Rhythms Magazine September/October 2019 by rhythmsmag

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ALBUMS, FILMS, MUSIC, BOOKS!

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JIM LAUDERDALE BRIAN CADD JOSHUA HEDLEY & JONNY FRITZ RUBY BOOTS LOST RAGAS

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$12.95 inc GST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 ISSUE: 295

WAGONS - ON THE ROAD AGAIN BRITTANY HOWARD NILS LOFGREN NEIL YOUNG - TUSCALOOSA ASH GRUNWALD 1 TESKEY BROTHERS

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Ruby Boots

The Lost Ragas

The Gilded Palace of Sin

Dusty In Memphis and Nashville Skyline

Brian Cadd

Joshua Hedley

Jonny Fritz

57 58

Don Walker

UPFRONT 09 10

12 13 14 16 17

Volume No. 295 September/October 2019

The Word The latest issue. By Brian Wise. Rhythms Sampler – The Americana Issue

Your chance to get the latest amazing sampler - only available to subscribers!

Vale Chris Winter

Stuart Coupe salutes one of Australia’s great broadcasters.

The Ghost Lives On

Stephen Walker was the voice of Triple R. By Brian Wise.

Vale Damien Lovelock

Stuart Coupe on the Celibate Rifle, raconteur and football expert who left us.

Music News

Jimmy Little Tribute, Women In Jazz, William Crighton Tour.

Nashville Skyline

Anne McCue meets Anana Kaye.

ON TOUR & NEW RELEASES

The nomadic Bex Chilcott is back from Nashville – for a little while. By Denise Hylands. Matt Walker and band return with a new album of expansive, psychedelia-dusted country. By Jonathan Alley. Lost Ragas also prepare to honour the classic 1969 album where ‘cosmic country’ began. By Jonathan Alley. Two ground-breaking albums from 1969 are also being saluted. The Australian icon is still adding dazzling new chapters to his rich career. By Kerrie Hickin. ‘Mr Jukebox’ continues to be a leading flag-bearer for classic country. By Denise Hylands. With a love of a new baby and used houses, Jonny Fritz is returning to team up with Joshua Hedley. By Denise Hylands. The supreme craftsman talks songwriting. By Brian Wise.

Out On The Weekend – Some Other Artists

Bryan Estepa

Skyscraper Stan

Michael Waugh Recalls

Number 9 Blacktops

COLUMNS

The Teskey Brothers

65 66 68 69 70 71 72 73 74

The Sydney-based musician finds his inspiration in the classics. By Stuart Coupe. Skyscraper Stan reveals why his new album is called Golden Boy Vol. I and Vol. II. By Chris Familton. Michael’s latest song namechecks dozens of Aussie acts and he writes about his inspirations. Hard-livin’ Illinois trio living on the on the punk edge of rockabilly. By Steve Bell. On the fast track to fame: knocking them out in America – and even Thor digs ’em. By Jeff Jenkins.

Jacob Collier

Mike Stern – Jazz Unity

Kelsey Waldon – A Rising Star!

Ash Grunwald

Wagons

Genre-bending: cross continents and touring Australia. By Michael Smith. Renowned guitarist teams up with keyboard luminary Jeff Lorber. By Andra Jackson. The first signing to John Prine’s Oh Boy! Label for 15 years is bound for success. By Martin Jones. Ash Grunwald gets his mojo back – and launches a new album and a book. By Jeff Jenkins. The band is back together again with a great new album. By Jeff Jenkins.

FEATURES 34

Nils Lofgren Part One

Brittany Howard

The legendary guitarist’s latest studio album features songs he co-wrote with Lou Reed. By Brian Wise.

The amazing singer with the Alabama Shakes releases a compelling and personal solo album. By Brian Wise.

OUT ON THE WEEKEND 40

The Man They Call BT!

THE FELICE BROTHERS

Jim Lauderdale

The force behind Out On The Weekend and Love Police talks. By Jo Roberts.

It’s a new-look Felice Brothers returning to Australia with a brilliant new album. By Jo Roberts. After more than 40 years, the King of Broken Hearts remains one of Americana music’s most prolific and beloved talents. By Denise Hylands.

Who else is on the line-up? Find out about some of them here.

TRAVEL 60

Lachlan Bryan’s European Tour Diary

The singer songwriter took notes and photos for us during his recent jaunt.

Musician 1: Ian Moss’s Matchbook at 30 By Brian Wise.

Musician 2: Louie Shelton By Nick Charles. 33 1/3 Revelations Discover Patto with Martin Jones. Lost In The Shuffle The Utterly Obscure Ronin By Keith Glass.

Underwater Is Where The Action Is By Christopher Hollow.

You Won’t Hear This On Radio By Trevor Leeden. Waitin’ Around To Die Great soundtracks By Chris Familton.

Classic Album: Woodstock At 50 By Billy Pinnell . Neil Young’s Tuscaloosa By Michael Goldberg.

MORE REVIEWS 77 78 79 80 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 91 92

Feature Album: Ronnie Burns’, Time Flies. By Jeff Jenkins.

Lucky Oceans On the new album Purple Sky. By Steve Bell. Devendra Banhart’s Ma By Brian Wise. General Albums Rhythms writers’ reviews. World Music & Folk By Tony Hillier. Blues By Al Hensley. Jazz By Tony Hillier. Vinyl By Steve Bell. Film Brian Wise checks out The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash. Technology By John Cornell. Books Des Cowley reviews Don Walker’s Songs and Shots.

Stuart Coupe reads Tony Collins’ Reasons To Be Cheerful.

Festival Calendar Hello & Goodbye By Sue Barrett. 5

JOHN LEE HOOKER AUGUST 22, 1917 - JUNE 21, 2001 PATRON SAINT OF RHYTHMS MAGAZINE

CREDITS Managing Editor: Brian Wise Senior Contributor: Martin Jones Senior Contributors: Michael Goldberg / Stuart Coupe Editor – Out On The Weekend Supplement – Jo Roberts Design & Layout: Sally Syle “Graphics By Sally” Website/Online Management: Robert Wise Proofreading: Gerald McNamara

CONTRIBUTERS Jonathan Alley Jen Anderson Sue Barrett Steve Bell Nick Charles John Cornell Des Cowley Stuart Coupe Meg Crawford Brett Leigh Dicks Chris Familton Keith Glass Megan Gnad Michael Goldberg (San Francisco) Al Hensley

Kerrie Hickin Tony Hillier Christopher Hollow Denise Hylands Andra Jackson Jeff Jenkins Martin Jones Chris Lambie Trevor J. Leeden Michael Mackenzie Anne McCue Billy Pinnell Jo Roberts Michael Smith Brian Wise

CONTACTS Advertising: bookings@rhythms.com.au Rates/Specs/Deadlines: bookings@rhythms.com.au Subscription Enquiries: subscriber@rhythms.com.au General Enquiries: admin@rhythms.com.au Editorial Enquiries: admin@rhythms.com.au Website: rhythms.com.au

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THE WORD By Brian Wise

t has been a year since I resumed my seat in the Editor’s chair and I must say that it has been a very satisfying and educational experience. A lot has changed since I first started the magazine back in 1992 when we even laid some pages out with Letraset (remember that?). Even more has changed technologically in just the past few years and I am sure we will spend some months grappling with those changes. What has not changed is your loyalty to the magazine and I must thank all subscribers who have stuck with us or have newly joined. You are definitely the lifeblood of the magazine and rest assured that without your support we would not be able to carry on in these uncertain economic times. So, thank you once again. Encourage your friends to join. Buy one of the new Rhythms t-shirts and keep up your great support. The list of departures continued over the past two months and we pay tribute to some of them in this issue: Stephen Walker, Chris Winter and Damien Lovelock. Sad losses to the Australian music scene. Art Neville, ‘Poppa Funk’, also left us in July after an amazing career that began in the ‘50s on classic sessions and went on to include The Meters and one of my favourite ever bands, The Neville Brothers, with his siblings Aaron, Charles and Cyril. I recently uncovered several phone interviews that I did with Art back in 1996 and 1997 and was thrilled to hear again how he played me a recording he had done of

a new song that he intended to release, but never did, on a solo album. I am not sure how often I saw the Neville Brothers – maybe 30-35 times – and I never got tired of hearing them. The Nevilles traditionally closed out Jazz Fest each year until Hurricane Katrina intervened, after which they handed the baton to Trombone Shorty. Nothing can ever match Aaron singing ‘Amazing Grace’ and there has never been anything quite like leaving the final early evening of JazzFest with the sound of the Nevilles ringing in your ears as they played it out with a medley ‘One Love’ and ‘People Get Ready.’ Then, just as we went to print, we heard the news that Peter Fonda had died at the age of 79. For years, as a youngster, I enjoyed staring at a large poster that adorned my bedroom wall of Fonda and Dennis Hopper on their choppers heading across the United States on an improbably adventurous and ultimately tragic journey. I often wonder how much that contributed to a certain wanderlust and my own motorcycle journeys in the USA. I guess it is also a musical wanderlust that fuels this magazine. I am excited to once more bring you a Rhythms music sampler! This time around we have included it as a drop card. If you do not know how this works then find the nearest teenager who will be able to fill you in. However, it should be quite a simple matter to download the 20 fabulous songs and place them into your favourite

music program. You can also burn them to disc if you so choose. Thank you to all the artists who have agreed to be included; we appreciate their ongoing support. We will also be handing out some of the samplers at the Americana Festival & Conference in Nashville this month, so we hope there is plenty of airplay internationally for the sampler. This month we devote ourselves to the pursuit of Americana via the Out On The Weekend Festival and Dashville Skyline. Jo Roberts writes about the Felice Brothers who will be headlining OOTW and if you haven’t heard their latest album Undress then you need to do so as it’s a subtly subversive work. We also have features on many of the artists appearing at both events. Lost Ragas, who feature on our sampler, are set to become one of the hottest acts in the land over the next few months while the Teskey Brothers and Wagons already are! It was great to be able to talk to Nils Lofgren, one of my all-time heroes, about his latest solo album which includes co-writes with Lou Reed. Michael Goldberg writes from San Francisco about one of his heroes, Neil Young in a lengthy review of Tuscaloosa. There’s lots more to last you until November. Until next issue. Enjoy the music. Brian Wise Editor

Spring is Sprung! Celebrate the new season. Let the party begin with this 22-track sample of talent!

What a way to celebrate! Welcome to our fourth Rhythms Sampler. Twenty-two stacks of digitization (or polycarbonate if you burn it to CD). Available exclusively to subscribers of Rhythms and only until October 31, 2019 (or until all sold out). If you are not a member of the Rhythms family then go rhythms.com.au/subscribe and join us. Thank you to all the musicians who made their songs available. Thank you also to the record labels. Thank you also to the subscribers who have made this possible.

SIDE A 1. KHRISTIAN MIZZI Welcoming Song

Poetic lyrics, meandering melodies and ‘a voice like a big warm hug’, along with a unique picking style, Mizzi really is a complete artist and is becoming renowned for his intimate performances and thoughtful songs. throughout the country.

2. GEORGIA STATE LINE & PATRICK WILSON What I Know Now

IOHO one of the songs of the year! The collaboration marks a coming together of two of Australia’s most lauded young country talents in Georgia Delves (Georgia State Line) and Wilson. From a forthcoming album.

3. WAGONS Keep on Coming Back

From Songs From The Aftermath. Written by Henry Wagons during a stay in Los Angeles in the foothills of Mt. Baldy where Leonard Cohen lived out much of the end of his life. Five years since their last release and still as good as ever.

4. TRACY MCNEIL &THE GOODLIFE Not Like A Brother

Picking up at full speed from where they left off with her last award-winning release (Thieves, 2016) this is the second single from the forthcoming album You Be The Lightning.

5. MICHAEL WAUGH This Song Reminds Me

The first single from Michael’s forthcoming Shane Nicholson-produced album, due for release later this year. “It was like tuning in to a radio station,” he says of the writing. “And I was brought back to sleepovers at my best friends’ house.”

6. DYSON STRINGER & CLOHER Falling Clouds

The trio’s ode to Australian guitar bands of the 90s, namechecking The Clouds and Falling Joys Their self-titled debut album is out through Milk! Records this October. With Dyson based in L.A and Stringer in Toronto, the band chose to meet halfway to make a record at Jeff Tweedy’s ‘The Loft’ in Chicago.

7. ASH GRUNWALD (WITH JOE BONAMASSA and JOSH TESKEY) Waiting Around To Die

From Mojo, his first new music in 5 years which features appearances from The Teskey Brothers, Kasey Chambers, Mahalia Barnes, Joe Bonamassa, The Cat Empire’s Harry James Angus, Terry Evans, Eddy “The Chief ” Clearwater, Ian Collard, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds’ Kim Wilson. Plus an amazing array of session musicians.

8. PETA CASWELL & THE LOST CAUSE Better With You The latest signing to Sydney-based label, Stanley Records. Expect a full album early in 2020. Peta is the niece of legendary Australian songwriter and singer, Allan Caswell.

9. LOST RAGAS Keeping Up With Yesterday

SIDE B 1. LUCIE THORNE All The Love From Kitty & Frank, traces the wild true stories of young frontier woman Kitty Walsh and her lover, the charismatic bandit and bushranger Frank Gardiner. In the 1860’s, Gold Fever came to Wheogo NSW and, like Deadwood, it didn’t end well.

2. CHARLES JENKINS When I Was On The Moon

From When I Was On The Moon. An acclaimed songwriter goes unplugged. One man, one guitar, one microphone, one bedroom - is just delightful. Bernard Zuel says, “They’re just very, very good songs, done simply, done beautifully.”

3. FREYA JOSEPHINE HOLLICK Nobody’s Better Than No One

From This Is Not A Dream. The cosmic country sounds are firmly intact on this superb track with a rhythm section that punches hard and tight beneath the spiralling psychedelic guitars of Matt Walker and Shane Reilly. With Haydn Meggitt on drums and Roger Bergodaz on bass and twiddling knobs!

Courtesy of Blind Date Records. The first single from Freya Josephine Hollick’s forthcoming album The Real World, to be released in 2020 and featuring Lucinda Williams band Buick 6 with renowned guitarist Greg Leisz and recorded at Rancho de La Luna in Joshua Tree. The new album is saturated in the sounds of desert rock and cosmic country.

10. MARTIN CILIA 1960

4. MAGPIE DIARIES Honey

From Shadowland - a tribute to the great Hank Marvin & The Shadows.Australia’s premier surf rock guitarist joined The Atlantics back in 1998 and the band have since gone on to record many of his tunes that have also appeared in surf movies. He has also recently played with Mental As Anything. The new album also has a fansatic version of ‘The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt.’

11. THE HEARTBROKERS I Am The Devil

From Vol.10. It’s already our local blues album of the year! When Jeff Lang and Van Walker met, they were more surprised to share a love of ACDC than Bob Dylan, and thought it fun to usurp expectations with an original album more of the former than the latter. With Ezra Lee, pumpin’ bass and melody of Brother Cal and killer kit work of Ash Davies.

From Sanctuary, the first official release for Dashville as a music label. Smooth soulful folk country, with subtle flourishes of psychedelic rock ‘n’ roll. The song also has a charming video, shot on location at Magpie’s home of Dashville at Lower Belford. The video paints a seemingly biographical picture of how the song emerged, growing up in the heavily industrialised area of the Upper Hunter and striving towards an idealism to believe in.

5. OPELOUSAS Meet Me In The Hallway

From Opelousified. Inspired by the Louisiana town of the same name, Australian trio Opelousas (Opper-loosas) serve up a spicy slice of Swamp blues. Head out on the highway of your mind with one of our favourite power trios (the other being Dyson Stronger & Cloher). Kerri Simpson, Alison Ferrier and Anthony ‘Shorty’ Shortte offer some more bareboned blues for free-wheeling minds.’

6. ROB SNARSKI Number 44

From Sparrow and Swan, recorded and mixed by Shane O’Mara at Yikesville Studio, Yarraville. Conversations turn into song, late night tales become the tunes there are stories here from Brisbane cab drivers, girls from Belfast ‘74 in search of Van Morrison, football players and their protégés - as on this gorgeous song, a tribute to one of Snarski’s important influences. Magnificent.

7. THE EARL OF GREY Hollow

The Earl Of Grey has spent time in just about every corner of the wide, brown land that is Australia, and the sense of freedom, adventure and inevitable heart ache is on display from the first note you hear pass his lips. Residing now in Central Queensland, The Earl Of Grey can be found at big events like the Tamworth Country Music Festival and in pubs, clubs and cafes up and down the east coast of Australia.

8. JEB CARDWELL Opportunity

The new single from a forthcoming album. Courtesy of Blind Date Records. A two-time winner of the SAMIA (South Australian Music Industry) award for ‘Most Outstanding Guitarist’, Jeb is also an accomplished songwriter collaborating with his sister Abbie Cardwell.

9. SEAN MCMAHON & THE OWLS One Foot Out The Door

From You Will Know When You Are There. Courtesy of Blind Date Records. Uncluttered and focused in its arrangement, this is a confident record that ebbs and flows lightly, yet displays immense character and weight with each pressing moment.

10. GLENN CARDIER Restless One From Wild At Heart. Veteran songwriter’s re-emergence has been nothing short of extraordinary. He writes, performs and produces his music from his adobe home studio on the Hawksury River, north of Sydney.

11. BUICK 6 Senorita Blvd

Courtesy of Blind Date Records. Our favourite American instrumental band at the moment. Featuring the incredibly powerful drumming of Butch Norton; the searing guitar of Stuart Mathis and David Sutton on bass. Backing band to Lucinda Williams and now also to Freya Josephine Hollick.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 THE RHYTHMS SAMPLER CELEBRATE SPRING WITH THE 4TH RHYTHMS SAMPLER! GET SOME OF THE BEST MUSIC YOUR WILL HEAR THIS YEAR FROM: Wagons, Ash Grunwald, Georgia State Line, Lost Ragas, Khristian Mizzi, Tracy McNeil & The Goodlife, Michael Waugh, Dyson Stringer & Cloher, Peta Caswell & The Lost Cause, The Heartbrokers, Lucie Thorne, Charles Jenkins, Freya Josephine Hollick, Opelousas, Magpie Diaries, Rob Snarski, The Early of Grey, Martin Cilia, Jeb Cardwell, Sean McMahon & The Owls, Buick 6.

SUBSCRIBE TO RHYTHMS PRINT (OR PRINT & DIGITAL) TODAY AND WEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;LL SEND YOU OUR EXCLUSIVE SAMPLER FULL OF GREAT MUSIC.... AVAILABLE ONLY UNTIL OCTOBER 31, 2019. GO TO: rhythms.com.au/subscribe

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VALE CHRIS WINTER (1946 – 2019) By Stuart Coupe

Chris Winter changed my life. In a good way. A very, very good way. And I’m not alone there. In fact, it’s reasonable to assume that I was just one of tens of thousands of Australians whose life was forever altered by this man, his voice and the music he chose to share with his dedicated and embracing audience. In the very early 1970s when I was in my mid teenage years, I owned one of those things called a crystal radio. For reasons that are still unclear to me it was possible to attach this little device to the phone in my parents’ bedroom, tune the thing and from it would emit radio signals from remote locations. Well, in those days Sydney was filed under remote in my brain. My main listening was to a radio show

called Room To Move, presented by this guy called Chris Winter which was on – hell, it was either a Monday or Thursday night – on the ABC. Winter had one of those wonderful voices which I now understand is known as a ‘radio voice’ – it was deep, it was measured, it was friendly, it was assured, and it was gently authoritative. And Winter played music on Room To Move that turned my head around several times on its axis. Prior to that I’d really only listened to the local radio station – 7EX – which it must be said I now realise had a rather adventurous playlist for the time. But it most certainly did not play Bruce Springsteen’s debut album or John Cale’s beautiful Paris 1919 or all the other artists and albums that Winter shared with his audience. And 7EX most definitely did not have a radio program that used a song by John Mayall as its theme. Winter played whatever he wanted to on that radio show but I recall that I loved it all. Well, I loved hearing all this new music even if I, of course, engaged more with some of it than others. Winter was very much an Australian version of John Peel in this regard and it’s my wish that somewhere in the depths of the ABC or National Film & Sound archives some of these broadcasts have been preserved so that we would hear them once again. Eventually, Winter became a significant broadcaster and figure at Double J and then Triple J. In the years that followed he worked in a multiplicity of roles, usually those involving new technology and its applications in Broadcasting, the online world and the digital enhancement of the

GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) institutions. Come 2000 and Winter was back at the ABC working in their New Media and Digital Services division where he became immersed in mobile, online and interactive TV projects. He also found himself working with the National Library of Australia on a massive under-taking which was to make all ABC archival material searchable by TROVE, he online access portal. When Double J was resurrected as a digital radio station many hoped that part of the programming policy would be to return some of the great Double J voices like Winter’s and a number of others to the air but, unfortunately, that was not to be the case as the new regime seemingly decided that ‘old’ was back in 1990 and there was nothing before that. Over the years I grew to know Winter a little – just enough to say hello on the occasions when our paths crossed. The last time was in fact at the funeral for another pivotal Double and Triple J figure Stuart Matchett. Winter looked and sounded fine, if a little reflective – but funerals do that to you. Not long after that I heard that his health had taken a turn for the worse. But whenever I did encounter Chris Winter I was always just that little bit in awe. I’d spent the years since I listened to him on Room To Move pursuing exactly what he had done for me – trying to share a love for music with anyone who’ll stop long enough to read or listen. I’d also spent 15 years presenting radio shows myself and you know what, there were so many times when I’d catch myself daydreaming that I was Chris Winter and presenting Room To Move.

THE GHOST WHO LIVES ON ON Stephen Walker (1950 – 2019) was not only an announcer and Program Director at Triple R FM in Melbourne but also one of the most influential people in the history of community radio. By Brian Wise In Melbourne he was known as The Ghost Who Talks, presenting the Skull Cave for three hours every Friday afternoon on Triple R-FM for almost as long as we could remember. For more than 30 years Stephen Walker had a profound effect on Australia’s most successful community radio station: first as a volunteer broadcaster, then as program manager for 14 years and finally, again, as a broadcaster. There have been many influential broadcasters in Australian radio, both commercial and public - Chris Winter (to whom we also pay tribute in this issue) and Mac Cocker on the ABC to Stan ‘The Man’ Rofe in Melbourne and Ward ‘Pally’ Austin in Sydney – and we have listened to these voices shape our musical tastes. But there has never been anyone in Melbourne community radio as important as The Ghost. If Triple J had hired him when it moved into Melbourne he might have had a national reputation. As it is, I don’t think it is an exaggeration to claim that he was Melbourne’s equivalent to the BBC’s legendary John Peel. Like myself, Stephen first discovered radio as a teenager in 1960s and hearing ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ by Bob Dylan had a similar effect on both of us. He went on to become an actor in community theatre, a high school drama teacher and participant in cultural icons of the time such as The Pram Factory and La Mama theatres. Apparently, he first heard Triple R when he was running a crisis-counselling centre and living at Menzies Creek in the Dandenongs. His first broadcast was in 1981 and he went on to present a variety of programs – From The Bunker, Survival Talkback, The Ghost In The Machine – and became the station’s program manager in 1984. Finally, Stephen settled into the Friday drive slot with The Skull Cave (which for a short while had been on three or four afternoons a week). What he brought to his program was the sort of personality that had not been heard on community radio before: a larger than life persona who emulated some of the panache of past commercial DJs (Don Lunn’s Daddio Of The Radio, Alan Lappan’s Lap Lap) but he brought it to a different, hipper audience. The Ghost did not just suddenly appear on Triple R thirty years

ago. I imagine that he had been plotting the scenario for years – maybe from when he was a teenager. Of course, he was always The Ghost, never Stephen Walker. He would begin his program with the catchphrase ‘Hey there, you there, it’s me here’ and played promos that proclaimed him ‘Nemesis of mediocre radio everywhere.’ For many years he hosted The Quiz segment on the show which challenged music fans with questions and also his occasional biting comments about their knowledge. It was unmissable. He would close the program by asking us to ‘Trust the energy’ and offer us a pithy expression of what the energy might say that week. He would close by telling us that he would ‘Plant you now, dig you later.’ Stephen was not only Program Director but also the best broadcaster on Triple R. He was like the captain of a great sporting team leading from the front by example. Year after year his program was the most popular by a considerable margin during the station Radiothon. Once, when I expressed admiration at his achievements, he gave a piece of advice, that encapsulated his sense of humour and made me feel a lot better. ‘You know,’ he said, encouragingly, ‘it’s okay to be second best.’ But Stephen Walker’s legacy is more than just creating an unforgettable radio persona. Like many of the truly great radio presenters he had an unerring ear for a great or interesting piece of music. He was able to construct seamless and compelling

brackets of music. His interviews with musicians such as David Byrne and Patti Smith were like old friends catching up. His studio encounter with TISM was hilarious. Stephen also had a vision for Triple R and he created the program template for the station. He often told me that he saw the audience of the station as being not just restricted to the inner suburbs. He would tell you to learn from commercial radio or ABC production techniques and add that just because you were a volunteer didn’t mean that you shouldn’t have a professional approach. Like a great teacher, he would often give advice: first starting with a positive and then suggesting an improvement. He was an avid radio listener and he heard everybody. I will always value his final piece of advice to me given earlier this year. In 2011 Stephen was the first radio presenter to be inducted into The Age Music Victoria Awards Hall of Fame for his contribution to Melbourne culture. He had already suffered from MS for several decades and a huge benefit concert to raise money for special treatment a year earlier at The Forum drew such notables as Nick Cave. Stephen was forced to finish up his program in August last year as his illness progressed. By then it had become a truly legendary program in the history of Melbourne radio. The Ghost left the planet in July, but he will never leave the building. We will definitely dig him later. 13

Stones, The Dictators and everything we all adored about the spirit and passion of pure, noisy rock ’n’ roll. And then there was Lovelock’s lyrical delivery over the furious attack of his band mates – and the songs themselves that were perceptive, political, and passionate.

DAMIEN LOVELOCK (1954 – 2019) By Stuart Coupe

There’s no tribute to a passing comrade that’s easy to write but this is a particularly hard one. I sort of expected Damien Lovelock to be around forever. I had no idea that he was ill and on a Sunday afternoon whilst at a family lunch I sat stunned as my phone lit up with texts and messages from friends telling me that we had lost him. Everyone loved Damien Lovelock. At least I never met anyone who said anything other than laudatory things about him – and in this world and day and age that’s a rare thing. And even if some people didn’t totally love his main band – The Celibate Rifles – or share his passion for that game that his fellow obsessives claim is the only true form of football then they at least respected his knowledge and passion for the code. But more than the music and the sports passion there was the larger than life person that was Damien Lovelock. THAT voice. That raconteur. That dry, droll delivery. The knowledge that there were no short conversations with him. That what started off as a quick hello could still be going an hour later as dozens of subjects, opinions and issues were canvassed. I’d see Lovelock’s name come up on my phone and mentally write off the next period of time. Happily, so. Having Lovelock as a guest on one of my radio shows was a joy. It would be a roller coaster of a tangential conversation linked usually only by his passion for whatever subjects were on the initial agenda – and many that weren’t but became part of the discourse. Like most people, I came to Lovelock through the Celibate Rifles in the early 1980s. Here was a post-Radio Birdman Sydney band who clearly loved The Stooges, The Velvet Underground, The 14

The Rifles made lots of albums and toured the globe. In between Lovelock found time to pursue other band and solo projects including some fabulous spoken word performances, as well as becoming a highly respected football commentator. And there were books like his wonderful What’s For Dinner Dad?, a collection of recipes for “desperate dads.” Lovelock became a Yoga instructor and lived a health conscious, relaxed lifestyle amongst the seemingly endless projects that he was involved with. The Celibate Rifles had notched up 39 years together with more gigs and touring planned right until the end. Away from that Lovelock loved watching sport, bodysurfing, playing music, walking on the beach, driving his car and his pug dogs. He didn’t like social media and struggled with most things involving modern technology. My contact with him over the past decades usually involved the phone ringing in the

studio at FBi whilst I was doing a show. There was this unmistakable tone. “Hey Stuart, it’s Damo here . . . “ and then he’d have a comment about a song, a suggestion for another, news about a Stones or Lou Reed tribute gig, or some other thing to chat about. I’d end up playing several songs in a row as – well – Lovelock was talking. When news of Lovelock’s death filtered through that Sunday I was in shock. Apparently, those close to him had been well aware of his three year battle with cancer. One of the first people I heard from after news of Lovelock’s passing began to circulate was American music writer David Fricke who had become a friend of Lovelock’s during his visits to Australia and Celibate Rifles trips to America. He too was stunned at the news and reminded me that the last time he’d spoken to Lovelock was when he was last in Australia to present the Australian Music Prize. On his first morning in Sydney he’d joined me on FBi radio and who was the first person to ring the studio to say hi? You know the answer. It saddens me to know that I’ll never see the words Damien Lovelock flash up on my phone again. I’ll miss him being in my world. I’m guessing you’ll miss him being in yours too.

