Paula from Tasmania

PAULA XIBERRAS FROM TASMANIA

No Brakes on Big Dreams It was eight years ago that the Wolfe brothers came to prominence when they were runners up on television program ‘ Australia’s Got Talent’. Nick says it was a unique experience because going against tradition the guys were allowed to sing their own original songs. Their success on the show quickly changed their lives. From tradies, (Nick had been a postman in Tasmania’s Derwent Valley and worked on a fish farm in Margate, Tom was a carpenter, Casey fixed fridge’s and Brodie was a dental prosthetics) to trading Tassie for the US While these times of isolation have meant no live performing there has been cause for celebration. Rather than a restriction there has been an expansion in their music with a recording deal inked with global BMG, seeing them continue their profile in the US. Nick says it’s a continuation of ‘good things happening’ as they have been working for some time to ‘step up’. on a regular basis. It also teamed them up with good friend Lee Kernighan, as they became and remain a mainstay in his band with Tom and Lee often hanging out on skype doing some song writing. While the boys were happy in their jobs their dream from their school days, when they composed music on the school bus and performed in different cover bands was in Nick’s words ‘the bigger goal’ to take their music to the world. It was inevitable that this would happen with music part of the Wolfe family genetics. The brother’s great‘No Brakes’ recorded on their last trip to Nashville is the first track of their forthcoming fifth album and the title is itself a metaphor for the seemingly no stops on their career as they soared to number one single on the country music charts. It’s not the first number one for the guys. Over the past seven years they have had thirteen consecutive number one singles in Australia, as well, The Wolfe Brothers studio albums have debuted at number two on the ARIA charts. The Wolfe Brothers also have sixteen CMAAS nominations behind them, including in 2019 winning Golden Guitars for album of the year grandfather played the fiddle, their grandfather a and song of the year. multi-instrumentalist and their father a drummer. The brothers were encouraged in their music by their parents. As for the guys regular sojourn in the US it is not always about the music. From previous interviews I have garnered the boys are always on the lookout in the US for some good Aussie food and maybe they have found it. Nick tells me Musical Entertainer / Teacher the bands favourite restaurant is ‘Cracker Barrel’, in fact, they are obsessed with it, particularly because at heart the boys are very much grounded and the restaurant serves ‘normal’ food like the good old fashioned Sunday roast, a meal they will often replicate themselves, including the green beans! The boys remain committed to their David MacConnell 0413 259 547 Tassie farm and as Nick tells me that for all of their success they are as happy as they were when they scored that first gig 0doublexx7@gmail.com at Irish Murphy’s all those years ago and www.maccdouble.com realised they had made it!

THE WOLFE BROTHERS NEW SINGLE ‘NO BRAKES’ IS OUT NOW

Masterful Mastodon masterpiece Years ago Irish Australian author Chris Flynn and a friend pushbike cycled through parts of Tasmania and agreed it was tough going, but not as tough going as the journey of the protagonist of Chris’s novel ‘Mammoth’, a mastodon whose ‘spirit’ has endured through epochs of exhibitionism. ‘Mammoth’ is a novel narrated by the said mastodon’s ‘spirit’. Extinct for 10,500 years, the mastodon inhabited North and South America, it differed from the mammoth in size, being slightly smaller and in its eating habits, also an herbivore the mastodon ‘crushed instead of cutting its food’. I talked to Chris about the inspiration behind his novel and he told me that the catalyst was a Manhattan celebrity natural history auction in 2007. The items on offer included an Egyptian mummy’s severed hand, a penguin from prehistory, a pterodactyl, a tyrannosaurus bataar skull and the eponymous mammoth. Chris has always been interested in the ‘internal life of animals’ and this novel allows him to explore that interest. Our mammoth travels in time from the Pleistocene epoch to America in the nineteenth century. Chris says the mammoth ‘communicates over his lifespan’. In doing so the mammoth becomes our social conscience as he adapts to changes through time and demonstrates to us the human impact through the ages, ranging from racism to environmental erosion. Chris says that the mastodon’s story is to be brought to life (pardon the pun) as an audio book and there is talk of a live action realisation. The novel in its uniqueness also brings an important message. If the mammoth was alive today it might present part of the solution to climate change. The explanation why takes us to the snows of Siberia where there are preserved mammoths. To teams of scientists in different countries the presence of these mastodons are an exciting proposition of potentially returning the mammoth to earth by way of the modern elephant, which shares 99 per cent of the mastodon DNA. So by sourcing these frozen mammoths in Siberia and putting their DNA into their modern manifestation the elephant, the mastodon could live again. Scientist George Church says not only would this process help save the endangered Asian elephant but also provide an opportunity to fight climate change, because the mammoth prevents tundra from melting and releasing damaging greenhouse gas by mammoth by stomping through the snow of Siberia pushing in cold air to stop the melting of the snow.. In the summer months this versatile creature was equally useful by toppling trees to allow grass regrowth. ‘Mammoth’ reminds us that in this modern age of technology we too, are constantly on exhibit but, like the mammoth have a private internal life that should be protected and respected from exploitation.

