After several years on this platform, Jolene: The Country Music Blog has moved to Wordpress. The entire site content is on the new platform, but this original Blogger site will remain as an archive.
Thank you to the thousands and thousands of readers who have visited this website - I hope you will join me at the new site!
https://jolenethecountrymusicblog.wordpress.com is the Wordpress address
You can also get to the website through jolenethecountrymusicblog.com
Thanks again,
Sophie
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Friday, February 2, 2018
Single release: 'Your Anything At All' by Imogen Clark
Clark says of the new single, 'I wrote 'Your Anything At All' in my head while on stage at one of my gigs. The song covers defiance and confidence in the face of self-doubt, and rebelling with strength against someone who's made you feel worthless. There's vulnerability but also sass in the song.'
The album was produced by Mark Lizotte, better known to audiences as Diesel, and is an up-tempo number showcasing Clark's wonderful voice. You can watch the video for 'Your Anything At All' below.
Preorder the album here: https://ImogenClark.lnk.to/
Spotify, iTunes etc: https://ImogenClark.lnk.to/
www.imogenclark.com.au
Monday, January 29, 2018
Interview: Dean Ray
Ray is a fascinating artist, and The Messenger is compelling; I only wish we could have spoken for longer.
You come from a
musical family and your parents were performing while you were growing up –
what is your earliest music-related memory?
I think it’s a sound memory – it’s not so much something
that I saw. The sound of being behind the stage, and the smells and everything
that goes with backstage. It’s like a really muffled sound. You can hear mostly
bass – a bass sound – from behind the music. That’s probably the thing I
remember most, because from maybe the age of one they’d put me to sleep backstage
while they played shows. I remember that muffled sound and the smell of the
curtains and the equipment.
A lot of kids don’t
get to be where their parents are when they’re working. Was there a certain age
when you thought, I really want to be out
there with them – I don’t understand why they’re leaving me behind?
It did get to that point once I started to play music. When
I was eight or ten, I said, ‘I want to be doing that’, because I was already
playing drums by then. I started playing drums from birth [laughs]. I always
had this natural rhythm and I’d be playing rhythmic stuff on Milo tins and
hubcaps. I was always trying to play drums. So I think I started actually
playing when I was five and when I was eight I wanted to be playing with them.
But I wasn’t good enough – I was a kid. They started us playing three or four
songs with them at that age.
Did you ever feel
nervous doing it or were you more excited?
I don’t think I was overly nervous. It was more of an
excitement thing. I felt nerves more when it came to singing, but as far as
playing music, I could be on a stage in front of it wouldn’t matter how many
people and I wouldn’t be nervous about just playing music – being a guitarist
or a drummer. But being the frontman, I get nervous about that. I still get
nervous now before shows.
In some ways you
wonder whether it’s good to have those nerves – they keep that edge there, and
they suggest that you still really want people to have a good experience in the
audience. If you lose the nerves, I wonder if you lose the interest in the
audience in some ways.
You don’t lose the interest in the audience but you do lose
the high. You want to have those nerves so that when you hit the stage the
adrenaline will kick in, and then you get that high. I’ve only played a few
shows when there’s been no nerves and I’ve still performed the show just the
same but I didn’t get a high out of being on the stage. I got a high from the
audience – I felt the vibes – but I didn’t have that adrenaline rush.
Just thinking of you
being a little fella and wanting to play drums – it’s interesting that you
connected with beats first instead of melodies, given that you now play guitar
and sing.
My mother played in bands up until she was eight months
pregnant with me, so I believe it’s that. I think it was the subconscious. I
just always had rhythm because of that. I was in the womb just getting pounded
by the bottom end, by bass – there wasn’t much of a choice! They didn’t play
when she was pregnant with my brother but when he was born they’d get him to
sleep by my dad playing records like The Shadows – real melodic music. He never
had a sense of rhythm but he can play piano really well. His sense of melody is
beautiful.
So you two are like a
little science experiment, in a way. If you want to produce certain types of
musicians …
You can influence certain things, definitely.
And given she was
playing when she was eight months pregnant, you really would have been feeling
those vibrations.
It would have been so loud [laughs]. I’d have been thumping
around from kidney to kidney.
Eventually you did
progress to melodies because you started singing – at what age was that?
I was forced into it. I was really, really bad at singing –
I’m talking tone-deaf bad.
I can’t believe that,
given how you sing now.
