so that Perkins, Spencer and Sujdovic decided to indulge the joke again the following week, this time with Richard Ploog from The Church replacing Fruitcake.

The arrival of another new member soon after would have an indelible influence on Beasts of Bourbon’s evolutionary arc. Kim Salmon had formed a new line-up of The Scientists soon after moving to Sydney in early 1981, with original bass player Sujdovic returning to the fold. In contrast to the pop-punk sound of the Perth-era Scientists, this time around, Salmon navigated The Scientists toward a darker, Gun ClubCramps-Stooges swamp sound.

Salmon’s entry into Beasts of Bourbon was, just like the Beasts’ original conception, serendipitous happenstance after he was seconded to fill in for Spencer, the latter double booked for a Johnnys show. Salmon was skeptical about Beasts of Bourbon and he and Thewlis had laughed openly when Sujdovic told them about “this band that played all these rock’n’roll classics and got paid in beer”. Still, Salmon agreed to fill in for Spencer. But when The Johnnys gig fell through, Perkins suggested both Salmon and Spencer play in a five-piece Beasts of Bourbon.

Kim Salmon: That first show was a bit of a shambles! Tex had his shirt off and two microphones gaffered together, and he’d sung himself hoarse, and everything was kind of too loud, strings broken, everything overplayed – it was a bit of a mess, but in a good way.

While in Melbourne a couple of weeks later Perkins formed a largely forgettable one-off Melbourne Beasts of Bourbon, backed by Mark Ferrie, Johnny Crash and Terry Doolan from the Sacred Cowboys and Olympic Sideburns guitarist George Spencer, dubbed ‘Tex Deadly – Beasts of Bourbon’. With the Melbourne show “generally regarded as awful”, according to Harry Butler’s DNA fanzine, Perkins returned to Sydney shortly after where he revived the Surry Hills version of Beasts of Bourbon, this time with another Perth expatriate, James Baker, replacing the unavailable Richard Ploog on drums. >>>

S1 018 Spencer, JLP and Patricia Morrison (Gun Club)

Tex Deadly and the Dum Dums’ future was as volatile as its lanky, caterwauling lead singer’s erratic stage behaviour inferred. By early 1983, Greg Wadley and Greg Gilbert had departed, and their replacements, guitarist Mark C. Halstead and bass player Ceril Culley, grew tired of their lead singer’s reluctance to help carry the band’s gear, culminating with the pair’s departure.

Perth-born Boris Sujdovic had just the right combination of irreverent personality and rudimentary musical skill to fill the vacant bass player role in Beasts of Bourbon. Sujdovic had gravitated to the nascent Perth punk scene in the mid 1970s, where he joined with Kim Salmon, James Baker and Roddy Radalj to form The Scientists in 1978. Nicknamed ‘one-note Boris’ by his punk peers, Sujdovic’s lack of musical prowess was perfect for the punk era – he’d been bestowed the honour of Best Bass Player award at the inaugural Perth Punk Awards in late 1979 – and 18 months after leaving The Scientists, Sujdovic had moved to Sydney.

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Spencer: There wasn’t enough room for everyone on the couch, so I just climbed under the mixing desk and listened down there, and then I just fell asleep because I was really tired. Someone organised for photos to be taken, and so there was a photo of me asleep, waking up and then with the other guys.

>>> With his pudding-bowl haircut, mod fashion and insatiable interest in obscure garage rock, James Baker had been the most recognisable member of the tiny 1970s Perth punk scene. After forming The Victims with Dave Faulkner in 1978 and subsequently The Scientists with Salmon, Sujdovic and Roddy Radalj, Baker had moved to Sydney in late 1980, where he’d joined the three-guitar, one drum, Le Hoodoo Gurus.

Juke described the Perkins-Spencer-Salmon-Sujdovic-Baker line-up of Beasts of Bourbon as an ‘inner-city Sydney supergroup’, though given Beasts of Bourbon was still little more than drunken punk-rock theatre, the appellation was both flattering and ironic. Still, Beasts of Bourbon’s set, weighted heavily toward garage, swamp and country covers and augmented with a smattering of Dum Dums tracks, was enough to sustain half a dozen more shows around Sydney in August and September 1983. It was good fun, but no-one was taking it that seriously. The Scientists, The Hoodoo Gurus (having also dropped ‘Le’ from their title) and The Johnnys all had record deals. Even Perkins saw his own ticket to stardom in a different Surry Hills outfit he’d formed with Kim Salmon and Richard Ploog, Salamander Jim. But Roger Grierson had seen enough potential in the Beasts’ chaotic live shows to stump up the cash to record an album and in late October 1983 he booked a day at Paradise Studios in Woolloomooloo. Grierson asked Melbourne recording engineer Tony Cohen, whose studio career had evolved from working with Supernaut and The Ferretts to the Melbourne punk scene of the early 1980s with The Birthday Party, The Sacred Cowboys and Models, to record Beasts of Bourbon’s debut album. Cohen’s engineering brilliance and natural empathy with recording artists made him a favourite amongst his clients, although his unpredictability and penchant for alcohol and drugs, tempered his reputation with industry executives. True to form, Cohen took his producer’s fee at the beginning of the Beasts’ recording session and disappeared to King’s Cross, returning a couple of hours later, refreshed and ready to record.

Grierson assumed Beasts of Bourbon would record a selection of the band’s repertoire of covers, but what emerged from the recording session was an album of largely original material. The Perkins-Spencer composed opening track, ‘Evil Ruby’, was the totemic Beasts of Bourbon sound: a chunky Stones riff spiked with Dolls rock’n’roll swagger, spat out in Perkins’ snarling garage punk vocal. A newspaper report announcing the death of the American country rock artist Marty Robbins inspired Spencer and Perkins to write the folksy-garage ‘The Day Marty Robbins Died’. Spencer cribbed the lyrics to ‘Love and Death’ from a collection of quotations from American crime-fiction novelist Raymond Chandler; the song’s ghoulish outgoing refrain, ‘goodnight Irene’, came courtesy of a suggestion by Gun Club guitarist Kid Congo Powers. Salmon and Baker revived a track they’d written in the Perth days of The Scientists, ‘Drop Out’. Perkins challenged Salmon to write a rip-off of Captain Beefheart’s ‘I’m Gonna Booglerise You’; Salmon responded with ‘Save Me a Place’. Perhaps the best known cut from the album was a cover of Leon Payne’s grisly murder track, ‘Psycho’.

The psychotic escapes of the 1918 New Orleans axe murderer which inspired the album’s title were reflected across the record: apart from ‘Drop Out’, all of the songs on the album featured death in one form or another.

The recording session was almost as messy as the Beasts’ live shows. By late afternoon, James Baker’s drum kit was flanked by two mountains of beer cans. At the end of ‘The Day Marty Robbins Died’, Spencer fell off his guitar; by the end of the session he was lying underneath the mixing desk.

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Spencer in North 2 Alaskans

The next day the Beasts congregated outside a funeral business on Crown Street for a photo shoot, only to find a more appropriate location next door: a retailer of sado-masochistic paraphernalia, which provided the props used in the photos on the back cover of the album. On the other side of the funeral parlour was a roast-chicken shop. The juxtaposition of the on-the-premises slaughtering and the neighbouring funeral parlour was too good to pass up.

Sujdovic: This chicken shop used to pride itself on killing the chickens on premises. They had that on a sign. You used to walk down Crown Street and the chicken shop had a fluoro sign, and you’d see the sign for the funeral parlour and underneath it ‘Killed on premises’. I was trying to get them to take that shot!

Beasts of Bourbon didn’t make another appearance in 1983 after recording The Axeman’s Jazz. In January 1984, Sujdovic, Thewlis and Rixon, enticed Perkins and Spencer to fly over to Perth to form an ad hoc incarnation of Beasts of Bourbon to raise some cash for their imminent overseas trip where they would join Kim Salmon in the UK. Billed as ‘Tex Deadly and his Beasts of Bourbon’, the Perth incarnation of the Beasts played five consecutive shows in the last week of January, initially without Spencer on account of The Johnnys’ commitments at the Narara festival. Two songs from the final night of the tour would be released as the B-side to Beasts of Bourbon’s cover of ‘Psycho’.

With The Axeman’s Jazz due for release in mid 1984, and invigorated by the financial success of the Beasts’ Perth shows, Perkins and Spencer breathed life into the Beasts with a new line-up, recruiting Brad Shepherd on guitar and Stuart Gray (aka Stu Spasm) on bass. From playing for beer at the Strawberry Hills Hotel 12 months earlier, the Beasts could now command a few thousand dollars for a single show.

The Axeman’s Jazz and the first single from the album, ‘Psycho’, both went to number one on the Australian independent charts.

But internal disruption was brewing. In August 1984, James Baker was kicked out of Hoodoo Gurus. Retribution was swift. Spencer told Brad Shepherd that his services were no longer required in Beasts of Bourbon. With Stu Spasm moving from bass to lead guitar and Graham Hood from The Johnnys drafted in to play bass, the recalibrated Beasts of Bourbon embarked on the ‘Sultans of Swig’ tour in October 1984 to launch The Axeman’s Jazz at shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, now with a “trashier” sound courtesy of Stu Spasm’s move to guitar.

And while Beasts of Bourbon were raking in the cash, the band’s foray to Melbourne ended in financial pain for Spasm when he left his share of the gig fee under the pillow of his hotel room bed. “We were sitting there with all this money buying each other rounds of drinks. When I came to my round, I found that I had no money on me. It was just a sickening feeling,” Spasm laughs. *** But even with hefty appearance fees, no-one saw the Beasts having any obvious long-term prospects. The Johnnys now had a deal with Mushroom Records, Baker was contemplating his own solo career.

Spasm was more inclined to some nascent avant-garde noise projects with Peter Read and Lachlan McLeod and Perkins was tossing up an invitation from Kid Congo Powers to come to London to join Fur Bible.

The end of the Beasts’ Neanderthal period finally came with a soldout gig at Sydney’s Graphic Arts Club in February 1985. “The gig was absolutely packed,” Graham Hood recalls. “The next day we divvied up the money around at Spencer’s house. We were like ‘Fuck, this is the most money we’ve made in one night ever!’”

Spencer and Roddy-era Johnnys

Kent Street 55

By Dave Laing and James McCann Spencer P Jones, who died August 21 2018 at the age of 61, was a noted guitarist and singer-songwriter, known for his work with the Beasts of Bourbon and the Johnnys (and wider associations with artists including Rowland S. Howard and the Drones) as well as his ‘solo’ work with a succession of backing bands. He also worked with a number of international acts including, most famously, the Gun Club and he also worked with some of Australia’s biggest names, including Paul Kelly and Renee Geyer. (Those are Spencer’s guitar licks you’ve heard countless times on ‘How To Make Gravy’).

Spencer was also able to work on a number of tracks on All The Way With SPJ Vol.1 - a fitting tribute to this internationally celebrated artist. Significant international guests include old friends the Violent Femmes, Gun Club bandmate Kid Congo and singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo, but the cast is primarily Australian and includes friends and fans like Adalita, Chris Bailey of the Saints, Jim Moginie of Midnight Oil, the Drones, Claire Birchall, Hoss and more.

RUTH BAKER BAND - ‘You Let Me Down’ You wouldn’t guess by their name but Ruth Baker Band are a Spanish based band. When Spencer first heard their version of You Let Me Down he smiled and said “This is the opening track of the album, this is a single.”

THE HOLY SOUL - ‘I’m On To You’ These veteran Sydney art rockers are longtime fans. Holy Soul lead singer Trent is an old soul and spent many late nights with Spencer in Sydney learning the secret chords from the master himself, SPJ.

VIOLENT FEMMES - ‘Run With It’ Friends of Spencer’s since sharing a bill with the Johnnys in Perth in the 80’s, the Femmes were only too happy to quickly hop on board to record a song for their stricken friend.

Spencer appears on backing vocals.

HITS - ‘People Fuck With Your Head’ Hits from Brisbane have been ripping up the East Coast of Australia and West Coast of France for years now, and with their Charles Bukowski-like frontman and explosive dueling guitars, they are the perfect band for Spencer’s tune ‘People Fuck With Your Head’.

JIM MOGINIE & THE FAMILY DOG - ‘Freak Out’ The legendary Midnight Oil guitarist was self admittedly late to Spencer’s solo material, but the two hit it off and Jim and powerhouse that is the Family Dog dropped this James Baker/Spencer P Jones rocker.

CHICKEN SNAKE - ‘Hot & Cold’ Headed by the perennially cool Jerry Teel, who met and recorded Spencer at his New York studio Funhouse in the early 2000s.

Jerry comes from bands such as Chrome Cranks, Jerry Teel and the Big City Stompers, Knoxville Girls and many more.

ANDREW McCUBBIN - ‘Duplicity’ Andrew McCubbin comes from the same pool of underground music that Spencer did and is a fine song writer in his own right.

They crossed paths on many occasions.

Spencer was smitten with the beautiful version of Duplicity that Andrew and partner Melinda recorded.

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JAMES McCANN & THE NEW VINDICTIVES - ‘What Is Life in Jail’ Guitar-slinging singer-songwriter/journeyman (and this album’s co-producer) McCann has had a long and storied career – including early stints in the Drones in Perth and Nunchukka Superfly with Hard-Ons Blackie & Ray in Sydney – before hitting Melbourne 20-odd years ago and developing a close friendship with our man SPJ. He started work on this record with Spencer, then brought it to completion, along with Spooky Rec’s Loki Lockwood, after Spencer’s passing. New album, produced by Rob Younger, in the pipeline.

LOS CHICOS - ‘The Day Marty Robbins Died’ Spanish scuzzy garage rockers Los Chicos hold Spencer dear to their corazons.

Recorded in Australia, their version of The Day Marty Robbins Died features one of the last rip snorting slide lead breaks Spencer recorded.

CHERRYWOOD - ‘Mean Arnold’ Melbourne super group CherryWood lend their down in the gutter folk rock to one of the catchiest numbers on the album.

Vocalist Joshua Seymour’s throaty velvet growl draws you into a story of getting your music played on the radio at any cost. And again, in one of his last times in the studio, Spencer adds that catchy sweet gritty slide part that he does so well.

ADALITA ‘(She Walks) Between The Raindrops’ Magic Dirt were part of the generation of Australian bands who followed in the Beasts of Bourbon’s footsteps, gaining a level of popularity and influence that would have been unthinkable when the Beasts first started. Adalita is an enduring presence on Melbourne’s scene, and here she explores the beauty in SPJ’s songwriting.

THE DRONES - ‘Slamming On The Brakes’ The Drones version of this song captures the band at arguably the peak of their powers.

The first line up of the Drones featuring this album’s co-producer James McCann recorded a bunch of demos in Perth that ended up in Spencer’s hands converting him into a lifelong fan.

KID CONGO & THE PINK MONKEY BIRDS - ‘When He Finds Out’ Kid and Spencer have been friends since Spencer joined The Gun Club on guitar for their 1983 Australian tour. As that friendship blossomed so did their support for one another’s musical endeavours. Kid, who of

course is also known for his time in both the Cramps and the Bad Seeds, lends a sultry smoky vocal to the brooding menacing feel of ‘When He Finds Out’.

CHRIS BAILEY - ‘The Monkey Has Gone’ Chris Bailey and Spencer met after a Saints show in Sydney in 1977, and again when Spencer’s band Cuban Heels supported the post-Kuepper Saints in 1980 , Chris doesn’t remember either event. But they became firm friends and Chris adds an emotional intensity to ‘The Monkey has Gone’, another song from the last batch of songs Spencer wrote.

JOHNNY CASINO - ‘Trick My Boat Wrong’ Johnny Casino’s version of ‘Trick My Boat Wrong’ originally came out as a B Side on one of his singles. Johnny is a legend in the underground rock n roll music scene – he first made his name in Sydney’s internationally revered Asteroid B-612 and has plied his wares around the world. He now resides in Spain.

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO - ‘Sailors Grave’ Alejandro Escovedo became aware of Spencer through a recommendation by Kid Congo. He and Spencer had walked parallel paths, from punk days through to so-called ‘cowpunk’ (Al was in the legendary Rank & File when Spencer joined the Johnnys) through to dark-hued singersongwriter stuff that was as influenced

by Lou Reed and the Stones as it was Bob Dylan. Alejandro recorded his contribution on his Australian 2019 Tour one morning after an impromptu rehearsal backstage before a Melbourne show the night before.

GENTLE BEN & HIS SENSITIVE SIDE - ‘Execution Day’ Ben Corbett, frontman from hard country punk rockers Six Ft Hick, appeared as the strange cross-dressing father in True History of the Kelly Gang while demonstrating his notorious back-bending notorious stage moves. He has also appeared on stage with Peaches executing the same moves. A fan and friend of Spencer’s, here he adds a gentler touch to the SPJ classic ‘Execution Day’ with Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side, now Gentle Ben & His Shimmering Hands.

HEAD ON - ‘Destiny Minus You’ Head On are fronted by Seb Blanchais, founder of Beast Records, who first saw Spencer perform in France in the Johnnys when he was 17. He’s been a fan ever since.

Here Head On gives the melodic track ‘Destiny Minus You’ a menacing heavy rock slap around the head.

THE BRAVES - ‘Clementine’ The Braves a young Melbourne band who bend influences in a way the Clash did. Try and tie them down, it isn’t easy. Here they take Spencer track ‘Clementine’ and bend it into almost unrecognisable shapes, Spencer loved it.

HOSS - ‘Only A Matter Of Time’ Known for singing and writing the late ’80s classic My Pal by God, Joel Silbersher has been leading Hoss almost ever since, combining all manner of guitar based rock’n’roll into a unique, intelligent and brilliant brew, new album soon, they promise!

PLEASURE MODEL - ‘Stolen Car Serenade’ Wild cards in the pack, Pleasure Model recorded ‘Stolen Car Serenade’ early into a career which was painfully cut short with the unexpected death of singer/guitarist James ‘Olof ‘ Collins. One of the strongest songs on the tribute, and a cut that Spencer never passed comment on, knowing it was spot on the money. The band were absolutely faithful to the sometimes tricky chords Spencer would pull out of his hat. What could have been?

CLAIRE BIRCHALL & THE PHANTOM HITCHHIKERS - ‘The Whole Way Down’ Long underrated in the Aus music scene Claire traverses the grounds of Synth Pop, Rock, Folk and Country and even shreds guitar in one of Kim Salmon’s bands. Her version of ‘The Whole Way Down’ was introduced to Spencer by James McCann who told him that it was too good to not include on the tribute. Spencer, ever dubious about being told what is a good version of a song he penned, took a week to call James back, offering only” You’re right about Claire”.

LOS DOMINADOS - ‘News For You’ Los Dominados are fronted by rock royalty Helen Cattanach, long serving bass player with Spencer P Jones & the Escape Committee. Helen has been a fixture of the Australian music scene since the 90s with pop rock band Moler.

All The Way With SPJ Vol.1 Is Out On Beast Records & Spooky Records www.spookyrecords.com/www.beast-records.com

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I

t’s difficult to believe that Dion turned eighty-two years of age last July. On the phone line from his home in Florida he sounds at least fifty years younger. Some of the tracks on his new album, Stomping Ground, sound as if they were recorded in his hit single era of the ‘60s! Whatever he is taking, I want some!

Of course, Dion has been known for the best part of 60 years by just his first name (his surname is DiMucci) – something very few are able to achieve. He enjoyed an extremely successful era from 1957 to 1968 with thirteen Top 20 singles before rediscovering his early blues influences in 2000. When we talk, he is consulting on a stage musical of his life, The Wanderer, which was interrupted by the pandemic but is set to re-open in the March.

“It has rock and roll street history, it has romance, it has action, the gangs, and it has betrayal, and overcoming” says Dion, “and the way they put the music in it just keeps moving the play forward. And there’s a lot of laughs. It’s just real interesting. It’s a two-hour thing that really goes by in a flash. So, it’s fun. I didn’t know it was going to be that much fun.”

A few years ago, I saw Dion perform at the Blues Awards in Memphis and can tell you that he is the real deal. Last year I spoke to him about Blues With Friends, an album with some high profile guests such as Van Morrison Bruce Springsteen & Patty Scialfa, John Hammond, Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck, Sonny Landreth and more. The follow up is Stomping Ground with some of those same guests plus Eric Clapton, GE Smith, Mark Knopfler, Keb Mo’, Peter Frampton, Rickie Lee Jones, Marcia Ball, Boz Scaggs and more. The music, much of which is original, is as impressive as the guest list. Just two of the highlights include Rickie Lee Jones on ‘I’ve Been Watching’, and Keb Mo’ on a fantastic version of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Red House’, which just might have been a huge hit if it had been released as a single in the Sixties.

“I like this one. I really like this album. It was a lot of fun making it,” says Dion of Stomping Ground. “I didn’t get tired of it. It’s basically very easy to make it. I don’t know why. It’s my age, maybe. I’m writing the best songs I’ve ever written. It’s a gift from heaven. When I say it’s a gift, there must be a gift giver up there because I got a gift and the songs come easy. And it’s wonderful. I love a track that grooves. I know how to do that. And to get one of the best guitar players on the planet to incorporate what he’s hearing, or to offer and contribute what he’s hearing, not what I’m hearing, I don’t get tired of it because it’s like a gift. They play, and it’s something you didn’t think of, dream of, or even ask for.

“It’s crazy. They’re so right on when they do it. I never tell them what to play. They decide what belongs on this song, and it’s crazy interesting to me. It really is. When you hear a guy like Sonny Landreth pick up a slide and do what he did, and then you hear Peter Frampton do what he does, and then you hear G.E. Smith. I didn’t think of that kind of guitar.”

“Well, I live pretty simple. I don’t smoke or drink, so I think that helped,” responds Dion when I mention that he sounds fantastic. “I gave up smoking and drinking in 1968. So, I think I didn’t destroy my vocal cords. The other thing is, I was thinking of this the other day because I was in the gym with a bunch of young black guys, maybe half my age, in their forties, their fifties, and they don’t know who Son House is, they don’t know who Sister Rosetta Tharpe is. You’d be lucky if they know who Jimmy Reed is, or Muddy Waters. It’s crazy. So, I’m telling them, and we’re Googling these people, and I’m saying, “These people don’t think, they just do it. They’re not trying to do anything. They’re just doing it. The music comes from them. There’s plenty of people on American Idol: the music comes through them, but it doesn’t come from them. So, it’s a big difference to be entertained or have an emotional experience. You listen to Son House, and he’ll rip your heart out. The music is coming from them, and you can’t catch them thinking. They’re just doing it. And then I realised, that’s what I do. And you can’t catch me thinking. The reason why that is, is I write my own songs, so I don’t hear anybody in my head. I just want to express the song. If I happen to do somebody else’s song, I’ll never do it like them. So, I’m not thinking I’m trying to copy somebody. I do it my own way. So that’s why it seems natural.

“And I’m a good rhythm singer. I got good rhythm. So, I like a track with rhythm, and I just feel good placing words in certain places. It’s fun. It’s fun to me.”

Stomping Ground is available now via KTBA Records.

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TERRY CRAWFORD – Mr Perry 1976. I was 14 years old. I was a big music fan, listening to The Beatles since I was four, and to Van Morrison and Neil Young since I was around nine or ten.

Oddly, I’d never heard Dylan. Eight bars into “Hurricane”, and I felt that my life, my mind, had been shifted somehow to another place, another realm of possibility. I was stunned. It took only those opening four lines, laid out like a film script. I didn’t realise that quality of writing could be in a song. I was mesmerised. Hooked. Still am.