CELEBRATING JIMMY LITTLE’S MESSENGER

The album was the result of an idea conceived by Karma County singer/ songwriter/guitarist and producer Brendan Gallagher who wanted to highlight Little’s voice and frame him as an interpreter of classic material – a singer’s singer. The album reinvigorated Jimmy’s legacy as a seminal contemporary Indigenous artist. Jimmy Little, a proud Yorta Yorta man who rose against the odds from mission life to stardom, passed away in 2012, having been made Officer of the Order of Australia for both his music and his extensive community work, and having had a huge influence, especially on the careers of subsequent Indigenous performers including Archie Roach, Troy Cassar-Daley, Tiddas and Dan Sultan. His legacy lives on in the work of the Jimmy Little Foundation, and his fine recordings. More information and tickets are available at drwe.com.au

Swift, who has toured with Wynton Marsalis and appeared at the Monterey and Montreal Jazz Festivals. Canadian sax composer Chelsea McBride will perform her compositions for large ensemble alongside the Divergence Jazz Orchestra, a group conducted by award-winning Sydney composer and bandleader Jenna Cave. There will be an equally talented representation of local artists such as Gemma Farrell (WA), Tamara Murphy (VIC), staging original work with their full touring ensembles.

WILLIAM CRIGHTON FOR DASHVILLE AND NATIONAL TOUR

WOMEN IN JAZZ

In a new multi-media music concert Jimmy Little’s Messenger – 20thAnniversary: In The Shadow Of The Black Love, the album’s original producer Brendan Gallagher celebrates the music and impact of Messenger and shares songs, stories and yarns of his time with Jimmy, shining a light on the recording process and touring of this legendary album with rare photos, film clips and audio. Over the course of six shows, Brendan will be joined on stage by Jimmy’s grandson and singer/songwriter James Henry, Messenger sideman Stu Hunter, and different guests in each town. Messenger paid tribute to great Australasian songwriters and launched Little into the consciousness of a whole new generation of fans, many of whom had not known that he was Australia’s first Indigenous pop star on the back of hits like ‘Royal Telephone’ in the early 1960s, or that he had a huge presence on Australia’s country music scene. The album won the 1999 Best Adult Contemporary Album ARIA, and at the same time Jimmy was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Fitting for a man who was one of the first people to record a Barry Gibb song – Little charted with the then-17 year old songwriter’s ‘One Road’ in 1964 – Messenger saw Jimmy interpret classic Australian songs like ‘Under The Milky Way’ by The Church, ‘Down Below’ by The Cruel Sea, ‘Cattle & Cane’ by The Go-Betweens, ‘Quasimodo’s Dream’ by The Reels and ‘The Way I Made You Feel’ by Ed Kuepper. 16

The 9th annual Sydney International Womens’ Jazz Festival with over 100 leading artists is taking place at venues across Sydney including Bondi Pavilion, Pier One, The Foundry, 505 on Cleveland St, and Studio 301, from November 2 to 17. After the recent death of boss nova giant João Gilberto, fans will rejoice at the inclusion of singer/songwriter Anna Setton who is also touring nationally The São Paulo native modernises the airy, seductive spirit of the Brazilian tradition, bringing a real sense of romance and aesthetic perfection to her nylon string guitar and airy vocals. First Australian Jazz legend Wilma Reading will headline the event - an Indigenous singer whose dazzling international career saw her perform alongside names like Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown, and perform on the Johnny Carson Show. Touring internationals include saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin - a New Yorker who has shared stages with Stevie Wonder, Macy Gray, Alicia Keys and Talib Kweli - and 24 year old superstar NYC vocalist Veronica

One of our favourite local artists William Crighton is currently on his second international tour for the year, this time to Scandinavia playing Tönder Festival alongside a run of shows throughout Denmark and Sweden. Earlier this year he was in the UK for the prestigious Black Deer and Boomtown Festivals, stopping off along the way for a main stage performance at Winnipeg Folk Festival in Canada. But Crighton will be returning to Australia in October to perform a short run of highly anticipated headline shows alongside a bunch of special guests and his full band, the aptly titled, William Crighton and The Family Band. The show will visit Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and his home-base of the Hunter Valley at the Dashville Skyline festival. Joining William Crighton as part of The Family Band on this run of shows, will be wife Julieanne Crighton, brother Luke Crighton and long-time drummer Reuben Alexander, plus good friend William Barton, who is widely recognised as one of Australia’s leading didgeridoo players and composers. These will be William Crighton’s only headlining full band shows this year. Expect some new material and a mix of favourites from his two highly acclaimed albums, 2016’s self-titled debut and 2018’s Empire. For details see the Rhythms Gig Guide.

ANNE MCCUE

NASHVILLE SKYLINE Anne McCue reports in from the home of country music.

Anana Kaye hails from the original Georgia - the one near Russia. She left there six years ago, moving to New York City and meeting fellow Georgian exile Irakli Gabriel. They bonded during a night of revelry - jamming on Bowie songs - and they just seem so right together. Kaye has a unique voice and a theatrical presence on stage and is influenced by that wonderful era of German cabaret of the 20s and 30s and Kurt Weil. Their recent single, Blueberry Fireworks was recorded late one night in Nashville at Firebird Studio. “We were recording midnight choirs at 3 a.m,” says Anana. “That was pretty special.” Sometimes the magic happens in the wee hours of the morning. “It’s one of our favorite recordings,” says Irakli. The duo are also photographers and filmmakers and they shot the video for the song which tells the story of a woman who falls in love with a mannikin. “We wanted to shine the light on mental health with that idea and a vibrant visual.” The artistry runs deep in all of their work - visually and musically as well as in live performance. “Georgia is a country at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. This is where history and myth cross paths. The Black Sea… that’s where they sailed to steal the Golden Fleece.” Kaye is referring to the story of Jason and The Argonauts. “It’s a pretty fascinating myth - the opera Medea is based on it.” Irakli adds, “It’s one of the most ancient countries in the world with this very unique

language…” He continues, “The first steps of revolution (after Perestroika) seemed somewhat peaceful but it turned into a civil war…” Irakli ended up in America because of this war and the struggle in his own country. They have just released a new album called Detour. “The record was done in New York at the Bunker Studio and we added two tracks when we moved to Nashville. Hence the name - Detour.” Anana Kaye played her album release show at The Five Spot. She has a flawless voice and a compelling stage presence theatrical and intriguing. Kate Bush + Nick Cave + Leonard Cohen + David Bowie. Since we’re apart all that’s left of my heart is a scar to remember you by. * * * The night Jeff Lynne’s ELO played in Nashville I was home working on stuff - I simply forgot to attend. So, I was forced to drive up to Columbus, Ohio to see the show. I’ve never done anything like that before but I just had a feeling I should. The deep catalogue of hits was pretty damn impressive. Jeff Lynne could have been the fitth Beatle, the fourth Bee Gee and even at times, the fifth member of ABBA. It was great to hear that voice and all of those incredible arrangements. I have rarely attended stadium shows in my life but this show made me realise what songs mean to people - how intrinsic they are to their most important memories recollections of those formative teen years where your emotions are cresting and falling and you are experiencing everything including love for the first time.

The video animations were pretty sensational - perfect for every song - and I partly wished I wasn’t sworn off the whacky weed. It was worth the five-and-ahalf hour drive and for me ‘Telephone Line’ was probably the highlight. Wow! * * * Holy Mountain Top Removers played their album release show at Grimey’s. The vinyl record - Tonight The Machete Dreams - has been released on the new Centripetal Force label which is run by Mike Mannix from WXNA’s Psych Out! radio show. The group is a three piece - improvisatory guitarist Anthony Ford, keyboardist/ trombonist/bassist Mikey Allred and drummer Edmond Villa. The music is really free and yet not alienating at all. Blending an eerie film soundtrack, a little surf and something new, mixing it up in a mostly instrumental format. Centripetal Force has also released a cassette in support of women’s reproductive rights which are under attack in Tennessee’s neighbor - Alabama - and other states nearby. Entitled My Body ’Tis of Thee, the cassette features ten artists and bands which are either led by women or which feature women in prominent roles including Dire Wolves, Marisa Anderson and Vive La Void (led by Moon Duo cofounder Sanae Yamada.) * * * So even though it sometimes feels like the world is going to hell in a corporate leather handbag made from an endangered species there’s some great stuff still going on that is worthy of our loving attention. 17

LOOKING TO THE LEGENDS Sydney-based Bryan Estepa finds his inspiration in the classics. By Stuart Coupe Sydney-based Bryan Estepa looks to the legends when it comes to his musical career. He’s the guy who you expect you’ll finding sitting around thumbing through the Collected Lyrics of Bob Dylan or The Beatles when he’s searching for a way into a song. After a few years of playing and recording with his combo The Tempe Two, who released 2016’s Every Little Thing, Estepa decided last year to reunite “the big Estepa band”, a groups of guys who he’s played with on and off for many, many years. “This is a line-up I’ve had for five or six years but I realised we’d never actually recorded anything so last year I asked the band if they wanted to get together.” Estepa sees this reunification as a bit like Neil Young’s relationship with Crazy Horse – on and off again, play together, don’t see each other for ages and then the big guy decides to do it again. Not content with that comparison Estepa rolls into Boss territory. “It was also like when Springsteen reunited the E Street Band. I just wanted to bring the band back

ON TOUR 18

together. I knew it was a really good line-up for me. But there were no real plans, no intention to do a record. Initially it was just for posterity, just for me to have stuff of us playing together.” In the end the chemistry was such that an album loomed as a distinct possibility. And then it became a reality. Estepa coproduced the album with Josh Schuberth, doing sessions at both Love HZ in the inner west of Sydney, and Endomunsia Studios in the Blue Mountains. The old crew assembled – or reassembled - for the resulting album were Russell Crawford (drums/vocals), Brian Crouch (keyboards), Dave Hatt (guitar) and Dave Keys (bass). The resulting songs make up the album Sometimes I Just Don’t Know which is released through Lilystar Records for all of the world except Europe where it’s coming out through a long-standing relationship Estepa has with Spanish label Rock Indiana. The recordings, in keeping with the band feel of the album, were all done with a live feel. And when the project moved to Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains Estepa found himself having another version of rock’n’roll history moment. “I’d never recorded with a view before,” he laughs. “I was pretending I was doing my (Music From) Big Pink album in the woods. I was trying to romanticise it in my own little way. I wanted to try and capture that Band sound.” Estepa says that all of the songs on Sometimes I Just Don’t Know were written specifically for both this album and the band. There were no carry-overs from years gone by. “A lot of songwriters have songs in the bag or songs that have never been quite finished, and they haul them out,” he says. “Maybe they recorded beds for them but they never quite fit onto the last album they did. That wasn’t the case here. “I had the band totally in mind when I was writing. I knew what Crouch might do or what I wanted to hear from Dave Keys.

It was the first time I was writing a set of songs and tunes where I was very conscious of it being a band record.” And once again Estepa was thinking about how the big-league guys do it. “I’m guessing but I imagine when Tom Petty wrote a record he knew what Mike (Campbell) would bring to it or Benmont (Tench) would do. I was thinking in those terms. I wanted it to be a band record. That’s reflected in the cover and the photos for the record.” Estepa remains pragmatic and realistic about where he sits in the Australian music scene. It’s tough in 2019 for independent artists who cite the likes of Tom Petty, You Am I, The Beatles, Wilco, The Jayhawks, Hall & Oates and Elliot Smith as influences. ”I know my place in the music scene,” Estepa says. “I’m never going to be huge, it’s a niche thing and I’m never going to be JJJ fodder. I’m doing it because it’s what I do – and it’s the same with a lot of other artists I know and hang out with. I can’t have it any other way and I just keep plugging on.” Having said that Estepa does plan to be more active with the release of this album. More trips outside of Sydney, particularly to Melbourne, and a return to Europe in 2020. He’s also planning to play festivals in the Philippines and try and take his music to where his roots are. His label, Lilystar Records, is based in Manilla. “They’re an indie label that focuses on the local Asian market but also signs artists from France and other European countries, plus they have a few from the States and I think there’s even a Russian act on the label,” Estepa says. “I’ve never really explored the Filipino market both here and over there,” he says. “And it’s potentially huge here. In terms of Asian communities, we’re probably just behind the Vietnamese and Chinese.” Sometimes I Just Don’t Know is a very fine collection of songs and performances from Estepa and his cohorts. It sounds like a band, feels like a band, looks like a band – hell, it’s a band. And a damn fine one.

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4 –6 October 2019 · Labour Day Long Weekend · s

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TALL TALES FOR D Skyscraper Stan reveals why his new album is called Golden Boy Vol. I and Vol. II and discusses the joys and frustrations that come with committing to a life in music. By Chris Familton

SKYSCRAPER STAN

GOLDEN BOY VOL. I AND VOL. II Heart Of The Rat Records Stan Woodhouse has been roaming the bars of Australia and New Zealand for a decade now, winning over audiences with his brand of gothic tinged folk, rock ’n’ roll and country and cementing his reputation as a burgeoning talent, part of the same school as Marlon Williams, Cash Savage and Aldous Harding. Golden Boy shifts its attention away from traditional Americana influences and finds a sound that balances vivid, narrative-driven poetry with self-analytical lyrics and a musical backdrop that gets both noisier and more restrained. The textures and arrangements that Woodhouse, co-producer Richard Stolz and the band have created are punchy, soulful, dynamic and heavily focused on the groove, making it a treat for both minds and hips. Soul/gospel backing vocals add a lush and bittersweet tone to ‘Tarcutta Shade’ as Woodhouse paints vignettes of small Australian towns and the characters that pass through them. The album begins with a societal scene-setter in ‘Dole Queues & Dunhill Blues’, a lyric tour de force of imagery and damaged individuals. “Oh what a state! Twenty eight days straight drinking bottom shelf bourbon in the can, luke warm. He was pissing in the wind with a skinful, catatonic on the front lawn,’” he sings, like a manic storyteller or preacher as Oskar Herbig plays some fine guitar, as he does right across the album – firing off paint-peeling solos, shimmering distorted patinas and soft and subtle chord shapes. A more introspective clutch of songs populate the second half of the album. A Wurlitzer piano brings out a swirling soulfulness and encourages Woodhouse to stretch his voice into new and rich areas, as he does on the single ‘On Your Corner’. ‘Talk About The Weather (While The House Burns Down)’ lightens the mood in a sonic sense, while ‘Dancing On My Own Grave’ is a cautionary tale of drugs and the internal quandary of the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle versus settling down and getting a ‘real job’. Woodhouse leaves us with the epic folk noir story of ‘Man Misunderstood’, perfect end to a record that sounds superb yet is primarily built on the strength of its songwriting. CHRIS FAMILTON 20

Stan Woodhouse has always performed under the name Skyscraper Stan, ever since staff at the Wine Cellar in Auckland, New Zealand, gave him the nickname when he was working the bar and taking his first tentative steps on the venue’s stage as an 18 year old. Fast forward a dozen years and he’s releasing his sophomore album, a warm and intelligent mix of soul, rock ‘n’ roll and dark folk music. In the wake of his debut album Last Year’s Tune (2015), and a couple of years of shows with his band The Commission Flats and numerous solo jaunts across Australia and New Zealand, Woodhouse was at a crossroads. Continue living hand-to-mouth, eking out a living from gigs, or return to an unfinished science degree. “I was nearly going to throw the towel in,” he says grimly. “I’d moved out to the country, I was sick of doing all these poxy little shows around the country in front bars where it was loud and people were drunk and just wanted you to play Foo Fighters covers and I felt like I was flogging that dead horse a little too hard. But then I had these songs I wanted to record and so I put out the Pozible campaign, almost on a whim, and received overwhelmingly positive support and that galvanised me.” The crowdfunding campaign hit its target, making the album a reality, though the recording process was a drawn out one due to Woodhouse and co-producer/engineer Richard Stolz’s determination to fully realise their creative vision with the right song balance and optimal arrangements, combined with the availability of Stolz’s studio. “An album with the kind of gear we were using would be a $40,000 album but I didn’t have that kind of budget so I was relying on mates rates and the generosity of Richard. He’s got a really beautiful studio that he rents out at a premium and so if someone like Tash Sultana turns up with lots of money she’ll be in the studio for a couple of weeks and you can’t do anything,” explains Woodhouse.

Golden boy is what I was called a lot by my younger sisters when I was growing up,” reveals Woodhouse as we discuss the title of the album. “I was mum’s favourite according to my sisters and being the only son meant that I could get away with a lot more, both in my family and societally. Over the last couple of years a lot of us have been thinking more deeply about what that means. The idea of inherent privilege is a really difficult thing to understand if you’ve always experienced it. As a golden boy it’s been hard to intellectualise but it’s important to have those discussions and try to figure out what it really means to be a man and find ways to make masculinity a functional thing. I wrote a lot of the songs with themes around that.”

“Between the band, myself and Richard, we’ve done the best the we could with the record. We put a lot of effort into the production and the arrangements and I’m really happy with how it’s come out,” Woodhouse enthuses. “It best represents where I’m at at the moment in terms of songwriting and composition. I’m really proud of it.”

Woodhouse has divided Golden Boy into two volumes, which fit neatly onto each side of a vinyl record. “I split it into two halves because the first half of the record is a fair bit rockier and distorted and quite groovebased and narrative-driven with character studies and story songs and then the second half is generally more autobiographical and

R DARK TIMES delicate. The first half is stories from outside my life and the second half is stories from within it,” he explains. Approaching a decade of living in Melbourne and with two records under his belt, Woodhouse has come to the realisation that this is what he wants to do long term and for a life in music to continue to be viable he needs to plan ahead, much further than just the next gig. “I think it’s very important to be real about that kind of stuff and be in a position where you can continue to record and release music without grinding to a halt because you’ve run out of cash and you didn’t plan things properly. I can support myself through live music, it’s just coming to terms with the fact that you may not be home a lot. It’s just the way it has to be these days if you don’t want to work a manual labour job. This is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life and I’ve come to terms with that and I’m happy with that.”

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SAVE What’s better than an Americana Music Tours adventure in the World’s Greatest Music Destination? Taking $1,000*off the cost! Book by 31 October 2019 and take a cool grand off our trip to the Americana Music Triangle – the birthplace of nine different genres of roots music. We’ll take you there with our highly personalised, in-depth, local knowledge, off-the-beaten track adventures. First and foremost — we’re music fans like you — you’ll love the places we go.

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7/9 - Michael Waugh album launch 8/9 - Richard Clapton 15/9 - Mat Black album launch 19/9 - Neil Murray 20/9 - Leo Rondeau & James Ellis 21/9 - Malcura single launch 5/10 - Jo Meares Album Launch 13/10 - Number 9 Blacktops (USA)

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“THE NEW ALBUM FROM GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING, BLUES HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE, BOBBY RUSH.”

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21/10 - Missy Raines (USA) 26/10 - Lloyd Speigel Album Launch

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Kelsey Waldon debuts her first album for John Prine’s own label ‘Oh Boy Records’, marking their first signing in fifteen years.

OUT OCTOBER 4 CD / LP / Digital

These songs remind me! My full-time job is as a school teacher. By Michael Waugh It’s not a very rock and roll thing to say. I was raised to believe that music was made by the young and for the young. I now realise that there is no age limit to Folk and Roots music. I’m proud to speak of my job; I firmly believe that I’m a better teacher because I make music, and I’m a better musician because I teach. Music and teaching are artistic pursuits where the goal is to make connections with people. Both vocations, at their heart, are about how we form memories. In my teaching job, leading our school’s service-learning program, I’ve discovered much about cognition and music. One of the community projects that I’ve led involves students playing music in aged care facilities. During one of these visits, an elderly audience member started singing along with the students performing ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’. Later, we discovered that the woman had been non-verbal for more than two years. She had forgotten a part of herself, but the song still remembered her. It led me to wonder what songs might remember me when I’m older, and those that might give me back language, calling for me through the fog that may one day descend. It is more likely to be The Angels, than Judy Garland; it is likely to be a chorus that asks me if I’m ever gonna see your face again – and then transports me, like a little time machine, to a blue light disco at Sale Memorial Hall, chanting a response with a less than angelic horde of other long-gone rebellious youth, dizzy with the phantom smells of UDLs and Alpine Lights, and the taste in my mouth of an obscene scream of defiance against anyone who might stand in our way. What songs will remember you? Songwriting sometimes feels like the sensation of straining to hear a conversation in another room. I used to believe that the melodies and words in my head were somebody else’s songs – I had just forgotten who they belonged to and writing them was more like an act of remembering, rather than creating. When I wrote my latest single, ‘This Song Reminds Me’, it was like tuning in to a radio station. I turned up Paul Kelly and Aussie Crawl and Midnight Oil. And I was brought back to sleepovers at my best friends’ house, trying not to laugh too loud and wake up his parents. It transported me to a quad bike ride through a back paddock, crashing it into an irrigation

ON TOUR ditch. It made me laugh, remembering how I once dared him to pee on the electric fence. Old songs are like best friends – you might not see them for a while, but when you meet them, they are familiar ghosts – they bring the ‘then’ and the ‘now’ together. After writing ‘This Song Reminds Me’, I went back to listen to some of those classic Australian albums. I have always been a fan of story songs. Some of those canonical songs really lived up to expectation when I wiped away the nostalgia-steamed rear vision mirror. ‘Khe San’ is a lyrical masterpiece – the narrative voice is extraordinarily vivid. Yet, there were a number of those old favourites that lacked the depth and resonance of my romanticised memories. In my head, their stories lived large. But listening with older ears, I realised that the stories I remembered were not being told in the lyrics. Rather, the stories that I recalled were about myself and my life. Like an old coat hanging on a clothes rack, these songs were placeholders where I had hung my memories. I remember the story of what I did when that song was playing – and the songs held a little part of that person that I was. Developmentally, those Australian rock songs mentioned in ‘This Song Reminds Me’ also helped to form my identity as a songwriter. Every Sunday, Molly Meldrum would tell me to do myself a favour, and then he’d show me young Australian guys – not much older than me – playing their truths, surrounded by ear-piercing, screaming adoration. And their sound was uniquely of us – it was the sound of our pubs and our RSLs and our garages. It was loud and cheeky and angry and funny and part of who we are. Molly told me that I could one day have a voice and be seen and be loved. And those songs remind me of those primal needs – my desire to have a voice, to be seen, to be loved. I know that there are neurological theories about the mnemonic power of melody.

Though, the science is perhaps not as magical as the heart of those songs. I am thankful to you, Paul Kelly, Daddy Cool, Midnight Oil, Aussie Crawl, Weddings, Parties and Anything, Baby Animals, Hoodoo Gurus, Nick Cave and the Birthday Party, Barnesy, Diesel, Accadacca, Chisel, Braithwaite, Farnham, Mental as Anything, The Saints, The Church, Goanna, Redgum, Hunters and Collectors, Spiderbait, Magic Dirt, Powderfinger, Men at Work, Divinyls, Angels, INXS, You Am I, Screaming Jets, Deborah Conway, Yothu Yindi and the countless bands that I didn’t include in the long list on my list song (which would have been far too long had I included all of the bands and artists I wanted to include). You gave me hope, when I was a little country kid with only vague dream of what life might bring. You gave me joy. You remember parts of me – my lyrical gestalt. As a teacher, I aspire to giving to young people even a little of the hope and joy and memories that you gave to me. As a songwriter, I aspire to the same goal. Michael Waugh’s single ‘This Song Reminds Me’ is out now. It is produced by Shane Nicholson who has also produced Michael’s forthcoming album.

Number 9!

Hard-livin’ Illinois trio The Number 9 Blacktops live on the punk edge of rockabilly, their raucous songs about “bourbon, hot rods and pretty girls” having found them play with everyone from Supersuckers to Chuck Berry as well as tour the world relentlessly with their goodtime brand of rock’ n; roll By Steve Bell “We’re definitely more ‘rock’ than ‘billy’,” laughs frontman “Skinny Jim” Rotramel. “We were kinda really traditional when we first started, and I remember the first time we played a festival in Germany we stood out a little bit because we were edgy, and we’ve got the full-body tattoos and… I don’t want to say the ‘outlaw country attitude’, but definitely the ‘punk rock attitude’, we were all in punk bands when we were younger before we started leaning towards rockabilly instead. “I have a tendency to dislike slow songs and I think it’s because it’s always harder for me to play guitar to ‘em. But although I like the fast stuff, we still play danceable music, I know where to balance it up. If we’re playing a biker bar or a county roadhouse out in the middle of nowhere, we’ll rough it up for the folks, but we can keep folks dancin’ if they’re swing-dancing for sure, we’re a pretty versatile band.” Rockabilly remains such a vibrant culture all around the world, with people seeming to glamorise an aspect of American culture almost forgotten at home. “It really is alive, although it’s definitely bigger overseas than it is in the United 24

ON TOUR States,” Rotramel reflects. “But then again everybody I know in the States, no matter the style of music, says attendances are down across the board, people don’t go out as much as they used to. Maybe it’s the season or maybe I’m just forgetting how it was last year, but rockabilly still seems to be going strong. “There seems also to be a lack of young people getting into it, but I always think that rockabilly skips a generation: it was big in the ‘50s, died down in the ‘80s when the hair bands came out, then [Brian] Setzer brought it back again and now it almost seems time to skip a generation again with the younger kids and the hipsters and such. “But it’s still there, you just have to fish it out a little more these days. That’s why we have to travel overseas – I still have to do the hot rod shows in the United States, and still have to do a lot of biker rallies to find the rockabilly crowd, as well as the rat rod shows. “One similarity I see between rockabilly in my older years and the older days of punk rock is the camaraderie. If I meet a rockabilly fan on the other side of the world in Australia, within three minutes we’re going to feel like old souls because we all like the same stuff – we like the old tattoos, and we like the culture and we like the hot rods. It is a culture for sure – it’s simple music, with simple folks that enjoy it – and it’s the same thing with punk rock bands, they have the same camaraderie.” It seems a pretty fine way to see the world, out there with your mates hooking up with like-minded souls wherever you land.

“It really is!” Rotramel beams. “Rockabilly’s not a force and I’m never going to get rich playing it – and if I had any sense I would play shitty pop-country and make a million dollars – but I’d really rather write about fast cars and pretty girls than whatever’s in shitty pop-country songs. “That’s my load to bear for being goofy and choosing a type of music that I’ll make hundreds of dollars a year playing, but I do it for the love of the music, I really do.” The fact that The Number 9 Blacktops hail from West Frankfort in the south of Illinois has also influenced their aesthetic. “Usually when I’m saying I’m from Illinois I’ll mention that I’m from Southern Illinois because we’re a pretty long distance from Chicago – about 350 miles – while I’m just a hop, skip and a jump from the state of Kentucky,” Rotramel explains. “It’s a real rural culture, I’m from a hometown of 3,000 people in a little coalmining community and there was a coal mine just a few miles from our house growing up and the ‘Number 9 Blacktop’ would take you to the open mine. “The blacktop was just what they called a ‘blacktop highway’, a boring old country road that they’d put the black asphalt on top of. So, it’s a real rural town and it’s still got the small-town feel to it – everybody knows everybody and everybody helps everybody out – so it’s kinda easy for me to write rockabilly songs because I just write about stuff from my hometown.” The Number 9 Blacktops are touring Australia in October. Check the Rhythms online gig guide for dates.