It’s because I’ve worked my arse off. Ten thousand hours
[laughs[, that’s all it is. It’s a skill, it’s not a gift. People say, ‘Oh,
you’re so gifted’, and I say, ‘In what sense?’ They say, ‘Your voice and your
guitar playing.’ And I say, ‘No, that’s skill. That’s all skill.’ When I first
picked up a guitar, I was shit. And when I first played the drums or played
bass, I was shit. And when I first sang, it was bad. It was quite woeful. But I
think the reason I was able to get to where I am is because I became obsessed. I
think a lot of musicians have a mild sense of autism about them. I did an
autism test once and apparently I’m autistic [laughs]. A friend of mine, his
son was autistic and he did the test on me and he said, ‘You’re autistic.’ And
I said, ‘No? Really?’ But I do get obsessed with things. That’s what I was like
and I’m still like now. I didn’t have video games as a kid – we didn’t even
have a computer – so I was obsessed with music. I’d be playing drums all the
time. And then when guitar came about, when I was twelve or thirteen, that was
it for me then – I was just really addicted to that. It was full-on, all the
time. My fingers would bleed and I’d have to Supaglue them back together so I
could keep playing. Singing – I’d started writing songs and I think I was
fourteen when I first sang. Dad forced me into it. I’d written a song and he
said, ‘Well, are you going to sing it?’ And I said, ‘Oh no, man – hell no.’ He
said, ‘How are we supposed to know what it sounds like?’ And I said, ‘It sounds
like shit. I know what it sounds like and I’m not going to sing it.’ Anyway, he
talked me into singing. I stood in a corner and sang it – I couldn’t face
anybody. And it wasn’t long later – I think the first time I played in front of
people was on the Gold Coast at Lloyd Nugent’s house. Lloyd Nugent made
Moccasins, which are the shows that shearers wear. And we were there at his
place, with his family, and I sang in front of about 30 people. That cured it
then – I wasn’t nervous singing in front of people again.
When you wrote that
song, and wrote other songs, who did you think was going to sing them?
Not me. I was just doing my job, I guess. I was channelling
stuff and writing it down. I hadn’t thought any further than that. I just
thought, I’d better write this down.
That idea of
channelling – did you obey that urge to write things down when it first came to
you or did you have it for a while before you began writing?
I met them when I was probably eight. I met these strange
characters that weren’t from around here, you know? They gave me certain
knowledge and energies and things, and they’ve always guided me through certain
situations. They’ve guided me through everything. That opened me up to all
spirituality, not just hierarchy spirits. Which was quite dangerous, you know –
it’s a very dangerous thing to be open to everything spiritually. You need to
be able to protect yourself otherwise you get hit with negative energies,
forces, whatever you want to call them. There’s different strengths among them.
I never had any trouble with it, though, until I was older. But they’d just
take over and you’d write a song. You don’t remember writing it, you just know
that the time had changed – the time on your watch was different to what it was
before.
That idea of
protecting yourself – if you’re open to that you’re open to everything, and it
takes a lot of practice and discipline to protect yourself. Is there a
correlation between the practice and discipline it took you to play instruments
and become a great singer, and learning to protect yourself? That recognition
that work is required, I guess is what I’m trying to say.
I don’t’know if it’s discipline – it’s not too hard to
protect yourself. I just didn’t know how. If anyone is reading and struggling
with something like that, they f*cking hate crucifixes. I have crucifixes all
over the place, and I’m not Christian. I take bits and pieces from all
different religions, but as far as religions themselves, I think they’re a man
-made thing to control people. It’s no different than a government now.
Religions were the government back in the day – suck money out of the poor.
There’s a lot of truth to all the different religions and their writings, but a
whole lot of it is manipulative bullshit.
Designed to keep
people in line.
To keep them suppressed. Keeping people in line and keeping
people are down are two vastly different things. The issue with the world at
the moment is that they’re obsessed with keeping people down, which is why 10
per cent of the world make most of the money. And they won’t share it. They
have no intention of sharing it. Why the f*ck not share it? If you’re sitting
there with 70 billion dollars in your bank account, what good is that? There’s
so many people starving around the world and there’s so many people sitting
there with stacks of cash. Gene Simmons is incredible – the bass player from
KISS. He’s gone out and made squillions of money, and he’s set up all sorts of
schools all through Africa. The kids can go in – they’ve got clean, running
drinking water and he supplies breakfasts for them when they get there,
lunches, dinners, sends them on their way. That’s what you should be doing with
the money.
I would happily talk
to you further about all sorts of things, because I’m sure it would be
interesting, but I should go back to your music. And the topic of channelling
the songs. You’ve said elsewhere that a lot of the songs aren’t about you
personally – they’ve come to you – but all the songs on the album have the same
sense of emotion and power behind them, as if they’re all occurring to you. Is
it ever hard to summon that each time – each take you do – does that ever feel
like it’s draining, or does it come back to learning to protect yourself?
It’s draining as shit [laughs]. It’s so draining. It’s one
of the most tiring things I’ve done, what I do now. When I perform I have this
rapid meditation before I go on. It only lasts about 30 seconds and I pull in
as much divine energy as I can and charge myself up. There’s pictures that I’ve
seen that people have taken at shows, of the aura that’s around me, and I
charge that up and give it all out while I perform. But I don’t like to leave
the stage unless I’ve given it all out. Which is why people feel good at the
shows. They get the goosebumps and they feel this mysterious force going on
-it’s because there is a mysterious force going on. It’s mysterious to them.
They’re unaware of what the bloody hell is going on. But I’m feeding them not
just songs. There’s an energy play going on.
That’s a massive
commitment from you, so it’s no wonder you’re drained.