GRANT PIRO – Reverend Marlowe “Highway 61 Revisited”. It’s from my favourite Bob album, but it’s also referenced in the Girl From the North Country’s dialogue if you look closely. I just love Bob.

CALLUM FRANCIS – Joe Scott “Hurricane” is my favourite, not just because I get to sing it in the show, but because of why it was written and what it stands for. The song dates back to 1976. It was written in protest about a boxer named Rubin “Hurricane” Carter who was trialed and wrongly imprisoned. It’s all about racial profiling and even though the song is 45 years old it’s (sadly and infuriatingly) still relevant in 2021. So it will be a pleasure to sing it each night as a horrid reminder that things must change.

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he hit musical Girl from the North Country, written and directed by Conor McPherson and with music and lyrics by Bob Dylan, is one of the most critically acclaimed, multi award-winning productions of the 21st Century. Set in 1930s Minnesota, it has taken the theatrical world by storm, selling out seasons in the West End, Toronto and Broadway since opening at The Old Vic in London. It features Dylan’s boldly reimagined songs, including ‘Hurricane’, ‘I Want You’, ‘Slow Train Coming’, ‘Lay Lady Lay’ and ‘Like A Rolling Stone’. Now that it is visiting Australia we asked some of the cast members to talk about Bob Dylan and their favourite songs.

Girl From The North Country - Theatre Royal Sydney - From 5 January 2022

CHRISSIE O’NEILL – Mrs Neilsen It changes all the time! My favourite Dylan song used to be “Don’t Think Twice it’s Alright”. But since working on Girl From the North Country, I have to say, “Slow Train Coming” is fast becoming my favourite song. It really speaks to what it is happening right now, to the collective human experience. Is the slow train coming the end of days or is it redemption?

Also, the song is just a total jam. Simon Hale’s arrangement of it is a total groove and it gets into your bones.

ANDREW ROSS – Musical Director “Tight Connection To My Heart” is my favourite song because of the line ‘but I can’t figure out whether I’m too good for you or you’re too good for me’ – it is vicious and self-deprecating at the same time.

SAMANTHA MORLEY - Ensemble I have so many favourites, I’m a huge Bob Dylan fan! I really love the way “Slow Train/License to Kill” is arranged in Girl From the North Country, and ‘Duquesne Whistle; - it’s so different from the original.

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, Vince Melouney is one of the most notable Australian guitarists of the rock and pop era yet there are some who still may not know he played on international #1 hits with the Bee Gees. Read on...

By Ian McFarlane

I

f you happened to mention the name of Vince Melouney in general conversation at a dinner party, chances are you’d elicit either one of two responses: huge grins and enthusiastic nods of the head from those who love his work; or a dismissive “never heard of the guy!”.

There are no half measures for Vince. For those who say they’ve never heard of him, they’d then be pleasantly surprised to find out that they’ve been listening to his guitar work since the 1960s, when he was a member of the original Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs and the Bee Gees. I mean, the guy’s played on such hit pop songs as ‘Poison Ivy’, ‘Sick and Tired’, ‘Over the Rainbow’, ‘New York Mining Disaster, 1941’, ‘To Love Somebody’, ‘Massachusetts (The Lights Went Out In)’ and ‘I’ve Got to Get a Message to You’. Having appeared on those superlative Bee Gees’ tracks alone makes him one of the most accessed guitarists in the history of rock.

Following his departure from the Bee Gees in late 1968, he pursued a busy career throughout the 1970s but has spent many years away from the music industry. These days he’s busier than ever; when I connect with him over an international phone line in early November, he’s touring Germany with The Celebration Of The Bee Gees tribute show (he appears for the early hits while the show then continues via the disco era songs etc). He’s also released a version of The Easybeats’ ‘Women’ and a new song, ‘Come

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Some Christmas Eve (Or Halloween)’, which he recorded with his current group Tall Poppy Syndrome.

To try and encapsulate Melouney’s entire career in this piece is a tough undertaking, so for a brief history, here goes. He was born in Sydney (1945) and began his music career in the early 1960s with instrumental outfit The Vibratones. At this stage his surname was written as Maloney. His early influences were Hank Marvin and the Shadows, The Ventures and Dick Dale. The band changed the name to The Aztecs and then, in 1964, with the arrival of a precocious 17-year-old industry veteran – formerly known as Little Rock Allen – they became Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs.

Becoming a major attraction at promoter John Harrigan’s Surf City discotheque they signed to Albert Productions, and competed with the likes of The Easybeats, Normie Rowe and the Playboys, Tony Worsley and the Blue Jays, M.P.D. Ltd and Ray Brown and the Whispers as one of the biggest beat pop bands in the land. Tales of riotous concerts across Australia are legendary, as the group’s teenage fans almost tore themselves, each other and the band members apart getting to the stage.

Suffice to say that it was a frantic 12 months for the group, with Maloney, guitarist Tony Barber, bassist John ‘Bluey’ Watson and drummer Col Baigent all departing in early 1965, leaving Thorpie to assemble a new line-up. Maloney and Barber initially joined

forces in Vince and Tony’s Two, then he issued the solo single ‘I Need Your Lovin’ Tonight’ (produced by Nat Kipner) which featured Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb on backing vocals.

His next group, the Vince Maloney Sect issued the EP This Is The Vince Maloney Sect (produced by Pat Aulton) which featured a steely blast of garage R&B in the form of a cover of William Stevenson’s ‘No Good Without You’ (also covered by Marvin Gaye and UK freakbeat band The Birds). Maloney’s biting fuzz guitar holds up incredibly well and collectors and fans continue to seek out its incendiary tones. By then he was into bands such as The Pretty Things, Spencer Davis Group and the Jeff Beck era Yardbirds. >>> 61

In late 1966, he specifically re-presented his name as Melouney. Along with his new wife Diane, he left Australia that November headed for the bright lights of London. He’d sold all his possessions, including his beloved Epiphone Sheraton guitar and Vox amp, in order to fund the fares. They arrived in the UK, totally skint but managed to reconnect with his friends The Easybeats, who were then on the cusp of their major international break through.

Melouney takes up the story: “I loved the music coming out of the UK and wanted to go there. We moved to a place in Finchley Central and found out that The Easybeats were living in Wembley. I’d go and visit them and one day they played me their new single ‘Friday On My Mind’. Later on, Harry lent me his beautiful Gibson 335 guitar for my first sessions with the Bee Gees.”

Having gone as far as they could in Australia, the Bee Gees returned to the UK, arriving in January 1967. They immediately signed on with influential Aussie expatriate businessman Robert Stigwood (of NEMS Enterprises) who offered them a management deal. NEMS was headed by The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein. Stigwood got the Bee Gees signed to Polydor for the UK and Europe and ATCO in the USA, while they remained with Spin Records in Australia.

Melouney had heard of their arrival in London and Barry mentioned they were recording and needed a guitarist. The first session was recording ‘New York Mining Disaster, 1941’ in IBC Studios. Colin Petersen (from Steve and the Board) also joined on drums.

BEE GEES Within the space of two glorious years, the group recorded and issued four albums – Bee Gees 1st, Horizontal, Idea and Odessa – and innumerable international hit singles. They toured the world, appeared on TV pop shows on a regular basis and basically became the biggest pop sensations since The Beatles.

Songs such as ‘Turn Of The Century’, ‘Holiday’, ‘To Love Somebody’, ‘New York Mining Disaster, 1941’, ‘Massachusetts’, ‘Kilburn Towers’, ‘First Of May’, ‘World’, ‘Idea’ and so on are some of the most opulent, bittersweet and charming Baroque pop and soul songs of the era. Melouney managed to get one of his songs, ‘Such A Shame’, a vibrant, bluesy composition, included on Idea. It was written about the end of the show. “Come be home with me / it’s not a shame for you to see / oh let it be and you’ll miss reality” he sings.

Recently, XTC’s Andy Partridge (who knows a thing or two about ’60s psych pop) was quoted in Shindig magazine as describing ‘Red Chair, Fade Away’ as the Bee Gees’ version of “...‘Strawberry Fields’. All melting Mellotron, halting, non sequitur lyrics and a backdrop of burning wallpaper, made from seemingly random orchestral combats, going on behind them. Love the psych-lite Bee Gees”.

“It was an incredible time for me,” says Melouney, still marvelling at the experience.

“To have gone from being completely skint 62

to playing on massive hit singles, touring the world, travelling everywhere in limousines, appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show, it’s still hard for me to comprehend. I was about 22 years of age at the time, the twins were still teenagers. We were young and ignorant!

But we were a group, we all got on really well together. The group had been hugely successful in a very short period of time, we packed an enormous number of things into those 18 months.

“Most people say that the Bee Gees would have succeeded on talent alone, and they were unbelievably talented composers and singers, but basically it was Robert Stigwood who got the whole thing off the ground and kept it running. He was able to cut through all the bullshit. He understood their talent, he had an enormous belief in their abilities.

“Eventually everything became too crazy and false for me. I decided to split. I said to Stigwood ‘I’m leaving’. He said ‘okay, if that’s what you want to do, we’ve got a German tour coming up, we can’t get someone to take your place so quickly, so if you do the tour

I’ll release you from your contract’. So, I said ‘that’s a fair deal’. I did the last tour and then left. I said to Colin Petersen at the time ‘the end is nigh, mate, the party’s over. He didn’t believe me, ‘no, no you’ve got it all wrong’ he said. It was only a couple of months later that Robin left, then Colin got the sack, and that left Barry and Maurice and they were in the wilderness for quite a while.”

November 1968 found Melouney planning his next move. “Dick Ashbury, who has been Barry’s personal manager for many years, was the roadie originally. At first, before the first hit single, Colin and I used to travel with him in the Ford Transit van and help him load in the gear. He introduced me to the guys in Ashton, Gardner and Dyke. I was going to produce their first album then they asked me to join them as guitar player. So, I played on and produced their single ‘Maiden Voyage’ but it didn’t really work out for me. It was nothing to do with the guys, they were really excellent musicians, lovely guys, we got along really well. They included my song ‘See The Sun In My Eyes’ on the B-side.

ASHTON GARDNER & DYKE

“One night we were recording in Apple Studios, The Beatles’ studios, downstairs at Apple Records. We were there because Tony Ashton was good friends with George Harrison and he walked into the studio to say hello to Tony. So, I got introduced to George which was very nice. They continued their recording career after I left, had a big hit with ‘Resurrection Shuffle’.”

By 1970, his next group Fanny Adams fell into place. “I had a house in Mill Hill, just outside of London, and one day I bumped into Teddy Toi, he’d played bass in the Aztecs after I’d left.

We got talking and I said I was interested in putting a group together to record an album.

He said ‘oh, you should get Doug Parkinson in to sing’. I hadn’t heard of Doug Parkinson In Focus because we never got news of Australian groups at the time. We went over to see the guys in Axiom (Brian Cadd, Glenn Shorrock) who were also in London and they had the single of ‘Dear Prudence’. I heard that and immediately I thought ‘this guy has an incredible voice’. So that was the beginnings of Fanny Adams.

FANNY ADAMS

“I asked Ted would he be interested in joining and he said ‘yeah, sure’. We got hold of Doug’s phone number in Australia. I phoned him up and explained what my intentions were and was he interested? He said ‘I’d love to go over, but I have to bring my drummer, Johnny Dick, with me’. I said ‘okay, get your visas and passports’ and I sent them the tickets. I met them at Heathrow airport and rented them a house down the road. I did a deal with MCA Records, signed a contract. Originally MCA wanted me to do a solo thing but I said it was a band, so Fanny Adams got together in a very short time. We rehearsed and put together seven songs, went into the studio to record. I produced it.

The self-titled Fanny Adams came out posthumously (we’ll get to that below) in June 1971. It remains a minor classic of heavyduty blues rock, featuring several knock-out tracks in ‘Ain’t No Loving Left’, ‘Got To Get A Message To You’, ‘Yesterday Was Today’ and ‘Mid Morning Madness’.

“I wanted to play heavy guitar. Bands like Led Zeppelin were my bag anyway, I really loved all that stuff. Coming from the Bee Gees we did have rock and roll but it wasn’t heavy.

There were a couple that edged that way. But I’d plug into the Marshall amp and turn it up.

The Fanny Adams sound just evolved. And the writing, Doug turned out to be an incredible writer which would have, had we gone on, developed even more. He wrote most of the lyrics and melodies. I had the riffs and chords but we all pitched in; we’d say what about changing that word or what about that melody.”

According to most accounts, Fanny Adams turned out to be one of the great ‘if only...’ moments in Aussie pop history. Melouney took the band back to Australia, in December 1970, in order the get them match fit which is something local bands did by playing every night. They commenced a six-week residency at the Caesar’s In Place discotheque, Sydney, but events took a dark turn.

“I’d spoken to some agents in England but they didn’t offer what I wanted. We decided to

go back to Australia, because Doug and I were so well known there. We hadn’t done any gigs so we took this contract for shows at Caesar’s.

We set up all the gear, did one show and then later that night the place burned down!”

The story goes that someone in the organisation said to the roadie, “oh, you better take Fanny Adams gear out after the show” and the response was “no, we’ve set it all up for the residency, we’ll leave it here”, “no, take it out”. But they left the gear there and it was burnt to a crisp. Is that about it?

“I heard that story too. We took out our guitars, fortunately. But the amps were hired and Johnny Dick’s drums, which had been built for him in England to his specifications, all got burnt down. We couldn’t get any more bookings over Christmas but we ended >>>

63

“That was a pretty ridiculous statement to make, thinking about it now, but I do appreciate it because Doug’s heart was in the right place, you know. We had the talent but there was no point in continuing. I’ve read some ridiculous things on-line about Fanny Adams, Wikipedia probably. Somebody wrote that the whole thing was an ego trip and that we all hated each other, but that wasn’t the case at all. I don’t know who wrote that, or where that idea came from but they definitely got it wrong. They don’t know what they’re talking about. I thoroughly enjoyed recording the album with those guys. The odds were stacked against us; the fire, no gigs, then the promoter shot through with our money and return airfares. I think if things have gone well for us, a second album would have been an absolute ripper.”

SOME OF YOUR

FAVOURITE SONGS 250mm

of all time interpreted brilliantly by some of your favourite musicians

He divided his time between Sydney and London but didn’t play a lot throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He appeared live with the Bee Gees in 1999 at their One Night Only show, Stadium Australia. “When Barry introduced me on stage he said, ‘we’d like to introduce somebody who was with us when we wrote our better songs’. That’s what he said!”

125mm His current group, Tall Poppy Syndrome, comprises Vince on electric guitar, Paul Kopf (vocals), Jonathan Lea (electric guitars, Mellotron), noted rock archivist and writer Alec Palao (bass) and Clem Burke from Blondie (drums). ‘Women’ is a hard rocking version while ‘Come Some Christmas Eve (Or Halloween)’, an obscure number written by Next, he was part of the arena rock Robin Gibb, has been described as “Mod-era Who performing The Zombies’ Odessey And spectacular Long Way To The Top (August Oracle”.

2002). “Billy contacted me and said there’ll be the original Aztecs and then he’d play with the “I’m hoping to go on the road with the guys Across the Universe (Lennon/McCartney) 140.5mm 140.5mm in 2022; nothing definite yet. I’ve known Sunbury Aztecs and there’d be all these other, Adrian Whitehead Jonathan for a while and Alec is a great guy, incredibly talented singers. I reconnected 5mm Spirit In The Sky (N.Greenbaum) Billy Miller a great bass player. I arrived in8.LA andYOU went- Simon Bailey (5.36) MISS with Doug on thatCREDITS tour.

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13. MIDNIGHT RAMBLER (LIVE) - Nick Barker & The PRODUCED BY SHANE O’MARA 13. MIDNIGHT RAMBLER (LIVE) - Nick Barker & The Featuring unique interpretations of Stones classics by some Monkey Men (7.32) Featuring unique interpretations Monkey (7.32) of Melbourne’s greatest musicians. of Stones classics by some Nick Barker Men - vocal / Justin Garner - guitar /With Shane O’Maramusicians backing and vocalists including: of Melbourne’s greatest musicians.

Nick Barker vocal / Justin Garner guitar / Shane O’Mara slide guitar / Grant Cummerford - bass / Ash Davies - drums / Miller, Rebecca Barnard, Harry Under My Thumb - Tracy McNeil, Hip Shake - Chris Wilson, Hide Your Love Shane O’Mara, Billy slide guitar / Grant Cummerford My Thumb - Tracy- Lisa McNeil, HipYou Shake Chris Wilson, Hide Your Love Recorded live at the Caravan Music- bass Club,/ Ash Davies - drums / O’Mara, NickUnder Barker, Gimme Shelter Miller, Got-The Silver - Raised

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To exacerbate things, Doug Parkinson was quoted in Go-Set as saying “In three weeks Fanny Adams will be the best band that ever trod this earth” which hadn’t helped audience expectations. Things rapidly came to a head and the band split.

He subsequently toured with The Cleves (“They were such a great band, they were a family band too. They went to England where they became a glammy rock band called Bitch”), Flite (with renowned Maori singer Leo De Castro), the Jeff St John Band, Ronnie Peel (as a member of Rockwell T. James and the Rhythm Aces – “Ronnie was such a great character. Chris Turner was the other guitarist.

He played a white Les Paul and I played a black Les Paul, so that created a really good contrast on stage.”) and John Paul Young and the All Stars.

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>>> up playing at the Myponga Festival, near Adelaide and some shows in Melbourne, one at the Town Hall with Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. We had the talent to be able to tour the world, we just needed to do about a year’s work, playing all over the place, working the band in.

TALL POPPY SYNDROME

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THE CLEVES

In 1969 the Woodstock festival got all the attention but another important festival in New York showed a different side of America. By James Gaunt

I

n August 1969 the Woodstock festival was held over four days on a farm in Bethel, New York. The concert saw performances from Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, and Sly and the Family Stone. But Sly had played another festival only a few weeks prior, 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival.

The Harlem Cultural Festival was a series of large concerts held in Harlem as a celebration of black musicians, culture, and people. A new film Summer Of Soul collects several of its musical performances, and wonders why this

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festival was forgotten, while Woodstock 1969 became known around the world.

For many, it’s the first time we’ve heard of this festival, so what was it, who was there, and why has it taken this long to see a documentary made?

To find the answer, we need to go back to 1964, when a Harlem Cultural Festival was proposed to help bring culture and life to New York’s predominantly black Harlem neighbourhood. Such a festival was held in 1965 and included a jazz program presented

by Billy Taylor. Further concerts were held across Harlem in the following years, but it wasn’t until 1967 that the first Harlem Cultural Festival arrived, led by Tony Lawrence.

Lawrence was a 30-year-old singer originally from Saint Kitts in the West Indies, who moved to New York and worked with the Harlem Youth Community Center. In the early 60s he released several pop singles and toured North America and France, and often appeared in the pages of Jet, a weekly magazine aimed at Black Americans.

For 1967’s festival, Tony Lawrence worked with the local Parks Department to run eleven themed events across Harlem. Alongside soul, gospel, and calypso concerts, there were also karate exhibitions, and the Miss Harlem contest, which closed the festival following performances by The Tony Lawrence Soul Band, and Dee Dee Warwick.

The free festival was a success, and Lawrence begun looking for sponsors to stage a bigger event in 1968. But he had problems convincing the managers of several high-profile artists to let their musicians play in Harlem, as the area was seen as too “ghetto”.

On Sunday June 30 1968 the second Harlem Cultural Festival went ahead, with soul singer Cliff Nobles opening, followed by Count Basie and his orchestra performing in 33°C heat for a crowd which reached between 6-7,000 people.

A further eight free concerts were held each Sunday afternoon, with performances from artists such as Herbie Mann, Mahalia Jackson, and Tito Puente. At the time Tony Lawrence said, “The Festival is a showcase of Harlem, but talent and audience will come from all over New York, all over the Americas, and all

over the world.” The Miss Harlem Contest also returned to close the festival once more.

New York’s independent TV channel WNEWTV sponsored the festival, and recorded the shows in colour which were aired during the summer as a series of one-hour specials starting July 14. The station paid $50,000 to help cover the cost of the concerts, which 100,000 people attended. In 1984 the footage was donated to New York’s Museum of Broadcasting where it was shown as part of an exhibition dedicated to WNEW-TV. The Third Harlem Cultural Festival opened on June 29, 1969, at Mount Morris Park in Harlem, with performances by The Fifth Dimension, Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, Olatunaji, and Lou Rawls.

Running until August 24, the festival was held over six Sundays, with each show themed around different genres of music again.

One of the many standout performances was during the gospel show where a crowd of 15,000 gathered, even as it rained. Following a set by The Staples, Mahalia Jackson took the stage, and members of The Staples remained onstage to lend support. The gospel singer was fifty-seven years old at the time, and took long breaks between her songs as the toll of several health problems weighed on her. At the end of Let There Be Peace On Earth, Jackson sat down beside Mavis Staples and told her she needed help with the next song, Take My Hand, Precious Lord.

The song had been performed by Jackson at Martin Luther King’s funeral the previous year and held a particular significance for much of the audience. The two singers passed the microphone back and forth between them, in a beautiful performance, which years later Mavis Staples was lucky enough to see again.

An anonymous fan had made a recording of the set and gave a copy to her. She played it with her family and it triggered an instant emotional response. “I put it on and I was in

shock, and then I was in tears,” she said, “My father, everybody, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house”.

The Fifth Dimension performed their hit Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In at the festival in 1969, and singer Marylin McCoo later recalled how happy they were to be there. She said the group were often attacked at the time for sounding too white, which frustrated them.

“Sometimes we were called the black group with the white sound,” McCoo said. “That was one of the reasons why performing in Harlem was so important to us, because we wanted our people to know what we were about.”

Gladys Knight also later recalled her performance and what it meant to be on stage in front of a mostly black audience.

“I knew something very, very important was happening in Harlem that day. It wasn’t just about the music,” she said. “We wanted progress, we’re black people and we should be proud of this.”

1969’s festival was financed entirely by Maxwell House Coffee, who also sponsored a TV special which aired on CBS, July 28, 1969.

The special gained recognition not just for its music, but according to Variety it was possibly “the first time a network show carried allblack commercials.”

The special featured the Fifth Dimension, Edwin Hawkins Singers, Chambers Brothers, and comedian George Kirby, and was later distributed overseas. The University of Georgia digitised a VHS copy from their collection, and it has been available for anyone to watch online since 2019.

Back in 1969, a second special collecting songs from the gospel show was broadcast

by ABC on September 16. A further five TV specials were also announced to be coming soon, though it’s unclear if these went ahead.

On July 20 1969, while the rest of the world was watching man take their first step on the

moon, many in Harlem were attending the Cultural Festival. The press noted at the time, 50,000 people were in the audience as the moon landing occurred, and when someone mentioned that fact on stage, the crowd booed them in return. CBS reporter Bill Plante spoke to members of the audience, with reactions mixed between indifference and the feeling that the money would have been better spent on feeding poor Americans.

Around the festival, vendors selling food, clothes, and books had set up, with one lady praising Tony Lawrence, telling him she’d made enough money to take care of her bills and send her kids to school. Helping locals was a focus for Lawrence, who hired Harlem businesses and trained young people as stagehands so they could gain experience to continue working in the winter. Over 300,000 people attended the six shows, and Lawrence was glad he could help inject money back into his community.

Outside of the TV specials, the concerts gained some media attention, with The New York Times writing positively about the festival multiple times. Contrasted with Woodstock, which mostly gained negative publicity at the time, The Harlem Cultural Festival appeared to have been a bigger hit, and to have created a significant amount of positive influence among Harlem, the city, and festival goers.