HOME RUN

A young Melbourne band on the fast track to fame – even Thor digs ’em. By Jeff Jenkins An illustration of the strange world that Melbourne band The Teskey Brothers now inhabit: Standing on a yacht at the Monaco Grand Prix, the founder of watch website Time+Tide, Andrew McUtchen, is chatting with actor Chris Hemsworth. They’re meant to be talking watches – Hemsworth is a TAG Heuer ambassador – but the conversation turns to music. Asked for any tips, Hemsworth replies, “The Teskey Brothers from Warrandyte in Melbourne, Australia. Soul, bluesy music, which is quite unique in the sense that there’s a couple of guys from Melbourne presenting that type of music, so check it out.” The exchange later turns up on the Channel Seven breakfast show Sunrise, in a segment presented by their New York-based showbiz reporter. The kicker at the bottom of the screen says: Thor-tful Praise – Chris Hemsworth endorses Melbourne band The Teskey Brothers. Bass player Brendon Love laughs when reminded of the fandom. Hemsworth visited the band backstage at Bluesfest – accompanied by Matt Damon. But Love missed them. Feeling unwell, he left straight after the gig. Whatever way you look at it, The Teskey Brothers have come a long way from busking on the streets of Warrandyte and playing Sunday arvos at the St Andrews Hotel. Josh Teskey has become our most famous singing plumber since Johnny Farnham. All of the members have now given up their day jobs. Josh’s younger brother, Sam, had been a

carpenter, drummer Liam Gough an industrial engineer, while Love worked as a session musician. “It’s been great being able to call the band a full-time job,” Love says. None of them expected major success when they independently released their selfproduced debut album, Half Mile Harvest, in 2017. It led to management and record deals all around the world. The band’s second album, Run Home Slow, recently entered the Australian charts at number two (kept out of top spot by the unassailable Ed Sheeran), while Half Mile Harvest returned to the Top 40. Run Home Slow also charted in Europe, including a Top 10 placing in the Netherlands. Run Home Slow – named after a song Love wrote that didn’t make the album – was produced by Paul Butler. Originally from the Isle of Wight, Butler, a member of The Bees, is now based in the US, where he has produced albums for Devendra Banhart and St. Paul and The Broken Bones. The initial plan was that Love would again be the band’s producer – “if it ain’t broke” – but two months into preproduction, he made the call to get an outside producer, though the band maintained the vibe of the first album, with Butler flying in to work at their home studio, where they have Jimmy Barnes’ old analogue tape machine. “Analogue is a pain in the arse,” Love laughs. “But it sounds great, there’s a purity to it. And that’s how all of our favourite albums were recorded.” The Teskey Brothers also pop up on ‘Ain’t My Problem Anymore’, a single on Ash Grunwald’s new album, Mojo. “I’d already recorded the

song solo, but I was hoping that the Teskey Brothers would get involved,” Grunwald explains. “I didn’t know them personally, but I’d heard I was an influence on them when they were growing up. I was over the moon when they said yes. I’m a huge fan – Josh has to have the best voice in Australian blues and roots. So tasty.” Grunwald and the band have now become good friends. “We’d go see him at the St Andrews pub and Ruby’s Lounge in Belgrave,” Love recalls. “And I’d go home and try to emulate him on the guitar.” Love is proud that The Teskey Brothers have put Warrandyte on the map. “It’s a beautiful little community.” He was just nine when he did his first gig, at the Warrandyte Festival. He didn’t go to school with the Teskey brothers, but they caught the same bus home and one day he noticed Josh playing the harmonica. “I played the guitar and really liked the blues, so when we got off at the same stop, I introduced myself.” That was the genesis of The Teskey Brothers. Now they have fans all around the world, including Thor, though Love is amused that many people still think they’re an American band. “It’s always funny when Josh finishes a song and says, ‘Yeah, thanks guys, g’day …’ And people are like, ‘Where are you from?’” That’d be Warrandyte, mate. And don’t you forget it. Run Home Slow is out now on Ivy League. The Teskey Brothers are touring nationally in November.

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N W O D G N I R S A L L TE A W E R N E G THE

Jacob Collier launched a project that has seen him cross continents to record in studios with some of the artists he most admires By Michael Smith Over the past few decades, many an artist and act has tried to fuse various genres to create new hybrids, from ‘jazz-rock’ to ‘symphonic rock’, ‘folk-rock’ to ‘desert rock’, but perhaps no one has literally torn down the walls between genres with such ease and so seamlessly as 23-year-old singer, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier – and done it while infusing his often complex yet remarkably accessible work with a sense of simple joy and exhilarating fun. “Music is one massive language basically,” is how Collier, calling from in his studio in the back of his mum and dad’s house in Finchley,

North London, explains it. “I’ve always been into that process of extracting something that sits in two worlds and building a bridge and making it feel natural. And that thing can be as simple as a major triad. (For readers with a music theory bent, his YouTube interviews explaining his idea of something he’s dubbed The Super-Ultra-Hyper-MegaMeta Lydian are for you!). This triad fits perfectly a piece of English choral music by William Bird and also sounds amazing when Hendrix plays it; so, there must be a bridge somehow between the two. They’re the same notes but happen to be played differently. “Also sonically, it’s always interesting just to play a song but with different sounds, and create a song, take notes that sound familiar in each genre yet sound different, say, when played on bits of metal or sung by just the human voice or whatever; it kind of refreshes your ear. I’m always drawn to musicians and artists who do this, both in music but also in visuals and words, who mess with the context of things, but respectful of those things. It’s easy to rip something to bits and throw it to floor and shout. The joyous challenge for me is how to build those bridges. You suggest I’m tearing down the boundaries but they’re not really there. Musical genres have much more in common than people realise and that’s what I’m kind of exploring.” Collier released his debut album, In My Room - a nod at that aforementioned home recording studio where he sang every multi-layered harmony, played or struck every instrument you hear, a truly solo work - just three years ago in 2016. That debut album won Collier two

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Grammys and a Jazz FM Award. The following year he launched into a project so vast that it’s seen him cross continents to record in studios with some of the artists he most admires, among them Morocco’s Hamid El Kasri, Vermont born and raised folk singer and fiddler Sam Amidon, Malian singer Oumou Sangare and English fiddler and piper Kathryn Tickell, to name just a few. The result is a four-album set titled Djesse, the second volume of which he’ll be releasing around the time he tours Australia for the second time in September. “Yes,” he chuckles. “It’s properly ambitious. When it first entered my mind it was a doublealbum, and then I realised that two just wasn’t quite enough. I always like to, as you say, move between worlds, and if you move between two worlds too drastically over a period of two hours, you just get fatigue. So, what I wanted to do was settle into each space, and obviously having decided to do that, there’s all sorts of strange architecture and weird kind of skullduggery at work in moving between sound worlds, so essentially each album had to have its own space.” When Collier talks about World Music, he’s talking about every kind of music. He really does seem to have a deep understanding of where the various kinds of ‘World Music’ – that nebulous, dubiously-named non-genre – come from, and is able to effortlessly weave them together, not only across an album’s worth of music but also within each of those songs. While there’s a strong African presence on Djesse Vol 2, a tune like ‘Bakumbe’ might begin somewhere in Africa but by its end, Sam Amidon has taken it into Cajun fiddle country. Another guest, Lianne La Havas, helps launch ‘Feel’ with an undeniable Latin sway, but the journey soon takes you somewhere else. Djesse 2 begins with a tune that sounds as if it might first have been heard drifting out of the Scottish lowlands. “That’s thanks to Kathryn Tickell, who’s actually a Northumbrian girl and recalls my childhood when my parents used to blast that music in the car, and actually my older sister’s a folk fiddler, so I’ve been exposed a lot to of that sort of music through her, and Kathryn is just the absolute greatest. The first song on the first album, ‘Home Is’, features this incredible eight-bar vocal harmony from Voces8, has a similar sort of timeless, ancient English quality, which I really savour.” Jacob Collier and his band are touring Australia in September. Check the Rhythms gig guide for dates.

THE 44TH THE THE 44TH 44TH

ROACH PAUL GRABOWSKI & SALLY DASTEY H H THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA (USA) H C.W. STONEKING H H DAN SULTAN H ELEANOR McEVOY (IRL) H H EMILY WURRAMARA H GINA WILLIAMS & GUY GHOUSE H H THE EAST POINTERS (CAN) H JOHN McCUTCHEON (USA) H H KIERAN KANE & RAYNA GELLERT (USA) H THE MAES H H MAMA MIHIRANGI (NZ) H PATTY GRIFFIN (USA) H H WILLIAM CRIGHTON H YOLANDA BROWN (UK) H HUSKY GAWENDA, ALMA, HETTIE AND SYD ZYGIER, H *YID! H * FEAT: TOMI KALINSKI + MANY MORE WITH

H ARCHIE

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JAZZ LEGENDS UNITE!

Master jazz guitarist Mike Stern has teamed up with another jazz luminary, keyboardist Jeff Lorber in what started off as a step into the unknown. By Andra Jackson Stern says he had never head of Lorber before a friend, former Yellowjackets bassist Jimmy Haslip, got in his ear about Lorber. Haslip had played on and produced eight of Lorber’s albums. He suggested it would be a cool hook-up musically if they got together. “I didn’t know him. We were in different orbits,’’ Stern says. But he had known some of Lorber’s work . “So, I said yeah, let’s go for it.’’ They met up for the first time in February this year in Lorber’s recording studio. “We didn’t have a clear plan at first,’’ Stern says. From that first meeting, germinated a band co-led by the two of them. Next they recorded together. The result was the ten-track album Eleven on the Concord jazz label, due for release on September 26.

The collaboration was so successful it led on to a coming tour of the States. “We had a great time recording so I can’t wait to do live dates with them and for the band to play in Australia,’’ says Stern referring to playing Melbourne’s Bird’s Basement in October. It will be Stern’s eighth or ninth Australian tour, he estimates. Stern started his career playing with Blood Sweat & Tears and then with jazz drummer Billy Cobham’s fusion band. He shot to fame when he joined trumpeter Miles Davis’ band for two stints from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1985. In between, he toured with the great bassist Jaco Pastorius. Of his time with Miles’ Stern says: “There are too many things to say about Miles. He still influences my playing. So does Jaco Pastorius and Michael Brecker, and all of the people I play with presently, and in the past. But especially Miles Davis.’’ Guitar Player magazine named Stern Best Jazz Guitarist of 1993. He has released eighteen albums since going solo. Other groups he has played in include Yellowjackets. Stern’s stellar career was almost derailed in 2016 when he tripped and fell and injured his shoulder and hands while touring Europe. “I had a really great doctor and a lot of support to get me through the injury. The main thing is that you just have to keep going,’’ he says. He had surgery and had to modify his playing but adds, “I feel better about my playing now.’’ He says, “so many people have continued to support me. It really helps.’’ For his ‘comeback’ album, Trip, he drew on an impressive line-up of musicians. He says they were all musicians he had played with in the past. They included trumpeter Randy Brecker, saxophonists Bill Evans and Bob Franceschini, and drummers Dave Weckl and Lenny White. “Everyone played their asses off. I am really happy with the recording.’’

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Grammy winning keyboardist and composer Lorber’s first jazz exploration was with Jeff Lorber Fusion back in the 70’s. Over a succession of album releases, his music has crossed to R and B and then into what is dubbed smooth jazz. He plays a range of keyboards and also works as a producer and sessions musician. He was awarded a Grammy last year for his album Prototype for the Best Contemporary Instrumental album. Lorber it transpired, had remembered seeing Stern play with Miles in the 80s. His fusion band and Miles’ band often played the same festivals back then. “I’ve been a fan of his for a long time.’’ He was enthusiastic back the chance to hook-up. “I knew it would be something different and challenging,’’ he says. Stern flew to Los Angeles to work in Lorber’s studio. “I wanted to record my tunes live. I really appreciate the live vibe, so it was great to be in LA with them all. We invited Dave Weckl to play.’’ Stern and Lorber each wrote half of the tunes on the album. Lorber and Haslip produced it. Other musicians on the album include drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, Stern’s wife guitarist and singer Leni Stern who plays African N’goni, and saxophonist Bob Franceschini. The band for their Australian performance, includes drummer Lionel Cordew who has played with both Stern and Lorber separately, and bassist Edmond Gilmour who is in Stern’s own band. “The gigs at Bird’s Basement will be the first time we’ve all played together as a quartet. I expect it will be slammin’, they all play their asses off.’’ Mike Stern and Jeff Lorber appear at Bird’s Basement, Melbourne, Wednesday October 9 – Sunday October 13.

OH BOY! HERE’S A RISING STAR I I I I

One-part John Prine, one-part Loretta Lynn, Kelsey Waldon is set to win your heart. By Martin Jones The cadence and candour in Kelsey Waldon’s music might prompt thoughts of John Prine – even without the knowledge that Waldon is signed to John Prine’s Oh Boy Records. Listening to Waldon’s new album, White Noise/White Lines, it’s not difficult to understand why Prine signed her (the first signing to Oh Boy in 15 years) – Waldon celebrates authentic country traditions, but very much in her own way, in her own time. Her voice is defiantly her own. So are her opinions. ‘Sunday Children’, for example, explores her own experiences of bigotry within the Southern Baptist Church – a stance that’s not going to win her any friends within the God-fearing conservative country music establishment. The kind of stance that Prine infamously made against the Vietnam War with ‘Sam Stone’. Like most genuine talents, Waldon’s overnight success has been years in the making. Growing up in rural Kentucky (she’ll forever be known as the gal from Monkey’s Eyebrow), Waldon moved to Nashville around seven years ago and dove headlong into the city’s musical culture. Meeting mentors like author/producer Tamara Saviano and powerful pickers like Kenny Vaughan helped her gather wisdom and musicians and resulted in two albums, The Goldmine and I’ve Got a Way. “It was real important to learn from that,” Waldon recalls her immersion in the live Nashville scene, “and that’s also how I met a lot of my peers and my band, the band that I have now. And that’s also how I met the people who helped me put together my first record, The Goldmine, that’s what I call my first real record. That all came from just playing, just showing up and getting involved with the right people. I never came to town with any kind of weird expectation… you know I didn’t have a card or anything like that. I’m not into that kind of thing. I’m not an ass kisser. It’s more like I wanted to make real relationships. And I’ve been really lucky to have the right people gravitate towards me. And some of the wrong people too, but you eventually get rid of those.” Waldon explains that Prine, alongside idols Emmylou Harris and Townes Van Zandt, was one of the reasons she moved to Nashville in the first place. “I still can’t even believe that years later John would even be putting out my record,” Waldon marvels. “I had my first John Prine vinyl when I was 16 years old! John’s really changed a lot for me. His endorsement has been huge.” “For sure,” Waldon responds when asked if Prine’s fearless candour was an inspiration to her own songwriting. “Most of the time songwriting for me is just therapy and honestly making sense of the world around me. So, it’s not necessarily sometimes even trying to spread a message. It’s my truth. It’s whatever muse or whatever inspiration strikes me at the time. Sometimes it is a story about something else. For the most part it’s me making sense of a lot of things and having something on my heart so much that I have to come and let it out. So, I don’t really see it as preaching, but I do see it as

letting the truth radiate and whatnot… It feels like a calling of sorts sometimes. It’s like being a farmer. You don’t make a lot of money doing it but it’s a calling and you gotta love it.” With that in mind, and with Oh Boy Records backing her, Waldon set out to make White Noise/White Lines as personal a statement as she dared. Coming across as a high-octane Loretta Lynn, Waldon explores her life from childhood to finding and losing love to her career, evening concluding with death in ‘My Epitaph’. Snippets of recordings from family and friends augment the musical recordings. “My reason for putting those kind of things on the record was just I wanted it to feel really personal and transparent. I really wanted this record to feel like an experience of the listener with the interludes and whatnot… I had never been this personal yet really and I felt like with this record that there wasn’t a lot of people who knew truly who I was just from every aspect. The way I feel, morally, where I come from, my opinions – all those things. So, it just felt natural.” Waldon will be touring with John Prine for the rest of the year as well as headlining her own shows. There has to be a good chance that Prine will bring Waldon along when he tours for Bluesfest next year… fingers crossed! White Noise/White Lines is available on Oh Boy Records through Cooking Vinyl. 29

HOT ASH Surf’s up tonight – Ash Grunwald gets his Mojo back and releases his first book. By Jeff Jenkins

After making his acclaimed 2015 album NOW with producer Nick DiDia in Byron Bay, Ash Grunwald was approached by an American record producer, Brian Brinkerhoff, with an offer too good to refuse: Come to Los Angeles and make an American blues album. Soon, the Australian artist found himself at Ultratone Studios in Studio City, California, belonging to Bonnie Raitt’s guitarist, Johnny Lee Schell. With Brian as executive producer and Carla Olson as producer, Grunwald was surrounded by some of the finest musicians in the blues world, including drummer Alvino Bennett (Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters), bass player Reggie McBride (Stevie Wonder, Keb’ Mo’, B.B. King), singer-guitarist Terry Evans (Ry Cooder, the Crossroads soundtrack), guitarist Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater (the Five Blind Boys of Alabama), harmonica player Kim Wilson (The Fabulous Thunderbirds) and piano player Barry Goldberg (who was playing with Dylan when he went “electric” at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965). “An incredible experience,” Grunwald says. “I’m going up to the mountain,” he sings on the album, “so please don’t drag me down.” Back in Australia, Grunwald continued working on the record, collaborating with some of his friends and heroes, including Kasey Chambers, The Cat Empire’s Harry James Angus, Mahalia Barnes, Ian Collard, The Teskey Brothers, and American guitarist Joe Bonamassa. The result is the finest album of Grunwald’s career, which coincides with the publication of his first book, Surf by Day, Jam by Night, which combines the artist’s two passions: music and surfing. Put simply, the Melbourne bluesman is living the dream. When he started touring, Grunwald gave his booking agent one simple instruction: “Book me gigs near good surf beaches.” Reflecting on those early days, Grunwald recalls a show with Jeff Lang. Grunwald had proudly just released his debut album, but after the gig he noticed that Lang had about 10 albums for sale. “Wow,” Grunwald thought to himself, “to have a body of work like that would be a beautiful thing.” Mojo is his 12th album. Grunwald – who discovered the blues via Melbourne community radio stations RRR and PBS (“that was my university”) – started his recording career with the aptly titled Introducing Ash Grunwald. Recorded live in one session, with just an acoustic guitar and foot percussion – consisting of a stomp box and tambourine – the 2002 album heralded the arrival of a soulful bluesman, a compelling one-man band. A mix of originals and blues standards (including Grunwald’s take on Robert Johnson’s ‘Rolling and Tumbling’, Elmore James’ ‘The Sky is Crying’ and Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Smokestack Lightnin’’), a highlight was ‘Dolphin Song’, which documented an encounter the singer had with a shark while surfing. Luckily, a pod of dolphins came to his rescue.

Grunwald’s second album, 2004’s I Don’t Believe, led to his first ARIA nomination, for Best Blues and Roots Album. Again recorded solo and live, I Don’t Believe saw Grunwald crowned Male Vocalist of the Year at the Victorian Blues Awards. The album featured covers of Tom Waits’ ‘Goin’ Out West’ and ‘Jesus Gonna Be Here’, plus six originals, and covers of the blues standards ‘Crossroads’ and ‘Walking Blues’ (Robert Johnson), ‘How Many More Years’ (Howlin’ Wolf) and ‘Empire State’ (Son House). Grunwald’s first live album, 2005’s Live At The Corner, led to another ARIA nomination and a Sunday Age rave: “Grunwald not only pays tribute to the blues with passionate playing and assured voice but gives them life that ensures the tradition will live on.” The new album includes Grunwald’s take on Townes Van Zandt’s ‘Waiting Around To Die’. “Sometimes I don’t know where this dirty road’s taking me,” Grunwald sings. The line seems apt.

He also covers Ben Harper’s ‘Whipping Boy’ – “When Ben Harper came to Australia in the ’90s, it really shook us up. I think you can backdate the modern roots genre to that” – and Rag’n’Bone Man’s ‘Human’. “My sister-inlaw said to me, ‘There’s this guy on the radio who sounds just like you!’ I guess there are similarities in our voices, and I just love what Rag’n’Bone Man does.” Last year, Grunwald surprised even himself when he signed a new deal with Michael Gudinski’s Bloodlines label, who also acquired his back catalogue. “I hadn’t thought about record companies for years, I just made albums,” he says. “I was part of the generation that was DIY. But it’s been great becoming part of the Bloodlines family. Already they have helped me so much. The record industry died and only the good people are left.” For his book, Grunwald was signed by Lex Hirst, daughter of Midnight Oil legend Rob, who is a publisher at Pantera Press. “I’m not really an expert on anything,” Grunwald laughs. “But I’m sort of a lifestyle expert – expert at having fun, so that’s why I chose to write about surfing.”

Surf by Day, Jam by Night features surfers who love music, and musicians who love surfing, including interviews with Kelly Slater, Stephanie Gilmore, Dave Rastovich, Xavier Rudd and Jack Johnson. “The day after signing this book deal I jumped on a plane and found myself in Kelly Slater’s kitchen playing the guitar that Ben Harper gave him. Hours later I was in Malibu jamming with Steph Gilmore, getting the lowdown on how to manifest dreams into reality.” Grunwald jokes: “I feel like Hunter S. Thompson, without the acid.” The singer is passionate about the ocean and the environment. Though he admits he knows nothing about politics and doesn’t want to be involved in politics, Grunwald is not afraid to voice his concerns or talk about ethics, with his music a potent mix of social commentary and interpersonal matters. Grunwald runs a company, Earth Bottles, with his partner Danni, to help eradicate single-use plastic bottles. Earth Bottles started with just one bottle to be sold as part of the singer’s merchandise. It’s now a global company, partnering with charities such as Hope For Health, Breast Cancer Network and Beyond Blue, as well as acts such as Midnight Oil, The Living End, Ziggy Alberts and Bobby Alu. In 2013, wearing a gas mask, Grunwald paddled into Queensland’s Condamine River, bubbling with methane gas, to raise awareness about coal seam gas mining. A photo of Grunwald – taken by The Living End’s Scott Owen – went around the world and became a powerful image in the fight against CSG (Grunwald recounts the story in the second verse of ‘Hammer’, a song on the new album). After releasing the NOW album, Grunwald and his family relocated to Bali. Looking back over his body of work, he says, “I think it is good to be prolific, because that speaks of a process rather than a goal.” Much of Mojo was inspired by a Charles Bukowski poem, The Laughing Heart: Your life is your life, don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission. “Don’t let anyone tell you what to do – it’s your life,” Grunwald says. “It’s not your parents’ life, not your kids’ life, not your spouse’s life … it’s your life.” Grunwald has applied that approach to his songwriting. “Songs are like mantras, they get repeated in your head. And if it’s something that helps people, that’s the best music we can make, I reckon. It’s so easy to make a song that’s poetic but means nothing. To me, the Holy Grail is if it means something and it helps people. “I want to make gospel music for people who don’t have religion.” And Grunwald, 43, says the time was right to make his first electric blues album. “I could stop being a roots artist who was getting old and be a young blues guy instead,” he smiles. Mojo is out now on Bloodlines. 31

BACK ON THE BAND After his “egomaniacal-frontman-solo enterprise”, Henry Wagons puts By Jeff Jenkins Out On The Weekend brought Wagons back together. The Melbourne band hadn’t released a record since 2014’s Acid Rain & Sugar Cane, but leader Henry Wagons was aware of a couple of looming anniversaries – 2019 would mark 20 years since the band’s formation and 10 years since their much-loved album The Rise and Fall of Goodtown. As Wagons tentatively started making plans, Out On The Weekend promoter Brian Taranto made them an offer too good to refuse and the band re-formed for last year’s event. The Out On The Weekend show sparked plans for the new Wagons album, Songs From The Aftermath. “I’d gone on my egomaniacal-frontmansolo enterprise, which went a little longer than I’d planned,” Wagons explains. All the members benefited from their time away from the band. Guitarist Richard Blaze, a neurologist, went to Paris for two years to study deep brain stimulation. “We all went away and lived,” Wagons says. “And we’ve returned as more complicated individuals, more complex and sophisticated.”

The new album is a celebration of the band, which started on a cold Tuesday night in 1999 at the much-missed Melbourne venue The Arthouse, where many bands did their first gig. Wagons can still remember driving to the show in his Ford Laser, accompanied by drummer Mark “Tuckerbag” Dawson, who was sporting three dreadlocks – “something I was never at peace with,” Wagons says. Wagons says he never intended to make music his life, though at the time he also fronted a noise band called Dworzec (the Polish name for train station) as well as a couple of indie rock bands, Breaking The Law and The Ancients. He planned to be an academic,

like his father. “I wanted to be a philosopher,” he says. “I was deeply wanky and wanted to have dinner parties with red wine, and have tall mahogany bookshelves with leatherbound books.” He enrolled in his PhD studies at Melbourne University, but Wagons got a record deal and he never went back to uni. “I realised that the parties in music were much better than the shitty dinner parties in the academic world.” Songs From The Aftermath opens with a song called ‘Keep On Coming Back’, which references one of Wagons’ songwriting heroes, Leonard Cohen, who also inspired the name of his Double J radio show Tower of Song. “Somebody told me I could meet Leonard Cohen,” Wagons sings. Alas, the meeting never happened. The Canadian singer-songwriter, who died in 2016, spent a lot of his

WAGONS his old band back together later life at the Mount Baldy Zen Center in Los Angeles, near where Wagons’ father lives. Wagons always hoped to bump into Cohen when he visited his dad, but it wasn’t to be. “I’m always going to be wandering around searching for his ghost.” The album concludes with ‘Is This The End?’, which finishes with Wagons singing, “Is this the end? It’s been so good knowin’ ya.” Wagons says the music business is a “war of attrition” and being in a band for two decades is something to be celebrated. “There’s always the spectre of it being the end, but I think that life is best served when you actually acknowledge you are hurtling towards death. Strangely, acknowledging your imminent doom makes you happier.” Wagons loves doing his radio show and says it’s influenced his songwriting. “I’d been writing the same five songs for the past 20 years. Also, if you’re not careful, you can end up listening to the same five records. Doing the show broke that cycle for me, forcing me to extract myself from my Elvis record collection.”

He says this is the most collaborative Wagons album to date. He co-wrote half of the record with the band, whereas he’d previously present them with fully formed songs. He says they “travelled to where the songs took us; we weren’t constrained”. The journey includes ‘Burn With Me’ (“borderline Eurovision – we took the full Demis Roussos ’70s disco vibe”), the Emmylou Harris-inspired ‘My Darkness’, the space cowboy vibe of ‘Take Me To Your Leader’, and “the more traditional Wagons, Neil Young-inspired” ‘Old Fashioned Nights’. “Strangely, it all sounds cohesive.” Wagons says the band kicked around several titles, from single words such as “Condor” to “Captain Beefheart-like paragraphs” before settling on Songs From The Aftermath. “It seemed appropriate, hinting at our hiatus while also referencing the state of the world. Everything’s fucked, now what do we do? “But I’m a positive guy, and I feel like change is a comin’.” Songs From The Aftermath is out now on Spunk.

