Jolene: The Country Music Blog

Interview: Warren H Williams (part III)

2012-01-23T11:27:00.004+11:00

The Tamworth Country Music Festival 2012 is now in full swing and Warren H Williams is there - here, there and everywhere, that is! Warren has a huge line-up of shows during the festival and if you're interested in seeing him, you can find his gigs on www.tamworthcountrymusic.com.au.

And before you go, make sure you read this last part of the Jolene interview with this fantastic Australian artist, who truly lives and breathes music. Part I is available here and Part II here if you haven't read them yet. You can also visit Warren on the web at www.warrenhwilliams.com.

Your new album has been described as harking back to the 1970s and 1980s. Is that your favourite era of country music?

Well, that’s when I was growing up. I was becoming an adult at that time and that was the music that I was listening to and I really enjoyed that stuff, because I was learning how to play my music sort of in that style back then. So I wanted to bring out what I learned, what sort of music makes me happy, what style makes me happy.

Do you have a band you regularly play with?

Yes. The fellas who played on this album come from Toowoomba – most of them are Toowomba men.

There’s a good, solid beat on this album which makes me think line dancers are going to love it.

[Laughs] I love that. That tempo, it’s a beat. For me, it’s like the Aboriginal beat – you hear beat. There’s always a beat in all the music that we do, it’s cultural – it’s the beat that makes it happen. It’s in the heart, it’s a beat.

But you could take the beat away and just have your voice and that would stand alone – so do you ever play these songs acoustically, just with you and a guitar?

I do. I do. And that stuff, I wrote it like that to make it easy if I was just by myself, I could sing those songs.

Do you like performing that way?

I used to hate it but now I like it because it sort of makes me sing better if I’m by myself because I don’t have to worry about the guitars and drums covering me up, and you learn how to sing better too.

And you grew up playing rock music as well?

I played everything. I played heavy metal, I played rock ’n’ roll, I played all sorts of music, and I loved it, through the 1980s.

So why did you choose country music to record? Why aren’t you playing heavy metal?

[laughs] Do you know what, this will sound funny – I found all the other music easy. It’s easy to do. For country, it seems like you have to do it properly. Like, not muck it up. With the other stuff, you can muck it up and it doesn’t really matter.

Is that because country music means more to you, or because it means more to the audience?

I reckon it means both ways, probably it means more to me and it will mean more to the people who are listening to me.

Country audiences really listen and they listen to lyrics, and they’re quite discerning about music - sometimes with rock audiences it’s just noise.

Mmm, yeah. That’s it. That’s it … You take a rock gig, for instance – at the end you have to do a really rock song to make people feel good. At a country show, you do them a love song right at the end, people will go back feeling happy. It’s the opposite, I think. [both laugh]

That’s true. You can end on a minor chord and they won’t mind.

They won’t mind, they’ll go, ‘Yeaaaah, that’s what I want’.

What’s your favourite venue to play in Tamworth?

So many. So many. When I first started with my band we just played - I always used to love playing in the street, busking … A couple of years ago I wanted to busk and someone said to me, ‘You don’t have to do it – you’re a star’. I said, ‘I’m not a star. I just want to do it.’ They said, ‘Look, listen – you don’t have to do it. You don’t have to do that any more.’ It seemed to me, because I’d been doing it for a long, and it was one of my dreams not to do it any more, but when it came to the point that I didn’t have to do it any more I just thought it was part of coming to Tamworth in the first place, to do the busking, but also for me it was part of coming to Tamworth to be a country star and winning a Golden Guitar. And I’ve done that. All my dreams have come true.

Well, you can retire now, Warren!

I know. [laughs] But it’s like … The first time you come to Tamworth, you have a dream of owning a Golden Guitar and singing at the Country Music Awards and walking up the red carpet. And I’ve done that. I still have to pinch myself. I come from a place that is 120 ks west of Alice Springs – it’s out in the scrub – and I’m signed to a major record label here in Australia. I’m signed to ABC. Which is, like, huh? I have to pinch myself! [laughs]

I have to say, it never happens by accident, that stuff – I really think –

It’s hard work, too.

It really is. And when it’s going well, when people are really good at it, they do make it look easy. So it can be hard for other people to understand how much work it is. But when one thinks about the logistics of you actually even getting to Tamworth in the first place …

Yeah [laughs].

It’s a long way.

It’s funny – when I talk to people and tell them that I’m signed to ABC, they go, ‘What? When did this happen?’ and I say, ‘Oh, a few years ago.’ Like you say, I probably make it look easy for people because I’m not pulling out my hair, I’m just going low. And then things happen to me. People ring me up and say, ‘Do you want a gig? We’ll fly you.’ And it’s amazing when that happens.

Again, I don’t think it’s by accident. But as you’ve raised the record label I’m going to ask you about it. You used to be an independent artist but I’m guessing things are a little easier now that someone else can take care of the distribution and the marketing and all that stuff.

That’s it, that’s it. I still have to ring them up and talk to them, but it’s a big weight off my shoulders, y’know.

It’s a lot of work purely to get your albums into people’s hands when you’re an independent artist.

Well, yeah. For me, I used to just get frightened taking music to anybody. Over the years you get to know the right people, you give them things and they take them, and it’s just how it happens. I just started to know the right people in the music industry and I just gave them my copies and they went, ‘Yeah, okay, I’ll pass it on to someone’. And that’s how I ended up with ABC Music, because I gave it to a friend of mine and he passed it on to someone and they passed it on to someone and it became that.

You’re on ABC Music, you’ve just got a new record out – is there now a feeling that you have to produce a new album within a year or 18 months?

The amazing thing about it is I’ve got two albums ready to come out with ABC – the one that’s already come out, which is Urna Marra, and next year’s a different one. It’s different to what I’m doing right now.

A different style of country or different subject matter in the songs?

Different subject matter. Altogether it’s different.

I started off by mentioning your radio show – can you tell us about it?

I do my radio show on CAAMA – Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association – if you just go onto CAAMA Radio, onto the web, caama.com.au - I do my shows from 8 till 12 [Central Australian time] from Mondays to Thursdays.

And do you enjoy doing that?

I love it because it’s part of music. This is what I do in life. I do music and I sit here and create my own world through music. It’s so good.

Does it feel like your whole life has been music? I know your father was a musician as well.

It’s everything. I reckon from the moment I was born. Because at Hermansburg, the old mission, we used to have music all the time. And I grew up born into music and I’ll probably go out with music. This is it. My life is music.

Which is a beautiful way to live.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Interview: Warren H Williams (part II)

2012-01-18T21:20:00.005+11:00

In this second part of the Warren H Williams interview, Warren discusses his upcoming shows at the Tamworth Country Music Festival 2012, why he writes love songs and why all country music stars should play in Alice Springs.

[Part I of this interview can be read here. Links for Warren's website and Tamworth gig guide are below.]

You have a few shows coming up at the festival. You’re playing with The Wolverines.

That’s going to be madness, that one. I’m really looking forward to that show – it’s going to be mad.

Are you supporting them for all of their shows?

Yes, I’m doing thirteen of their shows.

Those shows are usually really late at night, aren’t they?

There’s one in the afternoon, from 2 to 4, and then one from 9 till 12 or something.

Well, you’d better have an afternoon nap!

[laughs] I know! And in between that I have to a couple of shows with Ted Egan. That’ll be really soft compared to The Wolverines …

You’re not going to have time to go and sit in on anyone else’s shows – because I know at Tamworth what tends to happen is that musicians who are between shows might go to someone else’s gig and get up for a few songs or something

Well, Troy Cassar-Daley usually invites me to go and do a song with him. I’m thinking I probably won’t be able to do that.

No, I think you’ll be far too busy! Which is great. Back to this idea of ten people being your ideal number of audience members - when I was listening to it, it seemed like it was … I don’t know if intimate is the right word, but it sounds as if you’re singing just to the listener. A lot of it is quite romantic, and revealing. It feels like a personal album,

Well, that’s what I wanted to do. Someone pointed out to me – this writer – he said that if you write something on the romantic side, people will stop and listen or look at it, like a flower on the wall. They won’t look at a picture that’s big and things. If you paint one flower, people will stop and look at it. It’s simple – make it simple, so people can understand it.

That’s a very nice idea. I think that’s true. When I had your album on, there was the odd romantic song and I pricked up my ears because it really sounded like it was coming from the heart. It’s one thing to write those songs – it’s another thing to deliver them and mean it.

Those songwriters carry their hearts on their sleeves. Those sorts of songs sometimes come out without you knowing it. Like love songs. Because everyone’s a romantic. Every single person in this world is a romantic. [both laugh] They are! I sometimes stop and think, ‘My god, I’m from the bush, I’m a traditional person – how do I write these sorts of songs that are, you know … [whispers] romantic. When I’m a bush man.’ [laughs]

But you have, so clearly you’re right – yes, you’re a romantic too.

Oh yeah, everyone is. For Aboriginal songs – culture songs – there are a lot of romantic traditional songs. So many. There are so many traditional love songs.

Maybe one of the things you can do when you’re performing is introduce those to a broader audience, if it’s appropriate.

Well, yeah - I have bigger plans – I have big dreams. I want to do this, I want to do that. I want to be the most famous black man in Australia, y’know? I want to do all this sort of stuff.

Well, why not?

Yeah. I have dreams. I just want to make Australia a better place. For me, that’s my dream. I love this country. I love the people that live in it. I love this place. It’s my country, you know?

One of the things I’m interested in is that country music is very popular in indigenous communities – has that come about because of Australian country music or all country music that’s popular?

All country music. The American country music out here in the bush is so big. It’s huge. I met this fella called Tracy Burns years ago and he was having a hard time doing a tour in the cities, and I said, ‘Look, the mistake they make is that when they bring the big stars to Australia, they just try to keep them in the cities. You bring them out bush – you put them in Alice Springs or something – people from all over the place will turn up and Alice Springs will be full.’ I told Kenny Rogers the same thing.

Did he listen to you?

Yes, he did. He said, ‘I can’t help it. The people who look after our gigs take me to the places.’ I said, ‘Come out to the bush. You have a gig somewhere, people will turn up from all over the place.’

Why do you think it is that country music’s so popular in indigenous communities?

Country music like old Slim Dusty, he used to sing about the stockmen ... A lot of the people out here – well, I was on one of the biggest cattle stations in Australia and we grew up that way. My dad was a bit of a stockman, another of my uncles and my cousins, they work on the stations. And we know what old Slim was singing about. And what the new country artists, the Americans, sing about, like driving the truck and going to the pub, that’s what people do out here, and it’s so easy to associate with them. Like old love songs – it’s a part of our lives, we live that.

Country music is also a storytelling genre, more than, say, rock or pop, and also a lot of those stories are about the land. You get a lot of songs that describe the land in a meaningful way – they actually describe how people feel about the land. I find that when Australian country songwriters write about the land, I can completely relate to it, because that’s how I feel about it. Do you feel that, that it’s a storytelling culture?

Oh, it is. For me, if I write a song about my place, I do - I write about my place. Albert Namatjira did it when he painted, but nobody believed the colours that he painted, they said, ‘No, you’re making them up.’ But, no, he wasn’t making them up – it’s for real, because we live out here and we see it every day. We can see the harshness of the country and we know how hard it is, but we know how beautiful it is at the same time.

For Part I of this interview, please click here.

For Part III, please click here.

Warren H Williams's official website: www.warrenhwilliams.com

Warren's gigs in Tamworth: www.tamworthcountrymusic.com.au

Interview: Warren H Williams (part I)

2012-01-17T21:44:00.002+11:00

By the end of this month Warren H Williams may well be crowned the King of Tamworth 2012 - he's certainly going to be just about everywhere when the festival kicks off later this week, playing shows with The Wolverines and Ted Egan, for a total of 17 shows in eight days.

Warren's latest album is Urna Marra; it entered the ARIA Country charts at number 15 and I'm sure that by the time Warren has finished at Tamworth, it will be charting higher (and I'll be reviewing it at some stage too). I had the enormous pleasure of talking to Warren recently and part I of our chat is below. If you have never heard of Warren before, I strongly recommend you read this interview to get a sense of what a great person and great performer he is - and then try to see him play in Tamworth! A full list of his gigs is available here.

What is your earliest memory of playing music?

I would have been about six years old when I started playing – playing the guitar, just playing along. It was just amazing – when you’re teaching yourself to play something and it feels good. I’d play along with Dad and the band.

And did you start singing at that age too?

I used to hate my voice. We’d sing along with Dad – he’d strum along on the guitar – but [I didn’t do] much singing, as such. My singing probably came in the ’90s, that’s when I really started getting into it. But my singing wasn’t all that good.

What changed? Because listening to your singing, I find you’re a really warm singer – it’s almost comforting listening to you sing. So it sounds to me like you enjoy singing.

Oh, I love singing. It’s probably because when I was growing up, my grandfather and my grandmother – my grandmother was a really religious woman but my grandfather was a traditional man. So I would hear hymns being sung and all sorts of traditional songs too, like before I went to bed. And my grandfather would sing all night. His singing would put me to sleep. So I felt safe, you know. I knew that someone was always there to protect me when I was asleep.

That actually explains a bit about how you sing now, because to me, as I said, it’s a comforting feeling listening to your voice. Listening to your album, my first impression of it was that it was a road-trip album, in a way, but I then I thought, ‘No, I could cuddle up on the couch to this album.’

[Laughs] Oh, that’s good! For our people, singing is keeping people safe - that’s what the community is for – it’s to keep the community together, singing has always been part of that, so probably subconsciously I do it without knowing, you know.

So when you sing, do you feel like you’re part of a tradition? Or not even a tradition – that it’s such an intrinsic part of you that you can’t deny it?

Yeah, yeah – like, it’s just me – I’m singing to comfort that people who is in front of me. I’m trying to make sure that that person is feeling all right with my songs. I want to make that person feel all right. I don’t want to scare them. I want to tell them that I’m here. Like, ‘These Eyes’, one of the first singles, it’s about me telling them these are my eyes watching you, and my arms, they will always be here – if you want a hug, I’m here, I’ll hold you.

As a performer, there must be some times when you’re playing in front of a crowd when you think, ‘I really don’t care if I’m making you feel safe or not, because you’re being really ornery’. Is there ever a time when you think, ‘I don’t know that I can do this’?

I think about it right at the beginning, if I can hear – before I go on stage - people shouting and making noise, and I think, ‘How am I going to do this?’ but as a singer, it’s your job to make them happy. Because they came to see you. So as soon as I get up there – as soon as I do the first song – that’s it, I’m with them.

In country music it seems to be easier to make people happy, because the audience comes with an expectation of being happy. They don’t come thinking they’re there to be cool or trying to impress anyone.

Well, most of them are pissed anyway! [laughs]

I’m sure that’s not true of the Tamworth audiences!

There are … I’ve travelled with John Williamson for a long time and we did a lot of theatre shows, and theatre shows have a different sort of people – they come into a theatre and they sit down and don’t make a noise. They listen to you. They listen to everything that you say and do, and watch everything that you do. At a country gig in a pub or something, people are just there to have a good time. And lots of the people who come know your music and try to sing along with you.

Is it intimidating or hard when you have an audience that just doesn’t make a sound? Do you feed off the energy when there’s a more active audience?

You know, the best audience for me is about ten people. I don’t know why. It’s always been like that. The lesser the crowd, the more I give.

I think some people would find ten people really hard to play to, because they’re all there looking at you.

Yes, but that’s a good thing, because they’re watching every movement you do, and that’s the best way to hone your skills, in a way. It’s made me a better entertainer. The less people I have, the better the show. It’s more snappy. I still put on a good show if there’s a lot of people, but I don’t know what it is … The most terrifying shows are the home crowd people – because if you make a mistake, you’re still at home! If you’re on tour, you’re gone the next day.

But I would think for you this is a conundrum now, because as you become more well known, your shows are invariably going to become bigger.

Yeah, I’m … I really enjoy playing, There’s nothing like [that] natural high. And when I’m on tour, I get that every night. It’s something I just can’t put my finger on – you can’t describe how you feel – when as soon as a show starts, all of a sudden something kicks in, and bang, it snaps, and it’s like, ‘This is what I’ve been waiting for’, you know? But the thing about it is, at the end of the night, when you have to come off it, you can’t sleep and you’re watching television and you’re still awake in the middle of the night, that’s the problem – it’s very hard to get off a natural high.

Was it always like this for you, performing, or was there a point at which you realised that you were getting this natural high?

No, no, it was hard work. You have to work very hard to get it. Before, I didn’t feel it. Before I met up with John [Williamson]. Because he’s been at it for a long, long time, John showed me how to entertain, and sometimes when you entertain properly you get it, you get the high. If you entertain people properly, they will give you more back.

It’s definitely that idea of the exchange. You draw on the audience and they’re happy to do it when they’re having a good time and you’re having a good time.

Yeah, and you’ll feel it. They’ll give it back to you and you’ll go, ‘Wow, this is what I want.’ Because when I first did it I said, ‘I want more of this. I want it.’ [laughs]

It’s a good thing you can pick up a guitar and go on tour, then!

I can’t wait to go to Tamworth. Even just walking around, Tamworth is like a big candy shop. [laughs]

To read the rest of this interview, please click on the following links:

Part II

Part III

Warren H Williams's official website: www.warrenhwilliams.com

Gig guide for Tamworth: www.tamworthcountrymusic.com.au

Interview: Chad Shuttleworth (part IV)

2012-01-13T11:19:00.001+11:00

This is the fourth and last part of my interview with Queensland musician Chad Shuttleworth, who is a finalist in this year's Toyota Star Maker. If you're heading to Tamworth this year, check out Chad's Facebook page regularly, as he'll be posting details of gigs during the festival.

To read the rest of this interview, please click on one or all of the following:

Part I

Part II

Part III.

In terms of those goals, what happens now for Star Maker, because you’re a finalist. So what actually happens? I’ve never been to the finals.

You’ve never been? Are you coming this year?

I’m undecided …

How can I sell it to you so that you come? I’ll make you an offer: if I end up winning Star Maker, you can be the first person to interview me. How’s that?

[Laughs] Sounds good! Well, I think you have a very good chance so I’ll get my tape recorder ready.

Thank you! Thank you very much.

I think there is a good chance – I remember that when I saw you play on Peel Street I thought, ‘That guy’s going to be huge’.

Thank you.

Well, it is that thing of … it’s an intangible thing. The ‘X factor’, for want of a better term. But when someone loves what they do – and as you said, if you love what you do then people see you enjoying yourself and they have a good time – it’s really true. There are actually very few performers, I find, who genuinely look like they’re having a good time – but there seems to be a higher proportion of them in country music.

Yeah.

And that’s one of the reasons why Tamworth is such a great festival – everyone’s happy.

Exactly.

All the performers are happy, the audience is happy. That ability to connect, in a country with a fairly large population with a lot going on in their lives, with a lot on their minds, they do seek those two hours, as you said, to forget about it, but what they’re looking for is that connection. And it’s great if it comes through the music but it’s even better when it comes through the performer who’s playing the music.

For sure … I’m still thinking about how we can get you down there.

[Laughs] In the past when I’ve been on the Sunshine Coast [where Chad lives] I’ve looked up to see if you’re playing but the timing has never worked out.

I’m just horrible at letting people know about gigs … Nah, I’m not. Sometimes it’s just spur-of-the-moment stuff on the coast, actually.

There wouldn’t be too many venues there, I guess?

There’s about forty live-music venues on the coast, but when we talk live music we’re talking restaurants that only have, like, a piano guy, so that’s about five or six of them knocked out – so you’re right, there’s probably not that many live band and solo venues, but there is quite a few. But it is still a blessing to live up here. I was living in Tamworth for five months – did you know this?

Yes, I read it in your bio!