By August 1969 Tony Lawrence was already making announcements for the next year’s festival, which he promised would be even greater, and he ended the year by taking the Harlem Cultural Festival on tour. In Chicago he brought out The Supremes, and Marvin Gaye, while in Newark he presented Ike & Tina Turner, and Bobby Bland. But even though his free concerts were successful in attracting a crowd, the 1970 festival in Harlem was cancelled after one day, due to a lack of funds. >>> 67

>>> Undeterred, Lawrence continued to help run other free concerts in Harlem while he planned the Harlem Cultural Festival’s return, which he resurrected in July 1972.

Folk musician Chris Smither performed, as did the jazz-rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears, gospel act The Rance Allen Group, and soul singer Bill Withers. While previous festivals received national coverage in Billboard, Jet, Cash Box, and local papers like the East Village Other, there was little press this year, and 1972 appears to have been the final Harlem Cultural Festival.

In 1970, Woodstock, a documentary film of 1969’s Woodstock Festival was released. It condensed the festival into three hours, and artists like Sly and the Family Stone had their music enter the US charts as they gained new popularity from viewers. The film was one of the highest grossing of 1970, and was later expanded to include extra footage, with even more appearing on DVD and Blu-ray releases.

Although several of the concerts Tony Lawrence held were filmed, none ever saw a theatrical release. Relegated to TV, they didn’t catch on in the same way a film like Woodstock did, and for the most part everyone forgot the concerts had ever happened.

Other music concerts like the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, 1967 Newport Folk Festival, or 1972 Wattstax each had documentaries created soon after their concerts were held, and have been celebrated by fans, and recognised as culturally significant by the United States National Film Registry.

These are just some of the many concerts which have been documented, but the fact these were widely distributed meant their legacy was guaranteed, and they have not been forgotten.

Now in 2021 we are finally rediscovering the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival thanks to the documentary film Summer of Soul. Collected from over 40 hours of footage, the recordings

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were originally filmed by Hal Tulchin who held onto them in the hope they might one day be released. As he told The Smithsonian in 2007, “I knew it was going to be like real estate, and sooner or later someone would have interest in it”.

That someone was Joe Lauro at New York’s Historic Films Archives, who found a copy of the 1969 CBS special while visiting friends in Copenhagen. Lauro reached out to Hal Tulchin and the footage was digitised, while plans for a film began developing. Some of the footage was licensed for a Nina Simone DVD package in 2005, and other snippets would later appear on YouTube, but ultimately no film was produced. Tulchin became unsure whether he wanted just one film or for the footage to be released as a DVD series, and when his deal with Lauro expired in 2007 he walked away.

Even so, Tulchin had hope his footage would be seen and he began referring to it as the “Black Woodstock” to try and pique interest.

Complicating matters was that Tulchin didn’t own the rights to the performances, and many felt it would be too expensive given the high calibre of artists featured.

In 2017 plans were revealed to release a film by 2019, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the footage. But the announcement came with the sad news Tulchin had recently died, aged 90.

Now in 2021, the film is finally available.

It opens with the claim that, following the festival, “the footage sat in a basement for 50 years. It has never been seen. Until now.” This is of course a slight exaggeration, but it’s true that for many of us this is the first time we will have had a chance to see any of it.

For director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, he wanted to make sure the Harlem Cultural Festival wasn’t forgotten, and that everyone could finally see and be inspired by the performances in the same way as with Woodstock.

“There’s a great story in Prince’s autobiography,” Questlove recently said, “when his dad took him to see Woodstock

By Martin Jones

Low – Hey What Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg

at the age of 11. That really changed his life growing up. So, for me, one of the burning questions I had was whether this film would have had the same effect if it had been allowed to develop and if it received a nationwide release back at the time when Hal Tulchin was trying to shop it.”

As it has toured festivals this past twelve months, the response to Summer of Soul has been extremely positive, and it is incredible that such an important film can finally be seen in cinemas around the world. No doubt, this is an important document and important part of American music history, and one that will move everyone who watches it.

For a new generation The Harlem Cultural Festival can be seen for the first time, and finally it is being celebrated just like Tony Lawrence, Hal Tulchin, and everyone else who believed in it in 1969 knew it would be.

Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is streaming on Disney Plus and showing in select cinemas around the country.

H

ow often do you listen to something that really widens your eyes?

Well this year my revelations came from a band I already loved (but which blew me away anyway) and a new one I’d never heard of before.

While so many of their contemporaries have disappeared, become irrelevant, or, even worse, joined the retro touring circuit, Low have remained relentlessly relevant and bravely progressive. Thirty years into their career, Hey What delivers like an enlightened soundtrack to a post-apocalypse (Blade Runner meets The Road); dark, frighteningly sparse, occasionally noxious, but ultimately beautiful and, in the face of desperation, hopeful. Now officially reduced to a duo (and a married one at that), Low distil to their most critical elements on Hey What. For those already fans, that means the melodic songcaft of The Great Destroyer welded to the pixelated abstraction of Double Negative. Their inimitably interlocked voices weave through hits of glitched distortion and spooky synthesized Vangelis swells, constantly threatening disintegration into noise. But each time you’re tempted to cry “unlistenable” everything erupts into supernatural splendour or coalesces into momentary respite. The result is like being swept into the clouds at the centre of a violent electrical storm while being serenaded by nearby heavenly angels. There may be less than a minute of drums throughout the whole album. Are there any guitars? To conjure so much impact with so few elements is just astonishing.

I don’t know how I stumbled across young British band Dry Cleaning. It certainly wasn’t a direct introduction from any trusted source so there were no preconceptions when the needle hit New Long Leg. By the time the album was through I knew I’d just encountered the most assured and original debut in years. Even before Florence Shaw opens her (distinctly accented) mouth, the band is almost unmistakably British, with a lean, hard-won, desperate take on post-punk (also echoes of Australian prepub rock). Then Shaw steps to the microphone and… talks. No singing (or almost none). In a plangent, laconic delivery Florence reads agile, intellectual and remarkably rhythmic abstract poetry over fizzing guitar lines that sail over the horizon like taught power lines and drums and bass that drive underneath like a road train. Certainly, at first glance it’s

Shaw’s vocals that set Dry Cleaning apart from any other competent Wire, Magazine, Joy Division, Clash devotee. But there’s so much going on here and no single element would be so effective without its relationship to the others. That’s a real band.

From the moment the quartet strides forward with ‘Scratchyard Lanyard’, there’s no denying the intent. They mean it. Every note.

Melodic, thrusting, fuzzed bass, driving drums and supple guitars that swing from ambience to cadence to descant faster than you can think.

And then, what? What is she saying? A Tokyo bouncy-ball? An Oslo bouncy-ball? A Rio de Janeiro bouncy ball? What?

“I think of myself as a hardy banana with that waxy surface and smooth delicate flowers. A woman in aviators firing a bazooka.” Line of the decade and it’s only the first song! They tumble out of her: “An electrician stuck his finger in the plughole and yelled “Yabba”.” Or, “Would you choose a dentist with a messy back garden like that? I don’t think so.” In the closing epic, ‘Every Day Carry’ (punctuated with a couple of minutes of stabbing guitars sounding like a machine crying for help), the non-sequiturs are dizzying: from smear test blues to residual pop rocks in the mouth of cab drivers to droopy flute solos to a sugared armpit, a roast potato on a long branch, to a Sherlock Holmes museum of break ups.

Sure it’s art rock (no surprise to learn guitarist Tom Dowse met Shaw in art school); but it’s unpretentiously oddball, highly intellectual, and never confrontational or condescending. This is music to enjoy with both head and hips. And both need to be moving fast to keep up.

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DEEP PURPLE Billy Pinnell

MACHINE HEAD Warner Brothers Originally Released: March 25, 1972.

In December 1971 Deep Purple planned to record their new album Machine Head in Switzerland at Montreux Casino, a large arena built in a complex of casinos, restaurants, and other entertainment venues.

The song would not become a popular anthem until it was released as a single in 1973.

The band had performed there in May of that year and were comfortable with the acoustics and the vibe. The casino closed each winter for refurbishments, so they arrived there on December 3, the day before the year’s final concert headlined by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. A mobile recording studio owned by The Rolling Stones had been booked and hotel accommodation organised.

The inspiration for the song ‘Highway Star’ was not quite as dramatic, on a tour bus in 1971 a reporter asked the band how they wrote songs, to demonstrate, Blackmore began playing a riff on an acoustic guitar while Gillan improvised lyrics over the top. The studio version is characterised by classically inspired electric guitar and Jon Lord’s organ solos based on Bach-like chord sequences. The song emphasises the importance of Deep Purple’s pioneering work in fusing rock with classical and baroque forms.

It’s history how a fire caused by someone firing a flair gun into the ceiling during Zappa’s performance burned down the casino. This incident famously inspired the song ‘Smoke On The Water’.

Heavily influenced by the jazz-blues sounds of Hammond organists Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff, Lord was among the first keyboard players to bring these sounds to hard rock music.

As a consequence of the fire the band were relocated to a nearby theatre where they began recording, however the new location proved to be impractical as locals complained about the noise. Fortunately, they found another location, The Grand Hotel on the edge of Montreux. With the mobile studio parked at the main entrance they set up their equipment at the end of one of the building’s corridors snaking cables and assorted equipment through bedrooms and across balconies to get to the recording van.

At seven minutes plus, ‘Lazy’, the album’s longest track is distinguished by solo swapping between Blackmore, Lord and Gillan’s harmonica.

Despite all the difficulties the band’s sixth studio album turned out to be their most successful and is considered one of the essential hard rock albums of all time.

Machine Head’s most famous song is ‘Smoke On The Water’ introduced by Ritchie Blackmore’s iconic guitar riff. The song exemplifies the strengths of all five members as Blackmore’s riffing Stratocaster is soon joined by hi-hat, organ, drums and pounding bass - entrees to Ian Gillan’s vocals that tell the story of the Casino fire.

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Bass guitarist Roger Glover claims to have uttered the title ‘smoke on the water’ after waking from a dream. Gillan ran with the idea and wrote ‘we all came out to Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline to make records with a mobile we didn’t have much time, Frank Zappa and The Mothers were at the best place around, but some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground’.

‘Space Truckin’’ whose main riff is based on the Batman Theme showcases Gillan’s elastic voice and Ian Paice’s powerhouse drumming.

Glover wrote the riff to ‘Maybe I’m A Leo’ after hearing John Lennon’s ‘How Do You Sleep’.

‘When A Blind Man Cries’ a ballad sung convincingly by Gillan wasn’t included on the initial 1971 release but has been included among bonus tracks on subsequent reissues.

With a line-up that now includes Gillan, Paice, Glover, guitarist Steve Morse and keyboard player Don Airey, Deep Purple steered a course through covid lockdowns releasing two new albums, Whoosh in August 2020 and a covers album Turning To Crime in December 2021.

BY KEITH GLASS WILLIS ALAN RAMSEY

WILLIS ALAN RAMSEY Shelter/ABC 1972

In the 60’s/70’s/80’s major record labels worldwide maintained a massive album release schedule. Only a comparatively few artists scored a hit, others became ‘cult’ classics. Beyond that exists an underbelly of almost totally ignored work, (much never reissued) that time has been kind to. This is a page for the crate diggers.

As a 21-year-old, Birmingham Alabama born Ramsey made one of the most stunning debut singer/songwriter albums ever. As the years rolled by, still performing live (mainly in Texas) he was often met with a question from the audience “when are you going to make another album?” His response became the mandatory “What’s wrong with the first one?”

Yet the debut Ramsey album was hardly an overnight sensation. Initial sales were slow hence the going price for an original copy is hefty. It was issued in Australia so you could still get lucky and find it because Willis remains an underground entity to the general public. It took other artists such as Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffett and later Lyle Lovett to record songs from the source and carry on the flame. Pay day for the writer initially came in the form of the Captain and Tenille cover of Muskrat Candlelight as ‘Muskrat Love’ but don’t

hold that against him as their version doesn’t hold a candle to his quirky original. Rather the duo came by it via an album version by the trio America and knew little of the composer.

Its chart success did however allow Ramsey to set up a home studio and then suffer the greatest bout of singer/songwriter block in history – at least until someone discovers a gigantic trove of unreleased material (and that seems unlikely). Many years later Lovett did record a fresh WAL song called ‘Step Inside This House’ fanning the flame and Ramsey even went on tour with him - his performing talent seemingly undiminished by years in the wilderness.

Talk of a follow-up album has been circulating forever with a release date always just around the corner. The work even has a title, Gentilly and at this stage Ramsey has been working on it for five decades. Eric Clapton, Widespread Panic, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, David Bromberg and many more have recorded old (and new) Ramsey tunes but the man himself remains reticent about another personal contribution.

At one stage he ruminated about missing the window of opportunity plus the feeling that the near perfect singer/songwriter distillation of his initial release set such a high bar anything else could be a disappointment.

Hard to know – John Prine’s second was better than his first, it took Bob Dylan a while to find his true self – at least the first of his selves.

Certainly, out of the box Ramsey had a singer/ songwriter dream album. Other folks were covering songs from it; reviews were great –

was it just too much too soon? Ruminating on his position now Ramsey suggests he simply ‘waited too long’. Well, that was the case years ago, now he has simply set a world record for a follow-up (if it ever happens) and a solitary position as someone with the means, material and know how to at least double his catalogue but remain just too tardy to do it.

In that sense W.A.Ramsey has fashioned his own unique mystique – not exactly ‘lost’ in the usual sense of this page but hiding in plain sight. I saw him play in Austin 20 years ago and he was great. He performed solo, seemed at ease, and had the songs to enthrall a small but eager crowd in Threadgills. It certainly is a unique method of staying relevant in near abstention. Somehow, I doubt that was Ramsey’s game plan.

On the album he plays guitar and bass while such fine musicians (in five different studios) as Leon Russell/Nick de Caro/Jim Keltner/ Carl Radle/Lee Sklar/Russ Kunkel play. Denny Cordell and the artist co-produce. The songs such as Ballad Of Spider John/Goodbye Old Missoula/North Texas Women are uniformly excellent. The artist has not suffered complete writers block as some new songs (recorded by other artists and also sung live

by Ramsey) have surfaced in the many years since his one and only album was released.

The physical follow-up failure is one of the dampest conundrums in recorded history.

Indeed, there is no currently available album re-issue of this singular work.

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By Christopher Hollow LAEL NEALE

ACQUAINTED WITH NIGHT Sub PoP

Demi-monde is French for “half-world” and it’s as good a word as any to help describe the part-memory, part-fantasy landscape that Lael Neale creates on Acquainted with Night. The LA-based singersongwriter successfully mixes warmth and uncertainty along with brash confessionals. ‘Blue Vein’ is a perfectly pitched opener with some beautiful chord changes and a sound that suggests Joni Mitchell getting the Lou Reed closet mix. Meanwhile, the title track reads like a Leonard Cohen poem as Lael invokes ‘forests of song’. ‘You were the night that failed to depart because I was holding on,’ she sings and it’s hard not to try Leonard’s voice on. ‘You were the night that had to depart, and I was the prodigal son/sun.’ If in doubt about this recommendation, definitely call 1-800-THE-NIGHT.

were doing a cool cover version of Canned Heat’s ‘Poor Moon’, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. So that’s an instant tick. I went on to find that they’re brothers, Edwin and Andy White, and the band name is pronounced, depending on your accent, Tahn-starts-bandit or Tone-starts-band-hut. As you look over it on the page, it’s certainly a head twister and that small idea helps prepare you for the weirdness contained.

More than half the album is filled with numbers stretching 7-plus minutes (which is reining it in when you look through the band’s previous output). What I really love on Petunia, though, is these jams are topped off with rich harmonies. The opening four songs clock in at 30 minutes with ‘Pass Away’ and ‘Hey Bad’ both gently disorienting, and by the time the aptly named ‘Falloff’ comes on, the compass is spinning wildly. So, it’s hard not to squint the eyes at a couple of two-minute songs, ‘Magic Pig’ and ‘All of My Children’.

Like, what’s wrong with them?

Are the ideas too flimsy to stretch? By the end, however, I didn’t even blink when I saw the final seven-minute song is called ‘Smilehenge’.

countrypolitan music. The swampy sound, nylon guitar with orchestrated strings, was a revelation and the Southern gothic mystery contained in the lyrics also fired imaginations.

Collected here are a bunch of similar story songs that, like ‘Billie Joe’, are ridiculously cinematic from the likes of Lee Hazlewood (‘Alone’ talks divorce), Tom T. Hall (‘Strawberry Farms’ deals with the pain of an orphanage), Billie Jo Spears details the wandering hands of her boss in ‘Mr Walker, It’s All Over’. Dolly Parton was a writer who hit the existential psychodrama trail hard with ‘Down from Dover’, with its tale of abandonment and neonatal death. Another highlight is Sammi Smith’s ‘Saunders’ Ferry Lane’, which summons the same kind of heightened theatre and enigmatic secrecy as ‘Billie Joe’. The set is compiled by one of my favourite music writers, Bob Stanley, who wrote Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop and next year will release the prequel, Let’s Do It: The Birth of Pop, how the 78rpm era cycled through ragtime, moved into Broadway and Hollywood, and helped kick off the album era. It’s all endorsed.

VARIOUS ARTISTS

BITCHIN BAJAS

CHOCTAW RIDGE: NEW FABLES OF THE AMERICAN SOUTH

SWITCHED ON RA Drag City

Ace

TONSTARTSSBANDHT

PETUNIA

Mexican Summer

First time I heard this Florida guitar-and-drum duo, they 72

As a collection, Choctaw Ridge is hotter than a pepper sprout and contains firm evidence that Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 mega-hit, ‘Ode to Billie Joe’, started a revolution in American

Sun Ra hailed from Chicago via Saturn via the intergalactic frequencies and that could almost be the bio line for Bitchin Bajas too. The three-piece from the Windy City are in full tribute mode for their Switched On Ra salute. My favourite

part of the Sun Ra story is, yes, he was a cosmic traveller, a jazz innovator and supreme mythmaker. But his parallel career in the 50s was making perfect doo wop singles for the Cosmic Rays, the Qualities, and the Nu-Sounds. There’s no doo wop here, unfortunately, but this is Sun Ra played by people who’ve heard, and understood, Neu! and Roxy Music and Tortoise. ‘Space is the Place’ is translated as blippy math rock sans drums, ‘We Travel the Spaceways’ becomes a slinky mover while ‘Outer Spaceways Incorporated’ uses Peter Frampton-style talkbox vocals to great effect. Also check out the BBs 2017 version of ‘Angels and Demons at Play’, the song that started this flight of fancy.

VANISHING TWIN

OOKII GEKKOU Fire

CHICKENBONE SLIM

BEN LEVIN

VizzTone/Planet

VizzTone/Planet

SERVE IT TO ME HOT

From the double entendre laden lyrics of the steaming title track that opens the album, San Diego based Slim sets his compass for a mouth-watering serve of roadhouse blues, boogie woogie and good time rock’n’roll. There’s a healthy leaning on the sounds of Hound Dog Taylor and John Lee Hooker (always a good thing), and with ace string shredder Laura Chavez helping out, there’s plenty of flesh on the bone.

Blessed with an emotive set of pipes, Chickenbone effortlessly swaggers through thirteen originals that leave a lingering burn like a serve of buffalo wings; yep, very tasty indeed.

EVA CASSIDY

LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY

STILL HERE

By Trevor J. Leeden VARIOUS ARTISTS

The follow-up to last year’s excellent Carryout Or Delivery further enhances the burgeoning reputation of this very fine young blues pianist. Levin is steeped in the tradition of vintage ivory ticklers ranging from the New Orleans rhythm’n’blues stompers Professor Longhair and Smiley Lewis to the Cincinnati boogie woogie legend Big Joe Duskin.

Once again, songwriting duties are shared with his father Aron, who also produces and contributes tasteful guitar licks.

He may be only 21 years old and blessed with a retro sounding voice, but Ben Levin is the future of 21st century piano-driven blues.

THE CRAIG CHARLES TRUNK OF FUNK VOL. 1

Soul Bank Music

MIKE BLOOMFIELD THE GOSPEL TRUTH

Sunset Blvd/Planet

COLIN BLUNSTONE

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Bloomfield forged his formidable reputation playing with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin and, whether a seasoned listener or newcomer to his music, this 2-disc compendium is a fine testament to his virtuosity. The wideranging first disc has Bloomfield strutting his stuff through early 20th century rags and waltzes to acoustic Delta and electric Chicago blues. If the first disc doesn’t bear enough treasures, the second is a real treat, a 1971 live recording previously only available as a bootleg. A masterful guitarist, once heard never forgotten.

Sundazed Music/Planet

Ace

TOMMY CASTRO

THAT SAME YEAR

Soul is big in the UK and for 20-odd years Craig Charles has presented the genre on BBC2 and as a sought-after DJ. This 20-track compilation brings together the cream of the crop in an explosion of contemporary soul, jazz, funk, disco and Afro-beat movers and shakers, including Warrandyte’s own Josh Teskey. This is all about the dancefloor, and there’s a nod to the past courtesy of some rare old school grooves from the likes of P.P. Arnold, Roy Ayers and the fabulous Patrice Rushen. If your feet aren’t moving then consult your cardiologist.

PSYCHEDELIC SOUL

PRESENTS A BLUESMAN CAME TO TOWN

Blix Street/Planet

Alligator

If you ever want to pique my interest about a release – throw together phrases like ‘klassic krautrock’ and ‘vintage library music’ together with ‘deep crate record exotica’ and ‘French cinematic sensibilities’.

Vanishing Twin are a London quartet who, like Stereolab and Broadcast before them, attempt to meld together these fabulous influences and the result is pretty thrilling.

The title track, ‘Ookii Gekkou’, which apparently means ‘Big Moonlight’ in Japanese is sideways stop-motion pop in 5/4 time, ‘In Cucina’ is an infectious drum-heavy non-stop action groove and ‘Wider Than Itself’ probably captures the objective best with its VistaVision scope.

The only album released during her tragically short lifetime, this remastered 25th anniversary reissue provides a timely reminder of the stellar talent the world lost in 1996. The Washington jazz club recording would become the cornerstone of an extraordinary posthumous career that can only make one ponder “what if”.

Handling both jazz standards and contemporary tunes with equal aplomb, Cassidy’s dynamism and vocal clarity is breathtaking.

Cassidy’s 2001 compilation was titled Songbird; this brilliant recording stands as testament to that lofty nomenclature.

As lead singer of The Zombies, Blunstone was righty considered one of British rock’s very finest vocalists, a reputation enhanced by his sublime 1971 solo album One Year. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of that album (which has been reissued) comes this wonderful collection of outtakes (9 previously unreleased) from the original recording sessions.

Hindsight is a great thing, but it beggars belief why these intimate vignettes never saw official release before now. Insightful lyrics, tender melodies and THAT gloriously resonant voice add up to a singer/songwriter’s masterclass.

The latest in the reissue label’s excellent Producer series focuses on the wildly original Norman Whitfield. Almost single-handedly, Whitfield transformed the traditional Motown soul sound into an extravaganza of atmospheric psychedelia, often with a dark lyrical underbelly. From Marvin Gaye’s serpentine version of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” to Edwin Starr’s apocalyptic anti-Vietnam anthem “War’, from re-imagining the Temptations to re-inventing The Undisputed Truth’s, Whitfield introduced a tsunami of pulsating strings, echo and wah-wah pedals on recordings that defined psychedelic soul.