NILS THRILLS

– STILL! (PART ONE)

“I wouldn’t have been that greedy when I hit the road when I was 17 in 1968 to think 50 years later, I’d be here with a new record….” The acclaimed guitarist might have spent decades as a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band but he also has a formidable solo career. Now he has released a new album containing songs he co-wrote with Lou Reed, has been touring with a band for the first time in over a decade as well as playing and recording again with Neil Young & Crazy Horse! By Brian Wise 34

t’s May 16, 1977 and we were at the Hammersmith Odeon London to see Nils Lofgren supported by a newcomer called Tom Petty and his band The Heartbreakers. I had a small room in a two-up two-down house in Tufnell Park and my record collection consisted of a dozen albums (I can still name them) played on a record player bequeathed to me by the previous occupant. Radio was paramount and it seemed like that was all you needed: Charlie Gillett and John Peel on the BBC with maybe Nicky Horn and Roger Scott on the commercials. You could just about hear everything, or so it seemed. We’d heard Nils before, of course, and there was an ‘official’ bootleg being played on the BBC which whet our appetite even more. Tracks off Petty’s debut album were also being played on the radio. Imagine hearing that band name for the first time! It was irresistible. At the height of punk music these two American musicians managed to have the sort of street credibility that put them above the mainstream. In concert, Petty and The Heartbreakers were an absolute revelation and the sort of band you immediately knew would be around for a long time. Every song was a killer. When they launched into ‘American Girl’ you could hear that direct link to The Byrds. I recall them premiering ‘Listen to Her Heart’ from their second album which wouldn’t be released for another year. The question at the end of the set: How is Nils possibly going to top this? Well, Lofgren charged out with his band, that included his brother Tom, and - maybe spurred on by Petty’s reception - proceeded to give a truly great show: so good that he released it as a live album later that year. ‘Take You to the Movies Tonight,’ ‘Back It Up,’ ‘Keith Don’t Go (Ode to the Glimmer Twin),’ ‘Like Rain,’ ‘Cry Tough,’ ‘It’s Not a Crime,’ Carole King and Gerry Goffin’s ‘Goin’ Back.’ And that was only the first seven songs of a 15-song set that ended with ‘I Came To Dance.’ Not only did we get the music, but we also got Nils racing across the stage and doing multiple somersaults off a small trampoline. (It was hardly surprising to find out a few years ago that he eventually needed both hips replaced!). It was a night that lives in the memory. Whenever I mention it on my radio program and play a Lofgren song, I always get calls from others – usually English – who were there too! (We should all have a reunion!). So, it was a thrill to finally catch up with Nils Lofgren by phone and talk to someone who gave me one of the greatest shows of my life. The real reason for the interview is not so I can get nostalgic but so that we can discuss Lofgren’s excellent new album Blue With Lou, which contains songs he wrote with Lou Reed and which is his first studio album in eight years. “Oh my! That’s going way back,” replies Nils when I mention the Hammersmith Odeon gig. “I think it might’ve been the last tour that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were an opening act and that was their farewell as an opening act. That was a hell of a tour for both of us.” “It was like five weeks or something in the UK, which is a home away from home for me,” he

adds. “I was making a live album too, which became Night after Night, one of my better live records. It was just a beautiful combination of two great bands kind of going out and challenging each other every night to do our best. It was very cool.” “Well it was unusual,” responds Lofgren when I mention that they were adopted by radio there at the height of punk though they transcended the whole punk thing. “I’ve never really had any hit records and airplay’s been very fleeting and sporadic. Thanks to just coming to Britain so often I managed to get some airplay and develop a home away from home, musically. That tour in particular was one of my favourites.” Lofgren was born in Chicago in 1951 to an Italian mother and Swedish father. His first instrument was classical accordion, then he switched to piano and guitar. In 1968 he formed the band Grin after which he met Neil Young and at the age of 19 played on After The Goldrush. It began a long association with Young that continues to this day. After Grin disbanded in 1974 Lofgren pursued a solo career that has stretched out over eighteen studio albums, half a dozen live albums and a number of anthologies, including a 9-disc box set in 2015. That’s quite some career in itself. But in 1984 Lofgren joined Springsteen’s E Street band, filling in for Steven Van Zandt on the Born In The USA tour. The association prospered and Lofgren has since been on at least ten tours with The Boss. I’ve been attempting to talk to Lofgren for a couple of years, since the box set, but he has been busy. Now that we finally connect, it is just a couple of days before his birthday and I offer birthday greetings. “I can’t believe I’m going to be 68 but hey, glad to be around. That’s for sure.” he says. “Kind of a startling number. I’m grateful. Last September was 50 years on the road and it’s just all kind of mind-blowing. I wouldn’t have been that greedy when I hit the road when I was 17 in 1968 to think 50 years later I’d be here with a new record, just finished a tour and have a great wife, family, dogs, a roof over my head, et cetera – and, in shape enough to play and sing well. So, I’m very grateful and lucky. It’s been a real wild ride. A lot of ups and downs, mostly ups and you know, grateful to still be here man. That’s for sure.” So, in his late sixties, when most people might be taking it easy, Lofgren has released Blue With Lou, with five previously unheard songs co-written with Lou Reed, and produced by Nils and his wife Amy and recorded live at his home studio in Arizona with long-time collaborators Andy Newmark (drums) and Kevin McCormick (bass) and Cindy Mizelle on vocals. Saxophonist Branford Marsalis is featured on a new recording of the Lofgren-Reed composition ‘City Lights.’ (Nils played on Branford’s great album with Buckshot Lefonque). Nils has also been on tour with a band – also a first for decades. “It was great,” responds Lofgren when I ask him how the tour went. “I think the last time I toured with a band that made the record might’ve been Grin. I’m just so used to making albums and having the session

people that made the record not available. It was pretty extraordinary because it was Andy Newmark on drums and Kevin McCormick on bass - dear old friends. We’ve toured a lot together, we’ve played a lot, we recorded a lot. While we were making the record, we just kind of fantasized about getting out on the road. But they’re so busy, they’re busy guys and very sought after. I didn’t think it was likely but they were serious about it. When I approached them they made time to do it and we got [brother] Tom Lofgren, just an incredible musician, our swing man if you will, on guitar, keyboard and singing. And, of course, the great Cindy Mizelle who sang all over the record. It was just on a lot of levels, very joyful and freeing.” The album Blue With Lou is the end result of a writing session back in 1978 which was suggested by producer Bob Ezrin, who had worked with Lofgren, and previously worked with Lou Reed on his controversial concept album Berlin. The collaboration led to 13 songs. Reed recorded three (including ‘City Lights’) on The Bells (1979) and Lofgren used three on Nils in the same year and used two others on later albums. The unused songs remained in the vault until Nils decided to resurrect them. “I would have never been that greedy to think Lou Reed would help me write songs,” explains Nils, “but it was Bob’s idea and we had a lot of songs that we knew were done and ready. Then we had a lot of music that we liked. But you know, neither one of us were that happy with the lyrics I’d written. Rather than keep going at it, Bob suggested co-writing and I thought, ‘Well I don’t do that much, but certainly depends on who it is. He said, ‘What about Lou Reed?’ And I thought to myself, ‘Well that’s very unlikely, but it would be beautiful.’ “I think Lou was in the studio in New York. We went and said hello and Lou was surprisingly open to the idea. Lou suggested I meet with him at his apartment the next week and I did, and we spent a long night watching American football - the Cowboys and the Redskins were playing - and I was very surprised that Lou was such a big NFL fan and we talked into the night and I decided to send him a tape. Of course, the high-quality tape of the day was a cassette and I mailed a cassette of 13 songs and Lou knew we were happy to have them change anything, lyrics, music, whatever might inspire him. “Anyway, long story short, a few weeks went by and I kind of forgot about the idea, hadn’t heard from them. He woke me up one morning at 4:30 in the morning on the landline and said that he’d been up three days and nights straight, very inspired, loved all the music on the cassette and he just completed 13 finished sets of lyrics and be happy to dictate them to me. So, I put on a pot of coffee, got a pad and pencil and it was quite hilarious because back then there was no email, there was no Word or any of that stuff to type things too. So, I sat on the phone for a couple more hours and Lou dictated 13 finished songs we’d done together and it was quite beautiful.” Blue With Lou is available now on Cattle Track Road Records and on iTunes. Next issue: Part 2 - More on Blue With Lou, recording this year with Neil Young & Crazy Horse. 35

HEALING FORCE Brittany Howard takes a break from The Alabama Shakes to record a very personal album By Brian Wise “I wrote this record as a process of healing,” wrote Brittany Howard about her debut solo album Jaime, dedicated to her sister. “Every song, I confront something within me or beyond me. Things that are hard or impossible to change, words and music to describe what I’m not good at conveying to those I love, or a name that hurts to be said: Jaime.” Howard is the 30-year-old singer with the unforgettable voice and presence who usually fronts The Alabama Shakes. As soon as they emerged on the scene in 2012 with their album Boys & Girls they became one of the hottest Americana acts and the 2015 follow up Sound & Color cemented that reputation. They not only won Grammy Awards in 2014, 2016 and 2018 but have been nominated on five other occasions already! But while the Shakes are undoubtedly a major force Howard has decided to take a slightly tangential path with her career, propelled by the memory of her sister and a cross-country trip across America. “I dedicated the title of this record to my sister who passed away as a teenager,” she has explained. “She was a musician too. I did this so her name would no longer bring me memories of sadness and as a way to thank her for passing on to me everything she loved: music, art, creativity.” Musically, the album is quite an exciting departure from her previous work with the Alabama Shakes but is no less adventurous. Howard wrote and arranged many of the songs - some of them in Topanga, Canyon during a heatwave - on her laptop and was helped out by engineer Shawn Everett players such as Robert Glasper, Zac Cockrell (from the Shakes), drummer Nate Smith and others. “The people I have in my band are just people who I really want to be known,” says Howard. “I really respect them for what they do and how they emote music. It was important in choosing the way they played instead of just being technically great or amazing, even though they’re both. “Having someone like Nate Smith play the kit is something I’ve always wanted, because I’ve been watching him for, I guess, a couple, almost three years now. I just always loved the way he played drums. I think he has such a personality when he plays. “Then, Rob Glasper, I’ve been watching In the same way. I’ve been watching him a few years, and met him at an event in 36

Montgomery, Alabama. He’s just like, ‘Oh, we should work together some time.’ I was like, ‘Absolutely.’ Then, I started doing this record, so I gave him a call, and he was gracious enough to fly out and play on it.” Howard is near Taos in New Mexico when we catch up by phone to talk about the album. The area is famous for its artistic community and the fact that artist Georgia O’Keefe lived there. Howard moved there last December because she “just got tired of the humidity in the south.” “I guess so, yeah. I just wanted something different and honestly,” she responds when I suggest that her relocation seems to me to be symbolic of the change in her career. “I kind of think of it when I say, ‘process of healing.’ It’s just like pulling your old bottles out and putting the cap on them and throwing them in the trash can. You know what I mean? I’m done with that old stuff and I’m just moving on. So, this is just like putting a cap on it.” “My sister taught me how to play music, taught me how to make art, taught me how to just really be a creative person in general,” replies Howard when I ask her about Jaime. “I’d say, this might be my solo record, but I definitely don’t feel alone while I’m putting this out. I feel very much like her spirit has fostered this creativity in me. Me just being a singer, a musician, a song writer.” “It just felt appropriate to see our names together, whatever I’m doing,” replies Howard when I mention that it is a wonderful thing to have given some immortality to her sister. “Yeah, absolutely. That’s where it all began was her and I writing songs and drawing pictures together and imagining and being creative.” Was there any trepidation in releasing a solo album after being in such a high-profile group? “I wouldn’t say there was much trepidation,” responds Howard. “Actually, I felt like this was something that I’ve always wanted to do. I’m just glad I’ve done it really. Especially making this record. It’s just something I’ve always wanted to do: to take the songs hot off the press and put them out in that raw form instead of spending a lot of time with other cooks in the kitchen, so to speak, shaping them up and making sure that everyone likes them. It’s just a different experience really. It’s been really fun and very thrilling. “It was really liberating. It’s nice to make my own mistakes and to make my own triumphs

and to just share that experience with the world.” Prior to recording the album Howard took a four day trip out to Los Angeles and has said that she saw many beautiful things and many heartbreaking things, including poverty, loneliness, discouraged people and the poor towns on that journey across America. “I just thought maybe it would be nice to get out of town, change of scenery and try to find some inspiration,” recalls Howard. “Mostly feeling absolutely miserable because I was looking for inspiration and it wasn’t coming so easily.” By the time she reached Topanga she had found that inspiration. “Some of these songs I wrote while I was still in the Shakes and didn’t really fit in,” she notes. “So, I’ve always done this kind of music. It’s just stuff I like. There’s no adventure for me but I could see how if it appeared all the sudden it does seem quite different.” Howard has said that the very personal song ‘Georgia’ is a bit of a breakthrough for her. “Yes, I just love that song,” she explains. “I wrote that song as a love song to another woman, and I just wanted to put something like that on the record just because I don’t hear a ton of it. Obviously, I know it’s out there. I just personally haven’t heard a ton of 90s style R&B songs from one woman to another. So, I wanted to make one. To me, it’s just like a really innocent love song. I just kind of wrote it from the point of view of love, innocent love that doesn’t really have rules or a gender or anything like that. But it kind of just came to me really freely.” Howard has said that now that she has turned thirty, she has been thinking about what she wants to do with her life and career. She has also said that she doesn’t want to sing all the same songs until she is fifty. “Yeah, I just fear if there’s something I want why not try to accomplish it?” she explains. “Why not to get it despite how old I am? I mean, I just want to be a happy and creative person. I need to be a creative person and it’s hard for me in my creativity to do the same things over and over again. It’s not an affront to my band. It’s not an affront to the songs. I think the songs are great, and obviously I love the guys, and I love our fans. I’m just really asking people to come along with me, a different side of a musical journey, you know. I just thought it was time to do this.” Jaime is available via Sony Music from September 20.

BASEMENTDISCS [

NEW IN SEPTEMBER * available on vinyl LP

L IV E IN -S T O R E

Live on!! Stage! S IG

IN-STORE G

• CHICAGO 'Chicago Transit Authority (50th Anniversary) * • ELIANE ELIAS 'Love Stories' OUSAS SATURDAY 5TH SEPT (TIME TBC) EL OP ¯ • GREGG ALLMAN 'Laid Back' (2CD Dlx) @ 12.45 (lunchtime) • JAMES CARTER ORGAN TRIO 'Live From ¯ LITTLE WISE FRIDAY 13TH SEPT Newport Jazz' * CHECK WEBSITE AS DATES CONFIRMED FOR OCTOBER • JOAN SHELLEY 'Like the River Loves The Sea' * • LANA DEL REY 'NFR!' * • MARTIN SIMPSON 'Rooted' (Dlx Ed also) * • MIKE ZITO 'Live From the Top' • RONNIE EARL & BROADCASTERS 'Beyond CHRISSIE HYNDE & THE VALVE BONE WOE the Blue Door'* ENSEMBLE • SHERYL CROW 'Threads'* ‘Valve Bone Woe’ • TOOL 'Fear Inoculum'* The venerated Queen of Rock takes a detour & honours her love of • ALTERED FIVE BLUES BAND 'Ten ThousandWatts' jazz & melody with these jazz tinged interpretations of some of her • MILES DAVIS 'Rubberband' (prev. unreleased) fave tunes by BRIAN WILSON, COLTRANE, MINGUS, NICK DRAKE & • ALLMAN BROS BAND 'Fillmore West '71’ RAY DAVIES to name a few. (prev. unreleased) • THE BRAND NEW HEAVIES ‘TBNH’ * • DVD/BR: 'BLUE NOTE RECORDS: Beyond the TINARIWEN Notes' ‘Amadjar’ • BELLE & SEBASTIAN 'Days of the Bagnold In an apt way of putting together a new album, the nomadic Summer'* Tuareg musicians took 2 weeks out after a Festival appearance to travel through Morocco, Western Sahara & along the Atlantic • CARAVAN 'Decca/Deram Years 1970-75’(9CD) coast. Rehearsing each night & then recording over 2 weeks in a • DEVENDRA BANHARD 'Ma'* van/converted studio. Later adding guests includ. WARREN ELLIS. • JANIVA MAGNESS 'Sings John Fogerty' • V/A: COUNTRY MUSIC - A Film by KEN

* BASEMENT DISCS HIGHLY RECOMMEND

BURNS: The Story of America, One Song At A Time' (5CD) • BRUCE COCKBURN 'Crowing Ignites' (Instrumentals)* • HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER 'Terms of Surrender'* • NATACHA ATLAS 'Strange Days' • RICK ESTRIN & NIGHTCATS 'Contemporary' • BETH HART 'War In My Mind'* (Dlx ed also) • CHARLIE PARR 'Charlie Parr' • LAURIE ANDERSON, TENZIN CHOEGYAL & JESSE PARIS SMITH 'Songs from the Bardo'* • THE REPLACEMENTS 'Dead Man's Pop' (4CD) • PENGUIN CAFE 'Handfuls of Night' • TREY HENSLEY & ROB ICKES 'World Full of Blues' • SUTHERLAND BROS & QUIVER 'The Albums' (8CD) • SAMANTHA FISH 'Kill or Be Kind' • BAT FOR LASHES 'Lost Girls'* • THE PIXIES 'Beneath They Eyrie'* • SHAWN COLVIN 'Steady On' (30th anniv.)

NEW RELEASES OCTOBER

• HIROMI 'Spectrum' • ANGEL OLSEN 'All Mirrors' • WILCO 'Ode to Joy'* • DAVID GRISMAN, DANNY BARNES & SAMSON GRISMAN 'Dawg Trio' • STEVE MILLER BAND 'Welcome to the Vault' (3CD+DVD incl. 38 prev unrel. recs, 100 pg book) • JETHRO TULL 'Stormwatch' (40th anniv. Force 10 ed - 4CD+2DVD) • MARK LANEGAN 'Somebody's Knocking'* • FLEETWOOD MAC (Peter Green's) 'Before the Beginning: Rare Live & Demo Sessions 1968-70' • YES 'Live at Glastonbury Fest 2003 (2CD)

ROBBIE ROBERTSON ‘Sinematic’

First solo release since 2011, it's a star-studded affair w. guest spots from GLEN HANSARD, DEREK TRUCKS, JIM KELTNER & VAN 'THE MAN' duetting on 'I Hear You Paint Houses'

THE BEATLES ‘Abbey Road’

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BT ON OOTW!

Everyone knows him as BT. In fact, that is possibly the name in his passport. He has toured Wilco multiple times and he is the promoter who brought us Gillian Welch & David Rawlings (twice) when no-one else could get them near an airport. Brian Taranto has been conducting a decades long campaign to promote ‘Americana’ in Australia. Out On The Weekend is his annual musical party!

Jo Roberts speaks to Out On The Weekend’s creator, programmer and spiritual leader, Brian ‘BT’ Taranto, ahead of the festival’s sixth Melbourne event. JR: Congratulations on another instalment of this celebration of all things Americana! There’s a few new names and a few familiar ones on the bill this year, so perhaps you can talk about what guided you in assembling this year’s lineup? BT: I wish it was amazing insight, great personal taste and karmic fortune to get the line up together each year, but generally it’s whoever is available and willing to work for the realistic fees we have to offer. Everyone has their dreams of who they would like to see, and can’t understand why there aren’t always bigger acts, or why we don’t have such-and-such play, but the reality is it’s quite a small festival with not a lot financially to offer. Sometimes I get lucky with connections I have and get a good deal. Mostly I just work realistically with the budget I have to deliver a day of solid music I like and think Out On The Weekend fans will enjoy too. This is the sixth OOTW. How has it evolved from its first incarnation in 2014? It’s much the same really. The first year was all bright, shiny and new and amazing. Then, like a relationship or a football team, we get to know each other a little better each year, work stuff out, win, lose, and keep heading to the summit. Are there any new features this year? I haven’t been for a couple of years; the barber and beauty saloon are certainly new since I was last there. We intend to have a few more retail offerings with vintage clothing stores and will have the grooming stuff as well. Greville Records have always been there which is great. Looking to have a bit of a craft beer section too. How many stages will there be on the day? There’s gonna be four stages this year for sure, and we may have a sneaky semi exclusive secret stage hiding somewhere…..??? I saw on the video highlight reel of last

year’s event that you posted: “We got a few things to get better (recycling our trash being one of them), but we feel good about what we provided and will strive to improve.” Do you feel like you’ll achieve that this year? Yes, no problem at all. It’s one of those things we got wrong on the day, at least visually last year, and it was too late to really do anything about on the day. Our trash actually gets sorted post-event anyway, but we have it clearer for pre-sorting this year. This year you’ve decided to focus on three classic albums from the summer of love – Gilded Palace of Sin, Nashville Skyline and Dusty in Memphis. What gave you the idea to do this, and why these three albums in particular? Basically, ‘cause I like them. Of course, there’s a load more killer albums from ‘69, but you have to stop somewhere. We were trying to get You Am I to play all three CCR album releases from ‘69, but couldn’t get it over the line with other commitments they had. That would have been something special If you had to choose one of them as a desert island disc, which one and why? A two-for-one cassette with Nashville Skyline and Gilded Palace Of Sin. Speaking of the Flying Burrito Brothers, who wore your favourite Nudie suit? Can’t name a favourite straight up. Gram’s details were great, but I don’t really like the cut of the jacket it’s on. I do like Chris Hillman’s peacock vibe though. So many amazing designs. More on the Burrito Brothers – it’s great to see Brian Cadd on the bill. Do you find that many people aren’t aware of his special place in history with that band? I gotta tell you I wasn’t either. I mean Burritos post-Gram, I’m not really into anything post that self-titled ’71 album that’s he’s not even on, or have even bothered to listen to. Perhaps I should, so I can shoot the shit with Brian about it. I know it’s like naming favourite children, but is there ONE artist/event on the bill

that you’re especially hanging out to see and hear? I’m looking forward to all of them of course. The Nashville Skyline thing will be great, and I’m looking forward to Matt Walker becoming a Burrito for a few songs. Molly Tuttle’s pickin’ will be something else, and it’ll be great to hear Jim Lauderdale and his shit-hot band. I got no idea what Jonny Fritz and Josh Hedley will do, but I bet it’s funny and musically excellent. Which artist on the bill that people may not be so familiar with do you MOST want to tell them about? Check out Dee White and Molly Tuttle, and continue to fall in love with Sierra Ferrell. I’ve noticed that of all the festival lineups, OOTW can probably claim to have one of the more balanced gender ratios of artists. Is that a conscious decision, or are your lineup choices driven solely by the tunes? It just works out that way generally. I want a strong female presence always anyway and it all just falls into line. The genre of music is pretty genre balanced anyways. Do you still plan to one day present OOTW in other capital cities again? Do you see it – or hope to see it – returning to Sydney again in, say, the next 5 years? Look, I’d do it anywhere it made sense. I think if we had a major headline act like Gillian or Wilco or Jason Isbell, we could give it crack, but for now it’s Melbourne’s baby. The city likes this music, has great community radio support and a strong history of people still going to shows for the genre. Would you ever experiment with the format and make it a two-day festival at, say, Tallarook? Or are OOTW fans too sharpdressed for camping? We would need a very lush festival property to achieve that, and that ain’t Tallarook! But anything could happen. For now, let’s just enjoy Williamstown as best we can. What song will you be singing along with loudest on the day? ‘Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You.’ 41

Get Undressed with the Felice Brothers

It’s a new-look Felice Brothers returning to Australia with a stellar new album. By Jo Roberts

t’s been almost 14 years since a band of brothers, born in the Catskill Mountains, began busking on the New York subway. In that time, the Felice Brothers have released, on average, an album a year, toured with artists ranging from Justine Townes Earle to the Dave Matthews Band, and played events as huge as the Newport Folk Festival and as small as – in 2011 – Boogie Festival in Tallarook, Victoria. That was the first time the Felice Brothers had visited Australia, on the back of the release of arguably their most experimental album, Celebration, Florida. While that album and its edgy, electronicinfused songs remains a fascinating listen, it did divide fans; it was a challenge for those who preferred the band’s usual folk-rock material. However, most fans and critics are united in high praise of the Felice Brothers’ new album, Undressed, which is bringing the band back to Australia for a third time. The Felice Brothers are a very different band from the one founded by brothers Ian, James and Simone Felice in 2006. Simone played drums until leaving in 2009 to pursue a career as a solo artist, author and producer. Then, at the end of 2017, long-time Felice Brothers members – fiddle player Greg Farley and bassist Josh ‘Christmas Clapton’ Rawson – also left. Speaking on the phone from his home in upstate New York, accordion player James Felice admits it was a time when he wondered if it might be the end of the band. His eldest brother, primary songwriter and guitarist Ian, had also become a new father, and priorities were shifting. “Ian had a kid and he sort realised that the band didn’t really make enough money to raise his son, and plus the idea of being on the road for months and months of the year is not really compatible with having a family,” he says. “And we had to decide ‘is this thing worth doing without those guys’ [Farley and Rawson] because they’d been part of the

band for such a long time. And we decided, actually, yeah it was; we still have songs to write.” Lucky for us. Undress is, in this writer’s opinion, the band’s strongest and most compelling album to date, informed by the parlous state of Trump’s America and themes of morality, wealth and greed, the haves and have-nots. The cheerful bar-room rollick of

Special Announcement (one of the few tracks on the album to hark back to the band’s more ropey, singalong folk-rock moments) belies lyrics that address the sad reality of how things roll in US politics – only the wealthy can play. “I’m saving up my money/to be president”. “Yeah, it’s true,” says James. “The whole process of becoming president and having

to basically earn, or beg for, or somehow fernengle your way into billions of dollars, as what it turned out to be, is just crazy. So, the whole idea of saving up your money to be president, that concept that American politics is about money, completely.” Recorded with the band’s new members, bass player Jesske Hume and drummer Will Lawrence, Undress has a real sense of focus, maturity and completeness to it. “I appreciate that, thank you,” says James. “We rehearsed a lot, we pre-produced a lot. Jess and Will are just really excellent musicians who bring so much to the table, beyond their instruments that they play. They also do great arranging and great singing; now we can do these cool three-part harmonies behind Ian. It’s just the whole thing, it feels like we’re a complete band.” Felice cheerfully admits that Lawrence and Hume were both poached from other bands. “William is a local friend of ours who was in a bunch of bands, he’s a great songwriter on his own; we sort of stole him away from another band because we liked the way he played drums so much and just liked him as a person. And Jess is this incredibly accomplished bass player who played bass in Conor Oberst’s

band, and we met her through him – and we stole her away too.” The very strange thing about Lawrence is that he actually looks like he could be a Felice Brother; in many photos, he bears an uncanny resemblance to Ian, I suggest. It’s not the first time James Felice has heard this. “Yeah everyone thinks he and Ian are the brothers and I’m some other crazy dude,” he laughs. Adding to the confusion of photos of the new band line-up is that James now also looks very different from the burly guy last seen in Australia – on the Felice Brothers’ second tour here in 2015, which culminated in a show at the Golden Plains festival. “Yeah I definitely lost a lot of weight, that’s for sure,” he says. Cutting back on his alcohol intake was one of the changes he decided it was time for, in an effort “to take better care of myself”, he says. He also felt it necessary for professional reasons. “I felt like I was becoming shitty at my job,” he says. “I felt like I was being drunk too

much onstage and not giving the audience the shows that they deserved. I’m not like a bad drunk, I don’t get mean, I just get – too drunk!” He happily reports that the shows the band has done since the release of Undress in May have been going very well, and the new material is similarly going down a treat. “People seem to really enjoy them,” he says. “Every show we’ve played has been a joy, honestly. The band on the record is the band playing live, very much so. The songs come across on the record similar to how they do live, and the feeling is just great. “A lot of people who came along to see us since 2011 or 2006 and in all our different iterations ...after every show I go out and sell merch and I talk basically to every single person at that show and they all seem to like it. Maybe people who hate it don’t talk to me. But I feel like we’re better than ever. We’re more concise and there’s a really good feeling on the stage between the four of us, which I really cherish. I’m so happy.” The Felice Brothers play the Corner Hotel in Richmond on Friday October 11 and Out on the Weekend on Saturday October 12.