Yes, but it’s my purpose. People think that singing and
guitar is my gift, but it’s not. I was given a gift and I remember the moment
and the beings that gave it to me, and it was the gift of energy and knowledge
of being able to communicate that. That’s my gift. My gift is not the music. My
music is purely a foundation in which I can spread the knowledge that they’re
telling me. I’ve had to get good at it so people will listen to it [laughs].
But it’s also feeling
that responsibility to the knowledge you were given and also responsibility to
the audience to bring it to them.
Yes. I try not to focus too much on responsibility and feel
the pressure of everything, because at the end of the day I don’t write the
path. The path is written. People think you can change it because they say,
‘No, I won’t do this today – I’ll do that. There you go, I’ve changed the
path.’ No, but it was written for you to change. It’s always written. Nothing
that I can do – except do the best I can.
I now understand
better why I keep going back to your album. Musically it’s terrific but there
was something else going on, and now I know what it is. So thanks for creating
it and thanks for your time.
No worries. Thanks for your time.
The Messenger is out now.
Sunday, January 28, 2018
Single release: 'Always On My Mind' by Jessica Mauboy and Warren H Williams
Mauboy has said of Williams that he is 'an uncle of mine who taught me how to sing and gave me my first spot in the studio' - so that richness may come from the history these two outstanding performers share. It was Williams who opened the door at CAAMA Music (Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association) to the 11-year-old Jessica Mauboy and immediately recognised her considerable vocal talent. They reconnected at the Yabun Festival in 2017; it was a chance meeting that saw them make a pact to record together again.
Listen to 'Always On My Mind' below or
www.jessicamauboy.com.au
www.facebook.com/WarrenHWilliamsMusic
Album news: Vacancy by Broads
I first heard a Broads song on ABC Country online radio - a great place to discover new music, even when your inbox is in regular receipt of news about new music - and immediately got their album. The vocals and harmonies of Kelly Day and Jane Hendry are completely irresistible on this album of slow croons and blissful melodic seductions. Don't believe me? Just play the video for 'Nod Off, Dream' and try to not fall in love with them.
Vacancy is also available on Bandcamp or you can listen to it on the Broads website, www.broadsmusic.com
Album review: Rise by Amber Ikeman
Rise is, therefore, not the music of sunshine and beaches - from its first song, 'Wild Buffalo', it's evocative of spaces and land and history, and of relationships forged around those elements. Ikeman's lineage is cited as folk and Americana, and there is traditional country music in there too. Her voice has a beautiful pure quality, and she has wonderful control of it (with excellent diction - longtime readers will know how highly I prize this!). When a singer can turn a phrase the way Ikeman can there's a temptation to say they sing 'sweetly' but while Ikeman's tones are sweet, there is an edge there throughout that is intriguing. Although that sweetness does hook you immediately.
Ikeman's is a voice that simultaneously suits an old-time sound and modern songs. Which is, probably, a way of saying that it's a well-developed instrument that can adapt to its material. That adaptability is evident in the first three songs, as she moves from the grit and force of 'Wild Buffalo' to the plaintive love song 'Cheyenne' to the ballad 'The Firefigher'. Ikeman's voice has a lot of nooks and crannies, and there are surprises accordingly. But it's all very well to listen to a voice - the songs have to be there to provide the right vehicle, and Ikeman has them. She's a storyteller who embraces emotional tales, and that's not a way of saying they're all love songs. There are songs of strength and challenge, and of loneliness. The love songs that are on the album also acknowledge the aforementioned spaces and land and history - albeit the history of the relationship concerned - as well as distance and challenge.
While the musical arrangements of the songs are spare - not sparse - all the better to support the songs and the singer, there is a lot going on in each song, to the point that before each song is over you know you'll want to go back and listen to it over and over again. This might be a second album but Ikeman is no sophomore - this is a very well-rounded and well-executed work that should attract listeners from across the spectrum (including pop) to bring Ikeman the audience she deserves.
Rise is available now on Bandcamp.
www.amberikeman.com
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Single release: 'Waiting for the Rain' by Alison Ferrier
Watch the video below or
www.alisonferrier.com
Single release: 'Insane' by Georgie Taylor
There have been a few artists in their teens or just out of them emerging over the past few months, and it's a sign that country music not only appeals across generations but has a talented future. The latest example of that future is Georgie Taylor who at sixteen years of age is already a CMAA graduate, having attended its Junior Academy of Country Music.
Georgie is a singer-songwriter from Thornlands in Queensland who also plays guitar, ukulele and piano. She was wwarded RedArts Young and Emerging Artist 2017 Award and won multiple awards at Wynnum and Brisbane Eisteddfods and the MTAQ (Music Teachers Association of Queensland) Vocal Competitions and Redland Sporting Club Vocal Competition winner for the categories of Junior (2014) and Intermediate in 2017.
Georgie's debut single, 'Insane', is from what will be Georgie's first studio offering, an EP of original songs, produced by Liam Kennedy Clark at Lush Recording Studios in Queensland. It showcases Georgie's lovely strong voice and her songwriting skill through its story of deep emotional turmoil.