I was in Tamworth for five months and I was touring around there, getting my ‘gigging legs’ together. That was an amazing experience as well. I lived out on a farm, out on Ryan Simpson’s nana’s farm out of town, then I was just travelling – I think I racked up 1800 kms in a weekend for three gigs. I think the longest, biggest gig – and that was the one I came home – was travelling up to Lightning Ridge, back to Tamworth, up to Narrabri and then home to the Sunny Coast. That was 2200 kms.

That’s a lot of driving.

That’s kind of the reason why I can now just come home and go, ‘An hour away? That’s nothing! Don’t worry about that – let’s get into it!’ Drive home and drive back. It’s made me a much stronger performer and also a lot more tour ready, which was one of the biggest reasons I was sent down there.

I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about playing remote and regional communities, but a lot of the indigenous communities love country music and it doesn’t seem like a lot of musicians get out there. So if you’re prepared to drive … I don’t know how you would set it up.

I’m always interested in going to those places. Out at Anakie there were a few indigenous students, and a little bit further out, and they were so enthusiastic about music – and they have it in them. I’d be more than happy – and more than honoured – to go out and play for those guys. So if there are any places that you think of, let me know because I’d love to go.

So one last question: where can people see you play at the Tamworth Country Music Festival?

There may be some secrets shows …

So people should check your website?

I will update people on Facebook. But there’s two walk-up shows at the Aero Club on the last Friday and Saturday, I believe that’s the 27^th and 28^th of January. There’s going to be some amazing artists getting up and having a play, but it’s also open to everyone. We all just love music. So I’m hosting that one and it goes from 6 p.m. till 10.

And the Star Maker is what date?

The 22^nd. The finals are in the morning and then the grand final’s in the afternoon.

So you’re pretty much there for the whole festival.

Yes! But I think I get to freelance and go and have some fun, and go and enjoy it and catch up with some old mates. Just check out the Facebook – there’s going to be some shows announced on there during the festival. So it will probably be daily that I’ll be updating that.

If I make it I’ll let you know, because I’ll hit you up for an interview there.

Yeah, absolutely. And I’ve said and I’m contractually obligated now to fulfil my obligations to you.

Interview: Chad Shuttleworth (part III)

2012-01-10T11:39:00.006+11:00

This is the third of a multi-part interview with Toyota Star Maker finalist Chad Shuttleworth. The first part is here and the second is here.

I asked Chad about attending CMAA and also about his life as a full-time musician. His responses may surprise you - and inspire you.

You went to CMAA in Tamworth. I’ve heard about that and about Camarata – they’re separate, aren’t they?

They’re now actually joined.

Ah … I’m kind of curious as to what a typical day would have been like for you at CMAA.

Oh man. You can quote me on this one: we ate, slept and breathed country music for 14 days. It was amazing. There’s not much else I can say other than that there was no end to the amount of information – not just [about] country music as a craft but as a business, and about contacts, about … just everything to do with it. It was one of the most amazing experiences – if not the most amazing experience – of my life, except for a couple of shows that I’ve done that are probably on par, because this college sets apart the kids from the adults. It’s pretty amazing.

It would certainly sort out, I guess, whether or not you’re committed to continuing to do it, because it’s not easy to establish a career.

No.

And a lot of people just don’t have ‘it’. They may have the talent, but you need to be more than just talented – you need to apply yourself.

Well, you have to, and that’s what they teach you. You’ve got to have the drive and you’ve got to be thinking outside the box to really be able to capitalise on what you do as a musician, as a performer, because a lot of the things – and this is what we were teaching to these kids – you can be the most amazing guitarist in the world but if no one knows about you, then what’s the point? You might be an okay singer – or a great singer who can play a little bit of guitar, and a lot of people can do that – and all you’ve got to do is market yourself well, build great relationships with all the people in the industry and never give up. It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked back, just keep getting back on the horse, because if you have that determination – and I believe I have that sort of determination – then there’s no reason why you can’t succeed.

I guess it’s also understanding the contract between the performer and the audience. I don’t know if you know Rufus Wainwright’s music – and he’s not country music …

Yes, I know about Rufus. He did an amazing cover of ‘Hallelujah’.

Yes he did! And when his first album came out – and he’s from a performing family – I remember reading on this very rudimentary website, him saying something like, ‘My job is to be a performer and if I don’t do that, then I’ve failed’. For him it wasn’t about how good the record was or how many he’d sold, it was about in that moment, with the audience, that’s it.

That’s a beautiful quote. From a purely business point of view, you can count numbers – you can count the number of people who like you on Facebook and all that stuff. But for me as a performer, the conversion rate of you as a musician playing on a stage to a whole bunch of amazing into-your-music kind of people, who cares about the sales? It’s that moment. That’s the thing – and I always say this to everyone – my home is on the stage. That’s where I feel the most comfortable as a human, is on that stage. Because I know that it’s my job to perform to those people, and if those people are having a bad day or some trouble in their lives, or just want to escape for a moment from the mundane part of life that we all know about, they go to a concert and they’re just rockin’ out, they’re enjoying it, they’re having a couple of drinks, they’re enjoying themselves – but if the band is crap they’re just going to have a couple of drinks and go home to the same problems. They’re going to be changed for those couple of hours that you’re spending with them, just because you’re on the stage giving them everything that you have and then walking off the stage saying, ‘Man, I’m so tired but that was so worth it’.

It quite often has the power to change just beyond those two hours. Part of the role of art and, particularly, performance in a culture is to change people. That they have a moment when they think, either ‘I’ve been made so happy by that that I want to see it again’, or ‘I’ve been made so happy by that that I want to participate in it’, and they might then change the way they live. Which is really an extraordinary thing to do.

One of the most extraordinary parts about sharing your abilities and crafts with someone is the ability to be able to change lives like that too.

And you’re now playing a few nights a week, is that right? You’ve decided to become a full-time musician?

Yeah, I took the leap of faith about two years ago now and I now play three to four days a week as a musician, and I sit down and I always think – I stop myself every couple of days and go, ‘You’re seriously living the best life. You get to play music for people – people pay you to play music – and you get to enjoy yourself and see people enjoy themselves, and then go home and work on the other side of your career and actually do something you love.’ I am one of the most blessed and honoured people and humbled people by just the fact that I get to do what I get to do every single day, which is brilliant.

That’s very cool. And you don’t often hear people say that about their lives.

No! You know what? Probably 80 per cent of the time you hear how crap people’s lives are and you just think, ‘Well, I must have the best life’, and I just constantly remind myself, ‘You have the best life. This is the best life that you get to lead, and you’re just blessed that you get to do it.’

Which is also great because it means that whatever happens for you now, it sounds like it couldn’t make you any happier with your life, it’s just going to be different experiences that expand what you’re doing.

Exactly. I have a few goals - I have a whole bunch of goals that I want to achieve – but in my own heart I know that right now I’m happy. But the thing about success and moving forward is that you never get too content. I’m so happy where I am but there’s so much more that I want to do with life. Like I really want to release my album fairly soon and I really just want to tour and play every place I possibly can, and then tour Europe and stuff like that. So many other goals. But right now, as a human being, I am pretty darn happy.

Interview: Chad Shuttleworth (part II)

2011-12-22T23:06:00.002+11:00

This is the second of a multi-part interview with Toyota Star Maker finalist Chad Shuttleworth. The first part is here.

In this instalment Chad talks about the Gympie Muster and how the show must always go on, and we discuss the idea of being a 'gateway drug' to country music ...

So what’s the country music scene like in Queensland?

I think it’s growing all the time. Obviously there’s the Gympie Muster, and the Urban Country Music Festival at Caboolture. There’s Charters Towers. There’s so much country music stuff up here.

Since you’ve mentioned the Gympie Muster – it seems in recent years that it’s become a lot more organised and a lot more music focused – do you think that’s true to say? Have you performed there?

I’ve performed there a couple of times, mainly at the town square on the talent stage. But I have had some great opportunities – not so great for everyone else, but great opportunities for myself. I don’t know if you remember about three years ago, everyone got washed out. A lot of bands couldn’t come in.

But you happened to be living on the Sunshine Coast.

And I happened to actually be at the Gympie Muster at that time. Because they all got washed out outside the Gympie Muster grounds – there was massive water over the road and nobody could drive through it – and I just happened to be there selling CDs and I went to the mixing guy and said, ‘There’s no one on the stage – what’s going on?’ And he said, ‘Oh, there’s no one who’s turned up’. And he just jokingly said, ‘Do you play guitar?’ and I said, ‘Of course, yeah!’ And he goes, ‘Can you sing?’ and I said, ‘Yeah’. And he said, ‘So why don’t you get up there and have a play?’ I went, ‘Ohhhh – well – absolutely.’ So I went and found a guitar because I didn’t have a guitar, and I was selling CDs so I couldn’t leave the venue. But I got up there and played, and about five songs later Jay from Jonah’s Road came walking across, winked at me and said, ‘Thanks, mate, for filling in our spot while we were coming through’. Because Sinead Burgess’s backing band couldn’t come – they were stuck on the other side – so Jonah’s Road played for her. So those guys got up afterwards and that’s how I became great friends with Jay and Jasper, his brother, and I do a lot of songwriting with them now, just because of that coincidence, or that opportunity.

And it’s almost making the most of your opportunities, because some people might have thought, ‘Oh no, I don’t have my guitar. Oh no, it’s too scary.’

Yeah, and that’s the biggest thing about what we do - from my parents… My old man’s a chef, my mum’s a food and beverage trainer, my brother’s a business trainer and stuff. I’m from the hospitality background, where they know exactly that, well, you can’t stop the show now, and that’s the same thing with entertainment. The show must go on. It doesn’t matter what happens. When I was in Seussical Musical the lead girl – who had most of the lines in the play – pulled a hamstring, and she was side of stage crying her eyes out and then it was her turn to go on and she would just snap out of it, she’d go and do her character, she didn’t feel any of the pain – well, she made as if she didn’t – came back off and cried her eyes out.

Well, that’s professionalism.

That’s professionalism. And that’s the thing – things go awry, you just going to have to fix them on the fly and it’s going to be fine. And it’s funny – a lot of people don’t even notice that things are wrong. So I come from that sort of background.

You recently travelled to some schools and talked about music and the industry to kids. So did anything go awry there, that you had to react to?

Really, no – it was all fairly well organised. Scripture Union Queensland representative up there was Bille and she was amazing, and when we were up there it was just phenomenal. The only thing that was kind of awry was the fact that we had three gigs a day - and this is not a problem, it’s just part of what you do – but we had three presentations a day and the presentations go for an hour and a half, and school’s between eight o’clock and three o’clock, and a lot of these towns were … There’s a place called Anakie, like an hour and a half away from Capella, where we were staying, so we had to drive crazily to them and then crazy back to Emerald, so nothing went awry, it was just a lot of driving. But it was well worth it – well worth it.

So were you playing, as well as talking?

Yeah, absolutely. I had my manager, Karen Andrews, up there with us, and we’d just prompt one another with the outline and with the presentation, and then I’d play a song in between.

I would think it was also a good opportunity to introduce some kids to your music early on.

It was a great opportunity for that!

Well you can never start them too early on country music.

[laughs] No, exactly. See, that’s the thing – it’s much easier to convert people over to country music than it is to any other thing. It’s hard at first but when we go, ‘Well, this is country music?’ and they say, ‘Really? Keith Urban is country music?’ – ‘Yes, yes he is’. Then they come and listen and they say, ‘Wow, I love country music and I’ve been denying it all this time because everybody said I shouldn’t be listening to it.’

I’ve also heard it said that Ryan Adams is considered to be a ‘gateway drug’ for country music.

[laughs] ‘Gateway drug’ – that’s brilliant. I think that would be the best title ever. ‘He’s a gateway drug to country music’.

Maybe you were a gateway drug to those kids!

Yeah, well, hopefully! Hopefully one day they’ll go, ‘You know about those things? Well, that show was a gateway drug …’

If they all take up banjo and ukulele, it’s your fault.

It is my fault, and I apologise – well, no, I don’t apologise – I’m kinda glad. [laughs]

Part III of this multi-part interview will be published soon.

Chad's website: www.chadshuttleworth.com

Twitter: @chadshuttlemuso

Interview: Chad Shuttleworth (part I)

2011-12-19T21:12:00.005+11:00

Sunshine Coast performer Chad Shuttleworth has just been announced as a finalist in the 2012 Toyota Star Maker, but he's been a star in the making for a few years now. He's done his time busking on Peel Street and attended the CMAA College of Country Music in Tamworth, so if anyone's ready for the final on 22 January, it's him. Chad - whom I described as having 'cheeky charm' in a 2008 post - gave me quite a bit of his time recently and we had a wide-ranging chat which will appear in several parts. The first is below.

I’ve only seen you play once, on Peel Street, in 2008, and I remember thinking, ‘This guy’s got something’, because you were really good at working the crowd – but not in a manipulative way. It looked like you were just enjoying yourself.

Yeah, I always do, and that’s one of my main keys of being onstage. If you don’t enjoy yourself, no one enjoys themselves.

Were you a kid who liked to get up and perform?

If you talk to my parents, yeah – they will confirm that I was the kid doing magic tricks; if there was a microphone I’d be grabbing it, and I’d be singing even if there were no backing tracks. I was always trying to obviously be the star. I don’t remember any of this, but I was told.

I guess you’re doing the right thing, then, aren’t you?

Yes! Exactly. It was kind of the right thing to do, absolutely. It was either this or, at one stage, my parents wanted me to be a lawyer! Well, no, they said, ‘Lawyer’s a good job, lots of money, and you can act and debate really well’, and I said, ‘Well, I don’t know if that’s true’. [Laughs]

Well, it’s never too late, of course – if you change your mind about the whole country music caper.

Yeah, well, maybe – it’s still an option …

Did you do musicals and things like that in high school?

Yes, I did it all throughout high school. Have you ever heard of a thing called Seussical the Musical?

No.

It’s Dr Seuss books put to music, and it’s the most colourful play you could ever watch. I did that at school and then that kind of spurred me on to do a lot more things. I was always in choir at school, but from that I moved towards musical theatre, and I was at a place called the Independent Theatre in Eumundi [on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast] for about two and a half years as a kind of trainee. Then that’s when the country music kind of kicked off. That was my passion, undoubtedly. And the rest is history, I guess.

As a teenager doing musicals did you find that you had a voice you could sing with, or did you have to work at it?

I would always say that I had the voice, but I think it evolves – it always evolves. I was a very high boy singer and then when my voice dropped it was sort of mid range. And now I’m what they class in classical music as a high baritone. So it kind of develops over time. That’s the thing about gigs. I think if you work hard – if you’re [singing] for four hours a night, three or four nights a week – you start really developing strength in your voice, and also being able to pick things, being able to play with stuff. So it’s a process.

A lot of people who don’t sing don’t realise the lengths a singer has to go to in order to protect their voice. Do you take certain measures – like, you don’t eat certain things?

It’s mostly been a trial-and-error kind of thing. Before gigs, or during gigs, I don’t ever eat potatoes. It’s really strange but potato – it must be the starch in it or something – dries my throat out and I start coughing. I heard that Carrie Underwood always has a shot of olive oil before she gets onstage. It’s kind of gross, when you think about it, but it allows your vocal cords to move a bit better, it loosens them up. I do a lot of warm-ups and stuff before gigs. But I don’t know … Milk. All that usual stuff. Milk’s probably not a good thing because you get all mucusy.

On the subject of drinking stuff before gigs, I remember reading an interview with Katie Noonan years ago in which she said she had a shot of cream sherry before gigs. So maybe you could try that – it would put you in a relaxed frame of mind, at least …

I’m always happy to try things at least once!

So just back to the subject of performing – it seems like you connect quite easily to the audience. Do you see that as part of your job – as in, it’s something that you have to maintain – or is it something that you just do naturally?

A lot of people would probably say it’s part of your job, but for me it’s always been something that’s just natural. My biggest thing as an entertainer is that I always want everyone else to have a good time. So if I’m even at a party – not working – I’d prefer for me to put my hand in my pocket and make sure that people who can’t afford it have a good time, because that to me means that when they have a good time, I have a great time. But when it comes to music, I want them to have a good time and the only way I best to do that is for me to give it 110 per cent and also enjoy it myself. One guy who was my manager at one stage said, ‘You can be 110 per cent but the audience may only ever be 90 per cent, so you’ve got to be 150 per cent for them to come up to your 110. You’ve got to be bigger than life and the most energetic person in the room for them to really lift up to what you’re doing, and you encourage them. Also, I think as Australians we’re pretty reserved, you know.

One of the great things about country music is that in rock music, say, a lot of people might be self-conscious about connecting to the audience but in country music I don’t think it’s necessarily expected, but everyone seems to be happy and having a good time – there’s not that self-consciousness that happens in inner-city pubs, I guess.

Yeah, exactly. I think the self-conscious thing is a big part of why I like playing country music – because, as you said, these people are out to have a good time. They’re not out to see someone who’s arrogant, they’re out there to see someone who’s enjoying themselves and from that they also enjoy themselves. And that’s a big thing about country music – the fact that we just know how to have a good time. That’s what a lot of the songs are about – only country people kind of know how to have a really great time. You don’t need much: a guitar, a campfire and a couple of beers, and that’s the night set out for you.

Part II of this multi-part interview will be published later in the week.

Chad's website: www.chadshuttleworth.com

Twitter: @chadshuttlemuso

That time of year

2011-12-14T09:28:00.002+11:00

Well, the best-laid plans of writing some material for the blog have come unstuck because it's that time of year and, well, my day job is keeping me fairly busy!

But I did an interview yesterday with Chad Shuttleworth, who I saw busking on Peel Street in 2008 and was greatly impressed by then. We had a very interesting conversation and I'm more convinced than ever that he's a star in the making. So that interview will go up, likely in three parts, next week.

Interview: Jasmine Rae

2011-11-24T10:00:00.004+11:00

Since winning the Telstra Road to Tamworth in 2008, Jasmine Rae has become one of Australia's most popular country music artists. Her debut album, Look it Up, was #3 on the ARIA Australian Artists Country Album chart and #20 in the overall ARIA charts, as well as being nominated for Best Country Albums at the ARIAs in 2009. Her latest album, Listen Here, has reached #1 on the ARIA Country chart and #5 in the overall chart. It has spawned the popular singles 'I'll Try Anything' (with Joe Nichols), 'I Faked It' and 'Hunky Country Boys'. The latest single is 'Let it Be Me' - to mark its release and on the eve of the 2011 ARIA Awards, for which she's received another album nomination, we spoke to Jasmine and found an intelligent and grounded young woman who doesn't take any of her success - or her fans - for granted.

One of the reasons for this interview is your single ‘Let it Be Me’ so can you tell us about the song and why you chose it for the album?

For this particular album I made a point of writing a whole lot more of the material on there. I had lots more songs to put on there and this particular song was written by Molly Reed and Nicolle Galyon but I fell in love with it. I loved it so much I pushed out songs that I wrote for the album just to put this one on there because it just says it so simply but it says it so beautifully. And it’s a little bit different from what I would normally perform, because normally I would write and perform songs that are edgy and more uptempo, and even if it’s a ballad then it might be a little bit sad, but this song is just very lovely and hopeful and I just wanted to put something out there that’s a little bit different and quite vulnerable.

It is a bit sadder sounding than other songs on the album but you have that kind of deep voice – and by that I don’t mean in a lower register, but that your voice sounds like it’s coming from a place deep within you, so there’s that ability to be sad or to sound a little bit melancholy or wistful but also be a bit more raucous. Has that voice always been there or is it a recent thing?

I’ve been writing poetry and songs since I was a little girl so I started off writing more poetic and, I suppose, metaphorical songs – I didn’t usually write songs that were so straight to the point. It’s since I’ve been touring around and performing that I’ve learned to love and learned to write songs that are more uptempo and really fun to do live with the band. But it was first that I was singing ballads and really strong lyrical songs, so it’s really nice to put that back in with what I’m doing and have it all kind of connect together, so you don’t have to just be a singer who sings just really party songs, you can be both, and I like that a lot.