After more than 40 years, Jim Lauderdale remains one of Americana musicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most prolific and beloved talents After more than 40 years, Jim Lauderdale remains one of Americana musicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most prolific and beloved talents

By Denise Hylands

’ve said it before and heck I’ll say it again, Jim Lauderdale IS Americana. Country, folk, rock, and bluegrass, acoustic, electric and sometimes all of it twisted together. You can’t get a better example of an artist who represents this very broad genre. And finally, this Nashville-based singersongwriter, known as ‘the King of Broken Hearts’, is coming back to Melbourne for the first time since 2002, having released around 20 albums in the meantime but a huge 32 in total, his most recent being this year’s From Another World. When I speak to Lauderdale he’s in Boulder Colorado, and mentions he’s got a few hours free which he’ll use to write. “I’m not able unfortunately to write every day, because sometimes I have to travel or whatever,” he says. “So, when I can carve out several hours just to write, I grab it, so I feel really lucky to get that.” Lauderdale is one of those artists that the term ‘a songwriter’s songwriter’ is not used lightly for. A prolific writer whose songs have been recorded by so many artists. Like when George Jones records your songs, you’ve got to be a bit chuffed? “Oh, Denise, it’s nothing. It’s nothing really,” he jokes. Others like the Dixie Chicks, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Lee Ann Womack, Mark Chesnutt, Blake Shelton and George Strait, the latter having recorded 15 of Lauderdale’s songs, but hey, who’s counting… you are Jim Lauderdale. “Oh, I think it’s 15, I don’t know…” The hits have eluded Lauderdale while others have taken his songs up the charts. But it’s not been without accolades. In 2016 he was awarded the WagonMaster Lifetime Achievement Award at the Americana Honors and Awards show, in recognition of a life spent dedicated to music in songwriting, singing, performing, recording and collaborations for more than 40 years. Music was around him growing up in South Carolina and contributed to his desire to pursue it. “My folks both had great voices, really good singers and my sister could sing really good too,” he says. “And she started buying albums and 45 records when I was about six and she was 10. At 11 he played the drums, at 13 the harmonica and 15 the banjo. “Lies, lies, all lies,” proclaims funny-guy Lauderdale. I don’t believe it for a moment. Lauderdale loved the Beatles – “boy, they were just magic” – but then got into bluegrass and country and from then, he says, “well, there was no looking back.” Bluegrass was the music that he wanted to play. As a fresh-faced 22-year-old, he took himself off to Nashville from South

Carolina to pursue the bluegrass dream. Upon arriving in town, he met up with bluegrass musician Roland White and his brother Clarence. “Clarence was a great guitar player and he played in a group with Roland called The Kentucky Colonels and then Clarence joined The Byrds,” recounts Lauderdale. “I’d been listening to Roland and Clarence’s bluegrass and then Clarence was tragically killed. Roland kept on as a mandolin player and singer. He was just one of my heroes and still is.” Lauderdale and White recorded an album together in the basement of the home of banjo legend Earl Scruggs. But they couldn’t find anyone who would release it. Then, once Lauderdale finally secured a record deal, neither he nor White could find the album’s master tapes. The recording remained lost for 39 years – until White’s wife found it in the bottom of a box. So, in 2018, Lauderdale’s first album recorded back in 1979 in Earl Scruggs’ basement became his 30th release, Jim Lauderdale and Roland White. Check it out, it’s quite something. It was released on the same day as his 31st album, appropriately called Time Flies. His other standout bluegrass collaboration was with the great Dr Ralph Stanley, with whom he recorded two albums. A legend of the genre and certainly a ‘pinch yourself’ experience to work with him? “Exactly. That’s a good way to describe it,” says Lauderdale. “I really did because he was such a hero since childhood. His voice, his playing and his songs are just out of this world. He was the king of mountain soul. I was very fortunate I got to do a couple of albums with him.” The 1999 album I Feel Like Singing Today was nominated for a Grammy, while 2002’s Lost in the Lonesome Pines won the Grammy award for Best Bluegrass album. During his time working with Stanley, Lauderdale struck up one of his many writing relationships – with Robert Hunter, who wrote a lot of material with the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia. “So, when I was doing the first album with Ralph Stanley, I reached out to Robert Hunter and we began writing a lot, and now we’ve written about 100 songs and six records of stuff, a few bluegrass records, with The North Mississippi Allstars on a record, country and rock and blues rock and acoustic.” His collaboration with Hunter is just one of

many. Add to the list his good friend Buddy Miller, with whom he also does a regular radio show, The Buddy & Jim Radio Show, on Sirius XM radio. Lauderdale has also released albums with Donna the Buffalo, as well as writing, recording and touring with Elvis Costello. Sharing the songwriting on his new album From Another World, he has brought new artists together with older legends to write, such as Melba Montgomery. “Yeah, we actually had a George Strait hit with What Do You Say To That, says Lauderdale. “And for this one I was writing a bunch with new artist Logan Ledger, of which two of those songs ended up on the new album, so I asked him if he would like to write with Melba because I knew he was a big fan of hers and so we went over there and wrote For Keeps. She’s so lovely.” He’s also done some writing with Buddy Canon. “Buddy Canon! I love writing with him,” says Lauderdale. “When we write stuff together it tends to be really, really country. And one that we wrote for this, You Think You Know Everything, kind of has a twist to it. He’s such a great writer and producer.” As mentioned, he has released 32 albums, sometimes up to three in one year. So, there must be something else just around the corner. After all, this is Jim Lauderdale. “I have several records recorded,” he says, not surprisingly. “I do have a bluegrass record I did in North Carolina and will probably release a single from it in October. And I’ve got a thing that’s unfinished with Al Perkins and a bunch of great guys. A few things in the wings. I do have a record that’s a continuation of a record I put out a few years ago called Honey Songs with James Burton, Al Perkins, Glen D Hardin and Ron Tutt. These were guys who were on Gram Parsons records that he did on his own. And a bunch of them played with Elvis.” “I’ve still got to sing on a couple of things, but it’s a continuation of that album that James Burton and Al Perkins were kind of muses for that. I wanted to write stuff that they could do their thing on, they’re so good together.” And he’s still not done. “And also, an album from Memphis that I did with Luther Dickinson and Cody Dickinson, with a bunch of those guys I did at Hi Records and Willie Mitchell is producing it with Luther Dickinson. It’s a soul record.” Of course, why am I not surprised. Make sure you catch Lauderdale at Out on the Weekend and anywhere else he plans to travel. An incredible live performer and entertainer, he’s not called The King of Broken Hearts for nothing. 45

BOOTS BACK IN TOWN Ruby Boots returns for a visit after establishing herself in Nashville. By Denise Hylands

uby Boots (aka Bex Chilcott) has just announced her upcoming tour of Australia, returning home for some shows, appropriately called, the ‘Love You, Miss You Tour’ and, as I find out, she really is missing home. But then again, where is home for this restless music making gal? We chat all things Bex, from beginnings on pearling boats, making Nashville home and what’s on the horizon.

“I’m really champing at the bit to get back there.” It wasn’t long before Chilcott became restless and three years ago she decided to move was to Nashville Tennessee. Again, here was another town where she knew no one. “I thought I did for a second and now I’m not sure,” she says when I ask if she has found her home. “I definitely feel like I’ll be here for a while longer but it’s a social and political shit show here in America. I’ll try and settle down and lay my hat down somewhere, but I definitely need it after living out of my suitcase for 5 years but maybe for now it’s home, you know.”

“I’m just trying to fight back the tears because it’s so nice to hear an Australian accent let alone being reminded of the journey and the work that has gone into it. It’s pushing some buttons, Denise,” says Bex who has never stopped striving for the musical dream she had as a young girl.

Since moving to Music City USA, Bex has been signed to independent but highprofile record label in Chicago’s Bloodshot Records. “They’re just a really caring indie label that take the time and care to really try and give you the exposure in America the best that they can and I think there’s a lot to be said about that.” (She remains signed to Island Records in Australia).

“It’s always been inside me,” she explains. “I do remember performing at the local supermarket’s talent competition when I was 12. I think I tried to sing ‘Like A Prayer’ by Madonna. I think it was a pretty poor effort, but I did get better eventually.” As a 17-year-old, Chilcott hitched rides on trucks up to Broome from her hometown of Perth to find work on pearling boats. “That’s where I started to learn guitar and write songs. It feels like another lifetime ago.” What was she playing while bobbing around on the sea? “Mainly Waifs songs and Kasey Chambers songs. Basically, just those two.” The Waifs were later to become an important part of her life having toured with them numerous times. “In 2016 I did 26 shows in the US with them so we’re like family now really” says Bex, who also shared the stage with Kasey Chambers along the way. “Kasey’s such a sweetheart, very supportive of everyone’s music, she just gets behind people and the underdog. I remember a couple of years ago she came to my show at Americanafest in Nashville and I was quite humbled by that.” From early days of playing songs by those artists to actually sharing the stage with them says a lot about Bex’s drive and ambition. She might be the perfect 46

example for any young artist who wants to succeed in the music business and live the dream. “The one thing I will definitely agree with is that I do work myself to the bone and will try and do whatever it takes to get to the thing that means I get to keep doing what I love.” The ambitious Chilcott decided to spend as much time as she could in Melbourne some years back. When she arrived she didn’t know anyone. “Melbourne is to me the best city, one of the best cities in the world, definitely the best city in Australia when it comes to music community and culture and everything like that, so it wasn’t really a hard thing to do,” she says. Of course, the Melbourne music community embraced her music. “Yeah, eventually it was so nice it did feel like a second home in Australia. It was very, very special in that respect,” she says.

Bex made the album Don’t Talk About It in 2018 with The Texas Gentlemen as her studio band. A recent release by Bex with the band Indianola, ‘Believe In Heaven,’ sees a change in direction for our Americana sweetheart. “They’re a pretty new band. They make up all of my friends in my circle in Nashville and it was just one of those things we thought would be a great idea to write and release a song and show the collaborative effort of what can happen with friends. We just wanted to put something out together and go out on the road. It was fun that we did it and I was really happy with the song actually, moving in a new direction.” I mention it’s very rock and roll, “yeah, that’s more of the direction I’m gonna get going for the next record. A bit more of that rock and roll up my sleeve.” Ruby Boots is appearing at out On The Weekend and other Australian dates during October and November.

WALKER’S RAGA RANGERS

Matt Walker and his band Lost Ragas return to Out on the Weekend with a new album of expansive, psychedelia-dusted country By Jonathan Alley

“Each album could potentially be our last … it isn’t for the faint hearted”. It’s hard to reconcile such pragmatic, almost hard-nosed words, to a gentleman as laconic and generously spirited as Matt Walker — hilldwelling blues mystic, ARIA award winner and all-round guitar-slinging good fellow. But, as lead singer and co-songwriter in Melbourne four-piece Lost Ragas, the supergroup-ofsorts is an ever-evolving and delicate beast: a balancing act between a team of champions and a champion team. Lost Ragas sees Walker joined by fellow songwriter Shane Reilly (who brings pedal steel, guitar, piano, mandolin and a way with string arrangements in his knapsack), newcomer Haydn Meggitt behind the drumkit (he’s played with Ross Wilson, Vika Bull and Dan Sultan) and bassist Roger Bergodaz, in whose studio they’ve created their gorgeous new record. “Each record is a different beast,” says Walker. “As long as things keep moving forward, it feels like the right thing”. One listen to the ethereal, eclectic new album This is Not a Dream provides instant reassurance not only of starship Lost Ragas’ forward movement, but that their expansive, 48

epic journey fuelled by a spacious brand of acoustic delights is heading out way past the stars. Walker describes the Ragas’ current oeuvre as almost a “country-funk-psychedelic version of reggae, with a constant groove that keeps it cool”. That ‘constant groove’ is locked in by Bergodaz on bass (who also engineered and mixed This is Not a Dream) and Meggitt, whom the band met when he dropped into Bergodaz’s Union St Studios in Brunswick. The band intuitively knew Meggitt could take over drums from recently departed founding member Simon Burke. “He has a certain drumming style,” says Walker. “Stripped back, deep sounding, not jazzy style. We’d never have a Mitch Mitchell; it’s more like a Crazy Horse slow burn”. While much of This is Not a Dream indeed burns plenty slow, the charm of the album – their first since 2015’s Trans Atlantic Highway - lies in a graceful yet powerful range of moods. From subtle stabs of horns on Morning Star, to the remarkable harmonising on Ain’t No Free Man, the album’s delights

are deep, many, and varied for anyone with a pulse and a decent set of ears. Ain’t No Free Man proves something of a showstopper for Reilly, who not only contributes stellar pedal steel, but a wondrous string arrangement. “He’s into that; classical music, classic strings, classic string composers,” enthuses Walker on Reilly’s versatility. “Arrangements on classic records and soundtracks, he lives in that world a lot of the time.” The album’s gorgeous centrepiece is Walker’s I Am Awakening, an epic horizon of a song that elevates the mood from contemplation to all-out joy. It’s a perfect distillation of the wonder Lost Ragas can be: elemental strings, harmonies to die for, a refrain you cannot stop singing and sense of elation that should come with slow-mo footage, end credits, and an Oscar nomination. One of the first songs written for This is Not a Dream, Walker penned it on a 12-string guitar bought at a friend’s party for $100. “It’s a cheap old ’60s Japanese ‘audition’ brand, really resonant, it’s got a massive neck on it,” says Walker. “It’s really hard to play, but if I tuned it down one whole tone – which is what they do in a lot of Mexican music – it really spun me out.”

Walker says like many a worthy beast, the song took a lot of strapping down and harnessing. “The sentiment of the song took a while, to have some specific images; dreamlike images with some meaning,” he says. “Not a clear narrative, just images.” After road-testing This is Not a Dream over a month-long, jam-packed residency at West Brunswick’s Union Club Hotel – where Walker says they were greeted with both “passionate crowd hardcore fans, and heaps of new faces” – Lost Ragas are ready to unleash their opus to the wider throngs at Out on the Weekend. But the festival crowd will get an added, exclusive treat — a Lost Ragas reading of the legendary album by The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Gilded Palace of Sin, the deservedly venerated 1969 album from the band containing late country legend Gram Parsons, fellow ex-Byrd Chris Hillman , and late pedal steel legend ‘Sneaky’ Pete Kleinow. Fittingly, Australian music legend Brian Cadd – who played in an early ’90s incarnation of the Burrito Brothers (see story on him on page 52) – will join Lost Ragas onstage to deliver the vanguard album, one of many classic albums turning 50 this year. The Gilded Palace of Sin remains the neon stardust signpost that truly put the ‘cosmic’ in country; the righteous Republican buzzards who hated hearing the Byrds on The Grand Ole Opry would ever-after just have to cope. Country could still be country, but albums like the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Gram Parson’s solo releases and the mighty (and so poetically monikered) Gilded Palace of Sin blazed new trails that are still unwinding today.

Walker says listening to The Gilded Palace of Sin was a revelation leading up to Out on the Weekend: despite knowing Parsons’ solo work very well, the Burritos classic had flown a little under his radar. “I went through a phase of listening to Gram Parsons about 25 years ago, and it was an influence on me, but I hadn’t listened much to Gilded Palace of Sin,” says Walker. “It’s fun when you get your mind blown in reverse! “I had [Gram Parsons’ albums] GP and Grevious Angel. I loved the harmonies and the sweet, sweet singin’, I hadn’t listened to a lot of country music before that, I’d listened to really early blues, raw country blues, then more folk music. But not country music, in my early times, finding my way through music — I was more into Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, into more gritty sounding music”. So, why Gilded Palace and not another of the phalanx of great records from 1969 that chalk up five decades this year? “Listening to it now, it is ridiculous, how in line that particular album – Gilded Palace of Sin – is in line with Lost Ragas,” says Walker. “It’s crazy. All that amazing ‘Sneaky Pete’ pedal steel, Shane (Reilly) knows how to play it all, he’s influenced by it, I think a lot of people would have taken up pedal steel when they heard that record because it’s so phenomenal. “The thing that blows me away, apart from the amazing songs, band, and recording, is the beautiful harmonies and the amazing pedal steel, — and it’s all up in the mix. It’s crazy I haven’t been exposed to it before”.

While there’s a motherlode of contemporary musical echo in Gilded Palace, it isn’t just the sound of the country-rock masterpiece that gives it a resonance; it’s also about the mood of the times, then and now. In the Parsons/ Hillman co-write My Uncle, the lyrics speak of ‘good men, kept underground’ as the state drafts young men to fight a foreign war, while conscientious objectors leak over the border to Canada. Is it that far from ideological refugees fleeing Donald Trump’s increasingly militaristic and fortress like USA, 50 years on? And of course, some things just never fade away — the corruption of the human soul for example, as expressed in the bona fide classic Sin City. “I think it’s about the music industry, or Hollywood – the price of fame,” muses Walker. “I’ve always liked songs like Sin City. Most of my life I’ve lived out of big cities, I’m a sucker for a classic song that paints the stereotypical world of the big dark city and all its temptations.” Out on the Weekend provides a unique opportunity to hear the album’s soulful country wonder writ large. Walker concurs. “There’s a crazy R’n’B sensibility, there’s a swing to it, it’s not always hardcore country harmonies,” he says. “That’s why it’s such a famous record; it’s the birth of country rock – not that other bands weren’t doing it – but they did it the coolest.” This is Not a Dream by Lost Ragas is available now through Brown Truck Records. http:///www.lostragas.com

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WAGONS

SONGS FROM THE AFTERMATH

“...A RECORD OF REMARKABLE DEPTH, A POTENT MIX OF MENACE, MIRTH AND MELODRAMA, PART COSMIC COUNTRY, PART CROONER...HENRY WAGONS WILL HAVE YOU THINKING OF LEONARD COHEN, NEIL DIAMOND AND WARRON ZEVON, BEFORE YOU REALISE THAT HE’S LIKE NO ONE ELSE.” - STACK MAGAZINE

TOUR DATES FRI 06 SEPTEMBER CROXTON BANDROOM - THORNBURY, VIC SAT 07 SEPTEMBER WARATAH HOTEL - HOBART, TAS FRI 13 SEPTEMBER THE LANSDOWNE HOTEL - SYDNEY, NSW SAT 14 SEPTEMBER THE MILK FACTORY - BRISBANE, QLD (ACOUSTIC) FRI 27 SEPTEMBER CROWN & ANCHOR - ADELAIDE, SA SAT 28 SEPTEMBER MOJO’S - FREMANTLE, WA

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM BILL CALLAHAN

PURPLE MOUNTAINS

EMMA RUSSACK

SHEPHERD IN A SHEEPSKIN VEST

PURPLE MOUNTAINS

WINTER BLUES

A RTI ST A PPLI C ATI O N S C L O S E 1 ST S E P TE M B E R

OUT NOW 50

TRIBUTES This year’s Out on The Weekend festival features tributes to three classic ‘Americana’ albums: The Gilded Palace of Sin (as performed by Lost Ragas) as well as Dusty in Memphis and Nashville Skyline. DUSTY SPRINGFIELD DUSTY IN MEMPHIS FACTS: Recorded: September 1968 Released: January 18, 1969 Studio: American Sound Studios, Memphis / Atlantic Studios, New York Producers: Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin, Tom Dowd Musicians: The Sweet Inspirations – backing vocals / Reggie Young – guitar, sitar / Tommy Cogbill – bass guitar, guitar / Bobby Emmons – Hammond organ, piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, congas / Bobby Wood – piano / Gene Chrisman – drums / Mike Leech – congas / Terry Manning – assistant engineer / Ed Kollis – harmonica Dusty in Memphis was the fifth studio album by English singer Dusty Springfield and featured a star team of musicians and producers. Springfield signed with Atlantic Records, home label of one of her soul music idols, Aretha Franklin and the journey to Memphis was designed to reinvigorate her career with a recording of an entire album solely of R&B songs. She began recording an album in Memphis, Tennessee, where some notable blues musicians had grown up. The musicians on the album – known as the Memphis Cats - had previously backed Wilson Pickett, King Curtis and Elvis Presley! Terry Manning, also a recording engineer, ended up assisting Tom Dowd.

BOB DYLAN NASHVILLE SKYLINE FACTS: Recorded: February 12 – 21, 1969 Released: April 9, 1969 Studio: Columbia Studio A, Producer: Bob Johnston Musicians: Bob Dylan – guitar, harmonica, keyboards, vocals / Norman Blake – guitar, dobro / Kenneth A. Buttrey – drums / Johnny Cash – vocals and guitar on ‘Girl from North Country’ / Fred Carter Jr. – guitar / Charlie Daniels – bass guitar, guitar / Pete Drake – pedal steel guitar / Marshall Grant – bass guitar on ‘Girl from North Country’ / W. S. Holland – drums on ‘Girl from North Country’ / Charlie McCoy – guitar, harmonica / Bob Wilson – organ, piano / Bob Wootton – electric guitar on ‘Girl from North Country.’

Many of the songs were written by some of the greatest songwriters of the era (and, in fact, any era): Gerry Goffin & Carole King (‘So Much Love,’ ‘ Don’t Forget About Me,’ ‘No Easy Way Down,’ ‘I Can’t Make It Alone’), Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil (‘Just A Little Lovin’, ‘Just One Smile’), Michel Legrand (‘The Windmills of Your Mind’), Randy Newman (‘I Don’t Want To Hear It Anymore’), and Burt Bacharach & Hal David (‘In The Land Of Make Believe’), Eddie Hinton & Donnie Fritts (‘Breakfast In Bed’). Of course, there was also ‘Son of A Preacher Man’, written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins, which reached the Top 10 singles charts in the UK, USA and Australia. The recording was not without its problems. Jerry Wexler, in his book Rhythm and the Blues, wrote that for Springfield “to say yes to one song was seen as a lifetime commitment.” The final vocals had to be recorded in New York, allegedly due to Springfield’s anxiety at being in the same studio as her idols. While Dusty in Memphis sold poorly on first release, the album has since been acclaimed as her best work and one of the greatest records of all time. Robert Christgau called it “the all-time rockera torch record.” In 2001, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. One interesting outcome of the Memphis sessions was that during the recording Springfield suggested to the heads of Atlantic Records that they should sign the newly formed Led Zeppelin as she was a friend of bass player John Paul Jones, who had backed her in concerts before. Atlantic signed the band for US$200,000 - then the biggest deal of its kind for a new band.

Songs: Girl from the North Country (duet with Johnny Cash) / Nashville Skyline Rag / To Be Alone with You / I Threw It All Away / Peggy Day / Lay Lady Lay / One More Night / Tell Me That It Isn’t True / Country Pie / Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You Nashville Skyline was Dylan’s ninth studio album and built on the style he experimented with on John Wesley Harding. In fact, the working title was John Wesley Harding Vol.2. (Columbia wanted to call it Love Is All There Is). It was recorded in four days and many of the Nashville area studio musicians appearing on the album later became the core of Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry. A famous promotional appearance on The Johnny Cash Show on June 7, helped Nashville Skyline to become one of Dylan’s best-selling albums with three singles released from it. The album received a generally positive reaction from critics and reached No. 3 in the U.S and it was also Dylan’s fourth UK No. 1 album. Clinton Heylin wrote of Nashville Skyline, “If Dylan was concerned about retaining a hold on the rock constituency, making albums with Johnny Cash in Nashville was tantamount to abdication in many eyes.” Some critics claim that it opened the floodgates for country rock! 51

A LEGEND CONTINUES TO GROW From Australian pop star to a Burrito Brother, to channelling Richard Marx in a Spinal Tap audition, Brian Cadd is still adding dazzling new chapters to his rich career.

By Kerrie Hickin

ou already know Brian Cadd. He’s been responsible for some of the best-loved Australian music of the 1960s and 1970s – Woman You’re Breaking Me and Such A Lovely Way with The Groop, My Baby’s Gone and Arkansas Grass with Axiom (with Glenn Shorrock from The Twilights, Little River Band), Ginger Man, Let Go, Show Me The Way and the perennial baby-shower soundtrack A Little Ray Of Sunshine. You can add to that penning the themes to Alvin Purple and Class Of ‘74, and writing massive hits for The Masters Apprentices (Elevator Driver) and John(ny) Farnham (Don’t You Know It’s Magic). And who do you think that was playing the driving keyboards underpinning Russell Morris’s monumental The Real Thing? Cadd established the successful Bootleg record label, then left Australia for the United States in the mid-1970s, eventually settling in Woodstock, New York, home of the legendary music festival. Along the way he co-wrote Love Is Like A Rolling Stone, the B-side of The Pointer Sisters’ breakthrough hit Fire. And did I mention he played with The Flying Burrito Brothers? (albeit in a later post-Gram Parsons lineup)? No degree of right-place-right-time will endure without uncanny talent and hard work. At a time when many have hung up their proverbial rock ‘n’ roll shoes, Cadd is still writing, recording and performing quality original music. His new album Silver City is testament to that. It’s bracing to see the fire still burning brightly in Cadd, as he defies expectations and busts stereotypes. The recent popular success of his contemporary Russell Morris proved beyond doubt the incredible resource of a mature music veteran who won’t shut up, who keeps creating and challenging and embracing the world, while acknowledging where they’ve been and what they’ve achieved – connecting or reconnecting with their audience and catching new fans along the way. Cadd will be performing at Out on the Weekend, playing a set of his own material, and also joining Melbourne band Lost Ragas in performing the Flying Burrito

Brothers’ 1969 album Gilded Palace of Sin album to celebrate its 50th anniversary (see story page 50). On the phone from his Woodstock home, ‘Caddy’ is chatty, charming and insightful, frequently interjecting a cheeky boyish chuckle that belies his 70-something sun revolutions. KH: Are you looking forward to Out on the Weekend? BC: I’m really excited about it. It’s a nice thing to happen after making an album in Nashville. There’s a huge body of musical work that is not country and is not really rock, that’s been so often missed over the last 50 years. The Americana movement has life all around the world, and it speaks to a future that’s a bit more inclusive, different acts and different styles coming together under the one banner … Gradually we’re getting to the point where people are absolutely able to all be part of a musical event that travels through all of those spectrums. There seems now to be a conjoining of genres. An example of this is the idea of Billy Ray Cyrus and Lil Nas X having a massive number-one single worldwide with Old Town Road. I would never have put money on them even being in the same room together they’re so diametrically opposed, but that’s so positive, and I’m hoping it will lead to more amalgamation of genres. I guess in a way The Flying Burrito Brothers were an example of that crossover? They drew from that wide array of influences. Gram Parsons loved Hank Williams and Hank Snow, but they played electric instruments, and married rock ‘n’ roll and country music together. The Byrds were folkies way back then … then all of a sudden they changed the music to electric 12-string rock. They encapsulated taking a whole bunch of influences and making something unique, started what’s now known as Americana. Like The Doors mixing Jean Paul Sartre and Blind Lemon Jefferson – how did that happen? And Led Zeppelin – no band had sounded anything like that before. It was a magical time. Now it’s me playing with

Lost Ragas. We have that common ground through music; we all ‘get it’ and can land in the same spot. They’re about half my age and were nowhere near born when a lot of this was coming about, yet they can go back to that magical, interesting and inspiring period of time. A great thrill for me is looking out into the audience, and seeing people react to the music and the songs that take them back, and to be part of that. Whatever that song is, it somehow speaks to them. What do you put your musical longevity down to? I’ve talked about this a lot with Russell Morris, Richard Clapton… artists of our age and era are still making original records, writing new songs, probably because nobody’s bothered to tell us we’re not 28 anymore! So we just assume we can keep doing it. We belong to a generation, a period in music, where originality really counted. There weren’t that many of us back then, and there were no rules, no genres. Radio DJs like Stan Rofe, Ward Austin and Bob Rogers gave us an enormous creative platform, but you didn’t have to conform to the top 20 and sound like everyone else to be given a shot, and that gave us an advantage; to be unique and stand out – there’d never been a record in history even close to Gerry Humphreys and The Loved Ones! Phenomenal. And music has always attracted people who didn’t really fit into traditional categories. It enables people, and they could all belong. I heard you tried out for Spinal Tap... The absolute truth is I failed the audition, and I’ll tell you how it happened. I was friendly with Neil Diamond’s tour manager from the scene in Los Angeles, and he said ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve put you up for an audition, for a new movie about a hapless, lunatic rock band… I think you’d probably be good!’. Oh thanks! Now think about the era when this was (mid-1980s); here I was, I was a bit older, hair going a bit grey, but I thought ‘I’m going to really try for this’ – I’m going to look like Richard Marx, who was the current hot thing at the time. I had my hair cut and dyed, my

beard trimmed like Kenny Rogers but jet black. I turned up with the latest cool groovy gear on, and they were all there, all the people from the show. They’d listened to a cassette of some of the stuff I’d done and thought that was terrific and all fine, then talked about my experiences on the road. I got on really well with them, but I could see they were really watching me, so I was really trying to be young and groovy and fabulous, you know. Anyway, we finished the audition and Michael McKean (David St Hubbins) said ‘I’ll walk you out’. We were chatting away, and when we got to the gate he said ‘Listen, mate, I really appreciate you spending the time, and it’s an interesting project. But I really feel that I should tell you, we’re actually looking for someone more old and screwed up than you are’. ‘I can do that, I can do that, that’s what I am, really!’ ‘We’ll let you know.’ And right then I knew that I’d failed that audition. And when you see the guy that got the gig… that’s what they were after! If I’d just stayed the way I was I probably would have got it. And that’s the truth of it, that’s exactly how it happened. I didn’t get to be in it, but I’m one of the few people who can actually say they tried out for Spinal Tap, and I think that’s something to be reasonably proud of. And is your philosophy, like Viv Savage’s: ‘Have a good time all the time’? I think it probably is. Nobody’s had more fun than I have in the process. People say ‘thanks for the memories’, but truthfully thank YOU for the excellent pleasure and privilege of being able to play. For 52 years now I’ve been on the road – there’s this silly old bugger who looks 140 for 22 hours of the day, and then there’s this guy who comes out on stage… he still looks 140 years old, but feels inside about 28. That gives me such a wondrous gift, to have so much fun. As long as I can still perform and get that feeling, I’ll still play. It’s the greatest. 53

THE NEW WAVE OF OLD NASHVILLE Joshua ‘Mr Jukebox’ Hedley continues to be a leading flag-bearer for classic country

ometimes I wonder about the state of ‘country music’. I know, and I’m sure you know, that there’s some great music being made in this genre, but some godawful stuff too. So, thank goodness for artists like Joshua Hedley who is not only keeping it alive but reviving the classic sounds of country and keeping it relevant. As a fiddle player Hedley has toured and played with Justin Townes Earle, Jonny Fritz, Margo Price, Robert Ellis and Jack White, among many others. But it’s what he does

By Denise Hylands under his own name that makes him the country musician, singer and songwriter that we’re all keeping an eye on. Australia is a favourite touring destination and I’ve lost count of the visits he’s made here but one thing is for sure; Out on the Weekend just wouldn’t be the same without him. Having the good fortune to have a chat with Hedley, I delved into what has made this rising star such a lover of classic country music that he’s known as the Human Jukebox and Mr Jukebox.