Listen to 'Insane' on Soundcloud.
Georgie is on Facebook @GeorgieTaylorMusic
Jess Holland takes her Miss Demeanour to Tamworth
The album is done –
how are you feeling?
Excited. I cannot wait for it now. I think the last time I
was talking to you I was releasing my last single and I think I was hinting
there was a new album coming out. I’m just so excited because it’s been such a long
process and I’m ready for it to be out now.
I remember talking to
you quite a while ago when ‘Linburn Lane’ wasn’t even on an album at that time
– you were talking about the song and it sounded amazing. So how long has it
taken to write the songs for the album, and how long has the recording taken?
I stepped into the studio itself straight after Tamworth
[2017]. I started the first week of February and I’ve been recording on and off
until about maybe August. All my stuff got done really quickly but because
there’s been so many different people on the album as instrumentalists and
musicians, it’s been a process of trying to get them when they’re free.
Everyone’s just so busy. But it’s so worth it. And prior to that I guess I was
probably writing songs for well over a year. So you can see why I’m ready
[laughs]. I’ve had these songs under my wraps for so long and I guess I’ve been
test running them at gigs but now it’s all but done. I’m ready for it to be
released.
Did you have more
songs than you needed?
Oh, way too many. I think initially I had maybe 31 songs or
something silly. I had to take a step back and say, ‘Oh my goodness, what am I
going to do here?’ [laughs] I found myself combining some as well, because I
thought, Well, they’re very similar so
maybe I can take those lyrics out into this … And it just seemed to mesh
really well. By doing that sort of thing, and complete culls as well, I got
down to 15 or 16. I sent them away to my producer in Newcastle at Funky Lizard
Studios, Rob Long, and said, ‘Mate, it’s up to you now. You need to tell me
what’s going to work and what’s not because I’m too close to it now.’ So we got
down to the 13 tracks that are on the album.
I always think it’s
better to have more than less, because you don’t ever want to be in a situation
where you’re trying to play catch-up with yourself and then you might end up
with songs that are less than ideal.
Definitely. And I don’t think I’ve ever had the problem of
never having enough. When I released my first album I think I had to write one
song for it, and I thought, That’s cool.
That’s heaps. Then for my second album I had way too many and I culled a
few. This time it was way, way too many. It was very hard this time. It’s kind
of like saying, ‘Which kid is your favourite?’ [laughs] So I did as much as I
could and left the rest to the professional.
The next single is
‘Australian Dreamer’ – can you talk about what inspired it? What’s it about?
Really the inspiration was my house. I live 20 Ks out of
town. It’s this really old place. I’ve only in the last year put on TV. It’s a
hundred-year-old house and I really just got to thinking one day – I’d been
working all day and I thought, I wonder
how many people have been in this house, have lived in this house. The
families, what they used to do. And I got to talking to my grandmother,
who’s 93, and she can remember because she’s from this area. She was telling me
all these stories. And I thought that’s a lot like our family – they’re a very
hard-working blue-collar family overall. And I think that’s probably what it is
– the song captures that hard-working essence of what all Australians are. We
work hard – it doesn’t matter what we do, we’re very hard workers, and we’re
doing it for a better future for us but also for our kids.
Do you have a
favourite song on the album?
[Laughs] Oh, don’t ask me that. It’s hard. But I think
‘Linbur Lane’ is always going to be the one that stays with me, because it’s so
personal and I’ve had it for so long. I didn’t even think I was going to put it
on the album initially, or release it. And because I’ve done that, I’m just
really proud of myself for getting it out because it’s been so emotional. And
because it’s about my grandma I think it’s probably going to be one of the
songs that is my favourite, for sure.
Why did you hesitate
to put it on the album?
Because it’s so personal. I had it written for months and
months before I even plucked up enough courage to sing it in public, let alone
put it out so the whole world could hear it. It’s just been a process because
our family is so close, and I was afraid, I suppose, what my mum and my aunties
and uncles, her kids, would think about me writing a song about my grandmother.
If it wasn’t good enough or accurate enough. I think all those insecurities came
out because I just wanted to make everyone proud, I think. So it was hard. The
very first time I sang it, my mum and my auntie were in the audience and they
were bawling, and I thought, Okay, I must
be doing something right. I think from there it was a lot easier – each
time it got a lot easier to sing – and now I can sing it as many times as I
want and the emotion’s still there but the physical welling-up isn’t there.
Everyone has really taken it and rolled with it, and they appreciate it, so I
think that’s been the biggest thing for me. I just can’t believe it’s got so
much momentum.
I think it’s probably
because it’s so personal, and it’s offering up that vulnerability in yourself
and that’s something that people do connect with. So many of us struggle to be
vulnerable in their own lives, but when someone else offers it, and offers it
willing and without any conditions, it gives the listener an opportunity to
feel it in themselves and start to explore it. And that’s one of the things
country music is so great at – that connection. So you, having now done this –
and I acknowledge how much courage is required in doing something so personal –
do you feel emboldened to try exploring some other subjects that might have
felt too personal before?