‘MAMMOTH’ IS OUT NOW, PUBLISHED BY UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND PRESS

References: reviverestore.org/projects/woolly-mammoth/

The Yellow Bird Sings ‘The Yellow Bird Sings’ by Jennifer Rosner is set in the Poland of 1941. The Jewish Roza and her daughter Shira are seeking sanctuary in a barn in a very perilious situation where to make even the smallest sound puts them at risk. This is especially difficult for Shira, a child with a musical gift that strives to be heard. Shira projects her desire to sing on to a little yellow bird. After a time it becomes clear Roza for all her good intentions cannot keep her daughter safe or stifle her desire to sing any longer. An escape for Shira comes in the environment of a convent school where she has an opportunity to hone her musical skills. Things are not completely safe at the convent either and Shira must disguise her true identity with a change of name and a change to her exotic looks in the form of peroxided hair and when this product becomes scarce, to hide her head under a head covering paralleling the look of her teaching sisters. Continued on page 80

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Eventually Roza’s fierce love for her daughter can’t be denied as she attempts to locate Shira at her own risk. A phrase spoken in the novel by Roza is that ‘only beauty can save’. Whether that be the healing beauty of music or the beauty of those who risk everything to protect in times of need. The novel demonstrates that love can thrive even in the most difficult circumstances. Sometimes enduring being denied expression like Shira of our true selves. That moment of expression, when it comes truly makes the yellow bird sing.

‘THE YELLOW BIRD SINGS’ BY JENNIFER ROSNER IS OUT NOW, PUBLISHED BY PAN MACMILLAN.

men in their lives. For Deira her that he and career minded university professor husband Ken due to a cruel disease. In an act of serendipity the women meet up and realise it is time for them to literally and metaphorically take control of the wheel themselves and drive their own course, as they take a road journey together a serious of riddles to solve on the journey. Deira is taking the

trip she was going to take with her ex and in a bit of unconscious retribution she manages to ditch his car along the way! Deira is intent on seeing in every man she encounters through the journey a new partner and father of her future children, while for Grace it is still being in the control of her husband, albeit by pre made messages and videos. What the two women learn on the journey through Hemmingway and Cervantes Spain, as scheduled by literature professor Ken, is that for women in Cervantes time there was the choice between marriage or the nunnery, but not life as a single woman. The women learn to enjoy literally and metaphorically navigating their own course and in doing so getting their life’s

‘THE WOMEN WHO RAN AWAY’ BY SHEILA O’FLANAGAN IS OUT NOW PUBLISHED BY HACHETTE AUSTRALIA.

Two for the road In her latest novel ‘Women that ran Away’ Irish author Sheila O’ Flanagan demonstrates the resilience of women who have been disappointed with the husband Gavin has replaced her with a younger version with whom he is having a child Deira had not entertained. For Grace it is the loss of her through France and Spain. Grace has taken the trip before with her husband and he is again accompanying her with desire. Exceptional Service & Outstanding Results

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