His is a great story. It all started with him asking his parents for a fiddle – at the age of three. What three-year-old does that? “I honestly have no idea,” he says. “My mum doesn’t know; my dad didn’t know. Maybe it was some kind of Disney film or something. Maybe Jiminy Cricket played the fiddle or something, I just don’t know. I just asked for a fiddle. They thought ‘that’s a weird thing for a three year-old to ask for’. Fast forward to eight years old and I asked again. They got me one and it was off to the races then.” Hedley’s parents put him into classical violin lessons, which he took while also learning fiddle tunes. By the time he was 10 he was sitting in with bands of middle-aged men at local American Legions clubs (the US equivalent of Australian RSLs). “They had these little country jams and I used to bring my fiddle and I knew a few tunes and I’d sit in with the band and play my tunes,” says Hedley. “It didn’t take too long after that where I could improvise solo and I started sitting in full sets with them and by 12 I was in the bars full-time pretty much and going to school.” Maybe Hedley was just born a country artist? “Yeah, it could be, maybe it’s just a kind of heavenly or supernatural thing, whatever you believe, but yeah there’s something else going on there,” he says. But while it may be in his blood, it didn’t come from his parents. “My parents didn’t listen to country music at all. They listened to oldies music. My mum really liked Neil Diamond and stuff, Johnny Mathis and my dad was into soul music. We always had the oldies station on in the car.” When Hedley was 19, he moved from his home of Naples Florida to Nashville Tennessee. Ever since he’s been a regular on Lower Broadway, playing Monday nights at Robert’s Western World, playing classic country covers for tips. He literally knows hundreds of songs and he and his band play them and take requests all night. And that’s why he’s known as the Human Jukebox. But this isn’t just a cover band he plays with; these are Nashville players with real country music history. “Yeah, definitely,” says Hedley. “My regular bass player played with Randy Travis for 15 years, my drummer Willie Cantu was the original drummer for Buck Owens & The Buckaroos from 1964 to 1968. I play a lot with a guy called Tom Killen who played

steel for George Jones for 30 years. So yeah, it’s covers, but for the guys I’m playing with, they weren’t covers when they were playing those songs – they were playing with the actual guys.” Amid his regular gigs and his famous fiddle playing, Hedley finally got around to releasing his own debut album last year, rightly called Mr Jukebox, on Jack White’s Third Man Records. It took him a while getting around to writing and doing his own thing and at 28 wrote his first song. “Yes, and no,” he says. “I wrote songs before that, but man you don’t want to hear them, that’s for sure. But I didn’t want to. I didn’t care. I was just having fun. I was playing downtown and touring with Jonny [Fritz] and I was paying the bills playing music and that pretty much has been my whole goal since I moved here was; as long as I don’t have a real job, I’ll be fine.” He wrote the song Weird Thought Thinker and played it for Fritz, who liked it so much he asked Hedley to start singing it at his shows. “He would take a break and I would play that song and I did Broken Man as well,” he says. “I figured out that people liked what I was writing and they were actually pretty good songs and I just started writing more. I figured ‘well hell, maybe I’ll try this out’ and it

ended up working out pretty well because it brought the attention of a lot of people and Jack White was one of those people.” Hedley is working on releasing a second album next year. For anyone who plays country music, the ultimate achievement and dream would be to play the famous Grand Ole Opry, a live concert broadcast on WSM radio in the US. All the legends of country have played it; Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton – you name it, if you were big in country music you played the Opry. Of course, Hedley was no exception to this dream – but he has now played it at least six times. “I played it as a fiddle player with [Justin Townes Earle] and I thought that was it. Like, ‘cool, I got to play the Opry’,” he says. “I didn’t know that I’d get to sing on it or anything. Nothing like that. They always say that you always remember the first time that you play the Opry, your debut, but the special one was the second time because after the first time it was ‘OK, well you know I got to sing on the Opry, a lot of people don’t ever get to do

that. You know, if I never get to do it again I can always say that I sang on the Opry’. Then when they call you back, it’s like ‘oh you liked it? You want me to do it again?’ And that’s my feeling every time I do it, ‘well that’s probably going to be the last time I’m sure’. And then you get the call to do it again and you go ‘oh crap, yeah, for sure I’m in’.” Well of course, they’ll have him back again. After all he’s the guy who’s leading the way and bringing that real country back to the people. “I’m sure the audience are like ‘who the hell is this guy?’, you know,” he says. “But for me the fun is getting to play with the Opry staff band. They really love playing with me because we play shuffles and stuff and they don’t ever get to do that anymore. Getting to hang out and talk with Larry Gatlin, Bill Anderson, Jennie Seely, all these people that I grew up admiring. Clearly, they’re not my peers, but it feels like we’re all there doing the same thing. It feels pretty cool to be part of the Opry family with these guys. “And I’m sure they’re loving the fact that there’s a younger generation of country artist out there like you. I have this conversation with Gene Watson every time we’re on the Opry together. It’s pretty cool to have their respect as an artist.”

HOT (CORN) DAWG, HERE COMES JONNY Buoyed by his love of a new baby and used houses, Jonny Fritz is returning to Australia on a high.

By Denise Hylands

onny Fritz has had to go to the gas station to get some propane gas while talking on the phone with me in Australia. “Oh hang on, the credit card isn’t working … OK, all sorted”. He doesn’t want to take too long; he just wants to get home to his wife and three-dayold baby girl and fire up the grill. Fritz is ecstatic about the arrival of baby Stoney Feleena Fritz. “We named her after the Jerry Jeff Walker song Stoney, and Feleena is her middle name, from the Marty Robbins song El Paso,” he says. Already Stoney is a country girl. Fritz has been making music now for more than 20 years, releasing two albums as Jonny Corndawg and two as Fritz. His 2013 album Dad Country was recorded in Jackson Browne’s studio and produced by Taylor Goldsmith from Los Angeles band Dawes, while 2016’s Sweet Creep was produced by and recorded at the studio of Jim James (My Morning Jacket, Monsters of Folk). Keeping good company? “Yeah, that’s right,” he replies. “I know. Tell me about it. I’m a lucky, lucky man. I don’t know how it happens. >> > 55

>>> I just skip along through life and land in famous people’s backyards.” A lot has changed in the life of Fritz in recent years. A move from Nashville to Los Angeles has given him a new perspective and a new career – as a real estate agent. As well as making music and crafting leather goods, he keeps himself busy. And now he’s a dad. Put the propane down Fritz, and let’s talk. So begins my interview with LA’s selfproclaimed “premier used-house salesman.” Australia has been not just a favourite destination for Fritz over the years, but THE favourite. “It’s been my absolute and ultimate goal to make it to where I only tour Australia,” he says. “It’s the only place I really care about going, I mean it quite honestly, I know it sounds like a bunch of fluff, but it’s true. I don’t care about touring the States, I don’t tour much. I just want to come to Australia. What’s the point of going anywhere else? The dream would be, if Trump gets re-elected, is there any way we can just stay in Australia? How hard is it to move there? That would be a dream.” But now that he’s a new dad, a realtor, a leather craftsman, an air brush artist, etc, will he have time to keep making new music? “I think so,” he says. “I’ve been working on a new record and writing. The problem is that I write really slow. I don’t like to write anything I don’t like. Every artist is different, but a lot of people just write because they want to make a record every 18 months or whatever the standard is, but I just can’t do it, I don’t want to do it. I don’t have any interest in making anything unless it’s something I’m really, really proud of. So, what that means is that I don’t write unless I’m really truly inspired and inspiration strikes when it wants to, and you’ve got to do something else in the meantime. So, the short answer is yes, and the long answer is very layered. “ A word Fritz likes to use to describe his songs is ‘everydayness’.

“That’s the stuff I’m really interested in. The everydayness; you know, whatever. Taking the trash out, or roller skating on the stairs. One of my favourite things to do is to just sit and people watch. And especially in America, it’s amazing. So many freaks here, this country is a country filled with geniuses and morons and there’s not much in-between. The extremes are so interesting.” Originally from Virginia, Fritz has lived in and travelled to many places. He funded his travel by being paid to take part in medical trials, which he says he did for “many, many, many, years.” “There are bunch of places in Philadelphia that do it,” he says. “You know if you look at a new medicine, new to the market and nobody’s ever taken it before and the side effects are this, this, this, and well, the reason they know what the side effects are is because of me, because I took them before anyone else was willing to for money. And it’s good money too. They pay you real well. And it’s worth it.” And the side effects? “Yeah! Sure, they’re fine. Probably maybe, I don’t know. We’ll see what the lasting effects are.” The travel has stopped for now though, with Fritz feeling like he has “finally” found his place in Los Angeles. “I really love the people here, I love the city vibe,” he says. “I grew up in the country and I just hated it, but it’s very much part of my personality and my culture and who I am. I’m very much a country boy, but I also love the city. LA is not really city and not really country, but what it does is provide you full autonomy and full anonymity. Nobody really knows who you are or really cares or bothers you. So, when you’re an observer like I am, all I want to do is watch people and not be noticed.

The Jonny Fritz & Joshua Hedley Show ...two of the finest singers and players in a fresh music partnership that’s made in country music heaven. 56

“In Nashville it got to where I knew every single person in town and couldn’t ever get any privacy … like, I’ll say I went to the grocery store this morning and someone will say ‘oh, I heard, somebody saw you there’. Damn it, golly, really? Why? Why do you know that? I just got sick of it. LA is just a vast, beautiful, weird complicated city and it’s always intrigued me. I love this place so much. I love this city.” On this Australian tour, Fritz will for the first time be doing a show alongside his old friend – and another regular visitor to these shores – Joshua Hedley. Fritz can’t say what the show will entail, because he doesn’t know himself yet. “No idea,” he admits. “I haven’t seen Josh in a long time. I’m so excited to come to Australia so I can hang out with one of my best friends that lives in America. That’s crazy. When I’m in Nashville, he’s usually on tour and doesn’t come to LA that much, so I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen him. We’re going to pull this thing together. He’s my favourite music collaborator who I’ve ever collaborated with and I just love playing music with Josh, so this is just such a treat for me as well as anybody who gets to see a show. “I think often, ‘what do people in Australia think of us American musicians who come down here?’ Like, I always come down with Josh you know, I never get to play with Josh unless I’m in Australia, so it’s just so funny. I wonder if people in Australia are like, ‘this is what it’s like always in America?’ No, it’s never like that.” So, make sure you catch the Jonny Fritz & Joshua Hedley Show; whatever it is that they will be doing, it’s guaranteed to be a good time. And think ourselves lucky that we get to see the collaboration of these two talented, funny and entertaining guys putting on their Australia-only shows.

SONGS OF OUR TIME Don Walker is one of Australia’s most acclaimed songwriters. As a member of Cold Chisel his songs have been the soundtrack to several generations. As a solo artist he has forged a formidable career. Now, Walker’s lyrics are collected in the volume Songs (Black Inc.). His ‘autobiography’ Shots’ has also been republished in hardback. Don Walker will be appearing at Out On The Weekend with his band the Suave Fucks.

By Brian Wise

hen you read, do you absorb styles or ideas or phrases when you read different authors? No, not knowingly. But sometimes I go through a phase. Twenty-five years ago, I read everything that Martin Amis had written at that point over the course of six months. Just because it was enjoyable. Well, I do read for ideas because I read nonfiction. I am, at the moment, finishing off Niall Ferguson’s The Ascent of Money. That book was written post GFC. Niall Ferguson is releasing an updated version of it. He’s an authority on matters, economics and money and also history and a very lucid writer. You were working on some fiction yourself. Has that progressed yet? I had a month or six weeks where I made a lot of progress on that last September. And I’d probably got another 30,000 words written but not since. Are we likely to see that in the near future? No. No. Lots to go. Songs contains the lyrics to about 240 songs and your observations about the background of some of those songs and the writing of them. How did growing up in rural New South Wales affect your outlook on life early? Profoundly. Because I was in my early 20s before I moved to the big city. Then the big city I moved to was Adelaide, which is not a big city at all. Prior to that are the formative years where we all form the foundations of how we look at everything from then on, no matter where we’re then living. So, it’s pretty important. When did the song writing start? Was it at high school? Was it later? Yes, that’s in the book. I was in a band in high school and we went into the national

Hoadley’s Battle of the Sounds, which used to happen in the ‘60s in Australia. You had to play three songs and those three songs were commonly, popular songs of the time. We went in with an original song. So, that was the first one that I wrote for a band. It was pretty bad. What was the first song that you ever heard of yours played on the radio and what was the feeling like when you heard the song? When we first moved to Sydney from Adelaide, which would’ve been in, I think, 1976, we did get some action with Double J, as it was then. They had a series inviting bands into their studios and doing a live radio broadcast of a half hour set or a 40-minute set. We were invited to do that very early, and those tapes still exist. So, that’s the first time I heard us on the radio. What was it like hearing yourself on the radio for the very first time, hearing one of your songs? Well, it’s a bit of a wake-up call because I think it was clear hearing that, that we weren’t as good as we thought we were. Your lyrics are very image-laden, very descriptive. Would people like Tom Waits and people like that at the time, would you have admired them, been listening to them? It was like everything was disco and pop in the ‘70s. It was a fairly vacuous time. There’s a lot of good music from that period but nothing that paints pictures in words-wise. And there are only two people at that stage. There was a new up and coming kid from New Jersey who was painting long word pictures and also painting long word pictures about his local community. So, we were listening to him and Tom Waits very much. Because the early Tom Waits

albums is where he’s just like a bar room piano player. Clearly heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong and Howlin’ Wolf - doing long, rambling word movies. The book opens with ‘Khe Sanh’….... Well, it’s an anthem, isn’t it? It’s not just a rock song it has become adopted by people as an anthem, hasn’t it? Probably in the wrong context at times, I would imagine. Sometimes. I’ve got a couple of mates who were in London watching the One Day Cricket World Cup. (I’m more of a Test fan). So, they sent back messages the day that Australia beat England at Lord’s. They said that they played ‘Khe Sanh’ through the Tannoys over Lord’s. That made me feel very good. I’m still trying to work out why that is, why they chose that particular song. I guess because it’s so redolent of the Australian experience. It doesn’t make sense in a way, does it? Well, you’re talking to the wrong person. No, none of this makes sense. Here’s a song with no chorus. Talking about songwriting: not all songs are poems, are they? Did you have any sort of trepidation about publishing a book of so many of your lyrics? Well, you’re right. Looking at lyrics on a page, you’re looking at half a song, and maybe not the important half. So, it doesn’t make absolute sense to take lyrics out and put them in writing. The place for lyrics is listening. Some lyrics to be performed, not read. That’s why for many decades I never did a lyric book. But on the other hand, I have the inconsistency of always having printed lyrics on album covers. So, at a certain point, I decided, ‘Let’s look at this and see what it would look like.’ 57

OUT ON THE WEEKEND – A GUIDE TO OTHER ARTISTS Check out rhythms.com.au for more features, profiles and interviews.

THE EASY LEAVES

The Easy Leaves from Francisco, headline and fill big rooms (Great American Music Hall, The Independent, Mystic Theatre) and have also supported the likes of Dwight Yoakam, Ry Cooder & Ricky Skaggs, Kasey Chambers, Jim Lauderdale and more. They write, record, and perform incredible songs under the guidance of Merle Haggard’s music, and countless other important poets. The Easy Leaves have written their own great collection of poetry for the common man. The 78 Project, a documentary by Spike Lee’s music supervisor currently on the festival circuit, recreating Alan Lomax’s journey to capture important American Folk music on its home porches found, recorded The Easy Leaves for their film.

From Charleston, West Virginia, Ferrell – one of the sensations of last year’s festival - has lived a life of non-stop song and music since age 20. While that makes only 10 years thus far, the depths of life and soul you hear in her voice are stunning. She sang throughout her whole childhoodand many different kinds of old songs and vinyl records and on the radio took up a fulltime residence in her songbird heart. In her singing and songs, you hear everything from Ella’s jazz, to cowboy, country, and blues influences and material. At 20, she picked up the guitar, which became her constant companion in the life of an adventurous-whimsical-rambling-traveller girl hitchhiking and hopping trains all across the country. Her latest album is Washington By The Sea, available through bandcamp.

LITTLE GEORGIA

POKEY LAFARGE

SIERRA FERRELL

Born Andrew Heissler in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1983, LaFarge developed an early interest in American literature and history, as well as roots music of the 20th century. By his teens, LaFarge was combining his passions into his own music, accompanying himself on guitar, mandolin, and banjo. After graduating high school, LaFarge adopted an itinerant lifestyle -- as well as the nickname Pokey -- and travelled around the United States, often performing on street corners. Fusing the rustic sounds 58

of the past with his own wry humour and roots music sensibilities, singer/songwriter LaFarge makes old-time country, blues, folk, and Western swing-influenced music. In November 2014, LaFarge signed a new recording deal with the respected roots music label Rounder Records, and his first album for Rounder, Something in the Water (produced by Jimmy Sutton, best-known for his work with JD McPherson), appeared in April 2015. LaFarge switched directions for 2017’s Manic Revelations, drawing inspiration from ‘60s soul music.

No strangers to the road, Australian folkrock duo Little Georgia have spent the last 4 years touring relentlessly and sharing their music around the globe. Known for their powerful live performances, collaborators Justin Carter and Ashleigh Mannix deliver beautiful harmonies and compelling lyrics amongst a sea of acoustic storytelling and crazed out electric jams. In November 2018 the duo released their debut studio album All The While, recorded and produced by Grammy Award winning producer Nick DiDia (Powderfinger, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam) at La Cueva Recording Byron Bay, along with good friends and band mates Jimmy Straayer (Bass) and Oscar Henfrey (Drums). Built on the foundations of a strong work ethic, a passion for music, and a deep friendship, the pair have toured extensively throughout Australia, Japan and North America.

SEAN MCMAHON & THE OWLS

Singing her heart out along endless roads and stages, from her days as a young girl in Canada touring with the Neilson Family band, opening for the likes of Johnny Cash, to her full blossoming in New Zealand as a formidable talent in her own right, Tami Neilson has won the Tui Award for each of her past four albums. In 2014, Tami was also awarded the APRA Silver Scroll, New Zealand’s most prestigious music award for excellence in songwriting, for her song ‘Walk (Back to Your Arms)’, as well as Best Female Artist at the National Country Music Awards and APRA’s “Best Country Song” at the NZ Country Music Awards. Check out her albums to date: Dynamite, Don’t Be Afraid and Sassafrass.

DEE WHITE

MOLLY TUTTLE As a teenager growing up in the sprawl of outer suburban Melbourne, Sean McMahon sought refuge in music. A profound moment came at an early age when his band mate, guitar teacher and mentor passed away suddenly. Over a decade later and a handful of releases Sean has honed a poetic and melodic style of songwriting that’s loaded lyrical beauty in the form of confessional narratives and vivid story telling. Throughout his musical journey he has never lost sight of that ultimate musical prize: a good song. Sean’s latest record You Will Know When You’re There was recorded over a year with engineer and producer Roger Bergodaz and a broad cast of Melbourne musicians.

TAMI NEILSON

A virtuosic, award-winning guitarist with a gift for insightful songwriting, Molly was crowned Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2018 Americana Music Awards on the strength of her Rise EP, which was followed by the album When You’re Ready, produced by Ryan Hewitt (The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers). Since moving to Nashville in 2015, the native Californian has been welcomed into folk music, bluegrass, Americana, and traditional country communities. Over the past year, Molly has continued to accumulate accolades, winning Folk Alliance International’s honour for Song of the Year for ‘You Didn’t Call My Name’ and taking home her second trophy for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Guitar Player of the Year (the first woman in the history of the IBMA to win that honour).

Dee White calls himself a “Southern gentleman” on his 2019 debut, but because the singer/songwriter leans hard on his Alabama background, his stylized retro-country evokes a past that doesn’t necessary belong to the land south of the Mason-Dixon line. Producer Dan Auerbach creates an elegant, hazily lush setting that evokes the soft country-rock emanating from Laurel Canyon at the dawn of the ‘70s. (Think Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band). Well-versed in the softer side of ‘70s progressive country, White pens songs of love, heartbreak, and rambling with subtle grace. White’s album, Southern Gentleman, released on Auerbach’s label, features some of the best players you’ll find anywhere!

A European I’m always grateful for the road. It seems to bring with it a clarity and simplicity that I never feel at home. In late June my band and I headed north to traipse around the UK and Europe for the third consecutive year, and this time I scribbled down a few words along the way.

Port Hedland – Red Country Music Festival – June 22 - 23 It seems a little strange to start in far north-West Australia, amid the red dirt and salt mines, but that’s just how it’s panned out for us. This is an extraordinary place, and by Sunday evening we are sad to be saying goodbye to our new friends – especially local hero Bradley Hall and his manager Christina, who are the kind folks that invited us up here. I‘ll never forget our late night visit to a South Hedland nightclub - Pat Wilson and I two-stepped on the dancefloor – two grown men in cowboy hats, hand in hand in the outback. Somehow we lived to tell the tale. It’s hard to imagine we’ll be in the Swiss Alps within a few days – but in the meantime we vow to return to Port Hedland any time they’ll have us.

Melbourne to London – June 25 - 26

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After a brief return to Melbourne to collect our suitcases we climb back on to another plane, bound for London. We stop in Brunei, where for an hour or so Shaun (bass) proudly holds the title of ‘drunkest man on the island’ (due to the fact that he carried his own wine on to the dry airline and consumed all of it toward the end of the six hour flight). We hit the ground running to a full and receptive room for North London’s What’s Cookin series. By midnight we’re zombies.

Steendam – June 28

We drove through Thursday and most

of today from London to the northern part of The Netherlands, stopping the night in Lille, on the French/Belgian border. The show is in a quaint listening room that has hosted many of our American friends and a few of our heroes over the years. I’m thrilled to find that the Dutch speak

On stage at Port Hedland

Tour Diary brilliant English – enough to laugh at my jokes and even to question me about lyrics after the show. Earlier in the day we visited a town with no roads – only canals - and there I discovered that scooping sugary whipped cream on to my black coffee is delicious, but not great for my lactose-intolerant stomach. Now we get some rest before the ten-hour drive through Germany and France down to the bottom of Switzerland, with a 7pm sound-check and 9pm show at the end of it.

Valais – June 29 We made it – and it was worth it. It’s Sunday morning now and I’m in a luxury hotel suite, looking out across the Swiss and Italian Alps. It’s 30 degrees at our current elevation of 2000 metres, but obviously a little colder when you get up another kilometre or so as there’s still snow on the peaks. Last Sunday I woke in Port Hedland, now I’m in the complete opposite place – a medieval village where everything is built from stone. My hangover is thanks to Swiss wine (who knew that existed?) and I’m bracing myself for the treacherous drive back down the mountain, into the valley, on to the road-train and back through the mountain pass on the other side that will eventually take us to Frutigen.

Frutigen, Bern and Biel - June 30 to July 3 Yesterday our new single (the appropriately titled ‘The Road’) came out, and I also saw my first dead human body. Our show was outdoors in a public park in Bern, and I wandered down by the river to get away from it all. He was a man, in his 60s I’d say, naked and bloated, having drowned a day or two ago

before eventually floating to the surface and drifting to the river bank. There were police there already, and I probably could have avoided looking, but that’s just not in my nature. Whilst that put everything else in perspective, I can still say that the shows have been good since I last wrote. We’ve met an Argentinian band – Angry Zeto and The Hillbullies - a ragged crew of gypsies after our own hearts. We like each other very much.

Biel – July 4 It’s our last show in Switzerland and the venue is in the middle of a horse ranch. We’ve been here before and we feel at home amongst friends like Conny and Reto, who hosted us on our earliest Swiss adventures. Through the day we visited a Roman amphitheatre in and walked the walls of the ancient town of Murton. I continue to try and speak French and German in cafes and restaurants, and the Swiss continued to answer me in English. Speaking of languages, a nice review comes in for our Dutch show, which we’re able to read via google translate. Some of it is unintentionally hilarious.

Maverick Festival – July 5-7 Two years ago we scraped on to the bill of Maverick – the UK’s original Americana festival – thanks to the tireless persuasion of our then-booker Kim. Now we’re back for a third consecutive year, playing the

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main stage on Saturday and hosting our own ‘Wildes and friends’ show to close out the festival on Sunday afternoon. It’s a wonderful festival, with five stages, set on a farm in the lovely Suffolk countryside. Our friend Hannah Aldridge is there, playing with Chance from Old Crow Medicine Show, whilst my favourite comedian Rich Hall hosts an evening of political songs on the indoor stage. I’m invited by him to sing an Australian tune, and I choose Khe Sanh. Imogen Clark joins me on unrehearsed backing vocals, though I’m sure she’s screamed them in a pub at some time. We play a spontaneous midnight set on the outside stage on Saturday and a crowd of night-owls gathers. It was meant to go for twenty minutes but time gets away from us and we play for an hour and a half.

York – July 9

Scarborough – July 13

After Maverick we take some downtime at the thousand yearold Framlingham Castle, where Riley and I don real medieval jousting helmets and stumbled around the gift shop. We also spend a few hours horse-riding in Sherwood Forest, living out our Robin Hood fantasies (which were mostly caused by the cartoon version). A sold-out listening room in York awaits us, as do our friends Dan (Webster), Emily and Rich. Dan opens the show with his evocative and quite traditional brand of English folk. He’s accompanied by Emily – twenty years old and straight out of a Bronte Sisters novel - on violin and backing vocals. It’s a beautiful sound. Rich doesn’t play this year but we share some drinks and he teaches us to speak like Yorkshiremen and women.

Whilst Friday’s venue housed rare vinyl, tonight’s takes things a step further. The Woodend Gallery, once owned and occupied by the eccentric Sitwell family, contains the wold’s only stuffed Galapagos Turtle, an almost as rare Aardvark (also stuffed) and Britain’s largest collection of bird’s eggs. Scarborough is a proper British seaside town, overlooked by a crumbling castle, and home to the famous Scarborough Fair. The setting couldn’t be better, and the show is sold out. It’s suddenly dawned on me that we really are on the final stretch.

Nottingham – July 10 It’s a return to Nottingham for us, but in a new venue with a lovely responsive crowd. Tonight it feels like we’re amongst family and, for all intents and purposes, we are. Shaun and I lived a short, past life in the area – whilst Riley, Ali and Imogen have been quickly adopted. Our show was promoted by the ‘Cosmic American Booking Agency’, which can only be a good thing. Imogen has a nine-year old super-fan in the audience, Sadie, with whom she poses for photos before and after the show. I’m impressed with Sadie’s parents for keeping her out til midnight when our set finishes – seems like their daughter might have a good rock n roll future. Earlier today we recorded a live-to-the-internet performance for The Moonshine Sessions, filmed at a great studio in town where Jake Bugg made much of his breakthrough record. Nottingham feels like home.

Birmingham – July 11 It seems no-one speaks fondly of Birmingham, especially the locals, but our experience at The Kitchen Garden – a listening room set in a nursery – is more than pleasant. It’s our first time in the city and we’re thrilled that folks who saw us at Maverick have turned out, including David from the excellent roots blog Three Chords and the Truth, who’s written about us many times but I’d previously never met. Our show stretches to around two hours and Imogen bravely battles nausea to thump her tambourine for its entirety, whilst Riley steps up and plays a couple of his tunes also. Afterwards we stay in a beautiful 17th century cottage, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

London – July 14 The Green Note is a home ground for Americana in London, and our third visit turns out to be my favourite yet. I have family at the show, which usually would make me nervous, but at the end of a tour such as this one they are a welcome addition. Earlier we browsed the record stores and vintage shops of Camden, and checked in to our final hotel room of the tour (we chose a family hostel room for tonight – partly because we want to spend this last bit of time all together, but mostly because London is damned expensive!) Our three weeks have flown, and we leave with hearts heavy but spirits high, thanks mainly to the good lovin’ we’ve encountered from roots music fans particularly here in the UK - who seems to have developed a fondness for our ragged little group’s regular visits. Despite smashing two bottles of duty-free wine on the concrete floor at Heathrow, I board the plane home with a renewed passion for touring, Shaun R and our next yan in th e alps year’s northern excursions already in my sights. Long may the road continue.