With his band the Painkillers, Castro embarks on that rarest of beasts, a blues concept album. Plotting a course of discovery from his first guitar awakening to the trials and tribulations of a life on the blues highway, the journey is awash in hot licks, swirling keyboards, wailing harmonica, pumping horns and impassioned vocals.

When Tommy Castro brings his Stratocaster and soul-soaked blues to town, it’s worth taking the time to check him out.

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By Chris Familton

By Denise Hylands

O

kay, so 2021 didn’t exactly end up being the year we thought it was going to be. Yep, we thought everything was going to go back to normal and we’d be heading to our favourite festivals and seeing loads of live music to make up for the time we lost. Come on 2022…don’t let us down…

A

2021 YEAR IN REVIEW

s we bid farewell to another tumultuous year where our lives were disrupted once more, one of the true saving graces that brought relief, distraction and consolation was music. Touring and live gigs in general were severely affected, whether by capacity restrictions, border closures, constant rescheduling or in many cases cancellation, yet some shows did still happen and as always, many excellent albums were released.

Some of my personal highlights came from both here at home and abroad, from old favourites to new discoveries. Of those new names, Vincent Neil Emerson, Riddy Arman and Margo Cilker stood out as stunning new talents. Emerson’s sophomore self-titled album posits him as heir to both Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt with his country and folk blend of affecting storytelling and sublime melody. Arman and Cilker both shine on their debut albums. Arman’s voice will have you signing up as a fan the second you hear her dulcet tone – all rich, earthy and resonant, like a twangier take on The Delines. Cilker’s bio describes her as sounding like “…Gillian Welch at The Band’s sessions with Allen Toussaint,” and it’s a fair and wholly accurate call.

Of those acts who have returned with new and, as usual, wondrous albums, The Felice Brothers and James McMurtry stand, for me, head and shoulders above the rest. The former for their vivid, surreal and poetic folk songs on Dreams To Dust – one of their strongest albums, and McMurtry for finally releasing his follow-up to one of my favourite albums, Complicated Game. He’s still right at the peak of his songwriting on the new album, Highly recommended! Rose City Band are now three albums deep into their discography, though the architect of the band, Ripley Johnson, already has an enviable recording career across via the numerous psych explorations of Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo. On the new album Earth Trip he once again finds the sweet spot between cosmic country and choogling psychedelia.

Not to be outdone, there were a bunch of local releases that really caught my ear in 2021. Blue Mountains resident T. Wilds instantly captivated me with her intimate mix of atmospheric mood and baroque

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folk-rock. Up near the QLD border, Family Jordan flew under the radar with their album Big Grass, a loose and organic sound that recalls JJ Cale and The Band. Kyle Jenkins continued his ridiculously prolific ways with two solo albums, a book of poetry and a new Suicide Swans album, their last before changing their name to Mt. Morning. Jenkins’ high output is matched by the near faultless quality of music he and his friends are creating. Back down in Sydney’s Inner West, Katie Brianna and producer Adam Young brought together a stellar band to bring Brianna’s new songs to life, and in doing so she released her strongest album to date.

Mitch Dillon’s Compulsive Ramblers was another album that really hit the spot for me with its combination of The Replacements and Wilco, straight from the streets of Melbourne and perfectly captured by Van Walker in the producer’s chair.

The plethora of reissues live albums and box sets continued, with Dylan serving up treats from one of his lesser acclaimed periods on Vol. 16 of his Bootleg Series, Springtime in New York, 1980-1985, Neil Young delivered an outstanding 1990 live set with Crazy Horse on Way Down In The Rust Bucket and Joni Mitchell continued to reveal all manner of new sonic and songwriting details on her latest archival release of remastered albums, The Reprise Years, 1968-1971. Lucinda Williams took a different tack with her Lu’s Jukebox series of five fascinating releases that featured covers of The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, 60s country, Southern Soul and Christmas songs.

Sadly, there were as always, a number of farewells in the greater Americana community. From towering figures of the scene such as Don Everly, Tom T. Hall, Dusty Hill (ZZ Top), Charlie Watts, Nanci Griffith and Rusty Young (Poco) to homegrown heroes like David Heard, host of Acid Country on PBS. They will all be sorely missed, but they all made a giant impact on the world of roots music, locally and internationally.

It only feels right to see out 2021 with a streak of optimism after the punches our industry has weathered. Bring on the new year where festivals such as Dashville Skyline and Bluesfest make their long overdue return and the sound of country, folk, blues and rock ’n’ roll will continue its glorious resurrection.

I was lucky enough to get to two festivals in 2021. Boogie out in Tallarook Victoria, which just happened to fall in-between lockdowns when we thought things were looking good. Not an Americana or country festival but one that offers a bit of everything.

And then there was Out On The Weekend, usually an October event in Melbourne, it was held off and presented in December.

An incredible day of country and Americana music from an allVictorian line up. Good times indeed. Although, we missed touring international acts and festivals and even travelling to see music there were so many amazing releases last year that I thought I’d share some of my favs.

New discoveries of artists I had never heard of who impressed me.

Melissa Carper - if you haven’t heard the sound of her old time vocals, country songs and excellent musicianship, go get yourself her latest album Daddy’s Country Gold, you will not be disappointed. This is one of the releases that helped launch brand new record label Love Police Records & Tapes. Yes, it’s an offshoot of Love Police Touring who have brought us so many great artists over the years. Look out for a Carper tour in the coming year…They also released an incredible debut release by Melbourne local Alex Hamilton, Mylee Grace and the first lounge room recording of the Warumpi Band - Warumpi Rock: Papunya Sessions 1982, it’s rough but it’s so good and full of great energy, and a fine selection of classic country and rock n roll.

More new discoveries from artists that only came to my attention this year you might want to check out: Summer Dean - Bad Romantic Margo Cilker - Pohorylle Tony Kamel - Back Down Home Riddy Arman - Self Titled The Pink Stones - Introducing…

Charlie Marie - Ramble On Vincent Neil Emerson – Self-titled

Sierra Ferrell’s appropriately titled Long Time Coming, was definitely that but so worth the wait. She’s such an amazing talent and I’m excited to see what she’ll be doing next.

She made her Grand Ole Opry debut back in November and I’m sure they’ll be inviting her back.

Other releases I love…

Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird These 13 is an incredible coming together of two long time friends around one microphone playing it like nobodies business.

Charley Crockett gave us two releases, 10 for Slim a tribute to Crockett’s good friend and much under appreciated Texan singer songwriter James Hand who passed away in 2020. As well as his latest offering Music City USA, another gem.

Shannon McNally gave a great selection of Waylon Jennings songs the treatment on her album The Waylon Sessions. So great to hear a female voice singing these country outlaw tunes.

Great local releases from 2021.

Georgia State Line - In Colour - the outstanding debut album from Melbourne outfit.

Lachlan Bryan & The Wilds - As Long As It’s Not Us - exceptional songs and musicianship Ben Mastwyk & HIs Millions - Living On Gold Street - the mind bending Mastwyk pushing countryin so many directions.

The Weeping Willows - Southern Gothic (winner of Best Country Act at the Music Victoria

Awards) beautiful people and so so talented.

Wanita - I’m Wanita the accompaniment to the amazing documentary about her.

Michael Carpenter & The Banks Brothers - Introducing… - Sydney side honky tonk and more.

The High Heaven - Melbourne outfit taking the spaghetti western theme to another level.

Charm Of Finches ‘Wonderful Oblivion” - we’ve watched sisters Ivy & Mabel grow up making music and they just keep taking their folk sounds to another level Eagle & The Wolf - “Two Lovers” from the Blue Mountains the coming together of two artists Kristen Lee Morris and Sarah Humprhies.

T Wilds - “Ten Songs” - the most beautiful and hauntingly good sounds from Tania Bowers.

Alex Hamilton - “Sweetest Wine” finally stepping out as solo artist with a incredible debut album.

Kerryn Fields - “Water” - from NZ but very much at home in Melbourne. Stunning and unique.

Great to see International tours being announced and additions to already scheduled festivals.

Courtney Marie Andrews will be returning to Australian and touring in March with Erin Rae. As well as the much loved Cedric Burnside who had to cut his last Australian tour short due to the Covid outbreak back in March 2020. He’ll back playing his Hill Country Blues in March also.

And some releases to look out for heading our way this year…

Jamestown Revival - “Young Man” Erin Rae - “Lighten Up” The Del McCoury Band - “Almost Proud” The Delines - “The Sea Drift” Brent Cobb - “And Now, Let’s Turn The Page” The Cactus Blossoms - “One Day” Hurray For The Riff Raff - “Life On Earth” Shovels & Rope - “Manticore” Big Thief - “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You” Dolly Parton - “Run, Rose, Run” Wishing you all a great new year. I hope you get your batteries recharged over summer ready for a music filled 2022. Thanks for supporting Rhythms magazine.

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By Michael Smith STEVE TYSON

By Nick Charles

BANJO’S LAST RIDE Red Music/MGM

ED BATES L

ike many of us I first came across Ed playing guitar in the early line-up of Sports and later noticed his transition to the mysterious world of steel guitar and the even more other- worldly pedal steel. He played with such Melbourne roots music luminaries as Andy Baylor’s Cajun Combo, The Moonee Valley Drifters and featured on fabulous recordings by The Black Sorrows and Bakelite Radio. The pedal steel guitar is a bewildering world to normal fretters but its sound and texture is a primal ingredient on so much country and roots music. Ed teaches the art form and continues to perform and record. He’s a wealth of knowledge and he’s even played with James Burton no less!

The steel guitar wasn’t exactly the instrument of first choice for most back in the day, what initially got you into it?

Starting out, my professional life was as a rock and country guitar player, but I soon became interested in slide, dobro and lap steel. I had a 6 string Maton from “around the house”. In the early 80s I heard the Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant recordings and the Brisbane Bop western swing stylings of Jimmy Rivers and thought seriously about moving to pedal steel. So, I skilled up and moved from my 8x2 Maton to a Fender 400 C6 setup for Western Swing and that “sound”. I then moved to a double-neck Emmons, discovering the joy of sitting down whilst working!

How difficult was it to find instruction and so on?

The Bible for everybody was Winnie Winston’s Pedal Steel Guitar, a grab-bag of great information with tablature, general set–up and maintenance and player Copedents (meaning tunings and pedal arrangement). Outside of this, there were mail-order courses from Buddy Emmons, and great local players who were always generous with answers.

Are there any specific recordings and artists that have been pivotal in your development?

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This one is hard! As you think of one you think of another and so on.

I loved the Bakersfield stuff. Then there’s Corn Pickin’ and Slick Slidin

by Ralph Mooney and James Burton and Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant’s Stratosphere Boogie was the track from outer space. Speedy had the best Fender sound. Gabby Pahinui on Ry Cooder’s Chicken Skin Music– fabulous touch and tone. Doug Jernigan Back Home in Indiana on Hillbilly Jazz has great jazz chops on C6 tuning. The opening to the Paul Siebel album Woodsmoke and Oranges by Weldon Myricks’ double tracked steel is a killer! Then of course almost anything by Buddy Emmons.

What are some highlight moments in your career to date?

Recording the first Sports Ep was also the first time in a recording studio for me. Then there’s touring NSW with Greg Page and James Burton doing a mixture of Elvis and Classic country. I played with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s debut performance of Clinamen/ Nodus by Olga Neuwirth and I regularly play in the Tamworth Town Hall resident backing band for the Star Maker and Fan Fest during the annual festival.

Tell me about your current stage rig.

I use a 1980 Emmons 10x2 push-pull pedal steel through a 1990 Fender Prosonic valve amp. For effects I have a Hall of Fame reverb and a Flashback delay pedal by T.C. Electronics. Most of the time it’s just straight into the amp with a little reverb. I also have an old Tube Screamer and Boss Tremolo, just in case.

Are things starting to return to some sort of normality for you and what’s on the near horizon?

Things are looking up as venues reopen. I have been lucky enough to be offered some work again! I also have some steel guitar students.

Lockdown was a great opportunity to improve my home recording skills and experiment with different sounds and genres.

His latest album, Banjo’s Last Ride, might seem like quite a departure from his singer-songwriter-based previous records, but there’s a surprising thread of continuity through it that runs right across Byron Bay resident Steve Tyson’s career, as Michael Smith discovered.

“Storytelling has always been a really important thing for me,” he explains.

“Previous things I’ve been in over the years I’ve always been a writer but the lyric thing wasn’t paramount for me, and the thing that probably turned that around for me as I was first getting into music – I got into music because of The Beatles and the Stones, and let’s face it their early stuff wasn’t great lyrically. Then in my long-time band Rough Red, the singer in that band John Fegan is a wonderful poet and brought great lyrics to the songs we produced, so the song on the record, ‘The Walls of Derry’, which was one of Rough Red’s most loved songs, came out of a thing in Northern Ireland at the height of ‘The Troubles’ – we were there in Derry when that was happening – and John wrote that story on the plane on the way home and gave it to me to write some music to. That was the song

that made me realise that virtually everything I wrote from then on had to be story-based.”

Tyson draws his stories from everywhere; some from his travels, like ‘Berlin Bunker’ and ‘Gare du Nord’, some from his reading, like ‘Crooked Beard’, based on the story of bushranger Captain Thunderbolt, and ‘Blues for William Blake’, his take on Blake’s poem ‘A Poison Tree’.

“My last album, [2017’s] Wrong Train Right Station, was a sort of a DIY thing – I played every instrument myself – and when I took that on the road I put the band together and had such a great time the last few years I just wanted to record that band in the studio. So a lot of the stuff came from the arrangements with the band. It’s a lot tougher record than I’ve done in the past because of that band influence and there’s very much a blues influence that probably hasn’t been apparent in the stuff I’ve done in the past.”

That band – The Train Rex – reinforces that musical continuity brought to the album by ‘The Walls of Derry’, including as it does two members of that long-time band Rough Red, guitarist Ian “Sal” Shawsmith and bass player John Barr. But the continuity doesn’t end there.

“We first got together in the late ‘70s,” Tyson says of drummer Andy Kirkcaldy. “He was in Brisbane, just a young kid, and he auditioned for a band we were putting together at the time. We went on to be in the backing band for a couple of guys called Moscos and Stone, who had some hits at the time – we were their touring band. We kept in touch over the years and did a couple of projects together. What

I love about him, he has this reputation as a hard rock drummer but he can play anything and in this band he plays with brushes all the time. I mean he still hits really, really hard!

And he plays really well with the bass player John Barr, who I’ve been playing with in bands for more than forty years. He was in my band Gentle Art just out of school and then we were in Rough Red together.”

The latest addition to The Train Rex is Jodi Murtha. “I had this opportunity to play a couple of gigs up in Brisbane and JB and Andy both live in Sydney and because of COVID I couldn’t get them up and I wanted to do these shows, so I got Dave Parnell, the drummer from Rough Red, who does a lot of production stuff for me still, and he’d been working with Jodi on another project as a bass player, so we got her in, and as well as being a fine bass player she’s got this beautiful voice, and all of a sudden the harmony mix just came to life and I decided I wanted to capture that voice on record, so I told her I’d already recorded the rhythm tracks but would she come and put some vocals down, and we were just talking through some stuff and she said, ‘Did you hear any keyboards on the album?’ I’d literally just finished putting some keys on that track about Tasmania, ‘Tyereelore’, and I’m not a keyboard player. I’ve got a beautiful grand piano in the studio and I’d fudged around and tinkled a few notes but I said, ‘Yeah, some of these songs would really suit keys. In fact they’re crying out for it.’ She’s got this beautiful Hammond setup and put down all these parts. Then we had to do it all live, so she was in!”

Banjo’s Last Ride is released on Red Music/ MGM 77

By Jeff Jenkins

By Denise Hylands

JAMESTOWN REVIVAL

YOUNG MAN Thirty Tigers

J

WIDE AWAKE & DREAMING

Fire up the cigarette lighter … Four Lions are bound for stadium land.

FOUR LIONS

WIDE AWAKE

Verse Chorus Verse/MGM.

S

hann Lions is a Carlton supporter, but when he saw Jack Riewoldt on stage with The Killers after Richmond’s drought-breaking premiership in 2017, he was inspired.

Seeing how the American band’s music connected with the crowd led Lions down a stadium rock rabbit hole. He started studying song structures as well as investigating the Berklee College of Music’s research into “earworms”.

Initially, Lions wasn’t convinced that stadium rock was the direction he wanted to take for the new album for his band, Four Lions. “But when you’re unsure about something, a little bit scared, I think that’s when you need to do it,” he believes. “And as a band, you have to always be evolving.”

The result is Wide Awake, the fifth album for Four Lions. It’s filled with big hooks and big singalong choruses.

What were the key takeaways from Lions’ stadium rock study? “One thing I did notice is something that Tom Petty often did – he would open the song with the chorus; he’d change the melody for the verse but keep the same chords.

“Also, a production trick in a lot of popular music: say there are three elements of instrumentation in the verse, another instrument will be added to the pre-chorus, and then another for the chorus. The big stadium bands do that a lot.”

Stadium rock often gets a bad rap. But it doesn’t have to mean Big Dumb Rock. When it’s done well – by Springsteen, U2, INXS and The Killers – it’s glorious.

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Lions’ first big concert, however, didn’t leave a lasting musical impression. As a young kid, living in the tiny Victorian town of Carag Carag – population 35 – he ventured to the big city with his mum to see American hair rock band Poison, supported by Roxus, at the National Tennis Centre in July 1989. It was an exciting experience for the youngster, but every rose has its thorn. Young Lions bought a Poison poster but was so overwhelmed by the crowd, he dropped it. “My main memory of the night is crying about that lost poster,” he recalls.

Lions didn’t start playing the guitar until he was 18 when he was working on a tomato farm. “I wasn’t good enough to master many songs, so I decided to write my own.”

When U2 played at VFL Park in Melbourne’s then outer suburbs, Bono remarked, “All the best rock comes from the suburbs.” Four Lions hail from even further out – they’re based in Bendigo in central Victoria.

Lions is very proud of the town. It even inspired the band’s third album, Golden Triangle, a concept album about the region’s gold rush.

“I don’t think location is as essential as it used to be,” Lions says when asked whether being based 150km from Melbourne was a hindrance for the band. “With the evolution of social media, it’s easy to connect with people who care about art.”

Lions used social media to connect with a big-name collaborator. Wide Awake’s first single, ‘Black and White’, was mixed by American Phil Joly, a Grammy winner based at Electric Lady Studios in New York, where he has worked with Lana Del Rey, Ryan Adams and Kanye West. A fan of Joly’s work on Ryan Adams’ Prisoner, Lions got in touch via Instagram and asked if Joly would mix a song for Four Lions. “I thought, ‘This will never happen, he’s a Grammy winner!’ But he was up for it.”

Joly then mentored Bendigo’s Bohdan Dower, who mixed the rest of the album. “That’s the sort of person that Phil is. It’s pretty amazing what he brought to this record.”

onathan Clay and Zach Chance have been friends since they were 14, growing up in Magnolia Texas. They pursued solo careers, often singing on each other’s projects until they realised that people really enjoyed their harmony vocals. So, in 2010, they formed Jamestown Revival. I spoke to Zach about their 4th and latest full-length album, Young Man. The title of the new album seems appropriate for two friends who have grown up together playing music. Is it a reflection on your time together?

I think it’s a culmination. It’s us reflecting on our time together, I think us reflecting on our youth, us having conversations with ourselves, that we wish we could have with ourselves now, the things we didn’t necessarily know when we were younger. John has two young boys, and watching them grow up and being a part of their lives, and seeing the world through that lens now and the things we see in them. So, it’s kind of just all a reflection of youth, in different ways Do you think 2020 contributed to getting this album out, with the time for reflection and accessing your place in the world?

Yes, I don’t want to say this album wouldn’t exist otherwise. I think it would just be a different title and a different set of songs, but it just so happened to be the time we were in, and having more time at home and more time just to kind of reflect on everything. There was a period where, after a while of not doing anything, I don’t know if we really identified ourselves as musicians all that much. I think we had more time to just sit and really think about these songs, and so, it’s part maturity and part circumstance.

This album came together when you invited the rest of the band out to the ranch to play some songs, maybe record a few demos. Is that where it all began for this new album?

John and I, I think one of our strengths as a team is we have no fear of dreaming big, we get big ideas and act quickly and think later. So, we had all these ambitions to go and record an album in this old, open air barn. We kind of failed miserably because there was wind blowing through, and horses and cattle running around. We didn’t even know where we were going to record when we went out to hunt, so we were

poking around and we were like, “Man, this place has such a vibe.” The experience was so much fun, and especially after COVID, just being with the band again, and playing music, I think it really did inspire the idea of Young Man, the album.

So, we ended up writing some songs and recording some songs that just inspired more of what was to be Young Man. When we realised that wasn’t it, we called up our friend Robert Ellis, who works at Niles City Sound with Josh Block, and they just took it so much further, being able to work with them in that place, those guys are such pros and Robert’s an incredible musician. So, we called him and he was like, “Let’s do it.

Let’s go record live from the floor, here in Fort Worth.” And so, we set up for a handful of days. And just would record every day, and then go take over a tiki bar at night.

We’re very fond of Robert Ellis over here. He’s been here for Out On The Weekend festival, like you have too.

He is one of a kind. We were familiar with Robert, but the first time we ever really got to know him was at Out On The Weekend festival. So, I guess we owe our connection, our roots, to that festival and being over there. We were laughing about it. We were like, “Man, we’re all from Texas, and we had to go to Australia to get to know each other.” What are the odds?

The new album is being described as ‘the quietest album you’ve ever made’. No electric guitars allowed. I love the subtleness of it. And it’s like you could be out on the range, or on the ranch, or in a barn...

It’s just got this beautiful peacefulness about it that really highlights the lyrics, the playing and your voices.

Well, thank you. That was a conscious decision we made pretty early on when we were kind of running through the songs with Robert, and getting some ideas for the direction we wanted to go. I don’t know who was bold enough to say it, but we were like, “Man, maybe there’s no electrics on this album,” and then it became a goal and kind of a challenge to ourselves. And Will Van Horn’s playing pedal steel and Ross Holmes’ on the fiddle, so that definitely tricks things up a little bit.

So, this was the first time you’ve ever had a producer? How did you come to that decision? Was it difficult letting go of full control?

No, I think we were ready for it. We’ve worked in studios before, just for one-off things, but we’ve never recorded an album. We’ve always just loaded up our gear, and borrowed gear or rented gear, and set up in some someone’s house, or cabin, or place we could get into. So, to have Robert, to be able to lean on him for ideas and opinions... there’s no shortage of opinions there, which is great.

REVIVAL MEETING

Childhood friends from Magnolia, Texas, ditched their solo careers and decided to get together to start a band.

The album’s production credit, The Greasy Triplets – Lions, guitarist Keith MacQueen and Head Gap Studio’s Finn Keane – is a nod to The Glimmer Twins, Jagger & Richards. “We realised we needed a name,” Lions explains. “Keith had been talking about The Glimmer Twins, and Finn was eating a greasy hamburger at the time, so we said, The Greasy Triplets!”

The Wide Awake title is as much about acknowledging how tough it is to break through in the modern music world as it is the many late nights making music. Lions likens being in an indie rock band to owning a racehorse. “You keep pouring money into it, hoping that one day you’ll get lucky and you’ll come down the straight and have a win.”

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By Jeff Jenkins

HERE’S TO YOU,

BROTHER Swanee’s remarkable rock ’n’ roll life continues with a new greatest hits collection.

SWANEE

GREATEST HITS MR Records

W

hen Bon Scott died, a rumour went around that John Swan would become AC/DC’s new lead singer. It made sense.