Well, maybe you could do more ballads on your next album, because they’re very nice!

Oh, thank you. There were some extra tracks – a track called ‘Already Broken’ that I wrote with Sheree Austin that ended up being a bonus track for this album, and whenever you bought the ‘Hunky Country Boys’ single, it came with that. So there’s been quite a few ballads for this album that were ready to go and they were great, but I had to pick between them and I picked ‘Let it Be Me’ because it’s just such a beautiful song.

What happens to those other songs that don’t get chosen? Do they see the light of day on the next album or the album after that, or are they just gone?

It just really depends, and that’s kind of the hard thing about it. When you’re writing you hope that it’s going to get onto the album. There’s a secret track on this album that I actually wrote a very long time ago, called ‘Love is No Cure’, and I didn’t even sing it with music, I just wanted to tie it in with this album. But sometimes your songs can be sung by other people, or you can sing them a few years down the track, or it can just be a song that you sing live at your shows. But when they’re songs that you love you try to work them in with your other pieces of work, because you don’t want it to just be wasted.

A lot of people who go to see music live regularly probably wonder how singers like you who have songs that you have to put in every set list don’t get bored singing the same thing. So do you ever think, ‘Oh no, not that again’?

I got a little bit like that with ‘Country Singer’, but now the audience sings along with me, and I wrote that song on my own many years ago and then you can never really get bored, when they’re singing along and it’s something that you wrote, it’s actually like ‘I really love singing this song now’. It takes it to a different level. And every time you work with a new band or a new player, you kind of just mix up a different song in there. So I don’t really get bored too easily because I just find something else that’s really cool about the situation.

You’re nominated for an ARIA in the Country Music category for Listen Here and you were also nominated for your first album, so I was wondering if that means you’re less nervous this time around.

It does. Last year, to be honest, I was so scared, because it was very quick – I’d only just released the first album, and it was the next year but we had just finished touring it and it seemed like I wasn’t ready to make the new one, and [I was thinking] ‘Does this mean this is the closing chapter of the first album?’ and then ‘Oh my god, what if I win? I’m going to have to talk on TV!’ and all this stuff, and ‘Now I have to find a dress!’ And it was just so very scary, and I loved it but I was so scared. This time around, because this Listen Here album has been a long time coming – it’s been two years that I’ve been working on it – sifting through [songs] and only the cream of the crop got onto this album song-wise, and working with Mark Moffatt, and it’s one I’m really proud of, so when I found out I was nominated I wasn’t expecting it at all but I’m more excited this time, to celebrate something – just to be nominated is really good. And I’ve got the dress beforehand!

Are you performing on the night?

No, not this time – I would have loved to, but no. The only time I’ll be seen is on the red carpet, so hopefully I won’t fall over – fingers crossed – and if I win.

It’s a competitive category – you have some stiff competition – but it’s a worthy nomination.

Oh, thank you. Kasey Chambers is also nominated and she’s someone I’ve been listening to since grade six. I’ve loved Kasey Chambers from The Captain, so to be nominated alongside her … She wasn’t nominated last year because she didn’t have an album out, so it’s very, very exciting for me. I’m going to write a speech anyway, just in case, and someone said to write something ridiculous so it’s then kind of good luck, because then, when you write something ridiculous that you’d be too embarrassed to say, you always then end up having to say it. You know, ‘Bippity boppity boo, I won an ARIA – woo!’

I’m intrigued that you were listening to Kasey Chambers in sixth grade, because country music is usually not what a lot of primary school kids listen to, so have you been listening to it for a while?

Yeah, I have. I live in the suburbs of Melbourne – I don’t live in the country at all –so I was the only kid, really, who listened to country music in primary school – and high school. So it’s always been something that I just love. I’ve listened to Dolly Parton since I was a little girl. I’m actually going to see her tonight. I’m so excited. I’ve never seen her live in concert. I know almost every song she’s ever put out. Even to people who aren’t musicians she’s just an awesome inspiration, just in her strength.

And she’s hilarious.

I know! And she’s little. And I love that, because I’m little.

I read some interviews making a bit of the fact that you’re little, and now you’ve mentioned it – is it something you’re conscious of? Well, Joe Nichols is massively tall by the look of him in your video [for ‘I’ll Try Anything’].

He’s actually not super, super tall – just really, really tall next to me! Growing up I was never really conscious of it. I’m more conscious of it now because so many country music artists are really tall. Brooks & Dunn are six-foot-four or something, and McAlister Kemp I perform with often and they’re the same – they’re so tall. So I notice it more now – I love it, it’s good. Finding clothes, you have to hack off the bottom so you make a headband that’s the same as the dress. I trip over less, because I have a lower centre of gravity. It’s good, I enjoy it – you can’t change it so you’d better like it, hey?

Looking back over the sales of your albums and where you’ve charted, and you’ve done a lot of touring – from your perspective have you seen the sales and the sizes of your audiences growing the more you’re out on the road and connecting with people?

Yes, I have. When I started – and I still feel like my audience could grow, that would be amazing – but when I first started I thought, ‘I’m not from the country, maybe these audiences are not going to like me’. And when I find them pouring in – you know, when I’m at the Gympie Muster and they’re just pouring in to watch me sing my songs and to sing along with me … Country music audiences are just amazing. They really do make you feel like you’re a success. I have no idea whether that means I actually am, but I feel like a success when they’re singing my stuff with me. It’s just so cool.

Country music artists seem to really appreciate the connection with the audience – it is part of the show almost – you stay behind afterwards, you sign things, you talk to people.

And when I get home I jump on Facebook to see what everyone thought of the show and before I go I jump on see if there are any last-minute requests before I go on stage. So it is very much a community and it makes you feel like you belong. It sounds a bit cheesy, doesn’t it? But I love it.

Not at all – I think that’s part of its strength. Given the nature of country music and how big Australia is and how many places you go to, what is the most isolated place you’ve ever played?

In Australia?

Yes.

Because I’ve been over to East Timor …

You can talk about that too!

Hmmm … There have been a few places. I’ve been to Bunyip in WA, which is quite out of the way. My favourite venue is in Kuranda in Queensland, near Cairns, and it is kind of out of the way because you have to go up into a rainforest and it’s an outdoor amphitheatre in a rainforest. It is the coolest venue. But I’d like to get more remote. I’d like to go to the middle of Australia. Lee Kernaghan – I’ve travelled with him, and he did a lot of rural areas, but I’d like to do a whole lot more.

I think Troy Cassar-Daley gets out into a lot of remote communities, so maybe the three of you should do a tour …

That would be really awesome, to do that.

You live in Melbourne, so what’s the country music scene like there?

It’s growing slowly – or maybe my eyes are now more open to other people who like it, instead of just feeling like I was the only one. But it’s harder in Melbourne, to play country music – they’re slowly converting to it, but it takes a little while. The music industry’s really strong here – it’s got hip-hop and rock and funk, and country music is slowly growing, but it has been a bit of a struggle.

A lot of people in cities watch CMC, so there are people who like it – hopefully there will be more gigs for them.

This year we played Rod Laver Arena with Alan Jackson and the Forum with Joe Nichols and it was packed out, but it’s not as many gigs as I’d like.

Jasmine, thanks so much for your time – and good luck at the ARIAs on the weekend.

Thank you so much.

Jasmine's official website is www.jasminerae.com.au

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jasminerae

Twitter: @jasminerae

Youtube: jasminerae1

Harmony James - new CD now in 2012

2011-11-23T09:33:00.001+11:00

The follow-up to Harmony James's debut album, Tailwind, will now be released in early 2012. Handfuls of Sky will make its first appearance on 20 January, during the Tamworth Country Music Festival. This follows Harmony's music publishing and record label deals, with Alberts and Warners respectively. Harmony is also joining Troy Cassar-Daley for a series of shows in March 2012 - visit Troy's site for details. So it's a big year ahead for one of country music's brightest stars - I can't wait to get my hands on the CD!

www.harmonyjames.com

Interview: Timothy Carroll (part III)

2011-11-22T17:23:00.003+11:00

This is the third of a multi-part interview with an amazing Brisbane singer-songwriter named Timothy Carroll. In this part Timothy talks about some of his songs and about the upcoming studio recording of the songs featured on The Swedish Tapes.

Part I can be read here and Part II here.

Brisbane residents can see Timothy play at the Joynt on Wednesday 23 November.

***

Does Brisbane have increasingly more venues for people to play?

There was a real crisis, from my point of view, about the time of the floods. There was a real crisis with the Troubadour closing down and The Hangar stopping doing gigs in the space that they were doing them in Red Hill. Because those venues were medium-sized venues that were really beautiful and well run and had good sound, and when they fell apart I felt like there was a bit of a hole in Brisbane’s heart in terms of bands of about that size being able to perform. If you move up a bit higher there’s The Zoo and The Hi Fi and the Tivoli but that’s beyond a lot of people’s reach, really, because you need to get so many people through the door in order to make it pay. But now the Black Bear Lodge has opened and they’re doing some music. There are a few other places around town. There’s a new bar in West End called The End that I saw some bands at the other day. I’m doing some shows myself at the Joynt. I’ve formed a bit of a new band with some people to work out how we’re going to perform The Swedish Tapes.

Will you then record with them?

I was recording quite a bit of The Swedish Tapes with a guy by the name of Oscar Dawson, who is from Melbourne and an old friend of mine and a very talented musician and a really good guy. So he’s living in Berlin and performing and writing with his band, and he’s coming back to Australia in late November for a couple of months, so I’m going to get him in a studio and a few other friends and go from there. So it’s a bit of a mix of some of the people I’ve performed with and some of the people I recorded with overseas. And sometimes we might have both. It’s nice to have players that are performing the stuff come and be involved as well. We’ll just have to see how it pans out.

Now to ask you some questions about songwriting … You’re good at evoking place in your songs. In ‘To Frozen Lakes’, for example, I can almost feel the cold around the lakes and in ‘Where the Catholics Ruled’ I can get a sense of the city that the song is set in. Is that a conscious evocation of place and, if so, how do you do it? Or is it just something that comes through?

It’s certainly not conscious. And it’s funny that you should choose those two titles because those are two songs that were written in a really, really short amount of time. ‘Where the Catholics Ruled’ I wrote in about twenty minutes. It’s really simple in terms of the chord progression. I just sort of spat out a whole heap of verses and then chucked a few of them away. And ‘To Frozen Lakes’ – I was at a festival in Tasmania and there was a piano in a tent and the festival was either over or hadn’t started – there was nobody around – and I just had some candles on top of the piano and was just mucking around, because I don’t really play piano that well, and just sort of wrote that one really quickly – the story of a friend of mine. So I don’t know – I guess it just happens sometimes!

On the first album the song that haunted me, for lack of a better term, was ‘Alicia’s Song’ and I was wondering if you could tell me the story behind that.

It’s interesting that that’s a song that you like, because that’s a song that I struggle with. I never play it live. I don’t even know if I could play it. I’d started working at the Troubadour at that time and there was a friend of mine, Alicia, who was working there as well and she fell pregnant, with her partner, and was thrilled about it, and it was probably the first time that someone in my world was going to have a baby and I was just kind of thinking about the wonder of that phenomenon, of a human being forming, becoming a mother and all the different sort of relationships that that entails, like the protective father and the relationship with the mother. And so that’s what that’s about.

At the moment ‘Catholics’ is the one I can’t get out of my head.

That one’s about my parents leaving Dublin. My parents are both from Dublin and they left in ’82, and so that song’s a kind of study on what was going on in Ireland at that time. I get the impression it was quite a repressive society with Catholic values of getting married and it was that important, having children out of wedlock was frowned upon. And my parents were in that situation, having my sister without being married and they all moved down to Australia, and that’s what [the song’s] about.

It seems that you’re very much a storyteller rather than a confessional songwriter – you’re telling stories about the people around you, and perhaps about yourself as well. It’s quite common in country music but not so much in pop and rock, where it tends to be more the – to paraphrase something Tim Rogers said once – ‘I’m so miserable, that girl left me’. Is that accurate to say of you?

It does seem to be the case but again it’s not really a conscious thing. I guess I listened to a lot of storytellers growing up – I used to listen to a lot of Neil Young and Emmylou Harris and Bob Dylan. Perhaps some of that seeped in, in some way.

On the first album in particular there’s a certain wistfulness to the songs, or to your voice. Does that come through when you’re playing? Or maybe that’s the wrong question to ask as you may not hear it, as you’re the performer!

I do think that recording a take with the right emotion in it is the most important thing for recording – it’s not so much about how well you perform or how perfectly you sing a song, it’s about getting the take where it feels right and you’re able to perform the song ending up in a way that’s true. And when we recorded the first album it was a really beautiful studio. It was with Jamie Trevaskis who used to own the Troubadour and now owns the Junk Bar in Ashgrove [in Brisbane]. And it was late at night in his old Queenslander in Bardon and we were really close friends - I don’t see a lot of him now because he works a lot and I work a lot – but it was really relaxed and kind of wonderful. So perhaps that comes through. And also, I guess, maybe because I hadn’t recorded anything before, really, apart from a little home recording, so it was all fresh and new and exciting, and we did a lot of takes, like, first take or second take – it’s not like we were doing lots and lots of tracking. That’s something to remember – maybe I should do that on the next record.

There are some epic-sounding songs on The Swedish Tapes so it will be interesting to hear what becomes of them in the studio, in terms of many instruments and multiple tracks, but I guess you won’t know until you try.

I think we won’t have too many instruments – I don’t want it to be crowded and overdone. Another friend who’s a producer said when he wants something to sound big he puts less in it – he just has four tracks handled a certain way and that’s when you get a big-sounding moment, is when it’s simple, well recorded and well written ... I’m excited to be recording the next album live, so we’ll be in the room with drums, electric [guitar], bass and me, and that will be really nice for the ebb and flow of the songs, so we can hear each other and bond, to a degree.

Because your voice is so strong as an instrument, really, you don’t really want to drown it out, and when you take a lot of care with your lyrics – which you seem to – they need to come through. And there is the danger with a lot of instruments that the voice gets lost.

Yeah, that’s true. And the guy who I’m most likely going to be recording with, Matt Redlich, he has some wonderful mikes that are like some of the older mikes that [Roy] Orbison and the Beatles at Abbey Road used to use, and we’ll be recording to tape, so it will be nice for him to be capturing what we’re doing while we play.

Timothy's first two releases, For Bread & Circuses and The Deepest Dive, are available from timothycarroll.bandcamp.com and also from iTunes.

CD review: Ashes & Fire by Ryan Adams

2011-11-21T10:28:00.004+11:00

It's taken me a while to get to this review, not because I was reluctant to write it but because I wanted to give this album more time, as each time I listened to it there was something deeper and richer about it, and there was a good chance that with even more listening, more textures were going to emerge. And so it has proved.

I am a long-time Ryan Adams fan and, as his fans know, Ryan is brilliant but inconsistent. His last consistent album was either Gold, a decade ago, or Jacksonville City Nights, and the answer is dependent on which version of Ryan you like (rock or country). In and around those albums were many, many other releases that contained some astoundingly beautiful songs that I listen to over and over and over - Cold Roses and Easy Tiger deserve particular mention as being good-song-laden - but they also featured songs that I will not listen to. Ever. Ryan Adams is the only songwriter I know of who can veer so wildly between greatness and mediocrity, seemingly without awareness of same - indeed, one of his former bandmates in the Cardinals (I want to say Neal Casals, but may be wrong) said that Ryan actually can't tell the difference between a good and a bad song, which explains 'Halloweenhead' but doesn't really tell us how he can get it so right so often. Perhaps he's just capricious.

But now to Ashes & Fire, which was released a few weeks ago ... I'm going way out on my Ryan fan limb and saying it's the best album he's ever released. It is certainly his most consistent, and that solid structure gives us the opportunity to really hear what's going on. There are eleven songs of outstanding quality and, yes, they are in the country genre. Each one is worth listening to for years to come, and many times over. They are well constructed without being heavy; delicately drawn without being fluffy; and - for me, at least - they are beautiful and moving. I couldn't pick a favourite because I love them all, but I will say that 'I Love You but I Don't Know What to Say' has to be one of the greatest love songs of all time, because it's not sappy and it's not affected and it captures just what it's like to love someone - not necessarily romantically - over the course of years.

By getting out of his own way Ryan has also, finally, given us the chance to appreciate his voice. It has always surprised me that more is not made of his vocal range, which is usually well displayed in performance but not really on record, because he tends to not move up and down the octaves. He's not doing vocal acrobatics on this album either, but his control of his voice and its sensitivity as an instrument are clearly captured. It's a voice that sounds intimate - like he's right there with you - like the song is coming through him and not just out of his mouth. And if that sounds corny, too bad - because only the best singers can actually become the song.

The reasons behind this 'new, improved' Ryan Adams have been speculated on: he's stopped drinking alcohol and has now been married (to singer Mandy Moore) for a handful of years. Perhaps these things have given him the solid foundations that can be heard behind the songs; perhaps he's just grown up. Whatever it is, it's working.

Ashes & Fire by Ryan Adams is out now through Pax-Am/Sony/Columbia.

Ryan Adams is touring Australia in February and March 2012. For details go to his website at paxamrecords.com.

Interview: Timothy Carroll (part II)

2011-11-13T19:36:00.003+11:00

This is the second of a multi-part interview with an amazing Brisbane singer-songwriter named Timothy Carroll. In this second part Timothy talks about arts funding, living in Sweden, visiting Berlin and the challenges of making music independently.

Part I can be read here.

Brisbane residents can see Timothy play at the Joynt on Wednesday 16 and 23 November.

***

When are you recording the next album?

I teamed up with a manager about the last half-year, a friend of mine who’s pretty savvy and hasn’t actually worked that much in the music business but it’s been great to have him to build some more concrete plans and bounce ideas off ... We’re looking at a schedule of potentially going in in December and January to have the recording of tracks done then … But I don’t want to put to much of a deadline on when it’s going to be done because I don’t want to feel pressured. When I did The Deepest Dive EP I was going to Sweden, and it had to be done by this really inflexible date and it was a little bit of hard pressure, and I don’t really want to have that pressure again. Recording in December/January and then early next year is the plan.

And do you want to stay independent? I would imagine it’s a lot of extra work in terms of promotion and distribution – well, you’re distributing online mainly – but ideally would you like a record company to come along and say they’d help you out.

I’m not really that fussed about it, but I tell you the money side of things is kind of freaking me out a bit at the moment. Going into making a record is really expensive. Studio time, and you have to pay the musicians, then printing CDs, and then if you want to go down into doing some degree of press and publicity and promotion, and that’s before you’ve even looked into touring or anything. And so it’s a little bit scary when you’re at this end of it, when you’re just way in the red, you know. So some financial support from somewhere would be awesome. I went for a grant from Arts Queensland but was unsuccessful with that, so I’m again funding this next round of recording out of my credit card and savings. Arts Queensland said we were pretty close but weren’t successful, so I’m kind of moving on now. The grants are a funny beast because they take a long time to do and then you have to wait a very long time also to get an outcome, like six months, and you’re pinning hopes around that and then it falls through, not only have you not got the grant but you’ve lost some of that time. But I’m just going to move forward now and fund it myself, and if I can sell a thousand CDs – which isn’t a huge number – it’ll more or less pay for itself.

It’s interesting you say a thousand, because there is someone – I forget who it is - who has worked out that if you have 1000 true fans, that as an artist you can make a living that way.

Well, great! That’s what I need. I have a job as well – I’m a social worker, and I work four days a week doing that. So I don’t need to make a living [at music] but it’d be nice for the art to pay for itself at least.

Are you back from Sweden permanently, or are you to-ing and fro-ing?