Liverpool – July 12 In Liverpool we favour the haunting relic known as the bombed-out church, with its gold coin entry fee and modest canvas deck chair observation lounge, above the over-hyped Matthew Street - replete with Beatles cover-bands, karaoke bars and replica Cavern Club (a theme park version of the Fab Four ‘home-ground’ – necessitated by the fact that the original club became a car-park in a 1970s city-planning debacle). The church itself, its insides destroyed by heavy fire from the Nazis in 1941, would make a fine open-roofed concert venue – but for tonight our show is at 81 Renshaw, a record-store in the front, dimly lit rock venue in the back. I browse rare vinyl up until show time, and we play through a wonderfully loud PA to a room filled with rusted-on Americana fans. 62

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MATCHLESS

Ian Moss’s debut solo album was an unqualified success and gave him a career outside Cold Chisel. By Brian Wise As a member of one of Australia’s most successful bands ever it must have been daunting for Ian Moss to embark on a solo career, but he managed to race out of the blocks in August 1989 with a platinumselling, award-winning debut album in Matchbook. Nine of the songs were written or co-written by fellow Chisel member Don Walker (also featured in this issue) with the singles ‘Tucker’s Daughter’ and ‘Telephone Booth’ making the Top 10 with the album racing to No.1 and remaining in the Top 10 for more than three months. To celebrate three decades since its release the album, which was produced by moss and Chris Lord-Alge, has been reissued with a bonus collection of never before released live recordings (with nine songs recorded at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion in November 1989) and rare B-sides (including a cover of jazz standard ‘Angel Eyes’, the Don Walker co-write ‘The Dummy’ and Ian’s self-penned ‘Islands’ and ‘Answermachine Blues’). Moss won five ARIA awards for Matchbook, including Best Australian Album, Best Australian Male Artist and Best Australian Single, Australian Song of The Year for Tucker’s Daughter and, amusingly enough Best Breakthrough Artist (for a musician whose band was played on radio more than any other Australian band in history!). “It was a good night, and it was all on video,” explains Moss when I ask him why he chose the specific Hordern Pavilion show to release as part of the anniversary package. “It was recorded and has never been released. It’s nuts, not a bootleg cassette, two track thing. It’s seriously recorded properly.” The disc includes an epic version of ‘Bow River’ – though every time I have seen Moss in concert he always does an epic version of that song! “Yeah, they all tend to be a little bit epic,” he laughs. “Just cannot stick to the five minutes or four minutes, whatever it is on record. I’m pretty happy with that version. A seven-piece band, back at the time, with some quality musicians of the day.”

Moss grew up in Alice Springs where he played in a number of local bands as a teenager before relocating to Adelaide at the age of 17. “I’m thankful that growing up in Alice Springs I heard the ABC play lots of Sam Cooke and Ray Charles,” he recalls. “So, vocally I was being influenced by that kind of thing. Musically, there for a while, there wasn’t a lot to be influenced by. The radio was awash with ‘Yellow Polka Dot Bikini’, ‘James (Hold the Ladder Steady)’, ‘Purple People Eater’.” “But just in time, as I’d sort of jumped off classical piano - because I unfortunately wasn’t into it - suddenly, bang, there was Hendrix! There was Cream and the rest of it. So, it was a pretty good time to have picked up a guitar.” I tell Moss that when I heard Hendrix it was like hearing someone from Mars. I’d never heard anything like it before. Is that the same effect that it had on you? “Oh, absolutely. Absolutely,” he agrees. “Yeah, you’re right. What the hell is this? It was just wonderful. It was great. The other thing that happened in Alice Springs is suddenly the town became half American as the Pine Gap thing seemed to be built overnight. Suddenly, overnight the school was half-full of American students, but they brought with them Led Zeppelin 1 and Jimmy Hendrix Smash Hits and so on, so forth.” In September 1973 Moss formed a band with Don Walker and within a few moths they had recruited Steve Prestwich on drums and Jimmy Barnes, a Scottish immigrant, on vocals. Later they were joined by bassist Phil Small. By November 1977 the band had moved to Sydney, after a stint in Melbourne, and were signed to

Warners. Within a few years they were one of the biggest bands in the country but by 1983 the band had split with decades of reunions and more albums to come. “By the time it came out it’d been six years since Cold Chisel had called it a day,” recalls Moss. “So, it was probably a little bit overdue. What was going on? Up till that point, I guess I was a little shell-shocked for a couple of years, and then sort of said, ‘Well, I’ve got to keep going here.’ Lucky, I had Don Walker in my corner, helping out with the writing and coming up with songs. I was a bit slow with the writing myself and still am. I was just trying to pick some songs and taking my time about doing it but possibly making the right decisions in going to America and choosing someone like Chris Lord-Alge to produce and mix the album.” Moss said that he did not have a lot of expectations for the album but was “pretty chuffed” when the lead-off single ‘Tucker’s Daughter’ was a hit. “Complete surprise at the ARIAs,” he says. “Fairly overwhelmed. “It was a bit of a clean-up job, wasn’t it? I was a bit shellshocked by it and it didn’t hit me till a few days later how well I’d done.” The 30th anniversary edition of Matchbook is out now through Warner Music. Ian Moss is out on tour in November. 65

LOUIE SHELTON It took me by surprise when a few years ago while touring Queensland I was introduced to Louie. The adjectives legendary and iconic are bandied about a lot these days but I can honestly say that in Louie Shelton’s case they are beyond dispute. He’s truly a major figure in the guitar world and incredibly important in the history and development of guitar in the recording of rock, pop and country.

my background of many different musical influences and having paid a lot of attention to pop music. I remember you telling me that you weren’t a sight reader and at one point you even pretended you could. I guess a good ear comes in handy! Were there times when you felt the lack of reading skills was a limitation? I often feared that one day someone would come in with a chart for me to read, but it never happened thank goodness!

As an integral part of the Wrecking Crew, that group of session players who played on literally thousands of hits, his name is linked with Hal Blaine, “the” session drummer, Carol Kaye “the” session bassist and other LA session guitar icons such as Tommy Tedesco, Lee Ritenour and of course a pivotal figure in his story, fellow Arkansas native and long- time friend Glen Campbell. From his first sessions in LA for Boyce and Hart and the wonderful ‘Last Train to Clarkesville’ and ‘Valerie’ riffs, Louie churned out countless memorable parts and ultimately became a platinum producer too. He played guitar on and produced the huge hits for Seals and Crofts such as ‘Summer Breeze’ and ‘We May Never Pass This Way Again’. Particularly on his work with The Monkees you can hear glimpses of some of his early influences such as Chet Atkins, Hank Garland and Jimmy Bryant and later an even more diverse layer of influences via an early friend, the great Reggie Youngplayers such as Barney Kessel ,Johnny Smith and the octave work of Wes Montgomery. Later, he produced recordings for Art Garfunkel, England Dan and John Ford Coley and on to producing and recording a significant number of Australian artists including Southern Sons and Noiseworks. He has recorded seven solo albums and continues to record and produce from his home studio on the Gold Coast. It’s fair to say that I could fill this magazine with stories of those incredible sessions but for starters what would be one exceptional moment that often comes to mind? There are many sessions that I often look back on as great memories, Boz Scaggs, 66

By Nick Charles

How did the transition from side-man to producer happen? I had been thinking I could be a pretty good producer with my knowledge of the best musicians and my ability to communicate with them. It happened suddenly when Herb Alpert asked me to produce England Dan and John Ford Coley for A&M records. Were there ever times when you felt your contribution to a track constituted something so substantial that it warranted composer status? Lionel Richie, all the Motown sessions. But probably the one that stands out the most was my first Monkees’ session. It was my first time in a real world class studio (RCA) in Hollywood. The excitement and anticipation of something I had dreamed about and worked toward for many years… to become a session player. I have to ask – do you still have the ’51 Telecaster? I wish I still had that Tele, my first real guitar. We could only afford one guitar in those days so when I moved on to a Gibson 350T like Chuck Berry’s I had to trade the Tele in for it. I do have a mad search team looking for the Tele though…somewhere in Arkansas. How did the style you exhibited on ‘Last Train to Clarkesville’ evolve? The Clarksville guitar lick was with a flat pick a Tele and a Super Reverb amp. The style and approach was a combination of

Looking back I can think of several instances where I deserved to share writer’s credit for my contribution. Definitely ‘Last Train to Clarksville’ would be one. In those days as session players we didn’t consider that possibility. Now guys get writers credit for programming a kick drum. How inspiring was it working with great composers such as Quincy Jones or Henri Mancini- people who were not only technically clever but musically brilliant and inventive. It must have been a constant learning process and inspiring? It was always exciting to work with those great composers. For one thing it was usually a big session for film or some major recording artist and major album. The real excitement was when they were working for me and adding strings and horns to whatever artist I was producing. It was always a surprise to see what they came up with and they never let me down. During those session days in LA exactly how busy were you? Were you able to do

gigs or could you make a comfortable living in the studio? From the beginning of my session career I was doing three sessions a day five or six days a week. A session is a three hour block of time where you were usually expected to complete tracks for three songs. A typical day would be a 10am-1pm at one studio, head to another studio for a 2pm-5pm session, a dinner break and then off to a 7pm -10pm session. You can do the math but that adds up to a lot of sessions over several years. Some artists like Neil Diamond would block book us for two weeks-two sessions a day to try and complete an album in that time frame. The pay for a session musician was like winning the lotto compared to what we made playing in the clubs six nights a week for years. Would you say that Seals and Crofts was a standout moment for you as a producer?

Where We Belong’, to Whitney Houston’s ‘Saving all My Love for You’. That’s quite apart from all those surprisingly rootsy guitar moments on the recordings for The Monkees and others from that era. The great session players had technique, versatility, imagination and a quick melodic sense. Three songs in three hours day in day out – can you imagine! I haven’t even covered that guitar collection thank you very much. Maybe another time.

Visit louieshelton.com for quite an astounding legacy.

Seals and Crofts were my first real success as a producer. It was very exciting the first time I heard one of my productions on the radio. ‘Summer Breeze’ spent about a year on the charts and I had many compliments from my fellow engineers and producers. What prompted your move to Australia? We moved to Australia for a better lifestyle and a great place to raise our children. At the time Men at Work, INXS and Midnight Oil were doing great so I figured there was a good music industry there. We love everything about living in Australia. Do you keep in touch with the remaining Wrecking Crew? So many of my fellow members have passed on but I do still keep in touch with the few that are still with us. You have a wonderful studio of your own now. What are some of your finer moments there recording and producing others? I just love working in my studio whether it’s doing my own albums or working with a new artist helping them achieve their best with their new songs. So call me blissfully unaware but I had no idea that a player and producer with such a track record resided here. A quick listen to Louie’s website samples reveal some of his studio moments such as the exacting recordings of later Motown - Michael Jackson’s ‘I’ll Be There’, Dianna Ross’s ‘Touch Me In The Morning’, the jazz and funk inflections of Lionel Ritchie’s hits and other subtle embellishments as well as the cool solos on tracks from Joe Cocker, ‘Up 67

By Martin Jones

HOLD YOUR FIRE and ‘Magic Door’ (CRB’s second album was title The Magic Door!) with great groove, nimble time signature changes and epic guitar solos.)

My favourite vinyl ‘revelations’ are the ones that lead you on to a series of further discoveries. I’d never heard of British outfit Patto until a very rare and collectable copy of their second album, Hold Your Fire, fell into my hands. The flipping three-panel cover is a piece of genuine early ‘70s psychedelic art alerting the beholder to the unconventional nature of the recorded contents. On first listen, Hold Your Fire erupts like a cross between Zappa’s irreverent virtuosity and Pink Floyd’s defiant social commentary. Olly Halsall’s guitar playing leaps out of the recordings – vivacious, unconventional and impossibly nimble. At the time of recording Hold Your Fire, Halsall had only been playing guitar for about four years and had already reached a level of skill that most guitarists spend a lifetime striving for and never attain! Halsall originally began playing drums professionally in his early teens, then switched to vibraphones to join a Modern Jazz Quartet inspired outfit Take 5. That band evolved into Timebox in which Halsall switched to guitar and hooked up with the members of what would become Patto – singer Mike Patto, bassist Clive Griffiths, and drummer John Halsey. By 1970, when Patto formed, Halsall had already become an accomplished guitarist and the band built their set around heavy jazz/rock originals, showcased on their debut self-titled album. A powerful, versatile vocalist, Mike Patto was involved in dozens of interesting projects in the ‘60s and ‘70s, including Keith Tippet’s Centipede project, stints with Spooky Tooth and Dick and the Firemen, and a later collaboration with Halsall called Boxer. It was while Boxer was in full flight that Mike Patto was diagnosed with cancer which claimed his life in 1979. 68

Reviewers at the time seemed to have particular trouble with the album’s dark lyrics. Disc and Music Echo Magazine called the band “disturbing”, claiming that, “The disturbance comes from the pair’s lyrics which tackle subjects straight from the gutter, and pull no punches.” Melody Maker said, “Their lyrics rather suffer from a paranoiac out look of seeing everything in terms of “us and them”, the longhair persecuted by society…”

The debut Patto album introduced the band to producer Muff Winwood, brother of Steve, who set to work recording the band much as they sounded live. It’s the hardest, heaviest, and most conventional of the band’s albums. It was with the second album that Winwood and the band were able to stretch their wings and really experiment. In particular, Halsall’s guitar playing had evolved dramatically in the span of just one year and right from the opening title track, his lead work is featured prominently. Though the song features one of the album’s less adventurous structures, Halsall takes flight over the driving groove, taking cues from contemporaries like Ritchie Blackmore and Jimmy Page but stretching into lightning jazz influenced runs that approach John McLaughlin fusion territory. The great appeal of this record is the band’s ability to successfully combine the hearty rock ‘n’ roll groove of The Faces or The Stones with more adventurous jamming and unconventional lyrical content. (You can hear modern bands like Chris Robinson Brotherhood in songs like ‘Give It All Away’

To my ears, the lyrics on Hold Your Fire are the kind of fare Pink Floyd built a massive career on; “us and them” indeed. One of the more unconventional passages of the album, ‘Air Raid-Shelter’, brings the band’s jazz influences to the fore, displaying not only Halsall’s guitar skills, but the versatility of the rhythm section, Griffiths and Halsey switching into bop jazz mode. It’s a pretty jaw-dropping piece of music that backs up the reports that Patto was an unruly, unpredictable live outfit. That side of the band’s nature was explored even further on the third album, ‘Roll ‘Em Smoke ‘Em, Put Another Line Out’, with Halsall playing more keyboards than guitar, and the band getting even more playful and experimental. Though Patto only left behind three official releases (and a fourth unreleased album, Monkey’s Bum) what they did leave is intriguing enough to spend hours enjoying and to warrant further investigation into the band members’ many other musical projects. It’s not easy to find the Patto records on vinyl, but they’ve all been reissued on CD over the years.

LOST IN THE SHUFFLE By Keith Glass In the 60’s/70’s/80’s major record labels worldwide maintained a massive album release schedule. Only a comparatively few artists scored a hit, others became ‘cult’ classics. Beyond that exists an underbelly of almost totally ignored work, (much never reissued) that time has been kind to. This is a page for the crate diggers.

RONIN

Mercury SRM 1-3832 1980 Former pop star/manager and record producer Peter Asher must have enough gold records for his own hits (as half of Peter & Gordon) plus artists he has been associated with to line the walls of a Hollywood mansion – if he chooses to do so. James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, of course, would be well represented and all up his producing batting average would have to be high with over one hundred albums listed bearing his name. Also included are other major artists such as Tina Turner, Olivia Newton-John, Cher, Bonnie Raitt…maybe he would need a bungalow extension to cram them all in. Perhaps, as he is concurrently touring Australia, you can find more information. Maybe even somewhere else in this magazine. However, there is at least one artist, (or group in this instance) that wouldn’t make the Asher award wall. In fact, they don’t even make the list of his productions in two places I’ve looked yet are the subject of this piece. Ignored? Almost totally! Any good? Again, almost totally! In that one pretty ‘naff track shouldn’t spoil the whole darn bunch. Especially when the rest is some of the best bar band rock to come out of an era already split between new age style over substance and emerging electro/synth wasteland. (OK, of course there are always exceptions.)

The key is, RONIN isn’t any ordinary bar band. It’s made up of guys with tons of chops who got to play day in/day out for major recording artists. The main protagonist (in that he wrote most of the songs, sings them and plays lead guitar) is one Waddy Wachtel. Easy to dismiss or misrepresent Waddy as the archetypical long-haired, bare armed rocker you bring into a sedate surrounding to rough things up. It’s what he does and he is still doing it. The name of the group may (or may not) be taken from a Marvel comic character – some Japanese writing at the bottom of the front cover could shed some light if I could read it. In any event what this album did was allow Waddy to go ‘back to his roots’ – semi-famous for his penchant for old guitars (main axe being a 1960 Gibson Les Paul) seemingly never having a hair cut, or (as previously mentioned) sleeves on his shirt. He is at heart, no more or less than a genuine nuggety little East-Coast rocker. Waddy had traveled west with a band from New York with the promise of a record deal. That fell through but session work beckoned. In 1973 he cut a 45 (under just the name Waddy) that was pretty tough, incredibly obscure and pointed the way to

this album. Fellow RONIN members Dan Dugmore (guitars) Stanley Sheldon (bass) and Rick Marotta (drums) were right there with him in the session trenches. All were seasoned musicians both in the studio and on the road. Alas, the magic mojo was missing to make them road warriors of their own domain. Yet that aspect is key to what draws me back to the album. As the final track (a Stones like tour de force delivered by Waddy) puts it, it just ‘Feels Right.’ That track and a bunch of others (‘Hey, Nadine’/’Here Come The Runner’/’Love’s Coming Into My Life Again’) could have rocked anyone’s world if it wasn’t (by 1980) so compartmentalised, synthesized and pretty much concurrently Aphex Aural Exciter injected. To Peter Asher’s credit studio tricks are seemingly non-existent, any fluff (apart from the appearance of the UCLA Men’s Chorus) is not applicable and, hey, this album sounds real good, right now. As a calling card for membership in Keith Richard’s X-Pensive Wino’s maybe the album served its purpose for Waddy. Like Keith, Wachel looks just the ticket to be rockin’ till the day he dies. 69

UNDERWATER IS WHERE THE ACTION IS By Christopher Hollow

LEWSBERG LEWSBERG CARGO

If music like Talking Heads, the Modern Lovers and the Velvet Underground Rogers your Hammerstein, then Netherlands band, Lewsberg, is a destination for you. They put Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman and David Byrne in the blender and come out with a Dutch treat on that New York/Boston sound and aesthetic. ‘Terrible’ has a fab opening line: ‘I’m about to do something terrible, I’m about to do something nice.’ The spoken-word numbers, ‘Non-Fiction Writer’ and ‘The Smile’, are hookier, clipped-English versions of VU’s ‘The Gift’; ‘Chances’ is a peppy two-chorder that devolves into white noise while ‘Carried Away’ is the only track that left me unfulfilled and maybe that has to do with the guitar figure that sounds like I’m back in the schoolyard singing: ‘Jesus Christ Superstar, burning up to Heaven on a Yamaha’.

Echo in the Canyon is a documentary and soundtrack that celebrates that hipsterville, Laurel Canyon, circa 19651967 when the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Mamas & Papas reigned supreme. The label says various artists and that’s true (there’s heaps of duets), but there’s one sleepy voice that appears on every track and that’s the Wallflowers Jakob Dylan, son of Bob. Some of the song selections are thought-provoking, especially given the abundant playlist this zip code offers: like Cat Power singing Gene Clark’s ‘You Showed Me’ (an incredible song that the Byrds, or Clark, never released during their heyday), Regina Spektor on Neil Young’s ‘Expecting to Fly’, which strips back the famous Jack Nitzsche production and Love’s underrated gem, ‘No Matter What You Do’. It’s a big oversight that one Canyon queen, Joni Mitchell, doesn’t get a look in or, indeed, the Doors and you can throw Sonny & Cher in there too, but it’s fabulous hearing Dylan reigniting David Crosby’s ‘What’s Happening?!?!’ and Norah Jones taking on the Association’s ‘Never My Love’.

PURPLE MOUNTAINS Purple Mountains Drag City

Berman, is a brilliant and troubled person. I mean, it’s not a surprise – he is the son of one of America’s most notoriously hard-arse conservative lobbyists, Richard Berman. During the 90s, Berman released a bunch of records including 1998’s American Water that still sound fantastic. When the Silver Jews disbanded in 2009, one of the reasons given was Berman’s determination to expose the evils of his father. Now, he’s back under the moniker Purple Mountains with the same deep voice and same sardonic outlook best heard on ‘All My Happiness is Gone’ (‘Friends are warmer than gold when you’re old/And keeping them is harder than you might suppose’) and ‘Snow is Falling in Manhattan’ (‘Housed within the song’s design is the ghost the host has left behind’). Another highlight, and maybe the shot at his father that he’s always wanted to land, is ‘I Loved Being My Mother’s Son’.’ Berman’s death was a genuine shock, despite all the indicators. The joy of listening to this new record, and the old Silver Jews ones, came from Berman transcending whatever troubles are detailed. Now it’s a much harder listen.

KHRUANGBIN HASTA EL CIELO Dead Oceans

VARIOUS ARTISTS ECHO IN THE CANYON Warner

I penned a review the day before David Berman died, aged 52. I wrote, ‘The former front man for New York indie band, the Silver Jews, David 70

Khruangbin are the Texas indie band with the Thai name releasing instrumental records with Spanish titles. Hasta El Cielo is a dub-take on their 2018

album, Con Todo El Mundo (a record I’ve recommended to many over the past year). Dub-remixes are the type of idea musicians love to do. Dub sounds so great. But, should you? Here, Khruangbin tend to substitute the original hooks and replace them with Prince Jammy style-echo, which makes it more wallpaper-y and less exciting than the original (which I still recommend).

VARIOUS ARTISTS ONCE UPON A TIME IN … HOLLYWOOD Columbia

There was a time when Quenten Tarantino revitalised film soundtracks in the same way he helped inspire a reassessment of B-grade cinema. Is that time now? Probably not. Still, there’s a couple gems on this latest soundtrack including the Los Bravos mono version of the Harry Vanda-George Young Easybeats number, ‘Bring a Little Lovin’, with its earpoppin’ Northern soul bassline and vocal hooks. There’s other impressive tracks from Deep Purple (‘Hush’), Paul Revere & The Raiders (‘Good Thing’) and Chad & Jeremy doing their Bee Gee thing on ‘Paxton Quigley’s Had the Course’ but the other track that might be a genuine surprise to music lovers is the flea-market funk of The Village Callers with their instrumental number, ‘Hector’, recorded live in 1968 at a Pico Rivera club in LA called The Plush Bunny (which is Tarantino all over).

YOU WON’T HEAR THIS ON THE RADIO By Trevor J. Leeden MOLLY TUTTLE

THE RUBINOOS

CAAMP

Compass Records/Planet

Yep Roc/Planet

Mom+Pop/Planet

WHEN YOU’RE READY

FROM HOME

BY AND BY

VARIOUS ARTISTS

VISION & REVISION: THE FIRST 80 YEARS OF TOPIC RECORDS Topic/Planet

With an award-winning flatpicking guitar technique and an acute ear for captivating melody, Tuttle has all the weapons in her armoury to become a superstar. The 25-year-old’s debut album strays a long way from her new bluegrass leanings and is, instead, a polished set of folk tinged country-pop confessionals. Like Kacey Musgraves, it would seem Tuttle has made a conscious pitch to travel a more mainstream orbit and When You’re Ready should be the vehicle to launch her towards stardom.

MARK MOLDRE FEVER DREAMS

Yellow Moon Records

Forty years after their infectious brand of power pop temporarily took the world by storm, they’re back (some say they never went away!) bigger and better than ever. Produced by fellow San Franciscan Chuck Prophet (who also doubles down on songwriting duties), Messrs Rubin, Dunbar, Spindt and Chan are right on top of their game. The songs, a garage infused set of pure pop songs, burst with energy and a decidedly quirky view of the world. There are too many highlights to mention, best just to listen and pogo-a-go-go.

Their name may sound like a shoegazing Icelandic post-rock combo, but these Ohio lads are anything but. Firmly built around Evan Westfall’s delightful banjo licks and Taylor Meier’s Ray LaMontagne meets Steve Forbert vocals, the dozen folk-driven vignettes are a laid-back joy that, on songs like the bouncy ‘Peach Fuzz’, occasionally strain at the bit to run wild. ‘On & On & On’, ‘No Sleep’, ‘Huckleberry Love’ and the heart-wrenching ‘Of Love And Life’ demand repeat listens, and that banjo is just sublime.

WHISTLE DIXIE

KEEP ON

BLAST OFF

SOUTHERN AVENUE Concord Music/Planet

Impromptu Music

The world’s oldest independent label celebrates in style. Topic has pieced together 20 newly recorded versions of folk standards that are, without exception, outstanding. With a ‘Who’s Who’ of the UK’s finest performers to draw upon, such is the esteem the imprint is held in that there is the added bonus of numerous artists who have never recorded for the label also making a contribution. And so, the Topic back catalogue is redefined by revered stalwarts including various Carthys, Peggy Seeger, Oysterband, Martin Simpson, and (ring in) Richard Thompson. It’s exhilarating listening.

MICHAELA ANNE DESERT DOVE Yep Roc/Planet

It’s taken six years for the New South Welshman to deliver his third solo album, but the wait has well and truly been worth it. The ten originals crackle with spontaneity and raw energy, from the ramshackle Waitsian jazz-noir of the wonderfully titled ‘Full Moon Over Luna Park’ to the serrated fierceness of the psychrock title track. Fever Dreams is a shape shifting exploration of blues and jazz, rough around the edges and an entirely compelling listen.

Judging by the Newcastle quintet’s entertaining debut, there’s clearly more to be found in Newcastle than the hard rock the city’s renowned for. Across a dozen originals, Whistle Dixie effortlessly travel diverse American roads that include some stomping rockabilly, high stepping Texas Swing, some high-octane Bakersfield sound, barrelhouse piano blues and lashing of Classic Country female high harmonies. That’s a lot of country to travel but it is done with considerable aplomb.

The Memphis combo’s sophomore album positively reeks with the sounds of their hometown, a pulsating fusion of Memphis soul, R&B, gospel and blues. Like a turbo-charged Alabama Shakes, the quartet are supplemented throughout by a pumping horn section, and in Tierinii Jackson possess a vocalist capable of tearing paper from walls one minute and a soulful caress the next. Southern Avenue leads directly to Soulsville, USA, and Keep On just keeps on keeping on.

Classic Country with a liberal splash of pop, delivered with an elegant, timeless voice, and string arrangements to die for. The spirit of Dolly, Emmylou and the Dixie Chicks courses through her veins, and whether it’s a lush ballad, tender tearjerker or guitar driven stomper, her singing transcends everything. In what is currently a cluttered country music field, Michaela Anne may just be the purest sounding dove of them all. 71

WAITIN’ AROUND TO DIE BY CHRIS FAMILTON

Sounds Of The Silver Screen Soundtracks always play a crucial part in establishing mood, location and emotion in film, and country and folk music is purpose-built for filling that role – whether it’s adding colour to a bar-room brawl, chronicling broken hearts or conveying the power and fragility of nature and the great outdoors. The golden era of western films from the late 1930s-1950s provided another outlet for country and folk artists who had previously relied on recordings and live performance to reach their audience. Out of those films came the singing cowboy actors such as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers and groups such as Sons of the Pioneers and Riders of the Purple Sage. For fans of that era and style I’d recommend checking out Mark Sholtez and Jen Mize’s 2018 album Twilight On The Trail which reinterprets some of those songs. In more recent decades there has been a whole range of country and folk music styles that have made their presence felt on the silver screen. The most prominent one is O Brother, Where Art Thou? which spawned the popular soundtrack and live shows and took artists such as Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch & David Rawlings into households they may have never otherwise reached. That formula was again repeated more recently by the directors Joel and Ethan Coen and music producer T-Bone Burnett in their 2013 film Inside Llewyn Davis.

and experimental approaches to their soundscapes has also made an impact in film. One of Neil Young’s most unique albums is the soundtrack to Dead Man, Jim Jarmusch’s film starring Johnny Depp. There’s a haunting, dream-like quality to the music that incorporates samples of the actors speaking with Young’s distorted and reverb-laden guitar conjuring the spirit and atmosphere of the film’s desert, backwoods and wild-west setting. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have also composed some compelling western-noir soundtracks, particularly The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford with Ellis’ violin a key factor in evoking the landscape and drama of the film. Both Young, Cave and Ellis’ work in this area is surely influenced by the music of Ry Cooder and his work on films such as Paris, Texas. I’d recommend checking out his album Ry Cooder: Soundtracks which covers seven of his scores between 1980-1993 and is a brilliant introduction to his scoring work. In the 1980s Honeysuckle Rose, which starred Willie Nelson as a struggling country singer, earned him a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for ‘On the Road Again’, while elsewhere on the soundtrack Emmylou Harris and Hank Cochran make appearances. From the same decade, Nelson also starred, alongside Kris Kristofferson, in Songwriter, with both artists recording the bulk of songs for the soundtrack.