Swanee is a tremendous rock singer. He was also great mates with the band and had actually replaced Bon in Fraternity when Bon embarked on his long way to the top with the Young brothers.

“He would have been perfect for AC/DC,” believes producer Mark Opitz, who worked with both AC/DC and Swanee.

Three decades after Bon’s death, I finally got to ask Swanee about the AC/DC story. He shook his head. “I was very close to the Young family, but they wouldn’t have wanted to take me; it would have been like taking Bon again, and I would have probably finished up in the same boat. That would have been heartbreaking for those guys. To lose somebody like that, you lose a brother.”

Swanee is open about his battle with alcohol and drugs. He’s been sober for more than 20 years. He called his 2014 album One Day At A Time. “My past eventually caught up with me,” he explains. “I needed to go off the road and re-group. I got rid of all the bad stuff, and I rediscovered my love of music. I used to write over-the-top rock lyrics, songs about cars and girls and drinking. That used to be my life. But now I’m walking a different path.”

Swanee, who turns 70 on March 15, has led a remarkable rock ’n’ roll life. Some kids dream of running away to join the circus.

When Swanee was 13, he ran away with a rock group, moving from Adelaide to Melbourne with a band called Happiness. And before launching his solo career, he had stints in Fraternity, Cold Chisel and Feather.

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Not everything has gone according to plan.

Swanee made a banner for his first band, Soul Union, but misspelled “Union”, so punters thought the band was called “Soul Onion”.

Like his younger brother Jimmy Barnes, Swanee is a great storyteller. I once asked him if he had any memories of his first appearance on Countdown. What followed was a streamof-consciousness monologue that was an entertaining insight into the ’70s rock scene in Australia.

“I was so out of it with nerves,” Swanee said.

“I think Bon may have taken me from a place near the airport on the way into Melbourne.

I think it was a very special party – just the boys and as many women that would fit in the bathroom. I won’t elaborate. It happened all the time with them – best goddamn band on the road, bar none. We supported them at the Sandringham Hotel. I think that was my first time seeing the dance of the flaming arseholes (sorry, I got side-tracked).

“Every night on the road was like that. All the bands stayed at the same hotels, sometimes in the same rooms. We had our own, but never used them – why would you, unless you were absolutely knackered? Or unless one of the boys had their girl with them; why, I don’t know! I wouldn’t bring anyone I loved near that. Oh, except my brother Jim. Alas, here we go into another phase of insanity …

I could write a great book on this stuff and still protect the innocent; there were none – innocent, that is. I remember Ted Mulry with a copper’s hat and gun while he was doing the business and getting shit-faced. Oh, I miss that man – he was an inspiration to all young delinquents. Did we mention Dragon’s show?

Okay, I’ll keep it clean!”

As well as being one of the most-loved people in Australian music, Swanee is a truly great singer. Opitz – who produced landmark albums for The Angels, Cold Chisel, INXS and Divinyls – says he’s one of the best singers he’s worked with. “The notes he can hit are simply unbelievable.”

Radio legend and Rhythms contributor Billy Pinnell is another big fan. “John Swan imparts an emotional connection with the song. Whether he’s belting out a rocker or getting inside the lyric of a ballad, he is totally believable.”

Opitz produced Swanee’s biggest solo hit, his cover of Tim Hardin’s ‘If I Were A Carpenter’, which can now be found on Swanee’s new Greatest Hits collection.

Jimmy Barnes announced the record: “My big brother Swanee is releasing a Greatest Hits record. He’s had more number ones than I ever had and was a major influence in my music life. So proud of you, John.”

Barnesy admires his older brother, who was always passionate and headstrong. He recalls that Swanee would wear a kilt to school – “so other kids would pick fights with him, so he could belt them”.

He’s always been obsessive about music. A record producer once told Swanee, “You shut

up and sing and I’ll make you sound good.”

Swanee walked out of the booth, punched the producer in the face and left.

As well as his big chart hits – ‘If I Were A Carpenter’, ‘Temporary Heartache’ and ‘Lady What’s Your Name’ – the Greatest Hits album features Swanee’s first solo single, 1979’s ‘Crazy Dreams’, as well as his versions of Elvin Bishop’s ‘Fooled Around And Fell In Love’, the Small Faces’ ‘Tin Soldier’, and a country cover of Argent’s ‘Hold Your Head Up’, which Swanee originally did with The Party Boys.

The album concludes with three songs from One Day At A Time, which provide an insight into Swanee’s life.

Asked about ‘Fallen Angel’ and ‘Rescue Me’, Swanee says: “I’ve earned a lot of money in my life – and burned through a lot of money.

In order to understand the value of one dollar, I had to lose the lot. I think there’s a bit of a fallen angel in all of us. I’ve been to the bottom of the well. But there is a way out. Now that I’m healthy, every day is a good day. It’s great to be alive.”

The album finishes with a poignant track called ‘Here’s To You’. “I go to palliative care places and sit and talk to people and play for them,” Swanee reveals. “It’s a great privilege.

I got to know a great guy named Todd, who taught me a lot about life. Todd’s death hit me hard. I sang this song at his funeral.”

Swanee was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2017 for his service to music and charitable organisations.

On the title-track of his 2007 album, Have A Little Faith, which also appears on the new best-of, Swanee sang: “All I ever wanted to be was a rock ’n’ roll star.”

“Now,” he says, “I just want to be accepted as a musician.”

BAND OF BROTHERS The Barnes/Swan brothers – John & Jimmy The Brewsters – John & Rick (The Angels) The Cesters – Nic & Chris (Jet) The Farriss brothers – Tim, Andrew, Jon (INXS) The Gibbs – Barry, Robin, Maurice (Bee Gees) The Margins – Sam, Elliott & Izaac (The Rubens) Reg & Pete – Reg Mombassa & Peter O’Doherty (Mental As Anything) The Reynes – James (Australian Crawl) & David (Chantoozies) The Seymours – Mark (Hunters & Collectors), Nick (Crowded House) The Teskeys – Josh & Sam (The Teskey Brothers) The Tierneys – Andrew & Mike (Human Nature) The Youngs – George (The Easybeats), Malcolm & Angus (AC/DC)

SWAN SONGS: 5 THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT SWANEE Despite often being referred to as “halfbrothers”, Swanee and Barnesy are full brothers. Jimmy was born James Swan, but later decided to take the surname of their stepdad, Reg Barnes.

When Swanee was 13, he was the drummer in a band called Happiness, who worked as a backing band for ’60s pop star Lynne Randell.

In 1973, Swanee was a member of Adelaide blues band Queen, alongside piano player Don Walker.

Cold Chisel (then known as Orange) asked Swanee to be their drummer/ singer. He declined, but introduced his friend Steve Prestwich to the band, while Barnesy became their lead singer.

The following year, Swanee spent a few months in Chisel, singing and playing percussion. He would later say, “They never needed both of us, and Jimmy was doing just fine.”

Greedy Smith wrote the Mental As Anything hit ‘Too Many Times’ after a big night out with Swanee at Macy’s in Melbourne.

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FLOWER POWER

Glenn Bennie reunites with a rock legend for the fifth GB3 album - by Jeff Jenkins

By the end of the decade, Bennie was a driving force behind Underground Lovers, the band he formed with high school buddy Vincent Giarrusso. In the early ’90s, they heard that Steve Kilbey dug their second album, Leaves Me Blind, and was keen to work with them.

He invited Bennie and Giarrusso to his studio, Karmic Hit in Surry Hills, where he was recording the second Jack Frost album with Grant McLennan from the Go-Betweens.

The Church frontman wasn’t there when they arrived, so his younger brother Russell showed them around and played one of the new Jack Frost tracks, ‘Angela Carter’. “We were blown away,” Bennie says.

I

n 1982, Glenn Bennie went to see the Aussie musical comedy Starstruck.

Before the main feature was a collection of videos promoting The Church’s new album, The Blurred Crusade. “From memory they were all dressed in knights armour and wandering through the countryside,” Bennie recalls. “I remember being very impressed and thinking, ‘Wow, these guys are doing really well, and I hope I can be in a band like this one day.’”

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Steve Kilbey never did produce that album for Underground Lovers, but Bennie finally got to work with him in 2006 when Kilbey provided the vocals for a track on Emptiness Is Our Business, the second album for Bennie’s “side project”, GB3. It was the start of an enduring partnership.

“Out of that [one track] grew the relationship I now have with Steve, and we are creating a real body of work.”

Kilbey became the lead singer for GB3’s third album, Damaged/ Controlled. And they have now reunited for GB3’s fifth album, Sakura Flower. “I love being part of something,” Kilbey says. “I like just being a vocalist and I can’t do what Glenn does.”

Bennie and Kilbey don’t talk much about the music – “the music always does the talking”. For this album, Bennie was inspired by early Eno, while Kilbey believes the record “sounds like Kraftwerk, colliding with The Church, colliding with Underground Lovers, colliding with New Order”.

Bennie relishes working with The Church frontman. “Steve is a legend of Australian music. He’s a brilliant musician and writer and his lyrical approach is unparalleled. Steve is also a music fan and is passionate about discovering new music and new people to work with. Thankfully, he loves Underground Lovers, and likes what I do and is always encouraging and forthcoming with his praise. I appreciate this and it gives me confidence to make new music.”

Bennie sends Kilbey the instrumental tracks and the singer then works on the vocals with his brother Russell, who also provides some backing vocals, before returning the tracks to Bennie. “I love the surprise of opening the files and hearing the vocals for the first time. It is such a thrill.”

Kilbey loves Bennie’s “idiosyncratic” guitar style. “Glenn has a really distinctive sound – and that’s the hardest thing to do in music. As soon as you hear his guitar work, it’s him and nobody else, which is why I always want to work with him.”

Kilbey came up with the Sakura Flower title. The Sakura is Japan’s unofficial national flower. The cherry blossoms are the symbolic flower of spring, a time of renewal. They’re also a reminder that life is short – their beauty peaks around two weeks, before the blossoms start to fall.

“The album art designers, Other Rooms, had already talked about some Japanese imagery they had in mind for the cover,” Bennie points out. “So when Steve came back with the title of that song, it was clear that it should become the album title.”

Despite having toured internationally with Underground Lovers, Bennie is yet to visit Japan. “But my son has been there several times and wants to take me. They have incredible guitar shops apparently and if you are lucky enough to play a gig there, they really look after you. My son also said that you can get the best food there, even in the local 7/11. Sounds like my kind of place.”

As well as a Japanese tour, Bennie is looking forward to seeing The Church with their new guitarist, Ashley Naylor. And, as well as a couple of GB3 shows, he’s planning to reconvene his old band. When asked if there were plans to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Leaves Me Blind in 2022, he says simply, “Yes. Stay tuned.”

Sakura Flower is out now via Bandcamp.

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By Michael Smith

By Jeff Jenkins “It’s a slightly old-fashioned way of doing things, an old-fashioned sort of folk-rock band – not an expression you hear much these days.”

ASLEEP AT THE REEL

TIME & TIDE Independent

R

ead the press quotes gathered on their website and you’ll see that the music of Brisbane collective Asleep At The Reel is a “wonderful melding of Celtic influences and Australian stories” and even that it’s “the cultural vaccine for the Irish Diaspora,” but listen to their latest album, Time and Tide, and the reality is that, for all the occasional Celtic flourishes, what you have is fine contemporary songwriting that explores themes as diverse as Australia’s bushfires and the shameful 19th century “blackbirding” industry, living in a foreign city missing a lover and the “hidden” history of Indigenous massacres. They’re all grist to the creative mill of singer, songwriter, and guitarist Mark Cryle.

“We say it’s kind of Celtic-inspired music,” Cryle explains. “Well, if you analyse some of the music it’s not very Celtic at all, but there’s that kind of a theme that runs through it. There are some constraints on what I write for the band. They’re not major constraints – ‘Can we fit this into the genre of what we do in this band?’ The other thing of course is when you’re writing for a band, the other musicians bring their own ideas to it, you know? They bring their own way of playing, and that shapes what you do. For example, Hugh [Tamworth Golden Fiddle Award winner Hugh Curtis] is our fiddle and mandolin player, and he can play Celtic stuff, but he’s an absolute monster player of country sort of stuff. So, if he starts to play country swing, he’s away. So, everyone lends their own strengths to the project and tend to play it the way they would play it.

That’s the way it comes out and that’s what we are.

“Songs like ‘Celtic Castaway’, ‘Whiskey Songs’ and to some extent ‘Midnight in Montreal’ are pushing the album in a slightly different direction musically. I’m really just a product of all the things I listened to when I was growing up, like most of us, I think. One of the things about being a songwriter is you need to be a receiver. I’m jotting things down all the time, possible song titles or ideas that songs could be about, and some of them are related to historical kinds of experiences and others are probably related more to relationship kinds of experiences. I’m just looking for things that can connect in some way.”

Cryle first made an impression on the Australian musical landscape in the 1990s with a folk-roots-rock band called Spot the Dog. He pulled Asleep at the Reel, which features bass player Mick Nolan and drummer Suzanne Hibbs alongside Curtis, together about five years ago.

“I was a big fan of Weddings Parties Anything and Goanna and bands like that and I’ve made a couple of solo albums but I tend to prefer to work

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collaboratively in a band or a duo kind of project, and so I just thought I’d like to try and make that sort of sound. It’s a slightly old-fashioned way of doing things, an old-fashioned sort of folk-rock band – not an expression you hear much these days. I’d like a band that did something which sounded Australian yet took those kinds of influences in the way that Shane Howard or Mick Thomas or Paul Kelly do on occasions. I thought that would be an interesting way to shape something. It came out of that idea.

“We had a couple of different players when we first kicked off, but settled down into the lineup that we have now. On the first album [2018’s The Emerald Dream] we had an accordion player playing with us, Rose Broe – we’re still good friends with her, but the amount of time you have to put into it just got a bit too much for her. We still incorporate those other instruments in the recording. There’s electric guitar, which is Michael Fix, our producer, and we’ll get some people in to play keyboards and things. It’s very much a band record.”

On the subject of Michael Fix, “In the first instance, as we’re rehearsing the songs for the recording he’ll come and sit in and make suggestions about arrangements and things, which we’ll all process. It’s actually quite democratic. Then we’ll go over to his studio, put down the tracks and we’ll work on things. He calls himself a producer but in fact very often he’s the reducer! We’ll put something down and he’ll say, ‘Do you really need that? No, take that off. Yeah, that sounds just as good.’ And if there are some fancy guitar parts required that are well beyond my abilities I’ll say, ‘Maybe you could play some sort of guitar thing on this,’ and he does and it sounds great.”

The flute and/or tin whistle that weave through a couple of the songs come courtesy classical flautist and contemporary Celtic folk singersongwriter Sarah Calderwood. Cryle might write the songs, but he’s more than happy for bass player Mick Nolan to tackle lead vocals if he feels the song suits his voice better. For instance, Cryle felt Nolan’s voice better suited ‘Midnight in Montreal’ – “It’s got a Van Morrison flavour to it, and there was another one too, ‘Carolina’, and he does a great job of them.”

WRIGHT PLACE, WRONG TIME

Dave Wright’s new record is a wonderfully nostalgic love letter to rock.

LOST INSIDE A DREAM

davewright.bandcamp.com (CD, cassette and vinyl)

D

ave Wright tells his life story in five glorious minutes on his new album, Lost Inside A Dream. The story starts in a mining town, before Wright’s family relocates to a farm near Colac in Victoria. “I learnt to keep my head down until I could get the hell out,” Wright sings.

He ends up in Melbourne, meets a girl and becomes a dad. Music is the one constant in his journey. “The glory days of radio, we swore a mix tape could save our souls … I’m gonna get those old records out, remind myself what life’s about.”

“It’s my story in a nutshell,” Wright smiles. “Being a kid, listening to cassettes, hunched over the radio, trying to tape a song.”

In the track, Wright actually names the artists and records that have shaped him – Elvis, Chuck Berry and Johnny Cash, and Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, The Clash’s London Calling and Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks, as well as Icehouse’s ‘Great Southern Land’, Chisel’s ‘Flame Trees’ and AC/DC’s Back In Black.

It’s quite a trip. As Wright declares: Thank God for rock ’n’ roll.

Stylistically, the album – Wright’s third with his band, The Midnight Electric – is a strange mix: kind of The Clash meets The Cure, with some direct, punky rock punctuated by haunting electro-tinged moments.

‘Thank God for Rock and Roll’ even includes a neat summation of the record: “A little bit of Memphis soul, some British punk and rock ’n’ roll.”

“I just threw everything at the wall that I loved,” Wright explains, highlighting the album’s “two touchstones” – The Cure’s Disintegration and The War on Drugs’ A Deeper Understanding. The title is even a nod to the American band’s 2014 album. “That was called Lost In The Dream,” Wright points out. “I haven’t hidden the fact that this record was really influenced by The War on Drugs. I also felt that the songs

on this album really flow into each other – it’s like one long dream you can’t wake up from.”

It’s a fitful sleep. Wright is not afraid to address some big issues, including infidelity, rage, grief, dashed dreams, legacy and loss.

“It’s a really confessional album,” he says. “It’s the most personal I’ve ever been as a songwriter. Often, I step into someone else’s skin – I imagine a character and write from their point of view. But this album is pretty personal.”

A lot of the record was shaped by the passing of three family members – Wright’s grandfather and his wife’s grandmother and uncle. “Not all of the album is about loss, but one of the cornerstones of the record is grief and how you deal with it.”

“They say you’re born alone and that’s the way that you go,” Wright sings in ‘Go With Grace’, which is about his wife’s grandmother who came to Australia from Greece in the early ’60s. “But looking around I don’t believe that that’s so. If you can measure a life by the love in the room on the day that you die …”

“She was the strongest woman I’ve ever met,” Wright says simply.

In ‘If I Were A House’, Wright concludes that “in the end, words don’t mean a thing”. But don’t believe it for a second. Wright is a storyteller who knows that words do indeed matter. In fact, he admits: “I agonise over every line and every phrase.”

“All my life I’ve been plagued by sentiment, nostalgia and pride,” he reveals in ‘The Confession’, which documents a battle with depression.

“I’m a very sentimental person and a very proud person, and I’m confronting that in this song.”

In the end, Lost Inside A Dream is a love letter to rock ’n’ roll, recognising the power of music to save lives. It’s also a celebration of family and friendship. Wright is grateful that he’s been able to make music with The Midnight Electric – guitarist Robert Barber, bass player Tim Cavanagh and drummer Neil Salmon – for the past decade.

Wright knows that the world – particularly the music world – has changed. The glory days, well, they’ll pass you by. “We will never be that young again,” he notes.

But he still believes.

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By Michael Smith

FORCE OF NATURE Everything seemed to be on a roll. Bluesrock singer, songwriter and guitarist Richard Madden had released a well-received debut album, 2008’s Force of Nature; he was picking up some great supports with his band, opening for Steve Prestwich, Jim Moginie, Kevin Borich, Mal Eastick and Ian Moss among others, and the time was right to get back into the studio to cut the second album. Then nothing for ten years – not even that second album – until now.

Michael Smith asks what happened.

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By Samuel J. Fell

RICHARD MADDEN

FORCE OF NATURE Independent

“In 2010, we were on track to put it out,” he explains. “It was a number of things, money being one of them – I’d just run out of money to complete it – and also too I was writing new material and thought I could put it aside for the time being while I worked on that. But then I developed this sort of arthritis, so that put a halt to music for me, while I was getting over that. I’m starting to get match fit now and COVID kind of helped me finish what we’d started all those years ago.”

The album, Second Nature, coproduced by Syd Green, summed up where he and rhythm section, bass player Mark Deayton and drummer Curtis DeVille, were at to that point, but two songs on the album, ‘Oh Oh’ and ‘Autumn Sun’ give an indication of that new direction Madden’s writing was taking at the time.

“I liked the variation they added to the whole thing,” he admits, “heading towards a more melodic kind of pop direction. The rest of the album is more throttle to the floor kind of thing, so just having a bit of light and shade, especially at the end of the record I just thought was a nice way to finish it. Syd had been a mate of mine – I’d done gigs with him for a while – and knew he was a great sound engineer so when I was putting together the record I knew he had a great setup in Sanctuary Point, but he said, ‘I’ve got access to this farm house up in the Southern Highlands.

How ‘bout we go there?’ So we just convened down at Fletcher’s farmhouse for basically three days and got everything done really quickly, the reason being we had no distractions.

“I’d developed a bit of a friendship with [harmonica player] Dave Blight in the Ian Moss Band doing supports for them years before and I’d kept in touch and I asked him if there was a timeframe one afternoon when he was free where I could just pick him and he could lay some tracks down, and he was so open to the idea. I didn’t send him any files or anything, we just talked in the car on the way to the studio and I said this is the kind of idea that I want you to play and these are the songs and we were in and out of the studio for that overdub session in three hours, playing on four tracks. The horns were done shortly thereafter. I had a fair idea of what I wanted in terms of the horns and the arrangements and a friend of mine John Hardaker, he was able to assist with all that, transcribing what I had in mind.”

Alongside seven original songs, Second Nature includes three blues-rock covers – ‘Messin’ with the Kid’, ‘Reefer Headed Woman’ and ‘Rattlesnake Daddy’. “We’d been playing those songs for years and we always get a good reaction to them, and I think they’re pretty good covers. As for the originals, I’d built up quite a collection by that stage, so the album was a summary of where we were at at that point.”

Returning to the album a decade later, Madden felt much happier with it than he’d been at the time, having put a bit of distance and perspective in between, but there was something he knew he had to add to really bring at least one song to life.

“I’d written ‘Autumn Sun’ on piano and I’m not a piano player! When we recorded it we tracked it on acoustic guitar, bass and drums but I wanted a piano part there and had tried to overdub it myself but it was a little daunting – I’m just a hack when it comes to that. So I asked Lachy [Doley] – this was during COVID and it was all done remotely – and he came back to me within days and said, ‘How’s that? Do you need a revision?’ and I said, ‘No! You got it spot on!’”

Everland Studios’ Ben Worsey helped Madden reassemble and re-mix the tracks, which had inevitably become scattered across various hard drives in the intervening decade, but the results are exactly what went down originally, live takes in the studio, as fresh today as when they were originally recorded in 2010.

Madden and the band will get around to launching Second Nature live in March/ April 2022. In the meantime, he’s also uncovered a multi-track recording of the band launching their first album live at the Vanguard, so you can expect to see that released on Madden’s website around the same time.

WHY SO LONG? The Blues Preachers have been out of the spotlight for a while, which makes their return all the more special, writes Samuel J. Fell.

THE BLUES PREACHERS

SHADES OF BLUE www.bluespreachers.com/music

Where, you may have found yourself musing over the past decade, have the Blues Preachers gone? Perhaps you were leaning against a post under one of the Bluesfest tents, remembering a solid old-timey set from this Australian duo, one of the best purveyors of country blues / gospel and ragtime tunes around. Or perhaps you were perusing your record collection and came across one of their earlier releases. Where have they been, indeed?

The simple answer to this conundrum is they never really left. Guitarist ‘Brother’ John Morris added his time-honoured playing to one of his other projects, The Narrownecks, while harmonica whiz Craig ‘Captain Bluetongue’ Lyons did similar with The Marvellous Hearts. Thus, the duo was, for all intents and purposes, on a hiatus as they decided what, exactly, they wanted the band to become. And so, around eleven years since their last release, 2010’s Dead Catz Can Bounce, they’ve come to a decision, and you can stop your musing – the Blues Preachers are back.