We’re back now for a while – my partner’s from Stockholm, so that’s why we were over there. She’s got permanent residency in Australia now and she’s got two years of uni to do here, so we’ll definitely be around for two years, and then I don’t know what will happen after that. I adore Sweden and was learning the language while I was over there, and I’ve got some dear friends and family over there, and I would love to go back and spend another chunk of time. And another thing was that while I was away for that year, it was so wonderful to have enough time to be able to write and to get into the space where I was just someone who was writing music. Because when I’m back here in Brisbane working as a social worker and managing that side of life, I do find it harder to write. I can still perform and do shows and that side of things, but that pure creative process of writing, I find it somewhat challenging to sit down and do it.

It’s incredibly challenging. I don’t know how anyone does it. I guess that’s why the patronage system of the Renaissance was effective, because someone else would take care of all the concerns like making money and running a household, which all takes time and energy away from being creative.

I went to Berlin three times while I was living in Stockholm, because it was just so close and easy and cheap. And there’s a community of Australian artists that I was lucky enough to be hanging out with over there, so that’s kind of the model they’re using – living in Berlin because it’s so affordable and rent is really cheap and food is really cheap, so they can make a living from their art and really focus on it. And there were painters and sculptors and musicians and film-makers all kind of living in a community and interacting, and there was a real symbiosis of everybody living next to each other and inspiring each other. Just to spend some time amongst that – and we did some recording over there – was really inspiring. So that’s a model. Maybe I could do that.

Brisbane is getting more expensive to live in, I guess, but it’s certainly been fertile ground for musicians for the last few years, or it seems to have been. Given that Brisbane seems to produce a fair amount of rock music, do you feel like you could technically call yourself part of the Brisbane musical scene, or do you stand somewhat apart from it?

I’m feeling quite apart from it at the moment, just having been away for a year. And a year’s not that long, really, but it feels like a long time coming back. I go out and see music fairly often – it’s what I like to do on the weekend – and there are lots of bands that I’ve never heard of and whole scenes that I hadn’t seen. So I do feel a bit different. I feel kind of old, as well. There are all these young bands – 21 years olds, really talented, really eclectic bands happening. So it’s quite interesting and I guess they’re going to start performing more and you can work out what’s going on.

Book review: I've Been There (and Back Again) by Joy McKean

2011-11-08T09:30:00.001+11:00

Slim Dusty’s influence on Australian country music is legion and legend. What many people who have only a passing awareness of Slim may not realise is that his wife, Joy McKean, shared not only his life but his career – they toured together, played together and wrote songs together. They also had two children, Anne and David Kirkpatrick, who went into the family business.

Joy and Slim met because of country music, and this shared passion brought them decades of travelling and playing. At the very least, it was an interesting life, but even a casual observer can see that ‘fascinating’ would be a more accurate term. Now, Joy shares some of the stories behind their songs – from Slim’s 106 albums – in her new book, I’ve Been There (and Back Again).

This is a hardcover, illustrated book (as the jargon goes), filled with photographs from throughout Joy and Slim’s lives. Joy’s publisher has given the subject matter the respect it deserves by producing such an impressive volume, which is obviously a must for any Slim fan. I’d also recommend it to anyone who likes a good yarn about the bush, for there are many great stories about the people and places who shaped not only the songs but the people who wrote them.

Slim and Joy seemed to have visited every corner of Australia with a ready smile for anyone who came across their path. This willingness to travel far and wide was, no doubt, a large part of Slim’s success, because his audience was so broad. Joy and Slim’s openness to the country that unfurled before them was reflected in their songs, which in turn describe so much of Australian rural life, in particular, and the Australian national character in general. So this book is a social history, of sorts. And if you’re at all interested in music and musicians, it is fascinating to read about how shows were put together and what sort of life gigging musicians had in the middle of the twentieth century.

There is family history here, too – how Joy and Slim met and what their families were like, what happened when their children came along. Throughout, Joy’s direct way of telling a story – familiar to anyone who knows her songs – guides the reader through. She has a familiar, almost intimate, tone that makes the stories come alive. It’s a great read, whether you like country music or not.

I've Been There (and Back Again) by Joy McKean, published by Hachette Australia 2011. RRP: $39.99

CD review: Songs & Pictures by Beccy Cole

2011-11-07T10:36:00.000+11:00

Beccy Cole is, not unlike her close friend Kasey Chambers, one of our most consistent singer-songwriters, although I wouldn't mind betting that a lot of people don't realise she writes most of her own songs, mainly because she's seen as a 'performer'. Indeed, Beccy is one of our great entertainers - she consistently puts on high-quality shows that combine humour, storytelling and musical performance in a way that ensures everyone leaves smiling. She is also a songwriter of considerable accomplishment, and has been for a while - her early song 'Lazy Bones' is a textbook case in how to turn a phrase in a clever, funny way.

Songs & Pictures is Beccy's latest CD and again features her own compositions, some of them written in collaboration with Kasey Chambers, Travis Collins, Luke Austen and others. It is a nostalgic, almost wistful album - there is very little of the brassiness that could be found on Feel This Free or even Little Victories. It is a 'pretty' album in many ways - Beccy has always produced melodically pleasing songs, but there seem to be more of them on this album. And perhaps more songs in minor keys. They are songs of reflection and contemplation, of appreciation for what she has and who she loves. It is the most personal of her albums, and the first that I can recall where there isn't what one could call a 'joke song' (for lack of a better word) like 'The Girls Out Here' or 'Sorry I Asked'. This is probably for the best: the joke songs may have previously obscured the fact that she is a really, really good singer, and on this new album her voice is front and centre.

It's a strong album - the songs are solidly constructed and Beccy's remarkable voice is in charge of them all. 'Millionaires' also features Kasey on vocals and it is clearly about the friendship they have have since they were teenagers - it's a lovely song. Although I love Beccy's joke songs, I do think this is the most consistent of her albums in terms of having an overall message and the songs all feeding into each other to create a complete portrait. It is also the album most likely to appeal to people who don't usually like country music - so buy it for your non-country friends.

www.beccycole.com

Interview: Aleyce Simmonds (part II)

2011-11-04T09:22:00.002+11:00

**Part I of the Jolene interview with Aleyce Simmonds is available here.**

So you’ve toured with Dianna Corcoran and Amber Lawrence. The country music community in Australia – from the punter’s point of view, at least – seems to be very supportive, especially of new artists. Did you find that when you emerging from Telstra Road to Tamworth and getting your first recording contract?

Definitely. I think that the fans, in particular, in country music – I’m not sure if it’s the same in other genres but from what I’ve heard it’s not – they embrace you. The industry as well, but more so the fans – they embrace you from a very young age in talent quest world and all that sort of stuff, and they follow through with you. They don’t drop you. They help you along the road. I still see people at my gigs that I saw ten years ago at the talent quests, and they’ll say to me, you know, ‘We love that song’ or ‘Maybe you could do this differently’ or ‘You’ve improved so much’, and they’ve sort of come on the journey as well, and it’s really quite beautiful.

It must be incredibly rewarding, particularly when you’re in that storyteller vein – you’re not up there singing songs that you don’t believe in. So I would think to have audiences connect to the stories that you’re telling, it possibly influences the stories you go on to tell.

Oh, absolutely. As a songwriter you’re always looking for inspiration, and having these amazing experiences that we are able to have in this industry, being a singer and a songwriter, with these amazing opportunities … Last weekend I just got back from Mildura and up there the inspiration’s everywhere – there are all these creative people around, there are all these wonderful fans who are more like friends, I guess. It feels weird saying ‘fans’ because they are more like friends, and they have such huge input into the music we create.

Just on the songwriting process – how did you find co-writing songs on your album? Was there any disagreement with anyone about who was going to do what?

It depends on who you’re writing with. I had a lot of that in Nashville I was writing in Nashville as an eighteen-year-old and I really had no clue. I’d only had a couple of co-writing sessions here in Australia and I went over there and really didn’t know what I was doing, so I found that to be very difficult. But back here I found a few different writers who I really connected with and it just flowed really easily. Sometimes, like with my producer Rod McCormack, it was always a great outcome, we always came out with a song that was good. But with other people I would sort of write a song and it would just be a waste of the day – well, not a waste, because we still learned a lot from the experience, but it just didn’t work. And I guess co-writing is all about being able to bounce off each other and throw your ideas around and coming up with a whole new perspective that you never even thought of.

And since writing your first album, have you met anyone who you think would be good to work with as a songwriter for the next album, whenever that is?

Yes. There are lots of people I’ve come into contact with since then. I would definitely love to go back to Nashville and write with a bunch of Nashville writers, now that I’ve got more experience and have a better idea of what I want. I think it takes a lot of courage as a co-writer, as well, to be able to stand up and say, ‘That’s a nice idea, but it’s really not for me’, and go off in a different direction. So I would like to go to Nashville, but we have so many great writers here that I’d love to write with also.

You’re a young artist and you have your first album out, and you’ve emerged at a time when it seems that there are a lot of extra demands on musicians, in particular, in terms of social media and connecting with fans. Do you think it’s harder work now to keep up with everything, particularly when you have a job and you’re trying to have a relatively normal life as well?

I think that it’s definitely harder now – just even in my short career it’s getting harder and harder with the emergence of all the illegal downloads and everything like that, and lack of live music venues. Keeping up with social media side, it’s not so hard - it is very time consuming, but it has created this amazing opportunity for us to get our music out to a wider audience so easily. It’s just so great. You can post something and five minutes later have thirty comments and different points of view, which is just amazing.

You don’t find sometimes that it’s too much feedback?

Sometimes it is. People can be brutally honest but also brutal, you know. I guess you have to be careful sometimes with what you do put out there, because you’re putting everything out there in the public eye and it can be very daunting and scary.

You live in Sydney, and that makes sense in terms of accessing record companies and thing like that. But country music audiences tend to be in rural and regional Australia, so how do you find that balance of living in the city and trying to get out and tour, or even do the odd gig, when Australia’s so big?

It is difficult. I actually work a lot around Newcastle. I have a full-time job, so I’m doing that and then doing my music after hours and every weekend, and there are a lot of gigs around Newcastle and western Sydney, certainly not much in the CBD. But the funny thing is that something like four million people watch CMC just from inner Sydney, so where are they at our gigs? There must be this huge contingent of country music followers who are sort of closet country music lovers.

I think that’s true. Also because the venues aren’t there necessarily, people think the music isn’t available, and there’s no process whereby audiences can demand it. I’d be at country music gigs every weekend in Sydney if they were on, but they’re not.

No, they’re not!

Interview: Aleyce Simmonds (part I)

2011-11-03T09:09:00.004+11:00

Aleyce Simmonds is relatively new to Australian country music, in that she's young - although she's been performing for quite a while. Her first album, Pieces of Me, was produced by Rod McCormack, who is one of the busiest country music producers in the land, along with Nash Chambers and, increasingly, Shane Nicholson. Pieces of Me was released in January 2011 and introduced a singer-songwriter who is more accomplished and mature than 'first album' would suggest.

I spoke to Aleyce soon after she'd returned from performing at the 2011 Mildura Country Music Festival in late September. (For reasons of length, this interview will be split into two parts.)

Have you always loved country music?

Yes, I have. I grew up listening to it – in the family we always listened to American country music mainly and I guess I just fell in love with it from a really early age.

Were there any artists in particular at that young age who you really loved?

I’ve always loved Martina McBride and Faith Hill, and they were just emerging at the time that we really started getting into country music, so they influenced me, I guess, a lot as a singer and as a songwriter.

You spent some of your younger years in Tamworth .

I was born in Port Macquarie and moved over to Tamworth when I was about eleven.

I was wondering what the festival would have been like for you as a young resident.

It was awesome – it was just the most exciting time of the year. I would go in the one talent quest in Tamworth – the biggest talent quest, which was called the CCMA – and it was definitely my favourite time of year. It was great having all these people just inject into Tamworth.

I’ve heard a lot of families in Tamworth get out of town at festival time, but clearly yours stayed around.

Yes, definitely. I can’t believe so many do get out.

Are your folks still in Tamworth?

Yes, they are.

So you can stay there when you go back for the festival?

Yes, free accom – it’s the best!

It seems that there are a few talent quests around the festival – you were in the CCMA but you were also in the Telstra Road to Tamworth. Do they overlap? What’s the process?

The Telstra Road to Tamworth’s only been around for six or so years, so it wasn’t around when I was younger. I guess there are a bunch of talent quests that have been there for years but the Toyota Star Maker and the Telstra Road to Tamworth are the two big ones and they’re more for … once you’ve finished those young sort of talent quests then you move on to the more serious career-opening ones.

Where did you do your first heat for the Road to Tamworth?

It was in Armidale, so we drove an hour and a half to Armidale just to get a thousand dollars just to go back to Tamworth!

That wouldn’t have been that early in your performing career, then, if you’d already done CCMA?

Well, I’d done those but I was eighteen when I won the Telstra Road to Tamworth. It was the first big award that I’d won and I was still very green.

Do you enjoy live performance?

I do – I love it. It didn’t come as easy for me as I think it does for other people. I prefer to – or I always have preferred to – sing in a studio and all that sort of stuff. I really struggled with my nerves with my live performance, for a really long time, and it’s really just now that I feel I’m more confident and comfortable on stage, and I guess I’ve had to find what it is about me that works live. It’s not being that live, vibrant entertainer – it’s more singing my songs and telling the crowd about why I wrote the songs and the stories behind the songs, and creating more of an intimate vibe.

In country music it seems like the performers really feel that there’s a relationship with the audience, more than you’d get in a rock gig, for example, so there is a lot of talking that goes on – in a good way. There is that telling the background of the story that’s in the song and that’s really important to the audience.

Definitely.

And that’s how you’ve found your niche – to be that storyteller.

Yes, definitely. That’s what I love about country music, that it evokes so much emotion in the listener – it’s not just a song about a random thing, it’s a song about emotion and real-life things that people can relate to and I guess that that’s what I like to convey to the audience.

I can understand why you might have been nervous when you started performing – you have a really ‘big’ voice, and your voice is clearly a very important part of who you are, and I think it would be difficult to go out every time wondering, ‘Am I going to damage it? Am I in a club where it’s smoky? Am I going to have to strain to be heard over a band?’

That is a factor. It was great when clubs took the smoking areas outside because it is so damaging on your vocal cords and it is a worry, especially doing back to back performances. I also try to keep in with my training and make sure that I sing correctly. A lot of people look down upon classically trained singers, but in my opinion classical training is a perfect foundation - it’s just like learning how to drive a car before you can go out and drive along the freeway or whatever. It’s just a foundation, and it’s so important in any trade or anything to have the training behind it.

You have a big, almost a gutsy voice – it’s not something you often hear in people when they’re younger, as singers tend to grow into their voices a bit. Did you find your voice through your training, or have you always had that sound?

I think I’ve always had a fairly big voice - I just usually call myself a boofhead and say I have a boofhead voice. It’s funny, because when I was growing up, in school and performing in choirs and things, I would always audition for the choirs and they would say that my voice was too different, it would stick out too much. I sang a lot in choirs, but I guess because I’ve got sort of a loud voice it’s … I don’t know why I have it, or how.

It’s not so much that it’s loud but it’s a mature voice. You sound like you’re singing about things as if you’re really feeling them, and one tends to think that it’s only as you get older that you feel things and they can come into your voice.

I think with age it definitely does get easier to convey your messages and things, it’s just even unbelievable how I wrote all the songs for my album a couple of years ago and I did vocals on them back then on the demos, and listening to them now and then listening to my album vocals, there’s just so much more emotion in my album vocal, because even though it’s the same song and I wrote it back then, because I’ve felt different things since then – I’ve had my heart ripped apart and all that sort of stuff, stuff that comes with age, definitely.

And you play guitar as well – a Fender guitar, I saw in your liner notes.

I do, I play a Guild guitar. I’m endorsed by Fender but I play a Guild guitar – they own Guild as well.

You obviously appreciate instruments, and I noticed in your liner notes something about you telling [producer] Rod McCormack that you wanted more banjo and more mandolin, so I was wondering if you’re particularly fond of those instruments or if you just like that ‘country sound’.

I love those instruments. Something I love in music in general is contemporary-sounding songs but with traditional instruments, so a more contemporary country song but with mandolin and banjo all over it – that, to me, is just perfect.

Do you play the banjo or the mandolin?

I’d love to be able to play the banjo. I can play the mandolin, but very badly.

From what I hear, the banjo’s quite hard.

I think so. I haven’t even attempted it, but from what I hear it is quite hard, yes.

www.aleycesimmonds.com

Interview: Timothy Carroll (part I)

2011-10-30T18:00:00.006+11:00

In 2008 Brisbane-based musician Timothy Carroll released an extraordinary album called For Bread & Circuses (available from iTunes and also here). It's not a country album but it has some country elements, so for classification purposes I thought I could slip Timothy into this blog - also because it's my blog and I can what I want (so there!), and because I believe him to be an incredibly talented singer-songwriter who deserves to be widely known.

In 2010 Timothy released an EP called The Deepest Dive, and he's also made the demo tapes for his next album available for download only, under the title The Swedish Tapes (as he was living in Sweden when they were made). If these demos are any indication, the album - which is to be recorded soon - will be amazing.

Timothy kindly agreed to be interviewed by telephone, and as he gave me quite a bit of his time this is a fairly long interview that will be split into parts. I found him to be as interesting and thoughtful as his music suggests, and it was a great thrill to talk to him.

Timothy Carroll and his band will be playing a residency on Wednesday nights in November at the Joynt in Brisbane, from the 9th.

When did you start singing?

I’ve pretty much always sung. Even the preschool I went to, the woman who ran that had a guitar and I always really loved it when she would play guitar … She used to play old Beatles songs and stuff. So I’ve always sung and I used to sing in the car with my family, like old Blues Brothers songs. So it’s always been something that I’ve done and enjoyed.

Listening to you sing, I could swear you have perfect pitch – do you know if you do?

Well, I’m not very musical in the sense of knowing what notes are what. I haven’t got much musical training at all – I can’t read music on a staff or anything. And if someone told me to sing a certain note I couldn’t do it. I’m not too bad at just hitting the notes that I want to hit. But lately I’ve been writing some stuff up in the high registers and finding it a bit more challenging, maybe because I’m getting a bit older … I have to be a bit more careful about not drinking and smoking beforehand ... I do have a few things that I do before I sing – I very rarely eat before I sing. But that’s more because I’m nervous and I just don’t feel like eating.

Do you do a lot of three-set gigs?

I very rarely have done three-set gigs – more one set – and I do believe in the kind of less-is-more approach to performance. I usually like to do fairly short sets and not give people time to get bored.

Given that you started singing quite young, is your voice your preferred instrument, as opposed to a guitar?

Yeah, I think that’s fair to say. The guitar is just a medium for finding melodies and for accompanying singing. Because I’m not that handy on the guitar, and I picked up the guitar much later, when I was about sixteen. So I just play the guitar to give myself something to sing to, I guess.

So when you’re writing songs, do you tend to sing them out first to compose, or do you use the guitar to compose?

I use the guitar to compose. Usually I’ll find a couple of little progressions or melody lines. Lately if I’m just noodling on the guitar I’ll record little sections on my phone or something, just so I don’t forget ideas. And then I’ll also work through a little bit further into a whole progression into a song without any lyrics. And then I’ll sing ad libbing and record big, huge, long versions of the song – like, fifteen- or twenty-minute long versions – and then I go back and find little fragments that are good or that could be fleshed out, and then cut it right back down to something about normal length – three to five minutes.

On The Swedish Tapes some of the songs are a bit more epic sounding, like ‘Where the Catholics Ruled’, and those songs could sound like the fragment of an epic track.

