I’m going to have my patented two grabs at this interview.
Firstly, here’s an edited version of a radio interview I did not so long ago with Jenny M Thomas as the album ‘Bush Gothic’ was launching. I’ve just surgically removed a couple of references to the then gig at another venue:
*** THE AUDIO OF THIS INTERVIEW HAS BEEN DELETED FROM SOUNDCLOUD DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS ***
*** THE AUDIO OF THIS INTERVIEW HAS BEEN DELETED FROM SOUNDCLOUD DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS ***
So, on Friday 17 August, Jenny M Thomas and the System will be performing at the Merry Muse and you can find out all those gig details there now.
Tonight, after Jenny spends approximately an hour in hair, wardrobe and make-up, I’ll be talking with Jenny on the phone from Melbourne to get the latest on what’s going on with her and the System. Gotta keep it fresh, y’all.
And THEN the text of said interview will appear here or on a very fine folk blog — details will be posted here either way.
OK. I think we’re done for now. If you haven’t clicked on the link on the sound file yet, have a watch of this great video from ABC Radio.
STOP PRESS
In sharing the event information with the support act, I stumbled across this video on their Facebook page and, not for the first time this 24 hours, fell in instant metaphoric musical love. Click play and soak into this one like you would a warm tub. Wonderful:
But to hear more from the man himself…. no, I mean to read more from the man himself — I’m not on radio anymore — click here for my interview with Fred last week for the very fine Timber and Steel blog.
Fred Smith: Taking ‘Texas’ to Tasmania (and Tilley’s, Tempe, Turning Wave…) First published inTrad and Nowmagazine, June 2008
Two more weekends and I’ll be going home
My home’s a nowhere
But a nowhere where I’m known
Where the sheep are nervous
And the men are all good blokes
Take me back to where the people get my jokes
From ‘American Guitar’, Texas (2008) by Fred Smith
So saying the above (or rather, singing the above), Fred Smith did literally head home — to Australia.
Fred’s first chance to play ‘American Guitar’ to a live audience came on his last night in the USA, after three years, coincidentally in a town called Frederick. (His first gig three years earlier had been, just as coincidentally, in Fredericksburgh).
The next morning after its debut, Fred hopped on a plane and returned to Australia via a two week tour of Canada.
Avid Trad and Now readers may have followed some of Fred’s adventures in these pages as he tripped around the USA from house-husbanding to house concerts, from suburban conventionality to folk conventions, and to a string of gigs, festivals and song contests along the way.
Fred has now been back in Australia for about six months and he’s appreciating the return to his old neighbourhood. Launching his ‘Texas’ album at Tilley’s Devine Café in Canberra last month, Fred relates a quote on topic: ”Home is the place you go where they’ve got to let you in.”
Random observations on the wide, weird world of folk from the side of the stage
#35 Pat Drummond: A tribute while he’s still alive First published inTrad and Nowmagazine, May 2012
Don’t freak; Pat Drummond isn’t leaving the planet any time soon that we know of.
However, in this the year that Pat celebrates several major milestones, a raft of talented musicians and others threw together one hell of a tribute show in Canberra to honour the man.
Some milestones: 60 years on the planet, 45 years writing songs, 40 years married, 35 years in the music business, and 25 years since he was arrested for climbing the harbour bridge before it was legal.
Random observations on the wide, weird world of folk from the side of the stage
#34 This time, it’s personal First published inTrad and Nowmagazine, April 2012
Fun fact: this is ‘A Punter’s Perspective’ edition #34.
And I draw attention to the edition number here for only the second time, and for the first time since I wrote my first column in December 2006.
Is edition number 34 significant?
Absolutely not. And absolutely yes. And for sure and for certain. And not in the slightest.
It all depends on your perspective.
34 is the number of the house in north Canberra where I lived from ages 4 to 18.
So it has no actual relevance or significance here, except in the same way it’s strangely satisfying when you order your breakfast at the local caf, and you’re handed a table number that happens to be your lucky number.
(36, for the record. Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and a long black. And water. ‘Et est-ce que vous avez des aspirins? I have a hangover you could photograph.’ Name that film.)
The preceding paragraphs may have struck a cord (or a chord) with you. Or, like so many versions of ‘A Punter’s Perspective’ in the last five and a half years, they’ve left you staring incredulously into the middle distance as you stir your soy chai latté with an index finger, mumbling, ‘What a load of self-indulgent toss’. Continue reading →
Harry Manx performs at the 2012 National Folk Festival
Harry Manx on tour in Australia
Interview the second, June 2012
As Harry Manx continues his way around Australia on an exhaustive (and possibly exhausting) tour, I caught up with Harry by phone one evening as he was taking a few days off in Darwin.
Rather than copy and paste the details here, I’ll direct your attention to the very fine Timber and Steel web-site where you can read all the details and hear the audio from my April interview as well.