Yes, definitely. And I think as well this album is a lot of
that. Because ‘Linburn Lane’ was written way before any of these other tracks
and I went through all that process of performing it live for the first time
and all that sort of stuff way before any of these other tracks were written
for the new album, I think this new album is … It’s still my very sassy self
but it’s dug deeper than that. One of the tracks on there is about a wild bloke
I was entangled with for so long, and it wasn’t until I could sit back and look
at it that I thought, I can sing about
this stuff. I went through a break-up, and I’m not necessarily writing
about a break-up so much but now I’m on my own and I can think for myself, and
I think that’s where the song ‘Solitary Mind’ comes from. I get told what
you’re leaving behind and how bad it’s going to be, but now I’m free and I can
think for myself. And all of that sort of emotion – I’m not the sort of person
who’s going to write about the break-up and how much I hate or love. That’s not
who I am as a person. But the residual feelings and all the stuff that comes
after that, that’s what I can now write about because ‘Linburn Lane’ let me do
that.
You’ve given yourself
permission to do it.
I think so. And that album is such a healing process for a
lot of different aspects of my life. And getting back to my roots – getting back
to the stuff that I love to do, liking being out of town and doing farm work,
head down bum up sort of stuff, and getting around the family – it’s all been
such a process, and I think the last part of it is getting the album released.
You’re going to
launch the album in Tamworth on the 20th of January – in fact, you
have quite a line-up of gigs for the festival. What is planned for the launch
show in particular?
So I just really wanted to have a lot of fun. That’s what I
love to do: music and perform for people and just make them feel the energy
that I’m feeling about my songs. We’ve got a full band that I love to perform
with, and I’ve got a few guest artists. There’s a guy by the name of Brock
Henry, who’s from Newcastle, and he’s just amazing. He’s just hit his straps
and going so well, so I said, ‘Mate, come and do a few songs at my launch!’
Kahlia Martin, who’s an awesome guitarist and singer from Cobar, she’s going to
be playing guitar and doing a few songs as well. I’ve also got Carl the
Bartender, who is one of my great mates. He used to be in Good Corn Liquor, so
he’s gone out and he’s now Carl the Bartender. He’s just real chillaxed and he
has a great sound. So it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Brock Henry is going
to be on your bill for some other shows and you’ve also got Allison Forbes, who
I know is a long-time colleague of yours.
She’s actually doing these things called the Medicine Shows,
upstairs at the Tudor, so it’s going to be kind of cool. Years ago Allison and
I and another girl, Gretta Ziller, we had a trio and did a few gigs, and we had
so much fun. So we’re kind of doing a little bit of that this time. We’re doing
our own music but also a few songs together, so it’s going to be just a bit of
reminiscing and a lot of fun.
What else are you
looking forward to about the festival in general?
For me the festival is always so much fun. It’s always so
bloody hot but it’s so much fun. I haven’t seen a lot of these people for
twelve months. A lot of my friends, I haven’t seen them or caught up with them
properly. We might have talked on the phone or on Facebook or messages, but you
don’t get to really catch up with them and play music. And I think that’s the
best thing to be able to do – not just release my album and show people what
I’m made of, but get out there and support other people and watch other people,
and catch up and have a bit of fun. So I’m excited for that.
Over the years of
going to the festival, do you think that connection with other people has been
the best thing that you … I don’t want to say ‘got out of it’, because that
sounds a bit mercenary. But your impression of Tamworth – overall do you think
of it as a music festival or do you think of it mainly as that chance to
connect with people?
Both. It’s a great music festival but it’s probably one of
the more relaxed festivals that you’ll ever be a part of. And that’s my kind of
thing. I love to have a lot of fun playing music – for me that’s the ultimate.
And being able to do that around not just fans that have followed you for the
past few years but also new people who have never seen you before, and then
also around your mates who play music, mates you get to catch up with. I always
think of Tamworth as being just a really relaxed time before the rest of the
year hits.
Speaking of that
year, I would imagine you’re planning to tour your album once you’re free and
clear from Tamworth.
I have a massive year lined up. It’s going to be big. I
haven’t done such a big tour probably since my last album So I’m excited to get
out to some new places and head down south again and head up north again, and
go out west, and visit all the places that I haven’t been for a while but also
that I’ve never been to.
I remember when you
did your Queensland tour – you were going to pubs in places you hadn’t been
before. Do you think of yourself as adventurous or is it the music that makes
you adventurous?
I don’t know. I’ve always liked to get out and see new
places. I guess to a certain extent I’m adventurous. But I also get very
nervous going to new places, because I don’t know what to expect. I don’t know
if people are going to turn up. I don’t know if people are going to like it. So
it’s definitely that adrenaline rush, but I also love getting out seeing new
places and seeing Australia, and if I can combine that with music, well, isn’t
that awesome? [laughs] Isn’t that the way you should be touring as an artist?
It’s not just getting out there as a tour, but get out there and meet the
people. So I guess, to a certain extent, I’m adventurous, but there’s a certain
amount of anxiety that comes with it [laughs].