“Yeah, we went into a hiatus,” confirms Lyons. “John went and played with The Narrownecks and I was writing a bunch of stuff that didn’t fit under that umbrella. John’s a phenomenal guitar player and I do OK on the harmonica, but our strongest point are our vocal harmonies… and so we had to wait until the time was right, energetically, to work out which way we were going to go. We were just waiting for the word about which step to take.”

The duo’s return has been heralded, firstly, with the release of what is essentially a Best Of – Shades Of Blue, which lays down eleven tracks fans of their music would know well. “Well, it’s not really a Best Of,”

Lyons smiles, “it’s more a cross-section of what we’ve done, like the title says, it’s different shades of the Blues Preachers, that’s what we’re trying to get across.” The album features tracks that, as Lyons says, might have been missed originally, songs that fit into the mould they’re looking to pursue, focusing heavily on those vocal harmonies, like ‘The Angel Of Death’, from their 2008 album, Dry Long So. Secondly, early next year they’ll release their first studio album in over a decade, The Kings Highway, and it’s this album that will showcase the sound that these two are now fully focused upon.

“The Kings Highways will be a gospel album,” Lyons confirms. “We actually came up with the idea, the idea of putting out a gospel album about ten years ago and calling it The Kings Highway.” Given the Preachers have always had an element of gospel to their sound, it seems a natural move to now release an album fully in that oeuvre. As well, gospel music fosters vocal harmonising extremely well, and so it’s little wonder the pair decided to focus on this particular style.

“Yeah, that’s what we thought too,” says Lyons, “and all the answers to any of our questions have led us down that track, which is why we’ve called it The Kings Highway.”

Two singles have already been released from the album; a cover of Blind Willie Johnson’s ‘Lord I Just Can’t Keep From Cryin’ Sometimes’, and an original, written by Morris, ‘Under The Bombs’. “Yeah, John’s always on social justice, it’s part of the project for him,” acknowledges Lyons.

“Another song on there will be ‘Babylon’, my song, about social media addiction, people not listening to reality. How we write, we just present each other songs and see if they fit… and move them in and out.

“Our mission at the moment is to focus on the vocal harmonies, that’s what’s important. People might think you can just throw a couple of voices in there, but it’s not that easy… that’s the mission for the Blues Preachers at the moment: work on that and get anything to be down that line of sound, that’s what we’re after.”

Ten years is a long time to be gone. But it seems a hiatus like this one, for these two players, was just what was required. Now, they’re back in the fold with a dedicated direction, a freshly paved highway down which to travel. Worry no more, for the Blues Preachers have returned.

“We’re just trying to stick to being organic and honest and truthful,” says Lyons, “and just putting out good music, and hopefully people dig it, and things happen, I think that’s the only thing you can really do.”

The Kings Highway will be released in early 2022.

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ALBUMS: General ALEX HAMILTON

SWEETEST WINE

Love Police Records + Tapes

Alex Hamilton knows his way around high and lonesome folk-rock and on his debut solo album he reaches some wonderful high points that recall the keening, pastoral sound of Dylan, The Band and Neil Young.

Hamilton used to be the songwriter and singer for Melbourne band Merri Creek Pickers as well as playing guitar for Courtney Barnett around the time of her first album, before shifting his focus to his solo material and this recording collaboration with producer/musician Jesse Williams.

You can hear the acoustic folk roots of Hamilton’s songwriting but by framing his songs in the accoutrements of electric country and rock ’n’ roll he takes the music into a more cosmic realm. ‘Sunk’ is a swirling slice of melodic psych folk while ‘Time’ finds a nice throughline to The Beatles. ‘Depression’ is a real highlight and the best showcase of his voice as he lets his vowels rise and fall like ocean swells. At times Hamilton’s voice does spend too much time in the same register but for the most part it works with real weight and emotional connectivity across this impressive solo debut.

CHRIS FAMILTON AOIFE O’DONOVAN

AGE OF APATHY Yep Roc

From the moment the hypnotically swooning “Sister Starling” opens the record until “Passenger” brings the album to a joyous, up-tempo closure, there are several reference points of significance. Firstly, having honed her craft in a couple of earlier highprofile musical projects, O’Donovan is at the very top of her songwriting game, the poetic imagery of her lyrics cocooned in alluring melodies.

The second is the towering presence of producer Joe Henry, who brings a surprisingly symphonic ambience to these songs whilst still maintaining a sense of sparseness and simplicity; such is the skill of a master craftsman.

An A-list rhythm section comprising drummer Jay Bellerose and bassist David Pitch collaborated remotely and provide added texture, and two fine songbirds in Alison Russell and Madison Cunningham lend a hand with sympatico backing vocals.

Loosely reflecting on dealing with life during the digital age, O’Donovan’s reflections strive to communicate a sense of self-reckoning and purpose.

“Elevators” is a standout, intensely beautiful orchestral arrangements and Russell’s underlying harmonies framing O’Donovan’s strident plea “Where is what’s good here, and what are we going to make of America?”. The lilting “Prodigal Daughter”, co-written with Tim O’Brien, is as close to bluegrass as the album gets, with O’Brien’s mandola weaving an intricate spell through the tale of a disaffected young adult’s return to family stability. Pandemics and lockdown isolation have occasionally brought unexpected rewards, such is the case with Aoife O’Donovan, allowing her lengthy time to deliberate over her songs. The result is an album that affirms her as a solo artist of the highest order.

TREVOR J. LEEDEN CAHILL KELLY

CLASSICAL AND COOL JAZZ

Cheersquad Records You never know what potential simmers within a band line-up.

Fortunately, Melbourne-based artist Cahill Kelly has made the move from sidelines to spotlight. His CV thus far is impressive enough. From session muso and as a member of numerous outfits (Lands, Skyscraper Stan, Sheoak), he formed his own groups (The Broken 88

Needles and Willow Darling). But this solo debut – neither Classical nor Jazz – screams ‘watch this space’. His range of roots influences reflect a life lived on the move – from Geraldton in WA to FNQ, Tassie and now Melbourne’s inner north. The stripped-back home studio production (Stive Collins) suits the material, highlighting quirky sculpted tales.

‘Turner Reserve’ features plastic guitar played through a plastic amp. The vibe and vocals channel John Lennon with a hint of Daniel Johns at his anthemic best. ‘Maybe I’ has a similar Plastic Ono Band feel, slow-burning to an epic electrified fade-out. Singles ‘World Upon A Shelf’ and ‘Beyond The Weathered Pale’ (feat. Harmony Byrne) enter a Radiohead space. Lyrically, Kelly has the gift of finding great riches in little stories. Ode to lollipop lady ‘Milania’ seamlessly tilts across to an alt folk/country palette. Gorgeous guitar, soulful vocals and harmonies

by Grace Cummings honour the salt-of-the-earth heroine. Addictive from the first listen. From his band days with Willow Darling comes the acoustic folk of ‘Salt Of The Sea’.

Evocative guitar and vocals bend and surge around the minor key.

The compelling ‘live’ sound brings Stephen Stills to mind. Rocker ‘Goldfish Bowlin’ crosses over into Crowded House territory. Longtime collaborator Lain Pocock (Grace Cummings) plays bass with Andrew Braidner (Redcoats/Ali Barter/Ben Wright Smith) on drums and Oskar Herbig (Skyscraper Stan) on lead guitar. Piano by Kelly lends an extra texture to broaden the setting beyond the standard alt/ pop/folk expression. A beautiful album. Chilled, nuanced and sophisticated with just the right measure of grit.

CHRIS LAMBIE

ALBUMS: General MYLEE GRACE

WHIPLASH IN THE MOSHPIT

SMALL FACES

THE BEATLES AND INDIA

Nice Records

Silva Screen Records/The Planet Company

LIVE 1966

Love Police Records + Tapes

One of the first batch of releases on the newly minted record label by Love Police, Mylee Grace returns to releasing music after relocating to the Northern Rivers region of NSW six years ago. Prior to that she’d released a solo EP in 2010 and a collaborative album with her partner Ozzie Wright. Now, finally, she’s released her debut solo album, a freewheeling collection of songs that sway seamlessly between genres.

There’s a ramshackle and organic charm to Grace’s songs. Not lo-fi or incomplete though – it’s the way the band lean back, like that slouch on a long car trip or the comfortable back porch chair. The lazy strum of the Velvet Underground drifts into light psych rock in the vein of Mazzy Star, cosmic Americana haziness, 50’s doo wop inspired girl group sounds and the country/ folk of The Band. It all amounts to a wonderfully warm afterglow of a record.

Though at times, after a brisk and catchy start with ‘Any Road’ and ‘Waste My Time’, a mid-tempo sameness does threaten to dilute the mood but Grace brings it home gloriously with the Hurray For The Riff Raff sounding ‘Call Me’ and the closing ‘Panda Jam’ which travels from a Tropicália feel to beautiful jazz-tinged, psych folk.

CHRIS FAMILTON

Necessity sometimes brings its own rewards. Kenney Jones, the legendary drummer and sole surviving member of the Small Faces, created his new independent imprint – Nice Records – to promote exclusive, rare and unreleased recordings. Live 1966 is the first release, and captures Jones, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and the peerless Stevie Marriott at the peak of their live prowess. The recently unearthed matinee and evening performances from Belgium’s Twenty Club on 9 January 1966 have never previously been released, and both are included in their entire restored glory. The setlist includes four songs from their eponymous debut album, one from the Autumn Stone compilation (an incendiary tear up of the Cropper/ Jones stomper “Plum Nellie”), and the remaining songs have never previously appeared on a Small Faces album. There’s a steaming rendition (twice) of the breakout debut single “What’cha Gonna Do About It”, a frenetic run through of James Brown’s “Please, Please, Please”, and Jessie Hill’s perennial “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” is resuscitated into a soulblues house rocker. The defining moments come with “You Need Loving”; the origins of the song may have been fiercely disputed, but what is indisputable is the powerhouse vocal performance of Marriott.

Recorded three years before Led Zeppelin rebranded the song, the two renditions are testament to the influence Marriott exerted on Robert Plant’s later vocal performance.

Steve Marriott was arguably the finest voice of 1960’s British rock music, and the Small Faces one of the finest bands to emerge from the era; they must’ve been one helluva sight to see and hear.

TREVOR J. LEEDEN

VARIOUS ARTISTS

While Peter Jackson’s three-part documentary on The Beatles, Get Back, has naturally captured the bulk of the world’s attention, May last year saw another remarkable addition to the ever-expanding filmography devoted to the Fab Four in director Ajoy Bose’s The Beatles And India, which also drew on rare and forgotten archival footage, that focuses on those few weeks after the death of their manager Brian Epstein when the Liverpuddlians followed George Harrison’s passion for Indian music to what they hoped might be its spiritual underpinnings as espoused by a character named Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, travelling to his ashram in Rishikesh in the foothills of the Himalayas to learn at the feet of the “Master”. Unlike Jackson’s film, which sends us back to their last two albums to once again wonder at their musical genius, The Beatles and India has spawned not only a soundtrack album, composed

by Englishman Benji Merrison but also an intriguing accompanying album’s worth of reinterpretations of 18 Beatle songs through the sensibilities of contemporary Indian artists, among them Vishal Dadlani, Anoushka Shankar and many more, names, apart perhaps from Anoushka Shankar, who tackles Harrison’s ‘The Inner Light’, inspired of course by her father Ravi, that are unlikely to be familiar to most readers but who certainly deserve wider recognition outside India and its diaspora. Inevitably some of these reinterpretations have only the shallowest of Indian “overlays” while others take more

radical paths to “enlightenment”, though not always successfully.

Soulmate for instance, the least “Indian” sounding of contributors, fronted by Tipriti Kharbangar, bring Lennon’s ‘Gimme Some Truth’ hurtling into the 21st century via gospel-infused Black Lives Matter sensibilities, while Rohan Rajadhyaks’ take on ‘Me and my Monkey’, Vishal Dadlani’s ‘Revolution’ and Karsh Kale & Farhan Ahktar’s on ‘Back in the USSR’ are pretty straightforward rock and electro respectively, for all the underlay of tablas. The opening cut, Kiss Nuka’s version of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ is sublimely ethereal while Dhruv Ghanekar less convincingly takes ‘Julia’ into trip-hopland. Raaga Trippin’s ‘The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill’ is more Europop than Bollywood, but then what would you expect. Overall the collection is pleasantly diverting and occasionally positively inspired but all up they remind us just how truly remarkable and original the catalogue of four young scruffs from Liverpool remains.

MICHAEL SMITH VARIOUS ARTISTS

CHOCTAW RIDGE: NEW FABLES OF THE AMERICAN SOUTH 1968-1973 Ace

This fantastic 24-track collection provides a defining statement of “a golden era for an atmospheric, inclusive and progressive country music”. This was nothing new, Lee Hazlewood (featured on the album) had been writing like this for years, Gentry just happened to popularise it. Every one of the character sketches presented is a delight, whether from familiar or unfamiliar territory, all telling a southerner’s story. Chestnuts like Dolly Parton’s “Down To Dover” and Kenny Rogers & The First Edition’s percussive masterpiece “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town” suddenly paint a different picture. Female performances are particularly strong, expressing a newfound freedom that broke the shackles of the (then) stereotypical woman; besides Gentry and Parton, there are pivotal songs from Billie Jo Spears (“Mr. Walker, It’s All Over”), Jeannie C. Riley (“The Back Side Of Dallas”) and Sammi Smith (“Saunders’ Ferry Lane”). The mood throughout is uniformly brooding, sometimes plaintive, this is country after all. Waylon Jennings, Tony Joe White, Hoyt Axton, Michael Nesmith and the great Charlie Rich are all included, Rich twice.

Jim Ford, “the baddest white man on the planet” (according to Sly Stone!), describes a less than rosy lifestyle in the brassy “Harlan County”, whilst the grandiosely titled Sir Robert Charles Griggs’ cold slab heartbreaker “Fabulous Body And Smile” is a genuine rarity. Nothing is out of place or throwaway on this very fine compilation that “began on the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day.”

TREVOR J. LEEDEN

Bobbie Gentry, thankfully, has a heck of a lot to answer for.

Subsequent to her out-of-leftfield global hit “Ode To Billie Joe”, Gentry became the standard bearer of a new storytelling breed of country music that bridged Nashville’s Classic Country with the soon to follow Outlaw Country movement.

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STUART COUPE PRESENTS

G N OU Y NEIL BE denied WON’T

THE BLUES PREACHERS The Blues Preachers will take you to another place and time, somewhere between 1920 and 1940. They perform a fusion of good old blues, rags, gospel and hillbilly folk. Driving finger-style and slide-guitar combined with tasteful harmonica and old-school vocal >> The lyrics tell harmonies a version ofthat Young’s story.

Growing upsound in Canada, create a traditional willhe have on theboy, edgebeat of your his father leavingthat when wasyou a young up atseats. school, The Bluesdreams Preachers have theleaving reputation as one of the best acoustic of stardom, Canada for Hollywood, courted by blues & roots acts in Australia & have played almost every major festival “business men” who came to hear “the golden sound.” The key in the country. verse is the fifth one, especially coming as it did after the success Their new album “Shades of Blue” Is exactly that a montage of authentic of Harvest.

Neilthe Young writingsonic to himself, writing his dead friend, blues styles drawn from traditional pallet they are to renowned to every rock star. for. Takingwriting the listener on awannabe journey through various shades of Blue in a pre-war landscape of struggle, determination, love, life & death.

“Well, all that glitters isn’t gold/ I guess you’ve heard the story COLIN told/ But I’m a pauper in LILLIE a naked disguise/ A millionaire through a Colin Oh Lillie is certainly kind and business man’s eyes/ friend of mine/ one Don’tofbeadenied.” after finding a new home in the red heart Australia’s desert gypsy And the chorus,of which at timescentral during the tour-hethis would scream: Scotsman has thrived as a songwriter.

“Don’t be denied/ Don’t be denied/ Don’t be denied /NoThis no, don’t can be seen in his past releases which include be denied.” an EP produced by Mark ‘Diesel’ Lizotte. You don’t have delve very deep into Colin’s On this version however, heto reprieves the fourth verse, the one lyrics or the heart of his voice to know his songs are driven by someone about business men coming to hear the “golden sound.” who has all of the shades of life experience to lean into. This rings so true with this new Colin Young Lillie The…….

On arelease tour where was challenging his audience with an Armed with only three chords the truth Lilliewith caught album’s worth of new and material, perhaps this the songear heof was fellow artist and owner of Beverley Hillbilly Records Catherine Britt after insisting one has to follow their vision, no matter the cost. a co-write and straight away she offered Lillie the chance to sign to her he was there’s more lifeCatherine than money – label and Certainly, also produced thissaying latest release.

On thetoEP invited something he certainly knew by then. “‘Don’t Be Denied’ has a lot Jeff McCormack (bass), Steve Fearnley (drums), Luke Moller (strings) and ShanetoNicholson who not only plays on told the release but also mixed do with Danny, I think,” Young McDonough. “…I think that’s the EP. the first major life-and-death event that really affected me in what With Lillie’s distinct storytelling andkinda vocalreassess character Lillie and offeryou’re I was trying to do… you yourself as Britt to what a release doing that is–full of Americana flavour which includes their duet, because you realize that life is so impermanent. So,a you song co-written with Americana songwriter Lo Carmen and a track that wanna in doathe best you can you’re here,Australian to say whatever is to be featured short Steven Kingwhile film and staring actor the it is youfame. wanna say. Express yourself.”

Les Hill offuck Underbelly www.colinlillie.com.au D.HENRY FENTON Michael Goldberg, a former Rolling Stone Senior Writer and D Henry Fenton To hasNoise released a new single is founder of the original Addicted online magazine, Gone including By)’ on Dark Eyed Junco author of three‘Ruby rock &(Days roll novels 2016’s Untitled.

(MGM). It is a personal song about the difficulties of gaining and maintaining visitation rights for a parent to see their child after a relationship breakdown, and then reflecting on it all when enough time has passed. “It’s a song I felt I had to write” explains Fenton “I’ve met a few folk in my travels who have been down that road, and there’s always 2 sides to every story, somewhere in the middle is where we find the truth, the sadness and then the healing.”

Ruby is a pop-americana/folk style production mixed by Phil Punch and engineered by Sean Rudd. The end result came from Punch wanting to strip it back like the early Dylan records, to bring the listener closer into the story. www.dhenryfenton.com RAY JONES Ray Jones emerged on Australia’s country music scene quietly and unassumingly in 2020. After honing his craft and striving to carve out his own sound for many years. Ray stepped into Chambers Avenue recording studio early in 2019 with friend and mentor Bill Chambers after Bill convinced him that he should record some of his work. The result is an album titled Sleeping Rough, Ray pours deeply personal experiences into the tracks you will find on this album with stories from tragic parts of his family life and songs that try to bring awareness to homelessness, to bare bones love songs for his wife. Heavily influenced by artists such as John Prine, Guy Clarke and modern Americana artists like Jason Isbell and Jeffrey Foucault, Ray treads a line somewhere between country genres in his songwriting. It’s a journey you might consider joining him on.

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ALBUMS: Blues

BY AL HENSLEY DAVE SPECTER

CURTIS SALGADO

TOMMY CASTRO

TIA CARROLL

SIX STRING SOUL

DAMAGE CONTROL

YOU GOTTA HAVE IT

Delmark

Alligator/Only Blues Music

A BLUESMAN CAME TO TOWN

Born in Chicago in 1963, Dave Specter’s 30-year musical journey on Delmark Records began with his 1991 debut album Bluebird Blues after a decade playing in the city’s blues clubs with the likes of Sam Lay, Hubert Sumlin and Son Seals. A virtuoso guitarist whose biting tones are modelled on Magic Sam, B.B. King, T-Bone Walker and Otis Rush, Specter is equally at home whether playing blues, soul jazz or R&B. Influences by jazz guitarists Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery are also apparent in Specter’s no-effects delivery that sets him aside from the beefy stereotypes. This double CD release constitutes a definitive anthology of Specter’s career which has been intertwined with the deepest roots of Chicago blues. It traverses a wide variety of styles showcasing his consummate artistry as a musician, songwriter, and, more recently, a singer. On a total of 28 tracks drawn from Specter’s rich catalogue of 14 Delmark albums up to 2019, he is surrounded by a stellar list of featured artists from Otis Clay, Jimmy Johnson, Willie Kent, Lurrie Bell and Sharon Lewis, to Brother Jack McDuff, Steve Freund, Lynwood Slim, Floyd McDaniel and many more. A testament to the esteem in which Specter is held.

Between 2010 and 2021 singer/ songwriter Curtis Salgado won the Blues Music Awards Soul Blues Male Artist Of The Year no less than six times. In 2013 he also won B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year and Soul Blues Album Of The Year for Soul Shot.

Impressive additions indeed to a CV which already boasts stints as lead singer in Santana and Roomful Of Blues, as well as recordings with Robert Cray, Otis Grand, Nick Moss and numerous other artists. This new release is a departure from the traditional blues of 2018’s Rough Cut which highlighted Salgado’s formidable harmonica expertise.

For the most part it’s a return to his soul-inspired material of the last two decades. While Salgado plays less harmonica than his fans would wish, his songwriting is exquisite. He wrote all but one of the album’s 13 songs which alternate between soulful R&B and the proto-rock’n’roll of Larry Williams’ ‘Slow Down’.

Accordionist Wayne Toups imbues ‘Truth Be Told’ with a catchy zydeco hook and ‘Hail Mighty Caesar’ responds to a finger-snapping New Orleans carnival groove. However, it’s slow burners like ‘Always Say I Love You (At The End Of Your Goodbyes)’ that best emphasise Salgado’s lusty vocal tones.

Alligator/Only Blues Music

Little Village Foundation/Planet Co.

Since his 1994 recording debut, prolific San Jose, California musician Tommy Castro has issued new releases virtually every 12 to 18 months. Latest is this odyssey of a touring blues musician’s life on the road, that follows his 2019 album Killin’ It Live. His long-time band The Painkillers is noticeably absent here apart from odd cameo appearances by keyboardist Mike Emerson, saxophonist Keith Crossan, bassist Randy McDonald and drummer Bowen Brown. For this outing the versatile guitar playing raspyvoiced singer-songwriter headed to the Americana music hub of Nashville, Tennessee where he collaborated with noted drummer/songwriter/ producer Tom Hambridge. While Castro performs under the banner of the blues and is a recipient of many Blues Music Awards, his sound has always been drawn from eclectic sources. He cowrote most of the album’s 12 songs with Hambridge. The brawny blues of ‘Somewhere’, ‘Child Don’t Go’, ‘I Got Burned’ and the title tune, the funky horn-driven ‘Hustle’, the B.B. King inspired minor-key moan ‘Blues Prisoner’, the Chuck Berry styled rock’n-roller ‘I Caught A Break’, and the retro R&B of ‘I Want To Go Back Home’ alternate with country soul and high voltage bone-shakers.

The latest discovery by northern California label Little Village Foundation, Tia Carroll has been performing steadily around the Bay Area with her own band for decades. A soulful, emotive singer with a voice to rival Mavis Staples, Carroll has also gained invaluable experience as a touring back-up singer with blues and soul greats Jimmy McCracklin, Sugar Pie DeSanto and E.C. Scott. While she has enjoyed some success with records issued abroad, this breakout release Stateside is bound to take Carroll from regional fame to international stardom. Recorded at San Jose’s reputable Greaseland Studios with blues guitar maestro Kid Andersen and keyboard supremo Jim Pugh at the helm, Carroll and band are backed occasionally by crisp horn charts and vocal group the Sons Of Soul Revivers. Eight-string jazz guitar whiz Charlie Hunter’s explosive energy underscores the funk-laden opener, Anthony Hamilton’s ‘Ain’t Nobody Worryin’’, Brazilian blues guitar kingpin Igor Prado providing fiery fretwork on ‘Move On’, one of three Carroll originals here. The set stays on the boil all the way as Carroll stamps blues and R&B material by Rick Estrin, Donny Hathaway, Johnny Copeland, ZZ Hill, Pops Staples and others with her own powerful artistry.