Harry will be playing in Canberra on Wednesday 20 June, so I’ll see you there if I’m looking at you!
Northern Beaches Music Festival at Berry Reserve, Narabeen
A Punter’s Perspective
Random observations on the wide, weird world of folk from the side of the stage
#33 Northern Beaches Music Festival First published inTrad and Nowmagazine, March 2012
It’s always a good sign when you get a good vibe from a festival merely by walking through the front gate.
And so it was on the opening night of the second Northern Beaches Music Festival in Narabeen on the northern beaches of Sydney in February.
My first impression was ‘compact’ — in a good way. Venues are situated so closely within the confines of the Berry Reserve at Narrabeen, all five performance spaces were easily within no more than 60 seconds apart.
Walk in the front past the free stage and you were immediately at the main marquee. A quick stroll further on and you were in the downstairs Berry venue, up one flight of stairs and it was the large Lakside venue, and the ‘Tramshed’ (home of The Shack folk club) was a pitching wedge away.
For all of that, sound spill did not seem to be a factor.
Still very much in its infancy, NBMF is the brain child of Paul Robertson, and his background in theatre, TV production and outside broadcasts is evident in some of the organisational nous that’s behind the festival. Continue reading →
Pat Drummond tribute concert, Merry Muse, Canberra
Pat Drummond interviews
The day after the tribute night before
Pat Drummond has built up a formidable musical legacy. And he’s not done yet.
So while he could attend his own tribute concert, sit in the front row, and inevitably jump up and provide a fair slice of the entertainment himself, he did just that.
The brain-child of long-time friend Craig Dawson, the night was held at The Merry Muse, Turner Bowling Club on Friday 18 May 2012.
For more details on the actual night, see the ‘A Punter’s Perspective’ column in the May edition of ‘Trad and Now‘ magazine. $4.90 in newsagents and considerably less online.
And for the audio of the actual interviews, click below. My apologies for the quality of the audio; my MP3 recorder is taking a holiday somewhere without me and has resisted all entreaties to Saint Anthony to show itself. So the audio tracks are on a very average voice recorder on my soon-to-be ex-phone.
*** THE AUDIO OF THIS INTERVIEW HAS BEEN DELETED FROM SOUNDCLOUD DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS ***
and
*** THE AUDIO OF THIS INTERVIEW HAS BEEN DELETED FROM SOUNDCLOUD DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS ***
Thanks, Pat, for the last 35 years. Looking forward to the next 35.
Pat Drummond starts the evening as a mere spectatorPat Drummond, Fred Pilcher and Geoff Drummond — video to follow!
Last Sunday, about a week out from Sorry Day 2012, I had a not-so-chance interaction at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on the lawns of Old Parliament House, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
It galvanised for me two of the things that are most core to my being:
1. My favourite word in the English language (and several others I either speak or have some capacity with) is ‘diversity’.
Diversité. Diversiteit.
We can identify, celebrate, and understand our differences.
The more we can resist saying, ‘I don’t understand’, and the more we can say, ‘Help me to understand’ when it comes to differences, the better off we can be.
In my very humble opinion.
2. Never assume. I offer this as a serving suggestion. You can do whatever the hell you like. I suggest that to assume anything is to cut off so many fruitful opportunities.
The older I get, the more I have grown to dislike the word ‘assume’ and all the connotations around it and others like it.
‘I assume, I presume, Obviously, As you are aware’: they’re all illegal in my book. It’s like aversion therapy just being on the planet some days, hearing these repeated ad nauseum. Keep some tally marks today as they’re trotted out around you.
I can hear the words of my late father ringing in my ears: ‘Don’t jump to conclusions, Billy; you’ll break your leg’.
Intruder
On Sunday evening 20 May 2012, I was walking back from Manuka qnd Forrest, after catching up with some friends. It was one of those wonderful, clear, crisp Canberra nights in late Autumn when the air is still; and so long as you have a warm jacket on (preferably in an outrageous 1950s pattern) and an over-sized beanie, you’re sound as a pound.
Sorry Day Bridge Walk poster. I tried to resurrect it but couldn’t find anything to hammer it into the ground with. Sorry.
As I walked through Parkes (the Parliamentary Triangle) and passed the statues of former Prime Minsiters Chifley and Curtin, I got to thinking about reconciliation, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, and the coming Sorry Day.
Earlier, while walking from the city out to Manuka, I’d happened upon a sign advertising the Bridge Walk this Friday and had spent some time (ultimately unsuccessfully) trying to re-plant it by the side of the road.
So this was all buzzing around as I approached the tent embassy along King Georges Terrace at about 8pm. I could have stuck to the path and the streetlights and headed off towards Commonwealth Avenue, but something drew me towards the ceremonial fire and I’d just descended one or two steps when a resident called out from the shadows:
Overheard Productions 