I definitely have made a bit of a conscious move in a new direction, in the way that I’m writing at the moment and the people who I’m collaborating with, which is exciting. My first record [For Bread & Circuses], I didn’t really go into it thinking, ‘I want to make a record that sounds like this’. I just had these songs and the only thing I knew how to do was to play like that and to collaborate with people who played the other instruments on my first record, which ended up being fairly folk/countryish, and I’m really proud of that piece of work and I really enjoyed making it. But with this one [to be recorded soon] I have had more of a thought about what I’d like to be doing and some different influences and it’s exciting to be pushing out into a new direction and working with some different people and I’m looking forward to re-recording those tracks, because those [The Swedish Tapes] were the demos that were done really roughly in my apartments in Stockholm and Berlin.

You say that they’re rough, but they don’t sound rough – they sound like fantastic tracks.

Thank you. I guess from my point of view most of them were recorded with one crappy mike and it’s not even a vocal mike, somebody had a T-shirt over it. And also some of the drums are not live drums, they’re programmed drums. So it’s just meant to be a platform to explore an idea and get a sense of what the song could be, and then it’ll be really nice to record it live with the whole band playing together and feeding off each other and stuff.

In terms of changing genre - for lack of a better term – it can sometimes be tricky if you have an audience for one kind of music and then you move in a different direction. But you’re an independent artist - you’ve put out everything yourself, and you don’t have a record company telling you what to do - so I guess that gives you the freedom to change.

Yeah, I do have complete freedom to do what I like, which is awesome. And I’m aware that there will be an element that the people who have previously enjoyed my records might not enjoy this one as much, but I don’t really mind about that. They can continue listening to the old records. It’s obvious, I guess, that I just want to make music that excites me and that I feel really good about and that I’m excited to play and perform and things like that. So I’m feeling good about the new record.
Part 2 of this interview will be published soon.

timothycarroll.bandcamp.com

CD review: Storybook by Kasey Chambers

2011-10-27T17:09:00.004+11:00

It look me quite a while to love this album - about ten listens, I reckon. That was probably because it's not an album of Kasey's original songs, but it's still her, and now I love it all the same.

Storybook is a collection of new and old recordings of other people's songs - if you're a die-hard fan who's bought all of Kasey's singles and EPs, you're going to have her versions of Cyndi Lauper's 'True Colours', Paul Kelly's 'Everything's Turning to White', James McMurtry's 'Too Long in the Wasteland', Patty Griffin's 'Top of the World' and and Fred Eaglesmith's 'Water in the Fuel'. But you won't have the newer recordings, which are actually more impressive than the earlier efforts because this album clearly shows us how Kasey has matured and improved as a singer. She is a strong singer who can also reveal vulnerability in the turn of a note - as she does in her version of Suzanne Vega's 'Luka', 'Everything's Turning to White' and Matthew Ryan's 'Guilty'. Interestingly, while the lyrics of 'Orphan Girl', a Gillian Welch tune, suggest vulnerability, there isn't much to be heard in Kasey's voice - perhaps because she's singing it with her husband, Shane Nicholson - or, maybe, to him.

Shane is one of several musical guests on the album. Jimmy Barnes is almost unrecognisable in his lower register on the Townes van Zandt song 'If I Needed You'. Paul Kelly, a previous collaborator, does not sing on the song he penned but on the Hank Williams number 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry'.

The only song I regularly skip over is the cover of John Prine's 'Leave the Lights On', but no doubt other people love it, musical taste being a subjective thing. The standout tracks for me are Gram Parsons's 'Return of the Grievous Angel', 'Luka', 'Guilty' and the Nanci Griffith track 'I Wish it Would Rain', which Kasey sings with Ashleigh Dallas. The other tracks are perfectly great, though - for the curious, there are also covers of Lucinda Williams ('Happy Woman Blues') and Steve Earle ('Nothing but a Child', sung with the Lost Dogs).

For Kasey fans, this is obviously a must. For other punters, it's a great collection of country or country-esque (or pop, in Lauper's case) songs that acts somewhat as an introduction to the genre and its range of songwriters and subjects. Kasey has always been an excellent interpreter of other people's songs, and those skills are evident here. She is one of those singers who becomes the song - she inhabits the story in the song and conveys it to her listeners. This is her job, of course, as a performer but I often reflect on the fact that very few performers understand the unspoken contract as well as she does. She understands what her audience needs, and she delivers it, without ever compromising what she loves and what she wants to do. With Storybook, that is as true as it is of everything else Kasey Chambers does.

Storybook is out now through Essence/Liberation.

www.kaseychambers.com

CD review: Find Someone by Danny Widdicombe

2011-10-21T09:00:00.001+11:00

What a terrific album this is. From the very first time I heard it, I was hooked - the songwriting and musicianship on it are really outstanding.

(I should state that it's not a country music album, but as it has a couple of country-tinged tracks - and given Danny's membership of the Wilson Pickers - I felt it qualified for this blog.)

Danny and his musicians explore a variety of musical styles on this album, from slightly psychedelic rock ('We All Do Better' and 'Banyan Tree') to country ('Find Someone' and 'We Could See Mars') and folky rock ('Black Magic'). There are also the ballads 'Everything's Been Done' 'Waiting for You'. There are guitars all over this album, as befits a man who is a complete master of the instrument. There is also plenty of groove and memorable hooks that make sure that the songs wedge in your head.

Lyrically, the songs explore the subjects of life, death, family, love, home and illness. Danny has recently dealt with a recurrence of the leukaemia that first appeared when he was nineteen - it is logical that he would use his music to tell stories about his experiences with illness and medical treatment, especially as he was ill while making the album, although this is not to the same extent as they were explored on his first album, The Transplant Tapes.

I hesitate to say that there is something for everyone on this album, but perhaps there is: even those who love classical music will find much to admire in Danny's skill as a musician. It's a highly accomplished piece of work that, because of its range, does offer a really varied listening experience that remains satisfying over time. Each time I listen to it I enjoy the variety of the styles and songs, almost like I don't expect it. It seems that Danny has chosen to play in a style that best suits each of his songs, and that kind of respect for music - for the craft and skill and intangible wonder of it - is so, so rewarding for anyone who truly loves music.

Find Someone by Danny Widdicombe is out now through ABC Music/Universal.

You can buy the album here.

Read the Jolene interview with Danny here.

Interview: Danny Widdicombe

2011-10-19T09:00:00.002+11:00

Danny Widdicombe has been a robust - and robustly talented - member of the Australian country music community for the last few years, playing with Karl Broadie at the Tamworth Country Music Festival, doing his own shows, forming The Wilson Pickers and playing guitar in the bands of other musicians such as Bernard Fanning and Tim Rogers.

Danny's first two albums, The Transplant Tapes and Dominoes, charted the progression of a singer-songwriter of exceptional musical talent and also with something real to say. Danny's long-term battle with leukaemia is not a secret - it was the subject of The Transplant Tapes - and it forms the background story to his latest album, Find Someone, which will be released on 21 October. Ahead of that release, Danny answered my questions by email from his Brisbane home - and he put as much into the answers as he does into his music, so I'm very grateful for his time.

1. Your albums show such a progression, not just in musical styles but in confidence and maturity as a player and songwriter. It seems like you're constantly seeking out new musical experiences and knowledge - is that the case? And, if so, how long has this been going on?

Part of the beauty of music, for me, is the evolution that you can find taking place in any songwriter or composer's career. Take the Beatles, for example, they start out copying their heroes with a certain amount of skill and success and then as they discover more and more about themselves and find more confidence in their art, their true nature starts to come out in the music. Gene Clark from the Byrds is another great example - his album No Other in 1974 is a massive departure from his early country rock explorations in the mid to late sixties. He's definitely one of my heroes.

I'm basically just a music fan and I'm genuinely excited that I get to put out records and play gigs all over Australia. Winning the GW McLennan Fellowship last year and being nominated for a couple of ARIA awards with my band The Wilson Pickers gives you the confidence that recognition brings. I've worked hard at improving my songwriting and performing since my first album and I'm not worried about sticking within a genre or format - I'm just trying to make the music I want to hear.

2. Your voice has changed a lot since The Transplant Tapes - again, it's more confident and mature. It sounds like you trust your voice a bit more - is that the case? Do you enjoy singing?

Since 2006, when The Transplant Tapes came out, I've played countless shows and made another four albums including the The WIlson Pickers material. The Transplant Tapes was made as I was recovering from a life-saving procedure that battered me physically and emotionally. Initially I wasn't prepared to release the album - just use it as a cathartic experience - but I decided to take a chance and put it out there because I thought it might help someone out there who wanted to see someone who had been cured of leukaemia. In the end there were numerous people that said that the album was a small tonic and even an inspiration in their own battles with cancer, so I'm really proud of it.

As my health improved year after year, so did my singing and guitar playing. The Transplant Tapes is what launched my 'career' as a full-time musician so from then on I was practising every day and playing every weekend. I also learned so much from my peers - especially from my Wilson Picker mates who really know how to sing. Singing in harmony all the time is a great way to find your voice. It took a while but I really do enjoy singing now.

3. Having seen you play live, I sometimes think you're a kind of guitar savant because you seem to so comprehensively meld with the instrument. How long have you been playing guitar and how often you do you play it just for your own enjoyment? What guitar do you use (electric and acoustic)? Which guitarists have influenced you?

Ha! I love the guitar. As soon as I started playing (I think I was 12) I fell in love. I remember getting home from school one day and laying on my bed with my new electric guitar. I didn't have it plugged in but the headstock resting on my wooden bed head made the entire bed vibrate with the notes I played. I realised that playing this thing had somehow transported me - almost like a form of meditation and I felt refreshed and energised at the same time. Playing still has that effect on me if the surrounds are right. I play every day at home - my poor family try and talk to me but they look in my eyes and I'm somewhere else! It's my ultimate form of relaxation and it's where my songs come from.

I play whatever guitar I'm in the mood for - at the moment I have no choice but to play a nylon string because I lost all the callouses on my fingers after my recent bout of chemo. Usually though it depends on what I've been listening to. I remember going through a huge Tony Rice phase, so I played my Martin acoustic religiously, trying to flat pick like he does, but it just ended up sounding like me. I also really love Bert Jancsh, Charlie Byrd, Bill Frisell, Bob Brozmann, Jeff Lang, Clarence White, Jimi Hendrix, JJ Cale... The list goes on and on...

4. You play covers when you perform live - as well as your own work - and you have the ability to really turn the songs inside out, pull them back to their essence and then layer yourself over the top. Do you do that with your own songs when you perform them?

Definitely. I can't stand playing the same songs the same way twice. It takes all the music out of it - especially when you're on a tour and you're playing a similar set list every night. It also depends on who's playing with you. If I'm lucky enough to be playing with my old friend Luke 'Fiddleboy' Moller, we can really mix it up. Playing with great musicians makes you play right at the top end of your game, which can give any song that extra 'something' that can make some live shows so special.

5. Find Someone is definitely not like your work with The Wilson Pickers - do you still feel an affinity for country music, or is that in a different compartment now?

I love old country music and I think you can turn most songs into a country song by using a certain instrumentation. The Wilson Pickers always made it clear that we weren't trying to replicate the great bluegrass greats such as Flatt and Scruggs, rather we were using a bluegrass-style instrumentation to get our songs across. If you played my new album live with banjo, fiddle, dobro, acoustic and double bass, sang in harmony and gave the songs a different swing, it would sound like a country outfit. The essence of the songs would still be there. I just chose to record this new album in such a way that made me happy as I was recording them - not worrying about whether they fit in any genre. Find Someone has a couple of country rock tunes but also psychedelic pop, fingerstyle folk, a blues/roots track and more. I love most styles of music and I don't mind hearing them one after the other - I've basically put a radio show together with what seems to be a random collection of tunes, but the thread running through them is that they're all my songs, all stemmed from the same influences.

6. You are a really confessional songwriter, in that it seems like your heart, thoughts and feelings are all in the songs, especially on Find Someone. You've spent a lot of time in hospital, and in hospitals it's hard to avoid everybody knowing your business. Has that sort of 'exposure' made it more natural for you to be so open in your songs - perhaps you already feel quite exposed and, thus, the songs grow out of that?

I prefer to write songs that have a story or a theme rather than just throwing a collection of words together that happen to rhyme and leaving it at that. Even when I'm writing a song from a fictional standpoint, making up a story that at first seemed to have no relevance to me, I can look inside the heart of the song and see that it is really quite autobiographical. It happens again and again. But I don't mind putting the songs out there for others because I'm proud of them and the words fit the music. I find that when people are affected by my songs it's because they've had similar experiences. Find Someone isn't out yet so I don't really know what the reaction to those songs will be but my last album Dominoes had some lyrics that dealt with my delayed depression, which apparently resulted from living with cancer for so long. Time after time, I'd find myself listening to people tell me how those particular songs hit a nerve and how much they meant to them.

I'm not sure if it's healthy or not to pour your life experience into your lyrics but it's just the way I do it, even if it's subconsciously, so I'll just keep doing it. I think being a musician comes hand in hand with the element of being exposed - standing on a stage or putting your music out for ridicule or praise even before anyone has looked at whether your lyrics expose anything to do with your personal life. For me, it's all about trying to put good songs together and then finding the best way to get them across musically. What defines 'good' and 'best' when it comes to any form of art is really up to the artist. The more musical experience I have, the more certain I am about my definitions of those terms. I think your point about being in hospital has merit, but at the end of the day for me, dealing with cancer and its treatment, although it gives you a wealth of life experience, forces you away from the momentum of creation. It gives me experience to write about but takes away the energy and tools I need to put them together in a song. This is why I was so desperate to get this new album out when I was cut down again by leukaemia - I knew it would be a long time before I was able to write another bunch of songs and who knows when I'll be ok to play them live? I'm proud to have Find Someone ready for release after such a tough run these last few months.

Find Someone is an ABC Music/Universal release. It will be launched on the 21st at The Zoo in Brisbane. Details and tickets here.

You can buy the album from the ABC Shop here.

Danny's Myspace and his ABC Music profile.

Interview: The Torchsong Country Soul Band

2011-10-17T15:00:00.001+11:00

The Torchsong Country Soul Band first made an appearance on this blog in 2008. Since then they've been playing gigs and working away on a new album, Smalltown Love, which will be released in November. The band has been playing for seven years and has members from Sydney bands Roaring Jack's, Stolen Holdens and Perry Keyes's band.

Ahead of their album launch at the Gaelic Hotel in Sydney on 13 November, Joe Fenech (songwriter, guitarist) and Marie Byrne (singer) answered some questions for the blog.

1. I'll start with a fairly obvious question: how did you come up with the name of the band?
Joe: I grew up listening to great singers such as Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Dean Martin, Patsy Cline, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin performing killer torch songs and they have always held a special place in my heart. When I started writing my own songs I came up with one called 'Torchsong ballad country singer'. When it came time to forming and eventually naming a band I borrowed the 'Torchsong' bit and added 'country soul' because I was listening to lots of Ray Charles and The Band. who classified themselves as country soul.

2. Joe: You've written all of the songs on the album, yet you're not singing them. So do you write the songs for you/as you or do you write them with Marie in mind as the narrator?
I always wanted a great female singer for this band and when Marie found us I definitely adjusted the focus of my writing to complement her beautiful voice.

3. Joe: Contemporary country music is not usually as melancholy as the older-style tunes that arose out of the blues, yet some of your songs could be described as wistful, at the least. As a songwriter, do you find it easier to be wistful or melancholic with certain styles of music - specifically, is country music easier for that?
I'm half Greek , so maybe my wistfulness comes from the Greek Tragedy! I try to reflect all aspects of life: great joy, love, sadness, humour. The new album reflects all of these emotions.

4. Given that the members of the band all seem, first, very experienced and, second, to come from a variety of musical backgrounds, how did you all arrive at playing country music?
Joe: I wouldn't call ourselves a pure country band. We are more a hybrid of folk, alt country, blues, soul, rock and pop. We all love music and happy to do our version of those styles.

5. Marie: Country music is a bit easier on lead singers, in that they don't usually have to strain their voices to be heard over loud guitars and strenuous drums. So from a technical point of view, how singing in this band compares to any other singing you've done in the past?
You would think so. When I started out with Torchsong it was just myself, Joe and Ed, so it was pretty easy on the vocal cords. No strain needed. Over the years expanding to an eight-piece has been a bit challenging. Everything got louder and louder. There's definitely competition to be heard but on a positive side it's made my voice more powerful and I feel more confident as a performer.

6. Marie: You seem to be very much in the storytelling vein of singer - you can convey the meaning of the song through tone and nuance just as much as, if not more than, lyrics. Is this something that comes instinctually to you, or has it developed over time?
It's funny because if you asked me to introduce and explain every song before I sang one I'd be useless! I'm all about the melody and to me the melody tells the story (sorry Joe x). Joe's songwriting is beautiful. He makes it very easy as a singer. There's the rock 'n' roll challenge thrown in there, which isn't my strongest ability, but then he'll hand me an amazing new ballad or folk song and I'm butter again. My voice has developed over the years, for sure, and I now have a better understanding of what I can do justice to and also what I can't or just doesn't suit my voice. In saying that, I'm usually game for any style.

7. If you were to put together an 'ideal touring bill', which Australian country music acts would you want to have touring with you, and why?
Joe: I am a great fan of Don Walker and his solo releases are a lot more country than his work with Cold Chisel, so definitely him. I like what Dan Sultan is doing, especially live, and I have a few lovely albums by Cyndi Boste.

8. Which venues have you found to be most receptive to your music?
Joe: The Mandarin Club was great, The Lansdowne, The Cook's River Motorboat Club, The Gaelic Hotel. I find if we get a bit of publicity mostly in underground press, radio or even songwriters across Australia on TVs then we get a great crowd and the shows go off. Unfortunately the mainstream media doesn't really support independent artists.

9. Which artists (not necessarily country music) are you listening to at the moment? And which artists influence your songwriting and performing in the band?
Joe: I'm listening to the new Gillian Welch album, Raul Malo, Patty Griffin, Bruce Springsteen, Brian Wilson. My influences are Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, Joe Henry, Hank Williams, Springsteen, John Lee Hooker, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Cowboy Junkies, Sam Cooke, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Buddy Miller, Ryan Adams and many many more.

10. Balancing a creative life with a 'day-to-day life' can be challenging, let alone trying to book gigs and travel. Have you found it harder to make this work being a country band, as your audience is necessarily not mainly in Sydney or other large cities? How much touring have you done in rural and regional Australia?
Joe: It is very difficult with an eight-piece band when every one has a full-time job. We mostly stick to places we can get to easily, such as Katoomba, Kangaroo Valley folk fest, St Albans folk fest. We did play Tamworth but not in festival season. I know Sydney isn't know as a country-music loving crowd, but when someone puts on a few similar bands the shows are great.

11. Will you be playing at Tamworth 2012? Also, do you have any good Tamworth stories to tell (e.g. favourite gigs or audiences)?
We haven't looked into Tamworth for 2012 because all of efforts have gone into the new album. It's difficult to get up there when you are not known, because people offer you gigs where there may or may not be a PA system, offer you a sleeping bag in their backyard and can't even cover costs etc etc, The only time we did play, poor Marie woke up with no voice and we had a 30-song set list. The brave girl did her absolute best regardless of her Marge Simpson voice. What a trooper !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Torchsong Country Soul Band will launch their new album on Sunday 13 November from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at The Gaelic Hotel in Surry Hills. More information at

www.torchsong.moonfruit.com

Country music at Marrickville Bowlo

2011-10-17T08:53:00.004+11:00

On Saturday night I turned up at Marrickville Bowling Club in Sydney to see The Baylor Brothers - and a fine evening it was too, with many people, lots of dancing and some excellent music. I also learned that Marrickville Bowlo is hosting country music acts for the next few Saturday nights. Unfortunately the information is not on their website, so you may have to call to find out who's on, but it's great to know there's an accessible Sydney venue that's prepared to give country music a go. And accessibility is key in a city where parking spots are at a premium: the club is in a quieter, light industrial part of Marrickville - just around the corner from the Factory Theatre, if you know it - so there's plenty of parking and buses run nearby.

www.marrickvillebowlingclub.com.au
91 Sydenham Road (corner of Fitzroy)
Marrickville NSW

CD review: Sal Kimber & The Rollin' Wheel

2011-10-13T20:03:00.005+11:00

The first album from Sal Kimber, Sounds like Thunder, heralded an exciting new alt-country talent - but it was quite a different CD to her latest, self-titled effort, Sal Kimber & The Rollin' Wheel. That difference demonstrates that Kimber is moving and changing, in very good ways. The new album is seductive from the very first song, 'Rockin' Chair', and keeps that momentum going into the second song, 'Do Right', and beyond. Sal's voice cajoles the listener into coming closer. The steady syncopation of the drum beats through these opening songs anchors her intentions.