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ALBUMS: World Music Folk

ALBUMS: Jazz 1

BY TONY HILLIER

BY TONY HILLIER

SIMON MAYOR & HILARY JAMES WHEN SUMMER COMES AGAIN Acoustic Records

Her renditions of trad narratives ‘Jockey To The Fair’ and ‘Lovely Joan’ are similarly as fresh as the proverbial daisy. Poems delivered in Mayor’s melodious North Country accent and sung by James are accompanied by excellent original tunes.

rhythm and political commentary pioneered back in late-1960s Nigeria, retains its popularity around the world 50 years on is amply underlined by this impressive compilation.

THE McDADES THE EMPRESS Free Radio Records

A selection of English folk ballads ancient and pastiche; a soupçon of poetry set to pastoral music; genteel instrumental medleys as the main course; classical and operatic offerings for dessert.

When Summer Comes Again might sound like suitable fare for a vicar’s tea party, but in the fiercely talented hands of Simon Mayor & Hilary James the album actually serves up fare that’s fit for an archbishop’s banquet. This is an old-fashioned album in the nicest sense of that descriptor; an eclectic set that’s delivered with consummate skill, care and charm by one of England’s finest folk duos. Mayor & James are way above your average club act, the equal of the best you’d hear in the grandest concert hall. Both partners are multi-instrumentalists of high calibre. Mayor plays magnificent violin and mandolin lead (mandola, mandocello and whistle as well), while James is an exceptional singer, who backs up on impeccable rhythm guitar, mandobass, double bass and bass guitar. Every track’s a gem on this 24-carat album, from a pristine opening take of the medieval English round ‘Sumer Is Icumen In’ to the closing ‘bonus’ live mandolin reprise of ‘The Buttermere Waltz’, a self-composed instrumental that’s earlier recorded on Mayor’s treasured vintage c.1740 violin for the first time. In the grand tradition of gypsy fiddle playing, a Mayor/James swing-tinged number gathers impressive tempo with fiddle and guitar in tight alliance. Mandolin rules the roost in an inspired arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Barcarole’.

James sings Bach’s operatic aria ‘Al Mio Bene’ quite beautifully.

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The McDades are the epitome of Canada’s famously eclectic acoustic music scene. As an American reviewer perceptively observed: ‘Their groove rests somewhere between a downhome kitchen party, a jazzy after-hours club, and a folk festival’. Siblings Shannon Johnson (violin), Solon McDade (bass), and Jeremiah McDade (multiinstrumentalist), who comprise the group’s core, gigged with their parents in the folk-oriented family band for 20 years before branching off on their own in 2000. It’s no surprise, then, that their playing and harmony singing is supertight, bordering on telepathic. The spontaneity of jazz improvisation combined with their folk cred and a variety of global rhythms gives them an irresistible sound, which is enhanced by a houseful of special guests on The Empress, on which shades of Quebec supergroup La Bottine Souriante and other versatile Canadian bands such as Winnipeg’s The Duhks and Prince Edward Island’s The East Pointers can be heard, along with echoes of the best of British, Irish and American folk-rock bands.

VARIOUS ARTISTS GLOBAL AFROBEAT MOVEMENT VOL 2 NYP Records That afrobeat, the hyper-funky amalgam of jazz, James Browninspired soul, traditional tribal

Featuring tracks from no fewer than 21 bands from all corners of the planet, it pays glorious tribute to the genius of the genre’s progenitors, the late great Fela Kuti and his partner-in-rhyme Tony Allen. From the opening variation on Kuti’s ‘My Teacher Taught Me Nonsense’ from the unlikely combination of a Hungarian band (Mzee) and a South Africa-based Nigerian singer (Femi Koya) to the closing remixes of original Fela Kuti tracks by Spain’s DJ Makala and Greece’s smallFall & AmazeMe Breaks, the second volume of Global Afrobeat Movement never ceases to amaze. Surprises in between include a Maloya dedication to Fela in Creole from Réunion Island band LiNDiGo, the performances of two Hungarian bands (Mabon Dawud Republic and Àbáse) and the unusual slant put on afrobeat by Japanese rockers Stepak Takraw. Standouts include the French bands Break Ya Bones and Jumbo System, Mexico’s He K Tombe, Venezuela’s Raul Monsalve y los Forajidos and Uruguay’s Tabó Afrobeat.

VARIOUS ARTISTS THE BEATLES AND INDIA Silva Screen/Planet

This companion album to the The Beatles and India documentary features songs inspired by the Fab Four’s late-1960s’ sabbatical in India at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram, as interpreted by a diverse cast of contemporary Indian artists. The cultural crossover is patchy at best, clumsy at worst. Popular Indian-American musician/producer Karsh Kale partners with sitar goddess Anoushka Shankar on ‘The Inner Light’ and makes a reasonable fist of beefing up ‘Dear Prudence’ with singer Monica Dogra. But Kolkata pop duo Parekh & Singh and the Mumbai combo of singer Tejas & Maalavika Manoj, with respectively ‘Norwegian Wood’ and ‘Across The Universe’, arguably shade the honours.

ENTAVÍA ARANDO ÑIEVE Entavía

A 5-piece band from Salamanca in the northwest of Spain, Entavía play original songs that not only relate to the roots of their own region but which also refer to rhythms and timbres from elsewhere in Spain. On their sophomore self-produced album, Andalusian flamenco, charrada from Madrid and Castile and more widely-known jota blend with Cantabrian tunes from Spain’s north coast, music from the Sierra de Francia (in the mountainous southern end of Salamanca Province) and 1930s-style copla (the Spanish equivalent of fado or tango). Traditional and selfcomposed melodies comfortably coexist in Entavía’s classy mix, played on instruments that range from Spanish guitar, bagpipes and dulzaina (a double reed instrument from the oboe family) to quenacho flute, clarinet and even Japanese koto. Lead singer Cele Hernández delivers the songs with equally impressive versatility.

LADY BLACKBIRD BLACK ACID SOUL BMG

Several jazz crits have compared the emerging Los Angeles songstress known as Lady Blackbird to Billie Holiday and other torch singers. Other pundits have cited soul divas such as Irma Thomas and Grace Jones, gospel great Mahalia Jackson and even pop superstars like Amy Winehouse, Adele and Lady Gaga.

To this reviewer’s ears, Marley Munroe (her real name) sounds closer to the legendary Nina Simone, whose music spanned all of the aforementioned genres. In any event, there’s no disputing that her eagerly anticipated and well received debut release signals the arrival of an artist who breathes fresh life into the female jazz vocalist idiom. Sultry, spiritual and ultra-soulful, Lady Blackbird sings her heart out on an album comprising mostly covers of 1960s’ songs before surprisingly ending with the set’s sole instrumental, the title track no less. LB sets the bar high with a bold opening rendition of Nina Simone’s Civil Rights anthem ‘Blackbird’ that retains the starkness of the original and yet bears the young lady’s own impressive imprint.

While the arrangements thereafter might be similarly minimalistic, they perfectly complement the gravitas and dignity of Lady B’s delivery, courtesy of some decidedly tasteful and unexpected instrumental breaks. The bluesy ballad ‘Nobody’s Sweetheart’, for example, features a well-crafted solo from New Orleans maestro Trombone Shorty, not on his usual instrument but on trumpet. One of the set’s handful of original compositions ‘Fix It’, albeit a number reportedly inspired by Bill Evans, allows pianist Deron Johnson (a former Miles Davis sideman) to stretch out on Baby

Grand, while ‘Ruler Of My Heart’ winds up with a simpatico keyboard and bass coda. Mallet-hit drums give ‘Collage’ more urgent and compulsive feel. ‘Beware The Stranger’ builds equally impressive momentum, via back-up vocals and mellotron synthesised strings.

In other similarly haunting songs, such as Sam Cooke’s ‘Lost and Looking’ and ‘It’s Not That Easy’, Lady Blackbird’s expressive voice perfectly articulates the sad search for love in troubled times.

AVATAAR WORLDVIEW InSound

Canada’s jazz recording industry no longer lives in the shadow of the US counterpart. Indeed, in terms of sheer diversity and quality, its recent releases arguably outstrip those of its southern neighbour. Avataar, an award winning Toronto-based collective, is just one of many Canuck outfits creating vibrant music from multi-cultural influences within the framework of modern jazz.

Inspired by the deep musical traditions of India, Africa and Brazil, the band’s driving grooves and soaring melodies merge with expansive cinematic arrangements to create a fresh and stimulating sonic experience. Band leader/ composer Sundar Viswanathan’s assertive alto and soprano saxophone lead work (bansuri flute on one track), Michael Occhipinti’s John McLaughlin-influenced electric guitar lines and Felicity Williams’s primarily wordless vocalising might be the icing on the cake, but behind the front-line is a gun rhythm section on Bass Veena (a hybrid fretless bass), tabla, percussion and drum-kit. As the title might suggest, thematically Avataar’s album constitutes a musical commentary on the state of the planet and the pandemic that’s currently running riot over it.

BURNT BELIEF MUTUAL ISOLATION Alchemy Records

Burnt Belief is — or rather was — the title of the first fully collaborative album between Australian born/UK-raised bass ace Colin Edwin, who made his name in the prog-rock band Porcupine Tree, and American Jon Durant, whose “cloud guitar” orchestral soundscapes have graced numerous CDs and movie soundtracks. Via several previous albums under the Burnt Belief banner the pair has developed a distinctive sound that falls between the cracks of jazz and rock. The style involves improvising around strong thematic compositions, ambient textural atmospherics and subtle electronic elements, blended with an undercurrent drawn from more ethnic traditions. Their latest expanded aural adventure, which includes an American drummer, Swiss percussionist and Estonian trumpeter, is surprisingly natural and live sounding given that, like so many pan-pandemic productions, it was recorded long-distance and that Edwin elected to play double bass rather than his usual fretless bass guitar.

The North African-influenced ‘Divine Rascal’ and funky ‘Month Of Moonlight’ are among the standout tracks.

CHARGED PARTICLES LIVE AT THE BAKED POTATO Summit Records

For their latest collaboration, renowned San Franciscan keyboards, bass and drums trio Charged Particles joined forces with veteran local Bay Area powerhouse saxophonist Tod Dickow in a heartfelt live tribute to launch Michael Brecker’s biography, Ode to a Tenor Titan. That the late sax legend’s brother Randy Brecker gave the resultant recording his resounding endorsement speaks volumes.

The sparks certainly fly between the virtuoso trio and their special guest at The Baked Potato as they get stuck into some of Michael B’s most challenging compositions with appropriate aplomb.

MACE FRANCIS PLUS 11 ISOLATION EMANCIPATION Independent

Pandemic impositions combined with economic concerns have made life particularly difficult for large ensembles, so plaudits to Perth’s Mace Francis, one of the prime movers and shakers in big band jazz in W.A., for masterminding this album.

Drawing on the hard swinging groups of the 1950s, Isolation Emancipation evokes the music of a bygone era via a mixture of covers and original compositions.

Written during lockdown, ‘Isolation Emancipation’ swings admirably, even if the disparity in volume between piano and brass section is a minor concern. ‘The Monk, The Drunk and Derek the Researcher’ would perhaps have been a punchier and more eyecatching title track. Saudade is missing in the singer’s reading of Duke Ellington’s ‘In My Solitude’, though that comment should be tempered by the fact that previous recordings of the ballad by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan have set an impossibly high standard.

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ALBUMS: Jazz 2

ALBUMS: Vinyl

BY DES COWLEY

BY STEVE BELL

SAM ANNING OAATCHAPAI Earshift Music EAR060

Oaatchapai is bassist Sam Anning’s highly anticipated follow-up to his award-winning album Across a Field as Vast as One. With that recording, Anning catapulted himself into the front ranks of Australian jazz composers, putting on full display his estimable craft for hatching melodies that linger long after the music fades. For this new recording, Anning has augmented his regular sextet – trumpeter Mat Jodrell, saxophonists Carl Mackey and Julien Wilson, pianist Andrea Keller, and drummer Rajiv Jayaweera (who replaces Danny Fischer) – with guitar wunderkind Theo Carbo. It’s a stellar line-up, and Anning once again revels in the rich musical palette as his disposal.

Opener ‘Tjurunga’ functions like a brief tone poem, a scene-setter for the title track that follows, a twelve-minute tour de force that meanders dreamily across a lush landscape, Carbo’s stark and pointy guitar underpinned by Wilson’s brooding bass clarinet.

As the piece unfolds, its various instrumental strands – Keller’s metronomic piano, Jodrell’s darting trumpet – ravishingly coalesce, seeking a unified path to resolution. Next up, the nearly tenminute ‘Giant Pebble’, which reads like an homage to the genius of Duke Ellington. On several tracks, Anning dabbles in spoken-word, his voice sweet-toned and laconic, blending in with Keller’s lilting piano. The album’s highlight comes with ‘Ripples’, fashioned out of an eye-poppingly catchy bass riff that evokes a summer’s day, sunlight dancing on leaves. Oaatchapai furnishes renewed evidence of Anning’s growing confidence and stature as musician, composer, and bandleader.

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JOHANNES LUEBBERS DECTET DIVIDE AND CONQUER Earshift Music EAR 56, CD and digital release

AUSTRALIAN ART ORCHESTRA HAND TO EARTH AAO8, CD and digital release

Divide and Conquer forms the second volume of Johannes Luebbers’ ambitious project 10x10x10. In 2017, to celebrate the 10th year of his ensemble, the composer set about creating ten new compositions, each arising out of a dialogue with the performers in his Dectet.

Other Worlds, released in 2019, contained the first five compositions, while this latest delivers the remainder. The album’s title track opens with a jaunty, staccato rhythm which rapidly gathers pace, launching tenor saxophonist Michael Wallace’s meaty solo, carved out over a lush backdrop.

His mellifluous tone lingers throughout, gliding lightly over a dancing whirl of flute, brass and piano. ‘Stepping Stones’, which features alto saxophonist Angela Davis, is a gentle, melodic piece, wistful and introspective. ‘Jack O’Lantern’ is a stellar showcase for trumpeter Paul Williamson.

Beginning with a series of dark and brooding feints, he gradually constructs complex rhythmic lines, dense and snaking. On ‘Hosh Posh’, bassist Hiroki Hoshino spars with Williamson, who again steals the show, generating a subliminal, searing heat, fuelled by Aaron McCoullough’s percussion. The final track, ‘Contrarian’, features Andrea Keller’s sparse piano, as she delicately navigates the upper register, haunting and dream-like. As with the pioneering ensembles of composer/arrangers like George Russell and Gil Evans, Luebbers’ Dectet is chockful of musical talent. Divide and Conquer, his fourth album, is arguably Luebbers’ strongest compositional statement to date.

Hand to Earth affirms the AAO’s ongoing commitment to melding musical and cultural traditions, first established under Paul Grabowsky’s stewardship with albums like Into the Fire and Crossing Roper Bar, and continued with current director Peter Knight. Crossing Roper Bar featured Yolgnu songman Daniel Wilfred and his brother David, from Ngukurr in Arnhem Land, who again grace Hand to Earth, alongside Korean vocalist Sunny Kim. Rounding out the quintet of performers is Peter Knight and Aviva Andean, who set themselves to work fashioning sculptured soundscapes via trumpet, clarinet, flute, percussion, and electronics.

The recording developed out of an AAO residency in the remote highlands in Tasmania, which brought together Daniel Wilfred and Sunny Kim. Their strong rapport, drawing upon elemental forces within their respective cultures, demonstrates the human connections we make with music, a deep kinship that traverses the here and now. The album’s opener ‘Nunguryu Nunruyu’ functions as both overture and welcome, Daniel’s voice stark against a flute-like drone. Peter Knight’s trumpet instigates ‘Water Song’, before giving way to a rhythmic vocal chant, highlighted by Sunny Kim’s intense wailing. ‘Star Song’ is spun from little more than Daniel’s voice, a lamentation intoned over a minimalist electronic backdrop.

While it comprises seven tracks, the album is best heard as a single intense listening experience roaming across space and time, evoking age-old wonder through contemporary improvisation and storytelling.

SAKOTO FUJII / ALISTER SPENCE ANY NEWS Alister Spence Music ASM 011, digital release

Plato once said: ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. Faced with extended lockdowns, pianists Alister Spence and Sakoto Fujii took Plato’s proverb to heart, recording Any News over the internet in September 2021, bridging the 8,000-kilometre gap that separates Sydney and Kobe, Japan. Spence is best known for his work with his long-running Trio, while Fujii is renowned in Japanese avant-garde circles, with over a hundred albums to her name. Any News is bookended by ‘Dice Piece 2’ and ‘Dice Piece 1’ (in that order), a series of delicate, introspective tracks that frame the hour-long performance.

Isolated notes materialise and fade, lush and tranquil, sculpting a gentle topography born out of silence. The ten-minute ‘Across the Equator’ dramatically shifts tempo, foregrounded by dense clusters and deep rumblings that careen and clash, before giving way to a ruminative coda, full of yearning. Throughout, Spence and Fujii appear engaged in an intricate dance, their overlapping notes flowing and cascading, as they jointly weave together improvised storylines. ‘The First Day of Autumn’ begins with sparse atonality, before segueing into a barrage of percussive and stringed sounds, as the pianists explore the inside of their instruments. The lengthy ‘Improvisation 2’ exhibits a strident urgency, its stop-start runs building ever-so-slowly, giving way to knotty passages that freely traverse a range of pensive states.

Spence and Fujii first crossed paths back in 2007. Any News is testimony to their unwavering commitment to exploring the outer edges of improvised music.

WARUMPI BAND

SONNY & THE SUNSETS

SMUDGE

WARUMPI ROCK: PAPUNYA SESSIONS 1982

NEW DAY WITH NEW POSSIBILITIES

REAL MCCOY, WRONG SINATRA

Lost & Lonesome

Half A Cow

San Francisco-bred outfit Sonny & The Sunsets - basically the vehicle for singersongwriter Sonny Smith - emerged in that city’s fertile garage rock scene in the latenoughties, and he’s flitted between sounds and styles on a regular basis over the ensuing years. His eighth album New Day With New Possibilities finds him back in the country realms he explored with such panache on 2012’s Longtime Companion, but while that was a bona fide break-up album this one riffs on themes of loneliness and isolation (stemming from a stretch pre-COVID where Smith isolated himself with some old western paperbacks in a remote cabin to work on his painting, but instead came back with this wistful collection of songs). Smith’s take on country has a slightly honky-tonk, Bakersfield vibe and he was inspired by the narrative bent of Willie Nelson’s 1975 classic Red Headed Stranger, which you can feel on songs like bittersweet cowboy lament ‘Ride The Lost Trail’ - complete with pedal steel courtesy Joe Goldmark - as well as the Hank Williams-esque ‘Love Obsession’ and the jauntily wistful ‘Just Hangin’ Out By Myself’.

The sparse, dry opener ‘The Lonely Men’ teases at desolation, ‘Earl & His Girl’ has a Silver Jews vibe and the twangy ‘I’m A Dog’ delves deftly into the despair of unrequited love, while closer ‘The Letter’ leaves proceedings with a welcome note of mystery rather than closure. Limited Australian run on translucent maroon vinyl.

This is the first ever time on vinyl for Real McCoy, Wrong Sinatra, the 1998 third and (so far) final album from Sydney indie rock legends Smudge. They’d expanded from their trademark trio formation into a four-piece with the addition of Pete Kelly (Decoder Ring) on second guitar without altering their distinct dynamic too much, the album recorded by Tony Dupe on an eight-track in a Gerroa shack on the NSW south coast.

The perfect power-pop of opener ‘Ya We Are Cruel But We Have Our Agenda’ segues into the more melancholic and restrained (but no less catchy) ‘Hot Potato’ in a classic one-two punch, while none of the next four songs stray far past the two-minute mark (the favoured Smudge rationale being to throw as many hooks as possible in as short a time as possible, the title track an 80-second acoustic classic). ‘Eighteen In A Week’ is an infectious slice of faux-adolescent angst, drummer Allison Galloway’s vocals provide a nice change-up on ‘Noble Rot’ and ‘Lucked Out’, while ‘Kokoro’ builds atop repetitive keyboards and fuzzily propulsive closer ‘I Was Born To Change The World’ ends by namechecking Richard Clapton (and they even found space for the strange voicemail hidden track). Smudge’s laidback, innate chemistry and front man Tom Morgan’s seemingly endless source of earworm melodies and amazing way with words combine to form snappy, humorous vignettes that lift the spirits no matter the mood or climate, and the remastering job has the limited run vinyl sounding just as good.

Love Police

Warumpi Band were pioneers of Indigenous rock’n’roll in Australia, and this new release of their easiest ever recordings is a fascinating insight into their formative years.

They formed in 1980 in the remote Northern Territory outback settlement Papunya, where young Victorian schoolteacher Neil Murray washed up driving trucks and working on the outstations. When he bonded over music with some young Indigenous locals they formed a band - playing all covers at first - and in 1982 Philip Batty of the CAAMA travelled the 250km from Alice Springs with his two-track reel-to-reel set-up and recorded them in Murray’s loungeroom (he was back teaching again). The result is a gloriously ramshackle collection of classic rock’n’roll covers from the ‘60s and ‘70s - The Stones, The Beatles, Dylan, Chuck Berry plus some country numbers (‘Blanket On The Ground’, ’Silver Threads And Golden Needles’, ‘Pamela Brown’) and the sole instrumental original ‘Warumpi Rock’.

Much-missed frontman George Rrurrambu was already oozing charisma and there was already an evident chemistry amongst his bandmates despite their slightly rudimentary chops (although guitarist Sammy Butcher dazzles at times), but the fun they were having making this noise together is both palpable and contagious on tracks like ‘It’s All Over Now’, ‘Get Back’, ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’, ‘The Last Time’, ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’, ’Rock And Roll Music’ and so many others. It’s a mono recording and rough as guts but that camaraderie alone makes this album an absolute delight.

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Rhythms Books Long Players: Writers on Albums that Shaped Them Edited by Tom Gatti (Bloomsbury, h/b) While the long-player was spawned as early as 1948 – driven

by Columbia Records’ desire to squeeze key works from their classical catalogue onto single discs – it didn’t really come of age in pop music, certainly not as an artistic medium, until albums like Rubber Soul and Pet Sounds landed. Prior to that, in the words of Phil Spector, an album was ‘two hits and ten pieces of junk’.

But there would be little filler henceforth, as major artists, from Pink Floyd to Led Zeppelin to Joni Mitchell increasingly viewed their forty-minute allotment of vinyl as a blank canvas on which to etch their masterpiece.

The rise of the compact disc in the late 1980s didn’t disrupt this trend.

Radiohead’s OK Computer wasn’t any less a conceptual statement because it happened to be on a small shiny disc, rather than PVC. But, as editor Tom Gatti points out in his introduction to Long Players, everything began to change with the arrival of Napster and the subsequent digital revolution. With Spotify’s inexhaustible capacity for streaming songs, and formulating themed playlists, the album has been forced to take a backseat. A US survey in 2018 showed that 54% of listeners focused their attention on individual tracks, with just 18% listening to albums. As Gatti states: ‘Online interfaces are landscapes of distraction, with algorithm-driven suggestions at every turn: it requires a degree of resolve to commit to an album for its duration’.