Friday 19th January 2018 | 1pm
Tudor Hotel [Front Bar], TAMWORTH NSW
327 Peel Street, Tamworth
(02) 6766 2930 | www.tudorhoteltamworth.com.au
Saturday 20th January 2018 | 8.30pm
ALBUM LAUNCH PARTY
Tudor Hotel, TAMWORTH NSW
Special guest: Brock Henry
327 Peel Street, Tamworth
(02) 6766 2930 | www.tudorhoteltamworth.com.au
Monday 22nd January 2018 | 3pm
DAG Sheep Station, NUNDLE NSW
Richo’s Roundup
Crawney Road, Nundle
(02) 6769 3486 | www.thedag.com.au
Tuesday 23rd January 2018 | 3pm
Tudor Hotel [Upstairs], TAMWORTH NSW
327 Peel Street, Tamworth
(02) 6766 2930 | www.tudorhoteltamworth.com.au
Wednesday 24th January 2018 | 12pm
Tudor Hotel [Upstairs], TAMWORTH NSW
327 Peel Street, Tamworth
(02) 6766 2930 | www.tudorhoteltamworth.com.au
Thursday 25th January 2018 | 3.30pm
The Albert Hotel, TAMWORTH NSW
w/ Good Corn Liquor Tribute
211 Peel Street, Tamworth
(02) 6766 6363
Friday 26th January 2018 | 12pm
Tudor [Upstairs], TAMWORTH NSW
Medicine Shows w/ Allison Forbes
327 Peel Street, Tamworth
(02) 6766 2930 | www.tudorhoteltamworth.com.au
Friday 26th January 2018 | 8.30pm
Tudor [Front Bar], TAMWORTH NSW
Special guest: Brock Henry
327 Peel Street, Tamworth
(02) 6766 2930 | www.tudorhoteltamworth.com.au
Saturday 27th January 2018 | 3.30pm
The Albert Hotel, TAMWORTH NSW
w/ Good Corn Liquor Tribute
211 Peel Street, Tamworth
(02) 6766 6363
For more information, please visit www.jessholland.com.au
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Single release: 'That Ole Train' by Slim Dime
Trains are a perennially favourite subject for a country song, with good reason: they invoke the possibilities of new places, new people and momentum into the future, all good elements for a song. On this track band members Chris Taylor and Jen Land give us a treat with their bluegrass guitar and Land engages in some fine yodelling.
Slim Dime play gigs regularly - you can find details on slimdime.com. And you can see the video for 'That Ole Train' below.
Single release: 'Wildflower Bruises' by Homegrown
Homegrown will release the new EP during the Tamworth Country Music Festival or you can pre-order it on iTunes.
In the meantime, watch the video for 'Wildflower Bruises' below.
The Wolfe Brothers hit the road to Tamworth
Towards the end of 2017 I caught guitarist Brodie Rainbird on a rare day off and found out what he and the Wolfes, Nick and Tom, have been up to lately, and what's ahead this year.
Hello and how are you?
I’m good. The boys and I are enjoying a few days at home –
we haven’t had many of those this year.
Does anyone even
recognise you any more?
[Laughs] They still hear from us. We don’t let them forget.
How was 2017 – what
were the highlights? Were there any lowlights?
It’s been flat out. We’ve been over to Nashville for a
month. We’ve written a new album. Then we came home and we started touring with
Lee Kernaghan. So we’ve done his tour, which is now over. In between all of
those dates we’ve done our own dates. We started our own tour. And then in
between all of that we’ve been spending time in Sydney recording the new album.
Is it unusual for you
to record in Sydney?
Yes. We’ve recorded one song – it was with Matt Fell at Love
Hz Studios. We recorded one of the first songs we ever put out with him, seven
years ago. So we’ve done a full circle: we’ve been to Nashville, we’ve come all
the way home.
And Matt is a very
popular producer, especially for country music, so that’s a very good fit.
I’ll just say this, though: you haven’t heard Matt do stuff
like this before. This is all brand new. It’s really pushing some boundaries.
Is it pushing some
boundaries for you guys too?
Absolutely, yes. We said, ‘We want our boundaries pushed,
Matt. We want it to be modern and new, and sound cool and really sleek.’ And he
said, ‘Right, we can do this.’
Was that a decision
you made after the songwriting process or as you went into songwriting did you
think you’d push yourselves in a different direction – or into an evolution,
shall we say?
It’s been on our minds for a while but it sort of came after
the writing process. We came home and we weren’t sure who was going to do the
album. We weren’t sure if we could afford to go back to Nashville or not, then
decided not to. Then we thought, Well,
who at home can do this? We actually did a duet with the Baylou girls and
we heard that and thought, Oh wow – this
is not like what Matt Fell normally sounds like. And that got us thinking,
and it all worked out so well. The boys and I are incredibly happy with it.
It is a big decision,
choosing a producer. In this case it’s had a big impact on your sound but that
producer can also be a collaborator. And I would think that given you guys as a
band are so tight, you’re so used to working with each other, it almost gives
an extra significance to choosing a producer who can work with you and not
upset your band dynamic.