Or so we think, because we then move into the sweet ache of 'Your Town', the yearning of 'Sweet Love', the steady country beat of 'Rollin' Wheel', the subtle growl and hypnotic rhythm of 'Walking in the Woods' and on and on into a broad musical palette.

Sal Kimber & The Rollin' Wheel is a mature, accomplished album that blends a few 'sub-branches' of country - rockabilly, swing, rock, bluegrass, alt country. Kimber's voice is the greatest instrument on the album - versatile and responsive to the needs of the song, rich in tone and demanding the listener's attention. It's a fine album to have on the background, with all its tones and rhythms blending, but it's much better enjoyed on close listening.

Read the Jolene interview with Sal Kimber here.

Sal Kimber & The Rollin' Wheel are touring throughout October, November and December, in Victoria, the ACT, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania. For details, go to:

www.salkimber.com

CD review: Beaut Ute Anthems 2011

2011-10-11T16:58:00.005+11:00

Beaut Ute Anthems 2011, it should be noted, is a two-CD affair but I'm only going to review the 'Country' disc. The 'Rock' disc has no business being reviewed on this blog ... As one might expect, though, the country songs tend towards the country-rock variety. And there are some pretty good songs on here.

Happily the Australian content is high: Shane Nicholson's 'Bad Machines', Rose Carleo's 'That Season Again', Jasmine Rae's 'Hunky Country Boys', which is the first track and pretty much sets the tone. There's also Catherine Britt, McAlister Kemp, Tamworth stalwarts The Wolverines and Ben Gunn. The overseas talent includes Blake Shelton and some dude called Tim McGraw.

While I wouldn't recommend this CD for a lazy country drive, that's not what these songs are for, anyway. They're for ute driving, and I'm confident that folks who go to the Deni Ute Muster, for example, would think they're just ace for the road trip there. In other words: a great selection for that particular theme - but only buy it if you like your country loud. I don't have a ute, and my little hatchback probably couldn't take the pace. But I was glad to have the opportunity to discover some local artists whose CDs I want to now buy.

Interview: Sal Kimber

2011-10-11T14:55:00.004+11:00

Alt-country artist Sal Kimber and her band, The Rollin' Wheel, had a cracker of a debut album, called Sounds like Thunder. Now they're about to release an eponymous album that ticks a variety of country boxes, all of them good. Ahead of this release, Sal kindly answered some questions by email.

The songs on your first album suggest someone stuck between the past and the present - 'Drive' sounds almost like a bushranger song while 'Met Police' is firmly rooted in urban life. But that's a paradox of country music, too: the sound of it is redolent of the past, of a time and way of living gone, but contemporary musicians can only write about what they know. Do you feel that paradox at all?

Most of the songs that I write are stories which I have picked up from talking to people, from reading and from my own life experience, the stories just happen to come from different time periods but there is no conscious definite gap between two different types of time periods, songs or story style. The songs that I paint come from both rural and urban environments, because I find inspiration from both, I think this juxtaposition between city and country will always exist in my songwriting.

There seems to be more 'old-timey' country music coming out of rural Victoria [Sal is from Victoria] - is there a community of country musicians that you feel a part of?

There are communities of healthy 'ole timey' country music dotted all around rural Vic. Probably the community I feel most connected to is the 'Alt Country' music scene in Melbourne Town, there are so many talented young and experienced alt country singer songwriters on the streets of Northcote and Brunswick, supporting and inspiring each other. As illusive as it is I do like to use the term 'alt country', we have a banjo and a double bass in our band so most people would instantly categorsze us as country, but many old skool country music fans would say we are folk, and folkies call us Roots. So the term 'alt country' allows us to recognise our roots, yet get away with being folk, rootsy, eclectic and edgy.

There appear to be more female singer-songwriters putting out records in Australian country music than in rock or pop - do you think this is because the country music community as a whole is more supportive, so that it's easier for new artists to be heard and get gigs, or are female songwriters particularly attracted to country, for some reason?

There is definitely a new wave of appreciation and love for country music, especially alt country music at the moment. venues and festivals and audiences are super supportive of female alt country. This wave appears to have brought with it a healthy amount of new artists. It's an exciting time for alt country.

In Sydney it's quite hard to find country music gigs of any stripe - what's happening in Melbourne?

Bluegrass, ole timey and alt country seems to be seeping out of Melbourne streets at the moment, it is truly alive and kicking, feels exciting to be part of it.

Across both albums there's a range of country styles, including roots, bluegrass and swing - do you have a particular favourite?

Hmmm, depends which day you catch me on. Today it's swing :)

Have you flirted with other musical styles, or has country music always appealed?

I grew up on a staple of blues and folk, I discovered country a little later in my life and it has had my heart ever since.

The new album has, in parts, a muddier, gutsier, one could even say raunchier feel - what was going on when you wrote the songs? Or was this something that came out in the studio?

The new album is definitely a lot more playful than the last one. My band THE ROLLIN' WHEEL has an unchanged line up for over 3 years, we all love hanging out and have a pretty playful dynamic energy when we come together. Probably that and the fact that I have been listening to a lot of Lucinda Williams.

'Your Town', 'Sweet Love', 'Rollin' Wheel' are 'sweet' songs - not saccharine country-pop but definitely different to the opening tracks. Do you naturally search for a balance in your material - almost a light and dark balance - or is it a conscious decision?

I do tend to write a lot of different shades, mostly because I listen to and am inspired by many different styles of songwriting. We took over 25 songs to Shane O'Mara (who produced the new album), 25 songs of such varying shade- we recorded 18 and ended up with a 13 track album, the final 13 were selected on the strength and merit of the song itself, as opposed to finding 13 songs that balanced well together.

The album press release mentions the 'raucous bars' you've played in. I'm curious as to whether these sorts of environments have influenced how you sing - do you find your voice altering to rise about the noise? Do you then write songs that may accommodate that voice?

Playing gigs and practising with an energetic five-piece band, one does find oneself having to sing and pick the banjo a lot louder than I ever have before, especially with the added dynamic of a loud raucous bar. It's not unusual to play a show where I can't hear my own voice or banjo on stage, so inevitably my voice has altered and my songwriting has altered to accommodate these elements, but I love playing raucous bars and I love my band, so for now I just gotta learn to sing a little louder.

Are you heading to Tamworth for the 2012 festival?

I don't believe we are this year, you will find us in the Alt Country alley if we do go though :)

Sal Kimber and The Rollin' Wheel are playing shows soon - visit www.salkimber.com for details.

To purchase either - or both - of Sal's albums, go to www.vitamin.net.au

Interview: Tim Chaisson (part II)

2011-10-11T06:47:00.005+11:00

Tim Chaisson is a 24-year-old musician from Prince Edward Island on Canada's east coast. He's about to embark on an Australian tour supporting Shannon Noll and playing at the Sydney Blues & Roots Festival.

You can read the first part of this interview here.

Coming out of that Maritimes musical culture, which is Celtic in origin, for your progression as a songwriter and performer, have you consciously moved away from that, because your style now is a bit more folk/rock/perhaps country.Growing up and playing the Celtic music -I then started singing something that I wanted to keep separate, like I almost wanted to have the Celtic influence and then whatever I started singing I wanted to have separate to the Celtic music. But I think subconsciously it all comes out in my songwriting a bit, but that's just because I love all the different styles of music. I just kind of write what comes out, really, I don't necessarily try to make it not sound Celtic or not make it sound like country or rock or pop.

On this latest album you collaborated a bit, whereas before you wrote mainly on your own. How was that experience?

My last record I wrote, recorded and produced it all, and recorded all the instruments by myself, and I had the three guys who are in my band, Morning Fold, they're with me for tours. And co-writing too - with Joel Plaskett and Geordie Johnson [who co-wrote with Chaisson on Broken Hearted Beat] a lot more different elements came into play, it was definitely completely different, having their ideas. I loved it. It was like having other heads. Everybody put their heads together and saw what they could come up with. It was pretty cool.

There were no arguments about who gets to write the bridge, who gets to write the verse ...

[laughs] No, there wasn't, actually. All the songs I co-wrote - I didn't co-write anything with the guys in my band, but sometimes someone will say, 'We can do this', and someone else will say, 'I don't think so, we should do this', and I think that goes along with an art and playing music and every band has that. You eventually settle on what you want to do and what's best for the song.

You're coming out to Australia on your own, without the band?

Yes, coming on my own this time, and I hope to get back with the guys in the band.

I often think that performers who have bands but who also play on their own, with just a guitar and their own voice, it must be quite nice to feel 'I can do this - whatever happens, this gig's going to be okay'.

It's such a different vibe on stage, too. You sing a song a little bit differently because you're by yourself and you have to attract people as best you can. Like in Australia, nobody will know who I am so there's a little bit of pressure when you're by yourself and to not have the four or three guys behind you to cheer you along. But I'm looking forward to it.

Have you heard about Shannon Noll, who you'll be supporting?

I've been doing a lot of reading about him and I've been listening to his music. He's very talented and I'm looking forward to doing the shows with him. I know he's a well-known artist in Australia. I'm looking forward to meeting him too and watching his show. I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

Tim Chaisson tour dates

11-13 October - Brass Monkey, Cronulla NSW

14 October - The Basement, Sydney NSW

15 October - Cessnock NSW

20 October - The Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, Adelaide SA

25 October - The Brass Monkey, solo show

Sydney Blues & Roots Festival

27 October - Opening Night Gala

28-30 October - solo performances

All info: http://www.timchaisson.com/

Twitter: @timchaisson

Interview: Tim Chaisson (part I)

2011-10-10T08:56:00.010+11:00

The east coast of Canada, and especially its Maritime Provinces, seem to produce a fair number of very talented musicians who come from large musical families. For those of you unfamiliar with the culture of the Maritimes, there is a heavy Celtic influence, including on the accents of the inhabitants, some of whom sound like they've just arrived from Ireland.

Tim Chaisson is a 24-year-old musician from just such a family, and he has garnered a large fan base in Canada through several years of touring and winning awards and generally being very good at what he does, as can be heard on his latest album, Broken Hearted Beat.

Tim grew up, and still lives, on Prince Edward Island (PEI), but he's about to leave his bucolic home to support Shannon Noll on an Australian tour, starting 11 October in Sydney, and playing at the Sydney Blues & Roots Festival (scroll down to see dates listed after the interview). I talked to Tim by phone from PEI last week because even though he's not really playing country music, he's country enough for me - and also because I have a very soft spot for Canadian singer-songwriters, who tend to produce consistently high-quality music.

What happens in the Maritime Provinces that you all seem to come from large musical families and end up being musicians?

I know, it's true ... I grew up in a really big family and music was everywhere, and that was just the way it went. It went back a lot of generations. There's a lot of Chaissons on PEI, and everybody plays, so it was kind of a given to play. You'd be a little different if you didn't play.

At what age did you start playing? It sounds like you play a few different instruments, so you must have picked up something pretty early.

I started off playing the fiddle when I was about six. And I still play the fiddle, but that was kind of the more dominant instrument - everybody started off on the fiddle in my family. And then I moved over to guitar and a few other instruments as time went on. I have a few older brothers and they have played different instruments, so there was always something kicking around. So I always got my hands on whatever I could.

Do you write your songs on the fiddle or the guitar?

Mostly on the guitar. The odd time I'll write a song on the piano, but most of my stuff comes from the guitar. I find the fiddle is a tough instrument as an accompaniment - it only has four strings, you hold it up on your neck. To have the guitar as an accompanying instrument is a lot better, and better to write songs to. The piano is also just a little bit fuller and good to write on, I find.

At what age did you start singing?

I kind of always sand when I was younger. But I didn't start singing in public, or at shows, until I was probably thirteen years old. But I sang when I was a kid at family concerts. I dind't really start taking it seriously until I was a teenager. [While] there were a lot of singers in my family. a lot of my cousins were instrumentalists, so a lot of us didn't sing.

Do you consider yourself more a singer or a songwriter, or both equally?

I guess both equally, because I sing my own songs and write my own songs. I do like writing songs for other people, or writing songs but having somebody else in mind to sing them. I hope to do more of that in the future.

It seems in Canadian music that there's a very supportive community - in the Maritimes, in the Halifax scene, across the whole country, really. You all seem to be friendly and collaborative.

Yeah, that's very true. I think in Canada - and I hear the same about Australia - that for the most part we're all for letting other people in and being nice and curious and laidback, especially on the east coast, I find. Collaborations are huge here - teaming up with other bands. And being a fiddler too I find that some of the bands I play with, they all like hopping up on stage and playing with other bands, or if they have a recording to do they'll ask me to play on their recordings or sing on their recording. There has been a lot of that. Even the more popular bands, too, they do the same kind of thing. It's just like helping each other out and doing what you do and having a good time. It's not so much of a cut-throat thing in Canada, I find. We like to help each other and we're all friends.

Living on PEI, are there logistical challenges for getting your music 'out there'?

Yeah, definitely. We're pretty far east in Canada, so even to get to Vancouver is a pretty far drive and even a far flight. We've been to Vancouver a few times. Every time we [Tim's band is Morning Fold] tour it's a lot of driving. [But] these days it's a little bit easier to get things done, with social media and stuff like that. Growing up on PEI - I love getting out there but it's great to come home, to your 'home' home. There are definitely logistical challenges but I think it's worth it, in a way.

Perhaps your music would change if you lived in Toronto. You'd be out of your context, in a way.

It's funny, because we've spent a lot of time in Toronto over the last two years. At one point I thought about moving there because we were there so much and I was there so much, and it's the hub ... But you're in a big city and you have that city feel. It's very different to PEI, which is very rural and very laidback. The vibe is completely different. And that comes out a little bit, I think, in the music.

Part II of this interview will be published tomorrow.

Tim Chaisson tour dates

For more info go to http://www.timchaisson.com/

Twitter: @timchaisson

11, 12, 13 October 2011 - Brass Monkey, Cronulla NSW (supporting Shannon Noll)

14 October 2011 - The Basement, Sydney NSW (supporting Shannon Noll)

15 October 2011 - Cessnock NSW (supporting Shannon Noll)

20 October - The Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, Adelaide SA (supporting Shannon Noll)

22 October - The Tempo Hotel, Brisbane Qld (supporting Shannon Noll)

25 October - Brass Monkey (solo)

27 October - Sydney Blues & Roots Festival Opening Gala NSW

28-30 October - Sydney Blues & Roots Festival NSW

Harmony James ramping up ahead of new album release

2011-10-07T10:27:00.000+11:00

One of my favourite Australian singer-songwriters, Harmony James, has a new album due but hasn't let us know the release date yet ... But in amongst an abundance of hand-wringing (on my part) there is at least a single to enjoy, called 'Pride'. As with the rest of the material on the new album, the song is written by Harmony and produced by Herm Kovacs, who was at the helm of her first album, Tailwind.

The video clip (can we still call them that when actual videotape is pretty much a thing of the past?) of 'Pride' is now in fairly heavy rotation on CMC. Filming took place in an old house in Picton, which is to the south-west of Sydney. The house is rumoured to be haunted, although it seems Harmony didn't encounter any ghosts - which she was disappointed about. I'm currently reading Karina Machado's Where Spirits Dwell and am sufficiently freaked out by it to think that seeing no ghosts is a good thing ...

In other Harmony news: she was awarded the 2011 APRA Personal Development Award. No doubt she'll be given other APRA awards in future - not to mention Golden Guitars. (Yes, I'm completely biased.) In the meantime, she needs to release that second album!

www.harmonyjames.com

Book review: Kasey Chambers

2011-10-06T22:00:00.005+11:00

Kasey Chambers is a natural storyteller. Her gigs always feature a fair amount of chatter in between songs, and usually she tells stories about her life. So if you've been to a few of Kasey's shows, you'll know some of her stories. That is not to say, though, that you'll have heard them all - and, thus, for any Kasey fan, her new book, A Little Bird Told Me ..., is a must.

The book is written with Jeff Apter, who is an experienced biographer (of Keith Urban, and Neil and Tim Finn, amongst others) and co-writer. Apter's challenge would obviously have been to capture Kasey's distinctive voice - that voice in which she tells stories at shows, not the one with which she sings (which is also, obviously, distinctive). To a certain degree, he's got it, although I sense it has been tempered a bit in an effort to appeal to a less hard-core-fan readership - and fair enough: they want the book to sell. It's possibly only people like me - who have heard some of the stories, and for whom Kasey is such a powerful cultural figure - who'll want more.

Certainly, for Kasey fans there is a lot of great information here about what was happening in Kasey's life during the creation of her albums, and there are stories behind some of the songs. I would have loved to know more of this stuff - the stories behind the songs - because for me Kasey's songs are so important and enduring that those stories deserve to be told.

What could never have been in the book - because Kasey is the narrator and she doesn't get to say it about herself - is a sense of gravitas, I guess: the sense that this is a really important story in Australian cultural history. Because Kasey really is important - she is one of our most enduring and successful songwriters; her oeuvre to date encompasses true country as well as pop, rock and folk, and is authentic in a way many songwriters never are. But perhaps that book is still coming, and it should be written by someone else; maybe it's going to be someone's PhD.

In the meantime, I hope that some people who aren't yet hard-core Kasey fans will read this book and feel inspired to listen more closely to her music. I hope they'll realise that she's a woman - a person - who manages a rare feat: she combines an intensively creative life with a robust family life. That feat, that balance, is probably what I took away from this book the most - that and the fact that she is a passionate person. She is passionate about music; about her relationships with her parents, brother, husband and sons, and her best friend Worm; about the landscape of her childhood and the communities she has lived in. It is, sadly, rare that public figures express passion, but in performance and in this book she does not shy away from it. It's infectious, and it's truly lovely. Just like her music.

A Little Bird Told Me ... by Kasey Chambers, with Jeff Apter, published by HarperCollins Australia 2011
*Please consider buying this book from your local independent bookseller*

New album soon from Danny Widdicombe

2011-10-06T10:10:00.003+11:00

Brisbane musician Danny Widdicombe - you may know him as one of the Wilson Pickers - is responsible for one of the best gigs I've ever seen in my life, one rainy afternoon in the front bar of the Tamworth Hotel during the Country Music Festival. Danny was an eleventh-hour replacement in the slot and he played for three hours straight, with a variety of musical friends sitting in on the occasional song. But mostly it was Danny playing originals and covers, and being completely amazing.

Those of you who are familiar with Danny's story know that the songs on his first album, The Transplant Tapes, were written while Danny was awaiting a bone marrow transplant. The transplant was successful and Danny went on to produce a second album, Dominoes, and also become a member of the Wilson Pickers, playing all over the place and generally being the genius musician and lively personality that he is.

Danny recently fell ill again, but through that time he managed to create a third album, the forthcoming Find Someone, to be released on 21 October. The musical style of this album apparently ranges from country rock to groove to acoustic. I can't wait to hear it because, based on his first two albums, it's going to be great. So if you haven't heard of Danny, doyourselfafavour and get hold of one or all of his albums.

dannywiddicombe.com

CD review: All in the Golden Afternoon by Caitlin Harnett

2011-09-11T17:24:00.005+10:00

I absolutely loved Caitlin Harnett's debut EP, Tiny Spark, but somehow missed the release of her second, All in the Golden Afternoon. Happily I'm now in possession of a copy and there's more love.