Despite this – thankfully – outstanding albums continue to be made, and extoled. Consider Kendrick Lamar’s Damn, awarded a Pulitzer Prize, the first pop album to do so.

Gatti’s book began life as a series of short pieces he commissioned for The Statesman, whereupon he asked literary writers to contribute pieces on albums they cherished (as distinct from their ‘favourite’ album’). While it’s an eclectic roster of music, the range of writers featured is impressive, including many award-winning novelists: Marlon James, Patricia Lockwood, Deborah Levy, Colm Toibin, Eimear McBride, Teju Cole, Will Self, Ali Smith, Lionel Shriver, George Saunders, and many others. What emerges most strongly in these pieces is the way in which albums remain touchstones for key personal moments, forming an alternative soundtrack to our lives. As Gatti says, for many of these writers, albums were ‘Proustian madeleines’ that sent them back to a particular time and place.

For Deborah Levy, the effect of listening to Ziggy Stardust was ‘nothing less than throwing petrol at the naked flame of teenage longing’. When novelist David Mitchell first heard Joni Mitchell’s Blue, he discovered ‘an artist, unpeeled’, the songs like ‘pages torn from a raw autobiography’.

When playing the B-52s Mark Ellen is ‘transported to a sun-lit universe where pool-side parties are in permanent swing’. Gatti’s book aims to explore the intersection between literature and music. Most of these pieces are brief, no more than 2-3 pages. In some cases, this brevity works against them. However, at their best, they accomplish the job in sending the reader back to the music, testimony to Gatti’s dictum: ‘Albums can alter the architecture of our minds’.

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Rhythms Books Too

By Des Cowley

By Stuart Coupe

Hot Stuff: The Story of the Rolling Stones Through the Ultimate Memorabilia Collection

By Matt Lee (Welbeck, distributed by Allen & Unwin, h/b) This one is for the true believers.

Collector Matt Lee fell hard for the Stones at agetwelve when his father gifted him a Solid Rock. He didn’t get to see the band perform live, however, until he was nineteen, at a 1995 concert at Wembley. Since then, he’s chalked up over 150 live performances.

That’s some commitment, and stamina. In the meantime, he’s amassed enough paraphernalia to land him in the Guinness Book of Records in 2019 for the world’s largest collection of Stones memorabilia.

Lee’s illustrated book, laid out chronologically, reproduces some 1,400 items, aided by a brief running commentary. The earliest item in his collection is an acetate of the first Stones recording, made at IBC Studios on 11 March 1963, featuring the Bo Didley cover ‘Didley Daddy’ among others. He possesses the earliest surviving Stones poster, from a cancelled show at the Antelope Hotel on 13 April 1963.

Lee has managed to get his hands on some unexpected documents, including early agreements and contracts. He owns the accounts book from the 1965 Winter tour, which tells us the band earned a whopping US $550,000 at a time when the average UK house cost £3,500. Charlie Watts, ever the sartorial one, spent $1,000 on clothes on 9 November, and a further $875 on phone calls on 16 November. While Brian Jones kept pace with Charlie’s phone bills, it appears he spent nothing at all on clothes.

The book is full of stories of how Lee tenaciously cadged rare items out of other collectors, or went down the rabbit hole in pursuit of famed rarities. His picture sleeve single of ‘Street Fighting Man’, withdrawn before it hit the shelves for depicting a photo of police brutality, is one of only twenty known copies. And the rarest Stones record? Lee gives pride of place to his copy of RSM-1, the first UK promotional album released in 200 copies just prior to the release of Let It Bleed.

Turning the pages of Lee’s book, I felt a sense of profound relief that I’m not a serious collector. This is a man kept awake at night, knowing he’s yet to track down the eagle lapel pin issued for the 1975 tour (just kidding, he’s got one). As the Stones metamorphized into a juggernaut, the sheer amount of product produced is mind-boggling.

There’s the bubble-gum display unit, with mini albums filled with gum.

There are the mugs, the coasters, the t-shirts, the ping-pong balls, the paper plates, the Emotional Rescue kidney bowl. The ubiquitous lips and tongue are everywhere. Lee’s book is a consummate visual treat for the Stones’ fan. And yet, despite having amassed so much, Lee can still stare the truth painfully in the face: ‘There are many more things to collect’.

J

ohn Lurie’s not exactly a household name to most people. So, what gives with a 435 page hardback memoir? Lots in fact in what is one of the more engaging and readable music memoirs of 2021. And I’d say that even if you’re not one of the people who owns every Lounge Lizards album (yep, that was Lurie’s outfit), or reveres the Marvin Pontiac album (Lurie again), or knows him from films like Stranger Than Paradise or Down By Law – or his television series Fishing With John. I could go on. Lurie has done a lot.

But I loved this book despite having only one Lounge Lizards album (the first), not having listened to the Marvin Pontiac album in a long time and having never seen the key films or the television series. In fact, it would be fair to say that until a few weeks ago I knew bugger all about John Lurie beyond his name and that he was involved in lots of creative stuff. I know a lot more now and I’m not sure I ever want to meet him – but I was pretty damn fascinated by his recollections of life and times.

For starters Lurie – who has apparently been working on this book on and off for over a decade – can really write. He has a terrific style and a conversational approach to telling you a whole bunch of personal things. A lot of it you don’t think you’ll be all that interested in until he starts telling you the yarns – and suddenly you’re leaning across the table going ‘John, tell me a bit more dude.’

We get terrific information and anecdotes about Lurie’s upbringing and family which is far more engaging than you might expect, especially if you barely know who the guy is. This is the skill of great memoir writing – talking childhood and upbringing material and making it into total page turning stuff. Second

his relationships with people didn’t exactly get filed in the cabinets marked Loving, Respectful and Let’s Do It Again Soon.

chapter – ‘The First Time They Arrested Me, I Actually Was Drunk’ being a great title and even better collection of yarns.

But the book really takes off when Lurie moves to New York in the very late 1970s and takes us on a roller coaster ride of drugs, sex and creativity. He writes beautifully and evocatively of the East Village scene in that era – and, of course, there’s lots and lots and LOTS of famous figures making cameos. And strangely, it doesn’t feel like name dropping as Lurie really was part of this world. But read it for heaps of gossipy insights about the likes of Debbie Harry, Andy Warhol and, particularly, Jean-Michel Basquiat who Lurie has a bizarrely close, then not close, then close again relationship with.

Maybe it was the drugs – and this book drips with heroin, cocaine and alcohol. It’s volatile, bitchy, intense, creative, back stabblingly all over the shop world that he draws superbly.

Lurie’s life is a roller coaster ride of missed opportunities, miraculous encounters, weird projects, touring, relationships, drugs and more drugs. Lurie seems to have taken a large proportion of the world’s heroin supply and slept with just about every attractive woman in New York City and many other cities too.

In all these respects he treads – usually successfully – a very fine line between self-deprecation and ego. He clearly has a massive sense of himself but can also look into the mirror and see his screwups and why

Lurie says early on that he’s not using his memoir to settle scores – but he doesn’t exactly stick to that and the constant jibes at Jim Jarmusch and accusations about him ripping off Lurie’s ideas does become a little tiring, and as the book goes on there’s a degree of repetition and introspection that would have most readers flicking through pages if it wasn’t for Lurie’s writing style.

As I neared the end I started to feel that Lurie isn’t someone I ever really want to meet, and I started to realise why he’s such a polarising figure to many. And curiously – unlike most music/film books I read – this didn’t have me scurrying to listen to albums and watch films I hadn’t seen. Maybe it was because even though I loved the writing and the atmosphere and insights I didn’t warm to Lurie personally.

The History Of Bones – despite its length – winds up at the end of the 1980s. After that Lurie appears to have had a rather bizarre and not all together great life. He’s been very ill since 2000 with what was finally diagnosed as chronic Lyme disease. There’s also been some very bizarre aspects to his later life, most of them detailed in a long piece in the New Yorker piece called Sleeping With Weapons which is easy enough to find and totally worth reading. Especially once you’ve devoured this.

These days he’s back in the public eye with his Painting With John television series on HBO Overall Lurie’s memoir is a terrific read – especially if you’re fascinated and obsessed by the Downtown music and arts scene in the first half of the 1980s.

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THE LAST WORD

TESKEY BROTHERS ADD ORCESTRA Appearing at Bluesfest in April, The Teskeys warm up with some exclusive orchestra shows.

Drummer Liam Gough was quizzed by Brian Wise about the new album, Live At Hamer Hall.

Hall.

By Brian Wise

D

Live At Hamer Hall, recorded in Melbourne in December of 2020 sees the ARIAwinning, Grammy-nominated group’s songs reimagined by arranger Jamie Messenger and performed live with Orchestra Victoria, led by conductor Nicholas Buc. The show was streamed live to fans across the world on YouTube and is now available to everyone in digital and other formats. The 50-minute performance featured hits from the band’s two albums Run Home Slow (2019) and Half Mile Harvest (2017) as well their two original Teskey Brothers Christmas songs, ‘Dreaming Of A Christmas With You’ and ‘Highway Home For Christmas’.

It’s a long way from the beginnings of the Teskey Brothers band, playing at the outer suburban St Andrews market on the weekends and then warming up the crowd for Geoff Achison at the pub.

“Not in my wildest dreams could I have ever imagined that we’d be playing shows in Hamer Hall, but especially with a 40-piece orchestra,” says Liam Gough from his studio in Warrandyte. “I mean, it was pretty wild spending a day recording in Hamer Hall for the live album. There was enough pressure doing it with just the 40-piece orchestra, but now we’re taking it to the big stage in a few cities around Australia.

“It’s very exciting but it’s also going to be quite nerve-wracking holding it all together, especially myself playing drums, having to work with Nicholas Buck, the conductor.

We’re sort of back-to-back, and we have to keep looking over our shoulders and working together, trying to hold the two worlds 98

together, and work in symbiosis, I guess. So, it’s going to be both exhilarating and nervewracking.”

“It was meant to just be live streams or shown on YouTube as a performance between lockdowns,” explains Gough of the original show, “but then everyone at the labels and our management, and we actually listened back and we were like, ‘Wow, this is sounding pretty amazing.’ It was a real snapshot of a moment in time.”

“We really put a lot of thought into it, and we worked closely with Jamie Messenger who arranged all of the orchestra string sections,” responds Gough when I ask how they decided on the set list. “There’s songs from our two studio albums that, and songs singles from between the studio albums that already strings on them, which we were really wanting to do because we’ve never been able to play live with a string section. In the studio, we recorded with a quartet, a string quartet so to have the opportunity to put a whole 40-piece symphonic orchestra on our music was just something we jumped at. But definitely we’ve considered the set list on the album and live picking the songs that are going to work best and show off the orchestra and make full use of them.”

There are segments during the performance - for example, in the middle of ‘Pain In My Heart’ - that sound like they could have come from a James Bond movie score.

“Well, that’s what we were going for,” agrees Gough. “There’s a few moments. I got sent the test pressings to listen on my stereo first

and I’d had a glass of wine at night and I’d just cooked dinner and I was home by myself and I was getting some hairs standing on the back of my neck, listening to some of the orchestra parts. So, I think that’s a pretty good reference if we’re getting some James Bond like themes in there - that’s sort of what we were going for.”

Gough and his colleagues listened to a lot of live albums in their younger days and he doesn’t take much prodding to recall some of his favourites.

“The Allman Brothers live album was always a big one for us, as is Live at the Cook County Jail as well. BB King. They’re two on high rotation that we’ve always taken reference from - and a lot of inspiration from - because there’s an energy in the room with both of those albums, obviously. Amazing venues, but also strange situations, especially at Cook County Jail. So, there’s just an energy about the albums and the performances that we really loved and there a snapshot in time, and it doesn’t sound like a studio album. So, I think you can hear the energy that’s coming off the audience and the performance.”

“It’s going to be amazing,” agrees Gough when I suggest that that will be a lot of energy at the forthcoming live shows, including Bluesfest.

“It’s going to be a huge, huge moment for us having not played much for two years, much like other musicians, but to play a show of that size with those capacities is going to be an amazing way for us to get back out there, and just enjoy playing for a live crowd. We’re looking forward to enjoying the energy that the crowd gets going for us as well.”

oes it say something about the state of contemporary music that three of its biggest events were a new album from Abba after a 40 year ‘hiatus’, a tour by the Rolling Stones (a band founded in 1962), and a near eight-hour documentary on The Beatles, a group that broke up more than 50 years ago? This might seem a puzzle to those who didn’t live through the heydays of these outfits, but for those who did this nostalgic journey has been somewhat of an emotional experience.

I have been surprised at the number of people who have admitted that they cried while watching Get Back, Peter Jackson’s astounding three-part documentary that explores the final days of The Fab Four.

Then I recall how much their music meant to everyone a half a century ago. When the news arrived that The Beatles had finally called it quits it was like a bombshell. At first it was incomprehensible that a group that had dominated music for seven years and developed at a mind-boggling rate would no longer be in our lives. For years, every Beatles release – album or single was an event by which you measured life.

You would hang out to hear a new track on the radio and when one was finally available - after an agonising wait of weeks - you would then hear it dozens of times a day on multiple radio stations. (In Melbourne there were only eight AM stations at the end of the ‘60s!). Obviously, your response to Get Back will be determined by your investment in The Beatles or the era.

By the time in which this documentary is set, I was more of a Rolling Stones fan but still entranced by everything The Beatles did. While the mainstream media and music press was all over the group, the fact that there was no social media meant that the pressures on the members were less, allowing it to survive and create for a decade. In just seven years, the group produced eleven studio albums (plus soundtracks and EPs) which became

GET BACK arguably the most influential output in music history. But it was more than just the music that contributed to the allure of The Beatles. Here was a group of funny, intelligent and charismatic individuals that appealed to teenagers and adults alike. Our parents could like The Beatles but abhor The Rolling Stones (which is probably what shifted the balance to the latter for me).

Get Back is condensed from 57 hours of film footage shot for Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Let It Be (which was only 80 minutes long), to a three-part ‘fly on the wall’ series, in the tradition of D.A. Pennebaker’s films. The film restoration is fantastic and if you watch it on a large television screen you will feel at times like you are in the studio with the group! Apparently, Jackson made an 18hour version which had to be condensed.

The film begins at the Twickenham Film Studios in January 1969 where Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Starr plus partners and crew are gathered to rehearse for a concert in an exotic location and shown on a worldwide television broadcast. When Lindsay-Hogg’s loopy idea to go to Libya is scrapped in favour of a rooftop concert at the Apple Corps headquarters in Savile Row, London, they move there and enlist Billy Preston on keyboards.

Unlike Jean-Luc Godard’s stultifyingly boring 1969 doco on the The Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil (also shot

by Get Back’s original cinematographer, Tony Richmond) this offers a dynamic view of the group members. What we see and hear are four musicians coming to the end of their professional relationship.

Jackson takes quite a different approach from Let It Be, released in 1970, in that he prefers to show the deep connection between the musicians rather than dwell on the things that tore them apart. We are witness to the humour, the repartee, and the friendship as well as the creativity (the way Paul McCartney composes ‘Get Back’ is a revelation). The caveat here is that a

Disney+ I Director: Peter Jackson Running Time: 7 hours 48 mins. filmmaker can chose footage to tell a story from a variety of angles.

John Lennon complained that the original film concentrated too much on McCartney.

While Jackson does not ignore the tensions and shows Harrison quitting the sessions this is a far more optimistic view of what happened. Ringo Starr recently noted that the arguments within the group were like family spats and that there was still a lot of love amongst them. I found the fact that tolerance shown by Paul, George, and Ringo in accepting Yoko’s presence sitting right beside John as evidence of this. The sessions did not seem to be ‘hell’, as Lennon once suggested, nor did they seem to be all lightness and joy. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

The real story of Get Back is the tremendous creativity of a group of musicians who were able to create lasting music in just a couple of weeks. Apart from the Let It Be songs, you also hear some that will appear on Abbey Road, Lennon debuting ideas for ‘Gimme Some Truth’ and ‘Jealous Guy’, McCartney working on ‘Another Day’ and Harrison working on ‘All Things Must Pass’ (and you can understand why he was peeved that The Beatles wouldn’t record it).

The rooftop performance is brilliant and even more moving given that it is The Beatles’ final public performance. Some fans might see it as a melancholy conclusion to The Beatles. I think it is triumphant.

Neil Young said that it is better to burn out than to fade away. Contrast Get Back with the recent Ken Burns documentary on Muhammad Ali, arguably a much more important cultural icon, who didn’t know when to stop.

What we have here is a shimmering memory of a brilliant group of musicians who disbanded at the top of their game.

Still all in their twenties at the time of the filming they all went on to very successful solo careers leaving a magnificent and probably unsurpassable legacy.

99

Archie Roach

Ngaiire

Janis Ian

Phil Leadbetter

Joanne Shenandoah

Seán Tyrrell

COMPILED BY SUE BARRETT

As COVID booster vaccinations roll out, music festivals are back!

There is a Festival Calendar (under the Resources tab) on Folk Alliance Australia’s website: www.folkalliance.org.au Among the performers for the National Folk Festival (under new artistic director Katie Noonan) in Canberra at Easter are: Archie Roach, Kate Ceberano, Josh Pyke, Emma Donovan, Neil Murray, Lior & Domino, Robyn Archer, Zulya, Fred Smith, Ruth Hazleton, Bill Chambers, All Our Exes Live in Texas, Montgomery Church.

Tickets at: www.folkfestival.org.au CAAMA Music has re-released four digitally re-mastered albums – Areyonga Desert Tigers, Light On (1987); Ilkari Maru, Wangangarangku Rungkanu (Lightning Strikes) (1987); Trevor Adamson, Where I Belong (1989); Yartulu Yartulu Band, Kanga Julu Piwa (Take Me Back to My Country) (originally released on cassette in 1994).

Australian musician Geoffrey O’Connor, of Crayon Fields, is launching his new (duets) album, For as Long as I Can Remember, at Northcote Social Club, Melbourne in Feb. The Folk Alliance International Conference in Missouri, USA in Feb includes a two-hour virtual spotlight showcase of Australian performers. More at: www.folk.org Ngaiire (www.ngaiire.com) begins her 2022 tour in Jan, with gigs at The Triffid (Brisbane), The Northern (Byron Bay), Altar (Hobart) and more.

If you are looking for gigs in the Sydney region, The Manly Fig has links to other venues on its website (and in its newsletters): www. themanlyfig.org Sunday 13 February is World Radio Day. You might find a new listening option among members of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (www.cbaa.org.au) or on InternetRadio, which still has an Amazing Grace station (www.internet-radio.com) Trinity Sessions (Clarence Park, Adelaide) has Paco Lara (Jan) and then Michael Waugh (Feb). In Darwin, gigs at The Railway Club include Daniel Champagne in Feb. And in Canberra, Smith’s Alternative has Emily Barker in Jan and upcoming gigs at The Street in Feb include The Necks and Montgomery Church.

New releases include: Isaac Murdoch & Matt Epp, You Were Chosen to be Here; Sarah McQuaid, The St Buryan Sessions; Josh Pyke, To Find Happiness; Debi Smith, Then and Now; Mark Perry, Northwest; Janis Ian, The Light at the End of the Line; Seasick Steve, Blues in Mono; Hurray for the Riff Raff, Life on Earth; Simon Mayor & Hilary James, When Summer Comes Again; Steve Poltz, Stardust and Satellites; Amanda Rheaume, 100 Years; Christy Moore, Flying Into Mystery; Jamie McDell, Jamie McDell; William Crighton, Water and Dust; Ash Grunwald, Shout into the Noise.

Among new music books are: Jeff Tweedy, How to Write One Song; Stephen H Smith, Albion’s Glory: Celebration of Twentieth Century English Composers; Elizabeth Wilson, Playing with Fire: Story of Maria Yudina, Pianist in Stalin’s Russia; The Secret DJ, Tales from the Booth; David Huckvale, Piano on Film; Amanda Harris, Representing Australian Aboriginal Music & Dance 1930-1970; Martin Hayes, Shared Notes: A Musical Journey; Shana GoldinPerschbacher, Queer Country 100

Drummer Ron Tutt (83), who worked with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carpenters, Neil Diamond, Dory Previn, Doc Watson, Jerry Garcia, Billy Joel, Maria Muldaur, The Beach Boys, Gram Parsons, died Tennessee, USA (Oct) Jay Black (82), singer with Jay and the Americans, died New York, USA (Oct) Irish musician Paddy Moloney (83), of The Chieftains, died Ireland (Oct) Phil Leadbetter (59), American bluegrass musician, died Tennessee, USA (Oct) American composer and arranger Ralph Carmichael (94), died Illinois, USA (Oct) Sonny Osborne (83), of The Osborne Brothers, died Tennessee, USA (Oct) Irish accordion player Tony MacMahon (82), died in Oct Ginny Mancini (97), American singer and philanthropist, died California, USA (Oct) Jamaican musician Lloyd Willis (73), died Jamaica (Oct) Gay McIntyre (88), Irish jazz musician, died Derry, Ireland (Oct) Drummer Everett Morton (71) of The Beat, who was born in St Kitts, died in Oct Seán Tyrrell (78), musician from the west of Ireland, died Ireland (Oct) Irish-born musician Robin Morton (81), founding member of Boys of the Lough and manager of Battlefield Band, died Scotland (Oct) Philip Margo (79), of The Tokens, died California, USA (Nov) Australian singer-songwriter Mark Gillespie (71), died Bangladesh (Nov) Sean Higgins (68), Australian songwriter, died in November American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim (91), known for West Side Story, Gypsy, Sunday in the Park with George and A Little Night Music (which included the song, ‘Send in the Clowns’), died Connecticut, USA (Nov) Barry Coope (67), of Ram’s Bottom, John Tams Band and a cappella group Coope Boyes and Simpson, died in Nov British musician Belinda Sykes (55), who had a deep interest in women’s medieval song and European medieval music, died in Nov Joanne Shenandoah (64), American singer-songwriter, died Arizona, USA (Nov) American songwriter Margo Guryan (84), died California, USA (Nov) Theuns Jordaan (50), South African singer-songwriter, died in Nov English rock photographer Mick Rock (72), died New York, USA (Nov) Terence ‘Astro’ Wilson (64), of UB40, died (Nov) American animator (and drummer with Spike Jones) Joe Siracusa (99), died California, USA (Nov) 101

Palace of Magnificent Experiences at 267 Swan Street, Richmond is a live music, multi-arts exhibition, performance and arts retail space, with cocktail, wine, beer and food selections. POME presents live music 5 days per week – from blues, jazz, world music and everything in between – burlesque, visual & performing arts and life drawing. With cinematic experiences to come.

POME provides Q&A sessions with all artists during their exhibitions – all explaining the history, meanings and unique processes of their art. Head to the POME webpage for all upcoming events plus online art store.

pome.bernzerk

There is no place like POME!

www.bernzerk-pome.com.au

2022 lineup includes: A.B. Original Azymuth & Marcos Valle (BRAZIL) Baker Boy Barkaa The Cat Empire* Cedric Burnside (USA) Courtney Barnett Electric Fields Floating Points (UK ) Gaby Moreno (USA) Goanna Gordon Koang Haiku Hands Inner City (Live) Jerome Farah Joseph Tawadros with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra King Stingray L.A.B L-FRESH The LION Melbourne Ska Orchestra Motez (Live) Parvyn Paul Kelly The Shaolin Afronauts Springtime Troy Kingi + many more

11–14 March 2022

Botanic Park /Tainmuntilla Adelaide womadelaide.com.au

T I CK E T S ON S A L E N OW !