Yes, that’s totally true. And we wanted someone who could
grab the album by the balls and just do something with it. A lot of stuff we’ve
done in the past we’ve tracked the band live all at the same time, to capture
that live energy. And we were, like, ‘Nah, we’re going to do something
completely different [this time].’ With Matt we’d lay a couple of bass tracks
down, or guide tracks, then Matt would just go to town for three hours playing
synths or creating crazy noises, and messing with vocals and doing all this
crazy stuff that we’d never experienced before, and the three of us would just
sit back and let him do it – ‘That sounds great, mate, just keep going.’ We
didn’t even have a drummer in the studio until the first week was done.
Given how the band
operates, you’re clearly highly organised, and I wouldn’t say you’re control
freaks but there’s an element of that.
[Laughs] We’re under control.
It says a lot about
the three of you as individuals and about the band that you’re prepared to sit
back and say to someone else, creatively, ‘go to town’.
It was a completely new experience for us. It was like
opening the door to another room and it was completely pitch-black dark, and
we’re saying, ‘I don’t know what’s in here but I’m going in.’ As it unfolded
there were a lot of times when Matt was sitting with a keyboard in front of the
computer and we were sitting on the couch behind, and we would all look at each
other and go, ‘Oh wow – that’s cool! He’s created a whole other hook in this
song that we weren’t going to do.’ It quickly became evident that that was the
right decision – that it was working.
Again, what interests
me, having spoken to you – and Tom – over the past few years, as this band has
grown its audience and its sound, I do find this aspect really fascinating. It
seems as time goes on that you push yourselves. You push yourselves in terms of
your work ethic – you work super hard, you’re prepared to do some travel and
other things that some bands might find beyond them – and you keep evolving.
You respect your core audience but you keep finding ways to challenge yourselves,
to challenge your audience, and it’s all quite seamless. I suppose it could
seem like an organic development but I also think there’s that real
consideration of your audience there. You want to pay them the compliment of
giving them something new without annoying them.
I couldn’t have said it better than that! I think as an
artist you have to grow. There’s always exceptions to the rule, like AC/DC, and
you don’t want them to change – you want them to have that sound – but there
are other artists who need to evolve and grow, otherwise it becomes stagnant. It’s
something you have to do. And we’ve want to do this for a long time. We’ve
talked about it at length so many nights: ‘How are we going to do this? What
are we going to do? Who’s going to do it?’ Eventually it all just unfolded in
this beautiful way and we’ve got this fantastic album.
And for you as a
musician, when you first started playing guitar – as a child, probably – were
you always quite curious about doing new things, what was next, wanting to push
yourself as a musician?
It’s funny you say that, because since I can remember – I
started playing in primary school. I think we all did. We met each other in
high school and started hanging out. We were the ones who went back a
generation and wanted to hear old music, from the 80s and the hair metal. Van
Halen and Def Leppard and Metallica – we wanted that stuff. We were so
old-school for so long, then we’ve skipped and we’re now looking ahead. And
I’ve only just realised that.
But I think it’s the
case that you can look ahead because you’ve gone backwards. Having that lineage
and that foundation as artists – even from a technical point of view, as a
guitarist – to know what’s come before gives you the opportunity to play
around. On a really basic level, if you now your scales and you can do your
drills, then you’re free to improvise.
Absolutely. One thing, just as a personal thing on this
album, previously – I’m not sure if Nick’s the same but I’ve always wanted to
be a bit flashy on the guitar. As the albums have gone on I’ve matured a bit
more and that has dropped off to the point where with this album, all the solos
are not really solos, they’re just new melodies and new ideas to introduce to
the song. There’s no shred, there’s no fast stuff, I just really enjoy adding
to what the song is already.
Well, I’m very
excited to hear the album – do you have a release date planned?
Not really.
I imagine you have to
carefully slot it in around a whole lot of other things that are already carefully
planned for next year.
It’s so funny – you pick a date and then look into it and
go, ‘Oh no, that’s coming out then and this is on then. What about the week
after? No, well, that’s happening …’ And eventually you push it so far back
that it’s so far away it’s so pointless. Why is it so hard to find a good week
to release an album? It’s weird.
I’m genuinely curious
about whether you all sit down and open up your calendars and plan twelve
months ahead, or a little more. You seem to be highly planned well in advance.
The key with that is Stephen White Management. We’ve got
such a great management team – we’d be absolutely screwed without them. They do
the bulk of that work while we’re out creating and playing and just being
artists. They’re in the office organising all this stuff and researching,
booking stuff and things like that. We wouldn’t exist without that.
Also, of course, your
schedule has to integrate with Lee Kernaghan’s a lot of the time. So another
year of playing with Lee and also playing your own stuff – I keep expecting you
guys to keel over but I can only imagine that you’re extremely fit.
[Laughs] I feel like we’re about to keel over now, actually,
we’ve been so busy. In the last three weeks we’ve only had a handful of days at
home. The last month, actually. And before that it was just fly-in, fly-out
constantly every week. I changed my insurance and rang my insurance company to
say, ‘I don’t drive to work any more so I don’t need to pay extra money for
that.’ They said, ‘Well, how do you get to work?’ I said, ‘I catch planes.’