Caitlin's voice is wonderful, and on Golden Afternoon it displays its ability to be both vulnerable and strident, particularly on 'Into the Wild'; the strident quality - well, it's more probably more a developing confidence - was lurking on Tiny Spark but is more to the fore now, which is appropriate given that she was about 17 (from memory) when Tiny Spark was released.

Caitlin's 'lost love' songs are wistful, and never bitter. They betray their author as a dreamer, and one who doesn't let disappointment get her down for long. She can be sad but doesn't let it develop into misery. I haven't successfully put either of her CDs on in the background - I always want to listen to what Caitlin's singing (her lovely enunciation makes this very easy).

Golden Afternoon is a progression from Tiny Spark, as it should be - musically these songs are more fleshed out, no doubt because there's more of a band behind them. Tiny Spark was more delicate, and charming with it. Golden Afternoon sounds like it should be half of an album: it's a mature song cycle with some muscle behind it, and the siren's voice still calling us closer.

www.caitlinharnett.com

Caitlin's EPs are independently released - you can buy them via her website or on iTunes.

CD review: The Harrow & the Harvest by Gillian Welch

2011-09-09T13:15:00.004+10:00

It's taken me a long time to listen to a Gillian Welch album, and even then it's been because it's a gift from one of my favourite people, and fellow country music enthusiast, Lucy Lehmann.

My first encounter with Gillian Welch was on Ryan Adams's first solo album, Heartbreaker. I have flirted with her own songs since then but never bought an album because, well, there's a lot of great music out there and I can't buy it all. Thanks to Lucy, though, I'm likely to invest in the Welch back catalogue because The Harrow & the Harvest is a very fine piece of work.

The opening track, 'Scarlet Town', is both swampy and fugue-like, and in a way sets the rhythm for the rest of the record.

'Dark Turn of Mind' sounds like its subject matter, with oddly sweet harmonies. It is lonesome and blue without the sad. These harmonies appear throughout the album and give a depth to the whole record that it doesn't sound like it needs but which it would be lacking without.

The lulling, rolling pace of the third track, 'The Way it Will Be', drew me in even when I had it on in the background, trying to concentrate on some work. But I couldn't ignore it - it's almost hypnotic.

There's then a considerable shift to the toughness of 'The Way it Goes'. The lyrics indicate regret - 'that's the way that it is/though there was a time when all of us were friends' - but Gillian's voice is unforgiving.

In turn that tough tone yields to the dirge-like 'Tennessee' and beyond, into musical swamplands that aren't at all swampy. The record is redolent of banjoes and backhoes, of hard times, but when she sings 'hard times ain't gonna rule my mind no more', we believe her. That extraordinary voice is full of light.

And it is Gillian's voice that is perhaps the main reason for buying the album. You'd follow that voice into any tale it wants to tell, down uncertain trails and into harsh homes, then out into the fields and sunlight once more.

www.gillianwelch.com

Gillian Welch, The Harrow & the Harvest (Acony, 2011)

CD review: Bad Machines by Shane Nicholson

2011-09-07T22:01:00.001+10:00

By the time Shane Nicholson released Bad Machines, I'd become hooked on his voice - it has a soothing quality that means that even if I'm not listening to all the words he's singing, I feel somewhat lulled into a nice, cosy state of being. Which is not to suggest that his lyrics are all hearts and flowers; they're not.

The standout track on this album - for me, at least - is 'The Broken Things'. It's spare and a little creepy, but also reassuring. Our narrator may 'like all the broken things' but there's also a sense that he likes them because he can fix them. When I saw Shane play at Notes Live in Sydney earlier this year, he said that he'd asked his wife, Kasey Chambers, to record a guide vocal for the harmony on the track, with the intention of turning it over to Sheryl Crow to sing. Except Sheryl - with whom he toured the US a few years ago - never answered his emails, so Kasey is who we hear on the record. These two have been singing together so well for so long now that it's hard to imagine how Shane would have thought anyone else could have suited the song.

'The Broken Things' is atypical of the album, which sees Shane planting his boots firmly in the country camp. This is a natural evolution from 2008's Familar Ghosts, although sometimes it seems there's hardly a trace of the Shane Nicholson who created It's a Movie in 2004. That's good and fitting, though - this man is no musical slouch, and one can hardly expect him to keep doing the same thing over and over.

So Bad Machines is generally an upbeat, up-tempo country/roots collection of songs, with some lyrics that are kinda silly and others that display his hallmark ability to break the listener's heart. I can't say that it's my favourite album of Shane's, but I listen to it a lot anyway. I've realised that I'll buy any CD that he releases, because every single one of his solo albums (and Rattlin' Bones, for that matter) is fantastic - it's just that some are more fantastic than others.

http://www.shanenicholson.com/

Shane Nicholson, Bad Machines (Essence/Liberation, 2011)
Also available on iTunes

CD review: Familiar Ghosts by Shane Nicholson

2011-09-06T21:49:00.001+10:00

I should have reviewed this album in 2008 but better late than never ...

When Kasey Chambers married Shane Nicholson, I'd barely heard of him; the cynical amongst us might suggest that we would never have heard of him otherwise anyway, but I refuse to believe that, because Shane is one of the greatest singer-songwriters and performers working today. He is hugely talented and quietly understated, two qualities which are prevalent in the 2008 release Familiar Ghosts.

Shane plays all the instruments on this album, but it doesn't sound like a cobbled-together track-by-track effort. The songs are, necessarily, not as noisome as those on his first two solo albums, It's a Movie and Faith and Science, which were full-band efforts, but they are no less complete and, sometimes, complex as songs.

As I'm fond of a slightly sad, if not wistful, ballad, my two favourite songs are the melancholy 'Summer Dress' (which Shane has said started off as a murder ballad and then turned into a missing-girl ballad) and the somewhat nihilistic 'Long Time Coming'. They are the most down-tempo songs on the album, though, and that probably says more about my tastes than Shane's songwriting inclinations.

Certainly, there is plenty of rock and groove here ('Who's At Your Window', 'Easy Now'), and some up-tempo tunes too ('Where the Water Goes', 'God and Elvis'). It's a well-rounded collection and a nice segue from Shane's two earlier albums to his latest, Bad Machines. It's an album I keep going back to, as are all Shane's albums, as there's always something else to find there.

www.shanenicholson.com

Shane Nicholson, Familiar Ghosts (Essence/Liberation, 2008)
Now available on iTunes

Exciting end to 2011

2011-09-06T08:56:00.000+10:00

It's been so long since I posted anything here that I'm not going to make excuses. I'm just going to start afresh.

And what's motivated me to start afresh is the prospect of three incredibly exciting CD releases in September and October. The first is Handfuls of Sky, the second album from Harmony James, who is, without a doubt, an outstanding songwriter and whose first album, Tailwind, is still on high rotation in my home.

There's also a looming new release - if not new songs - from Kasey Chambers. Her next effort is Storybook, an album of cover songs. If you've ever seen Kasey perform live, you'll know she loves doing a cover, and she does them very well, so even though there are no new Kasey songs, I can't wait to hear this one.

Last but not least, there's Ryan Adams's Ashes & Fire, due in October.

A not-forthcoming but, in fact, recently issued release is Karl Broadie's 'mini album', One Constellation, a collection of tunes recorded here and there which he has brought together and released on iTunes ahead of a new studio album.

So there's a huge amount to be excited about over the next few weeks. I'm trying to decide whether I wait for Ryan and buy all the albums at once, in some grand exercise in patience, or get them as they come out, because I'm just too impatient. Only time will tell.

Harmony James

2009-09-21T15:05:00.000+10:00

I've been such a slacker, but I have good excuses ... No, really! And I just wish I had more time to write on this blog. I'm making a special effort today, though, because I'm so incredibly excited about Harmony James's album Tailwind, which has become an immediate favourite. It starts out sounding like a 'normal' country album - there are the usual guitars and fiddles. The songwriting is not complex - the themes aren't new - but there is just something there that makes this album superior. It's probably got something to do with Harmony's voice: mature, both sharp and warm, direct and honest. She expresses emotion and enunciates clearly, and they're both underrated traits in singers. It was her voice that first hooked me when I went to her Myspace page, and even though the album didn't grab me immediately, by the third rotation I was hooked.

Tailwind also offers a lot of value for money - 15 tracks plus a bonus, the wistful, lovely 'Call of the Currawong'. The title track is a standout - and the winner of the Country division in the 2008 International Songwriting Competition - although the album is lousy with standout tracks.

According to her website, Harmony doesn't yet have solo shows at Tamworth 2010. Hopefully that will change.

www.harmonyjames.com

CD review: Landing Lights by Felicity Urquhart

2009-02-23T14:18:00.001+11:00

Felicity Urquhart’s last record, My Life, was a very appealing collection of ‘pretty’ (not a pejorative) pop-country songs and some more rocking material. It was a very good record, but in light of her most recent release, Landing Lights, it’s clear that My Life was Felicity doing what was expected of a country music singer-songwriter at that point of her career in Australia (or the US) – because, while there was a lot to like on MyLife, Landing Lights is a superior album.

Landing Lights is a satisfyingly eclectic gathering of songs that Urquhart has co-written with one usual suspect (Randy Scruggs) and some new co-conspirators. Karl Broadie’s fingerprints are all over ‘So Go On’ – an up-tempo toe tapper that has me smiling every time I hear it – while Kim Richey brings her melancholy bent (and some vocals) to ‘All Good Fun’. The unexpected collaborators include Nick Barker and Michael Spiby; the tunes co-written with Barker, ‘Two Wheels’ and ‘Bed & Breakfast’, are undoubtedly the ‘tougher’ songs on the album. Urquhart’s two co-writes with Robert Lee Castleman, ‘Little Cricket’ and ‘Time for a Change’, are complex, delicate and dark songs. The title track is a masterpiece of wistfulness and yearning.

There are only two ‘radio songs’ – ‘Girl in the Mall’, written with Mark Seymour, and ‘Ernie’s Daughter’- but I only call them that because they fallen some melodic and lyric conventions that will appeal to the traditional country music listenership.

Through all the different styles of songs - the tales of life, love and loss – soars Urquhart’s beautiful voice. When I first saw her play live I couldn’t get over how amazing that voice is, and couldn’t understand why more people didn’t know about it.

Landing Lights is more than the sum of its very fine parts. While I find myself listening more to the sweet-melodied songs – coincidentally, the even-numbered tracks – there’s not a single song on this CD I don’t like. The album is the mark of a confident, talented performer and songwriter who should find a big, big audience.

www.felicityurquhart.com

The great silence

2009-02-20T09:09:00.001+11:00

I've been such a bad blogger. But I've had reasons! I was writing other things, for one. And I didn't go to Tamworth this year, so I have nothing to say about it. But shortly I will have things to say about:

Felicity Urquhart's new album, Landing Lights
Shane Nicholson's newie
Caitlin Harnett's EP
Karl Broadie live

and possibly some other stuff. Now I just have to remember to write those posts ...

Torchsong Country Soul Band

2008-07-24T09:23:00.000+10:00

Last Sunday I saw a divine (relatively) new country band at the Botany View Hotel in Newtown, Sydney. The Torchsong Country Soul Band are a six-piece outfit - five men and one lovely girl singer, Maree Byrne - and they are doing a very nice line in country, bluegrass, blues and folk. It's clear that this is a 'musician's band'. All players were accomplished and obviously serious about what they do. It showed in the quality of their music, which was better than most acts I've seen at Tamworth or, for that matter, at the Botany View. They're not playing many gigs at the moment - hopefully they'll get a guernsey at next year's Tamworth Festival - but it would be so worth your time to check them out.

torchsong.moonfruit.com
Or on Myspace

The Chambers-Nicholson roadshow at Penrith Panthers

2008-06-23T14:56:00.000+10:00

I don't live anywhere near Penrith Panthers, but I was prepared to take the trip in order to see Kasey Chambers play with her husband, Shane Nicholson, and father, Bill Chambers, on Saturday 14 June. It was so very, very worth it - starting with the fact that I'd somehow ended up with front-row seats!

Shane and Bill opened the evening as a duo, alternating the lead role - Shane sang one of his songs, Bill did one of his own, and so on. My band buddy loved Bill; I preferred Shane's stuff. But the band buddy is a folkie - she appreciated Bill's grizzled ol' troubadour style.

After a short break they reappeared with Kasey, who was recovering from a cold but singing beautifully regardless. It was a real treat to have an all-acoustic show featuring Bill's array of stringed and steeled instruments as well as Kasey's trusty guitar - the beauty of Kasey's songwriting was exposed. I've long felt that Kasey is one of Australia's greatest songwriters; the test of a good song is usually when it's played in a stripped-down fashion, and her songs were all revealed as very good indeed.

Kasey likes to chat between songs, and she is endearing and funny and warm. At one stage she made a remark about how her voice must be very hard to put up with for audience members who'd been dragged along to the show. It didn't seem like a disingenuous remark - she obviously knows that some people don't like her voice (I know a few) and is at ease enough with herself to not care. What was most interesting about the show - for me, at least - was how the lack of instrumental adornment allowed her to really push that voice and showcase its range. Her voice is fundamentally a very powerful instrument with beautiful timbre, propelled by a mighty set of lungs.

The absolute highlight of the show was an impromptu version of 'Paper Aeroplane' (from Wayward Angel). The recorded version of the song features only Kasey and a guitar. On this night Kasey announced that they'd found a piano backstage, which meant she could perform the song in its original form - something she doesn't often get to do. Shane played the piano; Kasey stood, so still and without her guitar, and sang. The song tells the story of an elderly man whose wife of 62 years has died; the lyrics alone are enough to touch any listener. But it wouldn't have mattered what Kasey was singing about - I've rarely seen anyone sing so directly from the heart, and the notes that welled up from her seemed to have every single person in the audience in tears. Just a girl and piano, but what an extraordinary musical event.

Other high points were a song performed by the Dead Ringer Band - Kasey's mum and brother, Nash, appeared as Shane exited stage left - and the opportunity for the audience to request tracks from Rattlin' Bones, and actually have the requests played. But I was one of the successful requesters (asking for 'Wildflower') so maybe it was only a highlight for me ...

Kasey said that the Sydney State Theatre show in August will be half acoustic and half a band show - if it's half as good as the Panthers show, it will be an amazing night.

Kasey and Shane: there aren't enough words

2008-06-04T15:55:00.001+10:00

I've been slack on the posting front, mainly due to the fact that I spent the month of May just working working working. I missed the Orphanage sessions for the month, and I'll miss this month's too. But I have been in raptures since I took delivery of my signed copy of Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson's Rattlin' Bones. This is one hell of an album and it just gets better and better with each listening. Kasey and Shane's voices sound like they were made for each other, although I imagine they get a lot of chances to practise their harmonies!

The balance of tracks - rough and smooth, sad and happy, rip roaring and mellow - is just right. It's hard to think of a way they could improve on it, really. Even better, they're hitting the road and I've got my ticket to the Penrith Panthers show ...

Now, can EMI explain why Shane's solo CDs are no longer available in this country? Anyone who wants them has to order them from Amazon.

www.kaseyandshane.com

Bits and pieces: Dan Sultan, Tift Merritt, Nina Gordon

2008-04-10T15:13:00.000+10:00

I’ve been slow to pick up on the many talents of Melburnian Dan Sultan (www.dansultan.com) but ever since I first heard the first song – ‘Your Love is Like a Song’ - of his first album (Homemade Biscuits) I’ve been hooked. This is one of the best songs of all time, from Sultan’s gorgeous, rough-edged, expressive vocals to the musical arrangement backing him up. The act that is ‘Dan Sultan’ appears to be a combined effort of Sultan himself and collaborator Scott Wilson; the band behind them contains horns and seems capable of playing country, rock and soul – thankfully, not all in the same song. Homemade Biscuits isn’t perfect but I’d dare suggest it’s iconic, for it marks the start of what is surely a long, illustrious career from a very talented singer-songwriter.

American Tift Merritt (www.tiftmerritt.com) has followed up her 2004 country album, Tambourine, with the more eclectic – and, for this listener, more beautiful – Another Country. Written largely on a piano while Merritt lived in Paris, this album is quite a different journey to Tambourine but it’s worth taking it. Expect to have the CD on high rotation after about five listens.

Nina Gordon (www.ninagordon.com) isn’t strictly country but she had two kind-of-country tracks on her 2000 release, Tonight and the Rest of Your Life. So I’m using that long bow to mention her latest effort, Bleeding Heart Graffiti. Okay, it’s pop. It’s pop rock, even. There’s no country music on it. But she does pop rock so well – and producer Bob Rock does such a good job bringing her pop rock to its fullest potential – that I can’t resist anything she does, and after the long wait between albums I was delighted to find that this one was even better than the last, and I’ve barely been able to stop listening to it. If you love great melodies, unthreatening but comforting lyrics and a completely satisfying, air-punching kind of CD, get it now.

The Orphans: Coming into the light

2008-03-25T12:20:00.000+11:00

No matter how many – or how few – gigs you see in a life, very few of them will move you to tears. At The Orphans’ show in Parramatta last Saturday night, the 22nd of March, I cried twice, in two different songs. Both songs were about grief, so there was a natural sniffle-inducing narrative framework, but that wasn’t the reason – it was the way the songs were played and sung.

I often think it’s the test of a songwriter’s mettle to have songs played acoustically – there’s really nowhere to hide when it’s just a guitar and a voice. On that measure, Lyn Taylor and Nick Payne of The Orphans have plenty to be proud of. These are simple songs – there are no fancy time signatures or key changes. Perhaps both songwriters know that it’s best to leave strong emotions and words unadorned, so the listener can appreciate them better. It certainly worked for me and everyone else in the audience.

At the first show for the Orphanage Sessions, in February, The Orphans were joined by pedal steel virtuoso Mike Kirkley. Clearly they’d all been rehearsing together since, for Kirkley was a seamless addition to the set for this show and really enhanced the whole experience. Ultimately, though, what made this show special was the band’s connection to their songs and to the audience. The setting made that possible – the space at the Mars Hills Café is ideal for an acoustic gig – but it also seemed as though the band members wanted to sing straight to their audience, and that meant we were all involved in making it a good show.

At one point in the night Nick said that The Orphans have paid their dues in dingy pubs across Sydney, playing to one drunk old man in the back bar or something like that. Now that they have a better venue they also deserve a bigger audience, so make sure you get along to the next show in the Orphanage Sessions (these shows are a great initiative on the part of the band and the venue). As my band buddy said on the night, ‘I don’t like many country gigs, but I REALLY liked that one.’

The Orphanage Sessions are on for the next handful of months. Details at
http://www.theorphans.com.au/theorphanage/default.aspx
or
http://www.myspace.com/theorphansau

Caitlin Harnett at the Orphanage

2008-02-29T14:50:00.000+11:00

The Orphanage Sessions kicked off on Saturday 23 February with a simply stunning set by Caitlin Harnett. Caitlin is 17 years old and hails from Richmond, on the northern outskirts of Sydney. It is worth mentioning her age only because it's almost impossible to believe that she hasn't been alive longer than that - her songwriting and live skills would put many older singer-songwriters to shame.

Caitlin's set was a mixture of original songs - several of which can be heard on her website and MySpace page - and nicely chosen covers; there was a gorgeous version of Patty Griffin's 'Oh Heavenly Day'. She's a quietly confident performer - not showy, but already relaxed enough to get the audience laughing when she chats in between songs. She's a star in the making, of the Kasey Chambers order.

The venue - upstairs at the Mars Hill Cafe in Parramatta - was an excellent setting for the songs: cosy, with tables and chairs and couches, coffee and food at hand and no real time pressures. Caitlin's set came first and then The Orphans got up. Although I couldn't stay for much of their set, I saw enough to know I'll definitely hang around for the rest of it next time.