Some day in the near
future there needs to be a Wolfe Brothers jet.
Oh, now you’re talking.
And you need to find
a little airfield in Tassie somewhere, where you can park it and you can just
leave your cars there in the meantime, come and go.
That would be so handy.
Now, I’d better move
on to your Tamworth show. You’ve got the one at Blazes, which is, of course, a
key venue. So what can your fans expect?
We really want to turn it on for Tamworth. The boys and I
get more and more excited for Tamworth as it goes on. It’s almost become a bit
of a thing for us. It used to be a lot of work and now it’s, ‘Oh Tamworth –
party time.’ [Laughs] Because we’re only doing the one show we really want to
focus all our energy and attention on that and make it something really worth
remembering.
I like the way you
say you really want to turn it on for Tamworth like you haven’t in the past.
Just another 10 per cent. Every year another 10 per cent.
I’ve even seen you
play the Peel Street Fanzone, three songs in the middle of the day, and you
guys were on. I don’t imagine it’s
easy to switch on that energy but it seems like you have a good mechanism for
switching it on.
We come from the school where you play for three hours in a
pub. That’s hard work. Then you get up on Peel Street and play three songs and
it’s, like, ‘This is so easy.’
I would even suggest
that one set at Blazes seems easy compared with three hours.
It’s so cool – we’ve worked so hard and done those
long-hours gigs. Consecutive, too. I remember one weekend we went up north – we
did a Friday gig, we came halfway down and did Saturday at the Lakes. We all
got very drunk and were very hungover. Then on the way home we did a three-hour
gig at a fair on a Sunday. That’s where we’re from, that’s what we do. So just
to have a bit of success and just to do that one set, that’s so cool. That’s
where you want to be.
The challenge with
that is that you’re several albums into your career and you have a new album
coming. Is there any argy-bargy over the set list?
Not really. It’s one thing we all tend to agree on, because
we all know what works and we’ve done it a lot now. It’s an experience thing, I
think. Nick and Tom especially are really good at reading crowds, so when we
change the set list and it does or doesn’t work, they’re usually pretty
switched on and they figure it out pretty quick.
Again, that’s a level
of dedication to and awareness of your audience, and I think that’s been key to
the Wolfe Brothers the whole way along, that idea that you are there to
entertain, and certainly when I’ve seen you play that seems to be the mantra.
It’s almost like you stand backstage and chant, ‘We will entertain.’ It’s that
humility of the long-term artist as well – realising that you are in service to
your audience. You might think, I really
want to play that song, but if it’s not resonating with the audience it has
to go.
Exactly. That’s so important, to be able to connect, because
once you have that connection with an audience there’s a beautiful energy
exchange that happens between artist and crowd. And everyone wins when you
really nail a gig -it’s awesome.
Sometimes egos get in
the way – not so much in country music, but a lot of artists can hang on to an
idea of This is what I want to do. So I do think it is an
achievement to get past that.
I’ve never really thought of it like that. There’s three of
us, so we have each other to keep us on
the ground.
And with this show
you have Jody Direen on the bill with you. She was on your This Crazy Life tour
a little while ago, so obviously you all got on.
We love Jody. We absolutely love her. We were her band as
well when we played that tour, and to me one of the highlights of that tour was
playing her songs, sharing the stage with her. She’s just electric. She’s
amazing. Such a voice.
I interviewed her a
little while ago and she has a really interesting story too. I think she’s a
terrific artist.
Have you heard her song ‘Spitfire’?
Probably. But I
listen to a lot of songs and I don’t always remember their names!
Honestly, the best part of the entire night was playing
‘Spitfire’.
So you’re Jody’s
band, you’re Lee’s band – who else are you playing for?
Who haven’t we played for? We’ve been Gord Bamford’s band
when he comes out. We’ve played with Troy [Cassar-Daley], Lee obviously, TaniaKernaghan.
I think the moral of
the story is that you guys just love to play.
Yeah. We’ve been James Blundell’s band, which was really
cool. Heaps of stuff. It’s kind of one of our tricks, that we can do that.
It’s more than a
trick, it’s an artform. It’s extra rehearsal time too.
It’s at the point now where we can all learn the songs at
home, go to the gig and at soundcheck, if it’s only a small appearance, we can
run the songs at soundcheck and it’s all good, we’re ready to go.
That is such a hard
thing to do. But you’re professionals, so you can do that. But my time’s about
to run out so I’m going to take a hard turn and ask you two things about
Tasmania. The first is, what is the best thing about Tasmania?
The first thing that comes to my mind is when I get off the
plane in Hobart, when I first step out of the plane, and that cool, thick,
fresh air hits your face. That is the best thing.
And the thing you
miss the most about Tasmania when you’re travelling?
The fact that there’s no traffic. We spend a lot of time in
Sydney and it is ridiculous.
The Wolfe Brother's latest album is This Crazy Life.
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