Madviolet: not really country, but country enough

2008-02-19T11:21:00.000+11:00

A few weeks ago I attended a cosy little gig at the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Folk Club. The drawcard was Madviolet, a duo from the Maritime Provinces of Canada who have produced two albums (Worry the Jury and Caravan) of folk-type music with a chaser of country. Lisa MacIsaac plays fiddle and acoustic guitar, Brenley MacEachern sticks to the guitar, and both sing. And oh what a treat it was - so much so that I bought both their albums and drove to Canberra to see them last weekend, converting two friends in the process (they swooned at the live performance, then bought CDs).

Madviolet have been touring Australia since the new year, playing at the odd festival. For some reason Hornsby was their only Sydney gig, and that's a shame for Sydneysiders, because those who weren't there missed out on delicate, beautifully balanced playing, good on-stage repartee, wonderful musicianship and joy. These two gals clearly love what they do. I can't even really describe how their sound works, because they can play their instruments so gently that it sounds like the guitars are whispering, yet Lisa really gets stuck into the fiddle in an old-fashioned Cape Breton shindig way. They're also no slouches in the singing department - their harmonies work a treat, and they have lovely clear, strong voices.

So if you're in Melbourne or the south coast of NSW in the next week or so, go and see them. If you're in the Blue Mountains, they're doing a little house concert this Thursday, the 21st of February. If you're not able to see them this time around, cross your fingers for a return visit. I don't know why they didn't play at Tamworth, since they were in the country at the time, but they should be invited for next year. Please!

http://www.myspace.com/madvioletmusic

Sydneysiders, take heed: The Orphanage Sessions are coming!

2008-02-18T15:34:00.000+11:00

While in Tamworth I was given a postcard-sized flyer for something called The Orphanage Sessions, a new series of gigs organised by Sydney duo The Orphans, to take place at the Mars Hill Cafe in Parramatta, aiming to showcase the talents of country/roots musicians (including them!). It's a great line-up and any Sydney country/roots/folk fan worth their salt should get along, because the featured musos include Caitlin Harnett, Dave Walls and the inimitable Karl Broadie. The list of dates is:

23/02 Caitlin Harnett
22/03 Sam Hawksley
26/04 Jessica Belle
24/05 Dave Walls
28/06 Karl Broadie

Sounds like a civilised evening - punters can sit at tables and order food and beverages, and the nana within me loves the sound of that. So hopefully I'll see you there ...

http://www.theorphans.com.au/theorphanage/

Tamworth report: Up-and-comers

2008-01-29T20:15:00.000+11:00

Country music – Australian country music, at least - is unique in the amount of opportunities it affords young people to get a musical education and get some experience playing live. The Starmaker and Telstra Road to Tamworth competitions are loaded with talented under-25s, some of whom I was lucky to see play at this year’s festival. Here’s a short round-up:

Caitlin Harnett: The buzz is big for this Sydneysider, who has attended Camerata, the Country Music School. Although she had a cold the day I saw her and wasn’t feeling her best, her lovely voice and engaging stage manner were still evident. She was playing with …

Olivia Hally: I was impressed with this Victorian’s singing and guitar playing (she's also a Camerata graduate). She had a nicely different take on some country standards, including ‘Jolene’.

Adam James: This Starmaker finalist launched his CD, Messages & Memories, at the Tamworth Hotel. He’s in the Troy Cassar-Daley songwriting vein, which is good – anyone who emulates Troy is good!

Claye Middleton: A quiet performer with a lovely singing voice – great pitch and timbre. I expect to see him back for many years to come.

Chad Shuttleworth: Caught him busking outside Tamworth Shopping World, and his cheeky charm had attracted quite a crowd. He was definitely in the ‘entertainer’ branch of the country music family (where Beccy Cole and Adam Harvey are ‘entertainers’, and Kasey Chambers and Troy Cassar-Daley are ‘singer-songwriters’ – this is a loose division of my own creation, and subsets do occur). I would have paid money to see him, so I put some in his guitar case.

Tamworth report: Danny Widdicombe

2008-01-29T20:09:00.000+11:00

The Tamworth Hotel, 25 January

When he arrived in Tamworth Danny Widdicombe had no idea he was going to play the afternoon slot at the Tamworth Hotel, where he was appearing in Karl Broadie’s band at night. But when the band that had been performing from 2 till 5 had to abandon ship, Widdicombe stepped in and gave everyone present a delightful afternoon of music, all the more special because it had been unexpected.

As rain pelted down on the garden stage, the instruments and equipment were moved into the front bar, allowing everyone to get cosy next to the pool tables. Accompanied by Fiddleboy a.k.a. Luke Moller a.k.a. ‘The Champ’ (for he had won the national bluegrass fiddling championships), Widdicombe plunged into over two hours of songs from his album The Transplant Tapes, as well as Beatles and Neil Young covers; the highlight was a sublime version of 'Dear Prudence'. Having seen this duo play, and on other occasions seeing Karl Broadie and Johnny Kendall play together without accompaniment, I’ve decided that a guitar-and-fiddle duo is a wondrous thing (of course, you need the right guitarist and the right fiddler, but I’m not ruining a good theory over detail thanksverymuch).

After not even drawing breath for a set break, Widdicombe eventually stepped aside to give The Falls some time at the microphone, then regrouped with The Champ and brought in, separately, Kevin Bennett from The Flood, Michael Roberts from Karl Broadie’s band and the mighty Den Hanrahan - as well as a dude called Dax whose full name I don’t know - for a couple of songs each. It was the best kind of free-form musical love-in and you could tell that the punters felt they’d been treated to something very special. It’s again a mark of the kind of festival Tamworth is, that musicians of this calibre could all be found in one place and with enough time to take up this sort of opportunity and make something unique for everyone in the room. It was like the best kind of Christmas present.

http://www.myspace.com/dannywiddicombe

Tamworth report: The McClymonts

2008-01-28T15:59:00.000+11:00

West Tamworth League Club, 25 January

The McClymonts’ first ‘big’ Tamworth show (they have busked and played support for other acts in the past) was in itself a big ticket – it sold out several days in advance. So I was feeling pretty smug – despite some ribbing from others – about taking my place in the audience at Wests. I’d even caught the sisters’ Big W in-store earlier in the day to get in the mood.

As noted elsewhere in this blog, I love the McClymonts. I love it all – the fact that they’re sisters, that they glam it up, that they play instruments, that they have great harmonies. I wasn’t disappointed in the show. It was like reading 10 women’s magazines all at once – it was that satisfying in a pop-cultural way. From squealing small children to overexcited grey nomads to even one Guy Sebastian hanging near the back, this show had oomph. Much to my delight, they played my two favourite tracks from their 2006 EP, as well as almost every track from their long-player, Chaos and Bright Lights. There was no revolutionary musicality going on – it was pure entertainment, of the sort that Australian country music stars do so well. And at 20 bucks a ticket, it was a bargain. I would go again, although perhaps not for a while – they don’t have enough material yet to create a diverse string of shows. But they have stage presence and lovely voices and I’m glad they’re around.

Oh yeah, Morgan Evans and Nick Kingswell supported. Both pretty good. But they weren’t wearing dresses and they weren’t sisters, so I wasn’t really paying attention. Sorry, lads.

themcclymonts.com.au

Tamworth report: Karl Broadie

2008-01-28T09:46:00.000+11:00

The Tamworth Hotel, various dates

I first saw the Scotland-born Broadie playing at the festival in 2005, and fell in love with his music almost straightaway. The first song on his first album, Nowhere Now Here, sealed the deal. Since then I’ve seen him play several times and the lustre has never worn off. Broadie is one of Australia’s greatest singer-songwriters and live performers, and his popularity at the festival increases each year for very good reasons: he’s exceptionally good live, whether he’s playing with a band or on his own (as he appeared with the Like Minded Felons, James Blundell and Nik Phillips, at the Southgate Inn) and, as one fellow punter told me in the ladies’ loo, ‘He’s so entertaining’. Broadie’s on-stage ease makes his audience feel relaxed, so we’re more inclined to settle in for a few sets, knowing we’re in good hands. And, as he is now the proud papa of three full-length albums and an EP, he has more than enough material for a few hours on stage.

Most of Broadie’s 2007 Tamworth band – not his usual touring outfit – were back, and the calibre of their playing only increased the value for punters. Danny Widdicombe from Brisbane took on lead guitar duties with aplomb; Victorian Johnny Kendall added his sublime fiddle skills to the mix. Kendall is perhaps Broadie’s greatest live collaborator – an intuitive, versatile musician who reads between the musical lines of the songs and finds all sorts of delightful nuances (he was also much in demand to play with other acts during the festival). Michael Roberts – who produced Nowhere Now Here – took keyboards and about twenty other instruments; every time I looked he was playing something new and it all added to the layering of the songs. Wrangling all these talents together was the very solid rhythm section of Greg Gillett on drums and Stevie JB (full name unknown). I should also mention that everyone except Stevie contributed to backing vocals. At one time I thought that if anything blew up on the stage Australian music – let alone country music – would never recover from the loss of all these talented folks.

Karl Broadie’s gigs are always a highlight of my Tamworth and it was wonderful to see lots more people this year enjoying this divine music. It is too easy to take a performer like Broadie for granted – he doesn’t demand attention in the way of some ego-challenged musicians; he allows his music to speak for him, and it’s also too easy to take this music for granted when it seems to pour out of him so effortlessly. But it’s harder than it looks, and from some of the comments I overheard it seems like lots of people are starting to appreciate the effort he goes to. It couldn't happen to a more worthy fellow.

www.karlbroadie.com

Tamworth report: The Huckleberry Swedes

2008-01-28T09:41:00.000+11:00

The Family Hotel, 23 January

The Huckleberry Swedes’ gig was my first stop upon arriving in the country music capital. I’d already previewed their music on their MySpace page; they’d also received a recommendation on Wendy’s Choice Picks. So I knew they’d be better than average, but anything can happen at a gig – a bad PA, for example.

The nature of Tamworth is that you can meander around from venue to venue, and there’s so much on that staying for three sets of one band is not always the best use of your time. But once the Huck Swedes started playing, I lost any inclination to go anywhere else. What a seductive sound – delicately balanced instrumentation and vocals, plus great stage get-up (late 19th century--looking britches and caps, shirts and a tie that was literally a bow). Their original songs were beautiful and clever, and they do a few very nice covers, including Patty Griffin’s ‘Making Pies’.

Spending three hours in the company of this Adelaide gang of five was the best possible way to start festival activities. While they’re not strictly country – ‘alt country’ possibly applies, but they cross a lot of genres – they exemplified one of the best things about the festival: categories don’t matter, just music, and if you’re playing music then you’re welcome.

http://www.myspace.com/huckleberryswedes

CD Review: Live at Lizotte's by Beccy Cole

2008-01-13T13:14:00.000+11:00

Beccy Cole is one of Australian music’s great entertainers and, as such, highly underrated – I always wonder why she isn’t better known, because she has a wonderful voice and an extraordinary stage presence (yes, the superlatives are flying thick and fast – she deserves them).

Perhaps Live at Lizotte’s will enable more people to understand this live-performance powerhouse, because (unlike some live CDs) it is representative of what a Beccy Cole gig is really like: a range of musical moods and a great deal of genuinely funny on-stage banter - even after several spins round my CD player, I was still holding my sides laughing at some of her lines. It’s also a chance for fans like me to get their hands on some new songs, including ‘Lifeboat’ and ‘Opposite Prayers’, plus some covers – Carole King’s ‘Natural Woman’, Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Say You Love Me’ and 4 Non Blondes’ ‘What’s Up’. There’s also tested Beccy favourites such as ‘Blackwood Hill’, ‘Men Don’t Dance’, the always-funny ‘Sorry I Asked’ and what I think is one the cleverest songs ever written (and she wrote it): ‘Lazy Bones’. Those who have seen Beccy live will know what she does in the coda of this song – recorded on this CD for repeat-play entertainment.

Beccy is joined by Kasey Chambers for a truly lovely rendering of ‘Those Memories of You’ , and by Gina Jefferies and Sara Storer for a cover of John Williamson’s ‘Galleries of Pink Galahs’. The latter is probably the only song that I didn’t out-and-out love but this album really is a worthwhile purchase for Beccy’s existing fans – in true country-music fan-friendly style, she has included enough old and new material to keep them happy. Live at Lizotte’s is also the best possible introduction to the Central Coast songstress for those who have heard the odd song – probably ‘Poster Girl’ – and are wondering whether the rest of her work is any good. It is. She is fabulous, and one of the best assets to the Australian music industry (not just country music). Now – where is her ARIA?

Beccy Cole: Live at Lizotte's (ABC/Warner Music)
www.beccycole.com

CD Review: The McClymonts

2007-12-08T19:03:00.000+11:00

The McClymonts have been called 'Australia's answer to the Dixie Chicks' and that's a compliment - to the Dixie Chicks. The two groups have much in common, quite apart from the fact that they both feature sisters (all the McClymonts are, unsurprisingly, siblings while the Dixie Chicks have sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire) and an ability to harmonise beautifully. Both groups are rarities in country music, where it's difficult to find a band that has more than one woman - three is noteworthy. Both groups have the knack of producing albums that can capture a pop audience and which are an entertainment, which is in no way a pejorative label. But they differ here: the McClymonts' Chaos and Bright Lights is a much more polished album than anything the Dixie Chicks produced before Home.

The McClymonts are three sisters from Grafton, NSW: Samantha, Mollie and Brooke. They're already Golden Guitar veterans, having taken home 2007 awards for Best New Talent and Best Group or Duo, and Samantha won for Best New Talent in 2006 (after taking out the Starmaker title in 2005). Their 2006 EP, The McClymonts (Universal), was a very nice collection of songs, especially the opening song, 'Something That My Heart Does'. On first hearing Chaos and Bright Lights (Universal) I was a bit concerned that they hadn't matched the quality of that EP but - silly me! - I shouldn't have put it on in the background. Because, after about three close listens, I was hooked.

Chaos and Bright Lights is a delight. It has a well-balanced collection of tunes in major and minor key (although tending towards major, which is perhaps why listening to it makes me happy) and while the lyrics contain nothing wildly new, they're clever and heartfelt and sharp in the right places. This is country done as pop and it's so, so satisfying. After seeing the band perform at the Country Jamm 4 Genes earlier this year and getting shivers up my spine because their voices sounded so amazing together, the harmony-laden tracks on the album did not disappoint me - these gals have clearly been singing together for years, so effortlessly do they complement and match each other.

Am I gushing? Well, they deserve it. From the ripper opening track and single, 'My Life Again', through the bittersweetness of 'Don't Tie My Hands', the defiance of 'Good Cry' and 'Finally Over Blue', and the honkytonkness of 'You Were Right' and 'Ghost Town', there is plenty of scope for the McClymonts to showcase their talents. 'Favourite Boyfriend of the Year' recalls Beccy Cole at her cheekiest, while 'Till You Love Me' and 'Shotgun' are just lovely songs.

Chaos and Bright Lights has obviously benefited from the production by Adam Anders, who has a songwriting credit on several tracks. But it's the McClymonts themselves who have the bulk of the credits, and personally I like to know that artists I love are also getting publishing royalties ...

In conclusion: don't be fooled into thinking this album is all harmonies and light. There's a lot on it to love for country music fans of all flavours, and I'll certainly be listening to it over and over and over again, singing along and smiling all along the New England Highway heading for Tamworth 2008. I just wish the band would play in Sydney more often ...

themcclymonts.com.au

The GG nominations

2007-12-07T15:15:00.001+11:00

Nominations for the 2008 Golden Guitars have been announced and there are some usual suspects - not that they don't deserve the nominations, but personally I was hoping for more than one nod for Karl Broadie. Never mind ... a few different nominations for Beccy Cole kept me happy, and it's always good to see Troy Cassar-Daley's name amongst the finalists (and winners). My new favourites, The McClymonts, only had one nomination but I'm hoping that's because Chaos and Bright Lights wasn't out in time to make the Album of the Year category. And I'll say more about them soon ...

All in all, though, the list of finalists is a testament to the strength of the industry - it was a year for albums from most of the 'biggies' and that's a lot of competition for some of the younger performers, so hats off to Kirsty Lee Akers, Amber Lawrence, Travis Collins and Dianna Corcoran.

Patty Griffin + Karl Broadie = a perfect night

2007-11-23T00:09:00.000+11:00

The Patty Griffin/Karl Broadie roadshow is drawing to a close, and the dynamic duo turned on a fantastic last Sydney gig at the Factory in Enmore. I'll say more about Karl separately, another day, but ooooooh Patty! I was lucky enough to see her at the Basement too, but the Factory gig was the one. More epiphanies than a revival meeting and more joy than a Christmas carol - and not just because she played some of my favourite songs ('Making Pies', 'Useless Desires', 'Truth No 2' as well as her version of Springsteen's 'Stolen Car'). Like Karl, Patty looks completely at home on stage and completely happy to be there - so, of course, we're happy to watch her. It's rare to see musicians look happy on stage, and I always wonder why - since they love music so much, why aren't they in bliss? I always thought Ani di Franco was the happiest, but again I say ooooooh Patty. I defy anyone to say that music isn't a spiritual practice after a night like that.

On a purely technical level: the timbre and her control of her voice is extraordinary. For someone who doesn't really look like she's getting deep into the lungs, she has a lot of power. No doubt she could just sing - without any guitar or accompaniment of any sort - and it would still be a transcendent experience for the witnesses.

Hallelujah and hail Patty Griffin.

Has Keith Urban jumped the shark?

2007-11-22T16:12:00.000+11:00

I have only seen Keith Urban play live once – at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney about three years ago. I think. Well, before Nicole. It was sublime. By then I was already in love with Be Here as an album and Keith as a performer, but seeing him live just made it all the more exquisite. That man could work a stage like no one I had seen since Chris Cornell fronting Soundgarden (token rock ’n’ roll references are allowed) and everyone was in thrall to him. And what was not to love about Be Here? Killer singles – ‘She’s Gotta Be’ is one of the finest pop/country/rock songs of recent times – and a well-balanced collection of tunes. There was love, loss, addiction, joy and spirituality, and it was all so COOL.

Then he got married.

Then there was Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing. Now, he still has the melody-writing chops. But the lyrics leave me cold. Plus I think he wrote less on this album than he did on Be Here. He’s tame – or, at least, he seems tame. The spit and fire have gone out of him. In other words: he has jumped the shark. I still listen to this album, but not as much as I’m still listening to Be Here. I miss Cool Keith. I want Cool Keith back. The big question for those of us who thought that Be Here heralded a golden age of Keithness is: does Cool Keith still exist? Certainly, his guitar duel with John Butler at the 2007 ARIAs indicated that there might be something there, and that others are starting to see it. But just because John Butler thinks he’s cool now doesn’t mean he’s thinking that the right Keith is cool.

Only the next album could tell us how he was travelling. And, unsurprisingly, it's a greatest hits package. Sigh.

Cool Keith: come home.

(Opinions expressed above have NOTHING to do with the fact that I was planning to be Mrs Urban.)

What's to come

2007-11-20T18:23:00.000+11:00

As far as I can tell, there's no Australian country music blog. (Or if there is, please tell me! I want to read it.) I was itching to have a space where I could write about CDs, gigs, musicians and other country music folks; to share the great joy that's to be found in country music songs and the Australian country music scene. I'll occasionally write about people from overseas, but generally there will be a lot about Kasey Chambers, Karl Broadie, Beccy Cole, Troy Cassar-Daley, The McClymonts and Keith Urban - for starters. Hopefully it will all be interesting; sometimes it may not be to your taste - so tell me. Country music fans are passionate and dedicated, so I'm prepared to defend my positions against all comers :)