On the country music side of the tracks, Burnett was also heavily involved in Crazy Heart (2009) which featured the music of Ryan Bingham, Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, Townes Van Zandt and The Louvin Brothers. The soundtrack went on to win Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture and Bingham’s song ‘The Weary Kind’ won Best Song Written For Motion Picture at the 82nd Grammy Awards.

So far, I’ve focused on fictional films in this column but on a more obscure note, one soundtrack that I’ve always been fond of is from the film The American Dreamer (1971), a loose biographical documentary on Dennis Hopper while he was editing his cult classic film The Last Movie in New Mexico, in the aftermath of the success of Easy Rider. The album features exclusive recordings by Gene Clark, John Buck Wilkin and more obscure artists such as The Abbey Road Singers and Chris Sikelianos. Light In The Attic Records reissued the soundtrack on vinyl in 2018 and more recently on CD.

Traditional songs can use both musical and lyrical elements to convey the emotion or context of a scene, but instrumental Americana music that uses avant garde

Of course, there have been a large number of country and folk music biopics made over the years, which we plan to take a look at in a future Waitin’ Around To Die column.

WOODSTOCK/WOODSTOCK TWO Arlo Guthrie’s laid back stoned-out ‘Comin’ Into Los Angeles’ with its references to the traffic jams and observations that the numbers of people at the festival represented a world record for ‘so many freaks being in one place’ won over the crowd. John Sebastian made an unscheduled appearance, his folky ‘I Had a Dream’ preceded a dedication to a young mother who had given birth at the hospital tent. Woodstock was Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s second live appearance evidenced by their shakey ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.’ Neil Young skipped most of the acoustic set while his ‘Sea Of Madness’ heard on the album never occurred at the festival, it was recorded a month later at New York’s Fillmore East. Brit-rock was represented by The Who (‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’) Joe Cocker & The Grease Band (‘With a Little Help from My Friends’) and Ten Years After their ‘I’m Going’ Home’, a medley of ‘Mean Women Blues’, ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go’ and ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On’ providing a vehicle for guitarist/singer Alvin Lee’s histrionics and subsequent overnight stardom. Canned Heat with new guitarist Harvey Mandel who’d replaced Henry Vestine weeks before the festival are represented by ‘Going Up the Country’ and an obligatory boogie. Santana, virtually unknown on the east coast at the time thrilled the crowd with ‘Soul Sacrifice’ their twenty-year old drummer Michael Shrieve, the youngest performer at the festival, delivering an unforgettable drum solo. Jefferson Airplane with Nicky Hopkins on piano, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band featuring David Sanborn on sax and new guitarist Buzz Feiten and Mountain fronted by guitarist/singer Leslie West all made substantial contributions. The multi-racial Sly & The Family Stone with a medley of their hits ‘Dance to The Music’ and ‘I Want To Take You Higher’ pulsated by Larry Graham’s thunderous bass and Sly Stone’s energetic vocal performance had the crowd enthralled. Sha-Na-Na a group of college kids from New York City performed a series of satirical interpretations of the music of the 50’s that included Danny & The Junior’s hit ‘At the Hop’. Singer/songwriter Melanie (Safka) tapped into the ideal of hippy innocence with her ‘Beautiful People’ and ‘Birthday of The Sun’. The last performer to take the stage at Woodstock was Jimi Hendrix who had expanded his sound beyond the power trio (drummer Mitch Mitchell and bass guitarist Billy Cox) with the addition of a rhythm

Billy Pinnell

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair aka Woodstock or the Woodstock Festival held at a 600-acre dairy farm in the town of Bethel, New York, 69km south west of the town of Woodstock from August 15 to August 18, 1969. Thirty-two acts were on the bill featuring many of the most significant performers of their time. The organisers told Bethel authorities they expected no more than 50,000 people. It was estimated that nearly half a million-young concert-goers attended with hundreds of thousands of others stuck in massive traffic jams. The event was captured in an Academy Award winning documentary movie Woodstock directed by Michael Wadleigh (co-edited by Martin Scorsese) and on two sound track albums. The event became a counter culture celebration of the hippy ideal when a sense of social harmony and the quality of the music won through over struggles with bad weather, food shortages and poor sanitation. While the soundtrack albums featured a number of the headline acts, others including Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Band, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Johnny Winter were for whatever reason not included on the albums or in the movie, the artists who did appear contributed to the cross pollination of rock music that prevailed in 1969. It was an acoustic act Richie Havens (scheduled to play fifth) who opened the show out of necessity. Because of the traffic chaos some of the early billed rock bands were backstage but their equipment was somewhere else. The music was already two and a half hours late when Havens made history. Backed by a percussionist, Havens, ripping at his battered acoustic guitar, turned two of his songs ‘Handsome Johnny’ and ‘Freedom’/’Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child’ into anti-war statements. Haven’s message couldn’t have been more significant as the festival was held during America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and at a time of racial discord at home. The mood of the crowd after Haven’s set was sustained when Joan Baez accompanied by singer/guitarist Jeffrey Shurtleff dedicated the union hymn ‘Joe Hill’ to her husband David Harris who’d been imprisoned three weeks earlier for his anti-war anti-draft beliefs. Country Joe McDonald who also did a set with his band Country Joe and the Fish brought the crowd to their feet with his black-humoured, anti-war ditty ‘The Fish Cheer’/ ‘I-Feel-Like-I’m-’Fixin’ To-Die Rag’.

CLASSIC ALBUM

ATLANTIC

guitarist and two percussionists calling his new lineup Gypsy Sun & Rainbows. Bad weather had caused long delays throughout the scheduled three days of the festival so that by the time Hendrix had begun his set at 6.00 am on Monday the crowd had withered to a meagre 25,000 a far cry from the half million or so people of two days before. Hendrix’s performance was nonetheless memorable, jamming on some numbers with his new band (who would break up soon after), offering an extended ‘Purple Haze’ and closing proceedings with a psychedelic version of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’. Both soundtrack albums feature only portions of each act’s set, crowd chants and stage announcements, some from lighting and stage designer Chip Monck who now resides near Melbourne. A massive 38-disc box set that includes nearly every note of music played during the festival has recently been released. After the concert, Max Yasgur - who owned the site of the event - spoke of how half a million young people faced with the possibilities of disaster, riots, looting and catastrophe spent the three and a bit days with peace and music on their minds. Yasgur stated that ‘if we join them, we can turn those adversities that are the problems of America today into a hope for a brighter and more peaceful future’. Unfortunately, the events at Altamont three and a half months later put paid to that hope.

G N OU Y NEIL BE denied T ’ ON W Live recordings from the “Neil had the wasted Charles Manson mountain man deal going, hair shaggyuncombed past his shoulders, a wrinkled black-on-black striped film noir jacket, denim cowboy shirt with the tails out, and beat-up boots, but it wasn’t his clothes or his hair, ’cause even from afar there was something else same as he’d lost something he’d never get back. He was done tired, that was the vibe, and if this was what success does to a man, fuck, gotta wonder. “Still, one thing gave me hope, and that was his jeans. Old fucker jeans patched with squares of different size and pattern material, some with polka dots, some with plaid, some with checks, same as someone grabbed any scraps of material they had in the rag drawer. Only how those jeans were patched is what Neil’s all about, and even in his ravaged corrosion, still he grabs at ideas and images and experience, takes the low-down heartbreak chaos of life, and makes art.” Those words are from my 2017 novel, The Flowers Lied, which includes a chapter set at a Neil Young concert that took place March 10, 1973 at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium in California. That concert really happened – I was there – and that was how Young looked on the stage that night. That was how he sounded: ravaged corrosion. The concert, which featured Young and the Stray Gators (Jack Nitzsche, piano; Ben Keith, pedal steel; Tim Drummond, bass; and Johnny Barbata, drums, was part of the Time Fades Away tour. What was particularly unusual about this tour, in addition to how fucked up Young and the band were during it, is that Young played a bunch of new songs, recorded them live, and released many of them later that year, in October; he called the album Time Fades Away. Absent from that tour was Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten, whose raw guitar playing augmented that of Young’s on Young’s second solo album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Whitten was originally going to be one of the Stray Gators. He had arrived at Young’s ranch in the fall of 1972 to rehearse for the tour. Producer Jack Nitzsche said later, “I could tell he was using [heroin].” 74

Loner’s craziest tour

By Michael Goldberg During the rehearsals Whitten was a mess. “The guy was asleep standing up,” drummer Kenny Buttrey, who played on early dates before being replaced by Johnny Barbata, said. “I just thought, ‘This guy can’t play a note, man. What’s he doin’ in our band.’ ” “Last time I saw him, he was really wasted,” Young told his biographer, Jimmy McDonough. “Couldn’t keep it together to remember what he was doin’ in the sessions. I had to tell him he wasn’t in the band. That was a drag. Then he went home and OD’d. That was devastating.” On the night of November 18, 1972, the day he’d left Young’s ranch and flown to LA, Whitten was found on the bathroom floor in a friend’s house; dead from “acute diazepam and ethanol intoxication” – he’d overdosed on a deadly mix of valium and alcohol. Young took Whitten’s death hard; he said it had a “big effect” on him. “I felt responsible,” Young told McDonough. “But really there was nothin’ I could do – I mean, he was responsible. But I thought I was for a long time.” Young had other troubles – problems with his girlfriend, actress Carrie Snodgress, who had given birth to his son Zeke in September of ’72. And then there was Harvest, Young’s fourth album, which would eventually sell over four million copies in the U.S., and which charted at #1 and was the best-selling album of 1972. ‘Heart of Gold,’ a single off the album also reached the top of the Top 40. The success of Harvest and ‘Heart of Gold’ should have made Young happy, but somehow it didn’t. “Whenever Neil’s had a big success, he’s had to do something to counter it or he can’t appreciate it,” his manager, Elliot Roberts, who died earlier this year, said many years ago. “Always. His whole life. After every big album he’ll do something inane – like put on blackface and do a minstrel show.”

The day after Whitten died Young wrote ‘Don’t Be Denied,’ the best song on Time Fades Away, and one of the best on Tuscaloosa (Shakey Pictures Records), which would have almost been a ‘best of’ collection if it had been released back in ’73 or ’74, instead of this year. In early January 1973, Neil Young and the Stray Gators hit the road; on January 4 they played the first show of a three-month, 62-date tour in Madison, Wisconsin. The musicians were fucked up on drugs and alcohol from the start, and it didn’t get better. The eight tracks on Time Fades Away were recorded at seven different shows. For decades after it went out of print, Neil Young refused to re-release Time Fades Away. “I think it’s the worst record I ever made,” he told a journalist 14 years later, in 1987. “But as a documentary of what was happening to me, it was a great record.” (Though it can now be downloaded, Time Fades Away is only available on CD or vinyl as part of a four-album boxed set currently going for about $80 (CD) and $112 (vinyl) at Amazon.) Now, finally, 47 years later, more music from the tour has been officially released. Tuscaloosa was recorded at the 25th show, on February 2, 1973 at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It’s easy to understand why Young, now 73, wanted to release the University of Alabama recording after it was discovered in his tape archive. The band and Young himself are in top form here. While Young and his band, by their own account, were overindulging, you wouldn’t know it from either the playing or singing. Everything is well-played, on the beat, perfect. But what was thrilling about both the tour, at least the shows I saw in Santa Cruz and at The Forum in L.A., was the edginess of the performances. And a raw, almost punk quality. The Time Fades Away album documents the discord in Young’s life at the time, and in a nation still fighting over the ongoing Vietnam war as the Watergate scandal escalated.

There is another problem with the 52 ½ minute album. It includes only 11 of what may have been as many as 20 songs performed that night. Engineer John Hanlon said some of the two sets weren’t recorded, ‘The Loner’ was excluded because it’s out of tune and ‘On the Way Home’ has already appeared on too many live albums. “We don’t like to release a lot of songs on many albums, so ‘On the Way Home’ went by the wayside,” Young wrote in a letter to a fan that appears on his website. “ ‘The Loner’ was just not good enough. I still make those decisions because I am here on the planet. However, those two versions will be available in the archives for members to hear. I have no plans to release everything I have ever recorded. Some of it is just not good enough.” I have bootleg recordings of other shows and the absence of a third or more of the songs played that night disrupts the continuity of the concert. Young conceived of his Time Fades Away concerts as a twoset evening of music. Though his set lists varied from night to night, there was a method to the sets each night. Here, with songs missing, the album feels truncated.

There’s a ‘Desolation Row’ aspect to some of the then-new songs. ‘Lookout Joe,’ which Young introduces as “a song for the soldiers coming home from Vietnam,” is about the freak show that America has become, and that the military men will confront on their return. “A hip drag queen and a side-walking street wheeler…/ They’re all your friends, you’ll come to love ’em.” The chorus – “Old times were good times” – likely alludes to back in the day before the guys left for Vietnam. Those times are gone. The song ‘Time Fades Away’ begins, “Fourteen junkies/ Too weak to work/ One sells diamonds/ For what they’re worth/ Down on pain street/ Disappointment lucks.” The final verse is a repeat of the first, only the “fourteen junkies” are reduced to “thirteen junkies.” One (Danny Whitten?) is gone. Introducing the autobiographical ‘Don’t Be Denied,’ which concludes the album, to the University of Alabama audience, Young said, “This is a song about an inspiring young folk singer who tried to make good in Hollywood.”

‘Don’t Be Denied’ is played at a languid pace set by Kenny Buttrey (the drummer on Harvest) that makes it impossible to avoid the lyrics. In contrast to drummer Barbata, who played on the Time Fades Away version, Buttrey is sparse in his playing. He hits heavy, directly on the first and third of the four/four beat, leaving out the extra beats that Barbata would play later in the tour. With Buttrey playing, you can hear how the rhythm is a variation of the “Heart of Gold” beat (which Buttrey played on Harvest). >>

That said, the performances of the songs that are here are excellent; a highlight being an eight-minute version of ‘Don’t Be Denied.’ For those of you who want to hear superb live versions of the songs included here, this album is for you. ‘Heart of Gold,’ for example, is as good or better than the studio recording. Young’s singing is terrific throughout. There is no complete set list for the Tuscaloosa show. Based on other shows from the tour, I have a pretty good idea of what the entire set list likely included. What is most interesting about this tour are not the well-known songs. Playing to the largest audiences of his career at that point, Young challenged his new fans by playing eight or nine songs not yet released at the time, or in many cases even recorded. This was and remains unheard of – no artist of Young’s stature ever played so many unreleased songs. Still, his fans did get much of what they came for as Young did offer up at least five songs from his hit album including ‘Harvest,’ ‘Out on the Weekend’ and ‘Heart of Gold.’ And there were also familiar songs off Everyone Knows This is Nowhere and After the Gold Rush. Further challenging the audience at the Tuscaloosa show, Young played ‘Alabama,’ which directly confronts the racism that to this day lives on in the state known as the ‘Heart of Dixie.’ Did the audience know what the song is about? You can hear applause at the conclusion, so Young’s student fans seem to have agreed with him. 75

G N OU Y NEIL BE denied WON’T >> The lyrics tell a version of Young’s story. Growing up in Canada, his father leaving when he was a young boy, beat up at school, dreams of stardom, leaving Canada for Hollywood, courted by “business men” who came to hear “the golden sound.” The key verse is the fifth one, especially coming as it did after the success of Harvest. Neil Young writing to himself, writing to his dead friend, writing to every wannabe rock star.

THE NEW

RHYTHMS T-SHIRT

“Well, all that glitters isn’t gold/ I guess you’ve heard the story told/ But I’m a pauper in a naked disguise/ A millionaire through a business man’s eyes/ Oh friend of mine/ Don’t be denied.” And the chorus, which at times during the tour he would scream: “Don’t be denied/ Don’t be denied/ Don’t be denied /No no, don’t be denied.” On this version however, he reprieves the fourth verse, the one about business men coming to hear the “golden sound.” On a tour where Young was challenging his audience with an album’s worth of new material, perhaps with this song he was insisting one has to follow their vision, no matter the cost. Certainly, he was saying there’s more to life than money – something he certainly knew by then. “‘Don’t Be Denied’ has a lot to do with Danny, I think,” Young told McDonough. “…I think that’s the first major life-and-death event that really affected me in what I was trying to do… you kinda reassess yourself as to what you’re doing – because you realize that life is so impermanent. So, you wanna do the best you can while you’re here, to say whatever the fuck it is you wanna say. Express yourself.” Michael Goldberg, a former Rolling Stone Senior Writer and founder of the original Addicted To Noise online magazine, is author of three rock & roll novels including 2016’s Untitled.

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CD: Feature BY JEFF JENKINS

TIME FLIES A new anthology shines a light on Ronnie Burns’ underrated pop catalogue. It’s January 1965. Garry Spry, manager of Melbourne band The Flies, has some news for his young charges. “Fellas,” he says, “I’ve just booked your next gig – you’re playing with The Rolling Stones.” The Stones had just announced their first Australian tour, and The Flies were added to the bill at the Melbourne shows at St Kilda’s Palais Theatre, alongside Roy Orbison, The Newbeats and Ray Columbus & The Invaders. Ronnie Burns was 18, and The Flies – billed as “Victoria’s top Beatle act” – had released just one single. And just six months earlier, Burns had been booted out of The Beatles’ Festival Hall show in Melbourne when security ejected his friend Ian Meldrum, who wouldn’t stop screaming during the Fab Four’s set. Meldrum was also Burns’ housemate (he turned up at the Burns’ Elwood home, asking if he could stay for a couple of weeks, and was still there nine years later). The Ronnie Burns life story is filled with some of music’s biggest names – cameos by the Stones and Beatles, with the Bee Gees, Johnny Young and Molly Meldrum playing lead roles. A new anthology, This Is Ronnie Burns, released on UK label Cherry Red, shines a light on Burns’ musical output. After three singles with The Flies – including their signature song, ‘Doin’ The Mod’, which is included on the compilation – Burns went

solo in 1966, releasing a cover of Peter, Paul and Mary’s ‘Very Last Day’. The anthology is a collection of fine ’60s pop, from the innocence of the Cliff Richard cover ‘True, True Lovin’’, to the emerging sexuality of ‘Age of Consent’ (written by The Twilights’ Terry Britten), and the social commentary of Johnny Young’s ‘Smiley’ and ‘The Prophet’. Then there are eight songs written by the brothers Gibb. Burns was introduced to the Bee Gees by Spin Records’ A&R manager Nat Kipner, a US serviceman who settled in Australia after WWII (and whose son, Steve, would become one of our most successful songwriters, writing Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Physical’). Initially, Burns didn’t think that the Gibbs would have anything suitable for his recording career, but then he played their demo tape. “I thought it was The Beatles – the songs were so good.” Burns flew to Sydney, where the Gibbs met him at the airport in a “clapped-out Kombi”. They asked Burns if he could put some petrol in the van. He only realised how poor they were when he arrived at their tiny house and found they had one guitar between the three of them. And that guitar had just two strings – the E and the A. But on those two strings, Barry Gibb wrote the classic ‘Spicks and Specks’, a song that Burns requested to record, but Barry said, “We’re going to release that one in England.” Burns remained friends with the Gibbs, visiting Barry at his UK home, where he displayed his collection of weapons. Burns had no idea that Gibb’s most prized possession, a miniature German Luger pistol, was cocked and loaded. The gun went off, and the bullet whizzed past Gibb’s face, shattering the window behind him. Burns is almost shaking when he recounts the story. “If I’d got him, there would have been no Saturday Night Fever.” Russell Morris says Burns’ solo success inspired him to go solo, quitting Somebody’s Image and releasing ‘The Real Thing’, a song that might have ended up in Burns’ hands had Meldrum not snaffled it for Morris after hearing Johnny Young

strumming it on an acoustic guitar in a Channel O dressing room. Young did provide Burns with his biggest hit – ‘Smiley’, a song about Normie Rowe being sent to Vietnam, which went to number two on the Australian charts in 1970. Burns is rightly proud of his body of work but does not regret putting family ahead of fame. He and wife, Maggie, a dancer on the ’60s pop show Kommotion, were married in 1970 and had two children, daughter Lauren (who won Australia’s first gold medal in taekwondo, at the Sydney Olympics in 2000), and son Michael. And what about supporting the Stones? Burns’ memories of the actual gigs are a little hazy, but he does remember sharing a dressing room with Brian Jones. “What I remember most is that he smelled fantastic,” Burns recalls. Jones was wearing Mitsouko by Guerlain. He gave Burns the bottle. “But many years later, I threw it away. I never should have done that.” This Is Ronnie Burns is out now on Cherry Red Records.

CD: Feature BY STEVE BELL

LUCKY OCEANS PURPLE SKY ABC MUSIC/UMA

Fremantle-based pedal steel virtuoso Lucky Oceans has been living in Australia now for the best part of 40 years, but his love of country music legend Hank Williams extends back to when he was setting out with his acclaimed US country-swing band Asleep at The Wheel almost half a century ago. “I grew up loving blues as the number one thing,” he recalls. “I saw Son House live a number of times and I saw John Coltrane live – my world was blues, jazz, rock, folk and world music – so country music wasn’t really on my radar until Asleep at The Wheel started in West Virginia. “LeRoy Preston – one of the three co-founders – played me some Hank Williams and it just blew my mind, because it was like white man’s blues and that has stayed strong in my mind and in my soul throughout the years.” This long-term love affair with the music of Williams – who made a huge cultural impact before passing away tragically in 1953 at the age of just 29 – has just now manifested in new album Purple Sky. The collection finds Oceans reinterpreting Williams’ songbook with the help of predominantly-Australian collaborators including Paul Kelly, Don Walker, Kasey Chambers and Jeff Lang, in the process allowing us to hear these powerful songs in a whole new light. “Doing a Hank Williams album ended up being great meeting ground,” Oceans continues. “I said to Paul Kelly, ‘I’m doing a Hank Williams album’ and he said, ‘Pick me!’ Hank’s so universally recognised as a great and pivotal force in music that it was easy to draw people into the project. “What we aimed for with each song did differ for different artists, that just emerged during the project. So, if you listen to a Paul Kelly track they’re pretty straight-forward – it’s him playing guitar and me playing steel and Ben Franz on bass – and it’s kinda like Hank Williams through Paul’s interpretation, kinda folky. “But then the next one to be recorded was Jeff Lang – again it was Jeff, Ben and I in a room – and we said, ‘Let’s take this in a new direction’, but we were doing ‘I’m so Lonesome I Could Cry’ which is one of the most difficult songs because it’s so direct in Hank’s version and it’s been ‘schlocked up’ or ‘jazzed up’ in a terrible way so many times. So, when we did that with a free improvisation section within it, I was given the confidence to keep going down that track. “Other artists like Eugene “Hideaway” Bridges, he had it all worked out what that song was going to sound like: he played the bass and guitar and we did handclaps together, it was pretty much just going ahead with his thing and then I overlaid some pedal steel extravaganza on top of that. “And Don Walker was the same – he actually recorded his track with other musicians but was so simpatico with where the project was going that I just needed to add some spooky steel guitar.” 78

Indeed, one of the reasons that Purple Sky sounds so cohesive is because it’s tied together not just by Williams’ heartfelt songs but also by Oceans’ distinctive steel guitar sound. “A lot of it is original takes that haven’t been messed with,” he tells. “I’ve done a lot of playing and a lot of recording over the years and I’m a real ‘go for it’ player. When we were recording ‘Lost Highway’ Tex [Perkins] said, ‘Don’t you ever play the same solo twice?’ and I actually don’t! I was taught many years ago not to repeat my solos. “So, there’s that ‘going for it’ aspect, and then just the sound of the steel was meant to be a unifying element of the album, and also the purpose of the album – to showcase the steel and the different ways I play it. “That’s one of the many things that Australia has given me, distance from the US, so I’m not working as a session player trying to deliver up a copy of the latest hit sounds, I’ve been able to expand the steel guitar in different directions and I think that comes through on the album.” But mainly Oceans is excited about the prospect of potentially introducing this heartfelt music he loves so much to a whole new generation of people. “Absolutely, I just get emotional when I think about it,” he smiles. “He is so honest and he’s such a high-water mark in music for where honest, direct, emotional music was very popular. And also, all of the craft in the songwriting and the playing is of a high level. “I think even to this day a lot of songwriters when they’re writing say, ‘Go back to Hank’ – don’t overcomplicate things, sing something near and dear to you but in an honest and direct fashion – and to pass on that baton feels incredibly important.” Purple Sky (Songs originally by Hank Williams) is released on September 27 via ABC Music/UMA.

CD: Feature BY BRIAN WISE

DEVENDRA BANHART

Nonesuch

By the time his new album, Ma, emerges in mid-September, Devendra Banhart will be in Nepal shooting a film for a local director and immersed in that country’s culture. He says it will be a nice change to travelling as a musician. While he has been to Melbourne many times Banhart says, “Where have I really been? I’ve been to an airport, a hotel, and a venue. Now I’m not complaining. It’s a beautiful airport, but you don’t really get to know the place. I get a little bit of it and I certainly do like Melbourne a lot, but……” The break in Nepal precedes the album release and a 23-date US tour from November through to the end of the year. “It probably exactly means what most people would think it would mean,” says Banhart when I ask him about the title of the new album, Ma, produced with frequent collaborator Noah Georgeson, “but a few other things. So, it is the word for mother in as many languages as I could find. Maternity being a big theme of this album.” “It also is a philosophical term in Japan and it means space,” he continues. “It means space as the essence is the object. So, if you grab an empty cup, its essence is actually the space. Without it, there is no Coke. Just like in a song, without the silence in between notes, there’s no song. So, that space is so important. It’s such an integral part of the physical substance. I guess another obvious cosmic correlation or simile is dark matter: how it’s a real thing that makes up such a huge, vast portion of space. So, Ma is the term for

that space. What is space? It’s potential, right? It’s a blank canvas. And so that’s what we should always be striving for, a blank canvas. Paint on that canvas until it’s blank. This is kind of what song writing feels like.” The music on Ma is gorgeously constructed with Banhart’s ethereal vocals over washes of gentle acoustic guitar, strings, woodwinds, brass and keyboards. (Three tracks are in Spanish and one in Portuguese).The first single from the album, that also has a stunning video, is ‘Kantori Ongaku,’ which means country music in Japanese. Banhart says that it’s a nod to musician Haruomi Hosono, a founding member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra. “Haruomi Hosono has a song where everything is in Japanese,” says Banhart, “but at one point it’s in English, it’s the one word in English means country music. So, this is a little switched around. Everything’s in English and it’s got one little word in Japanese and that’s just a little nod to him.”

“I think there’s a few people that are really just, still to this day, just total superheroes to me and he’s one of them,” says Banhart of Hosono. “So is Ryuichi Sakamoto and Vashti Bunyan, who happens to also be on the record.” Bunyan is the 73-year-old English folk singer whose debut album, Just Another Diamond Day, was released in 1970 but faded into obscurity until it developed a cult following which resurrected her career after its rerelease in 2000. “It’s true,” agrees Banhart. “It took a little from that first record, there was a little bit of time. But since then, she’s been making records consistently, and in fact, working on new stuff as we speak, which is so inspiring. The video for ‘Kantori Ongaku’ also includes Banhart encouraging donations to the I Love Venezuela Foundation, reflecting his family background as his brother, cousins, aunts and uncles all live in Venezuela. “Venezuelans are incredibly optimistic and incredibly accepting and incredibly adaptable people, “explains Banhart. “They’ve adapted to a very, very corrupt and violent regime that’s been really exploiting its people for roughly 20 years. But things now are so bad that the whole world is watching. So that means that maybe something can change. That means maybe something can change. And at this exact moment as we speak, it’s a standstill.” “And it’s going to require that global cooperation,” he continues. “It’s going to require that outside assistance, which the world wants to give but it’s going to really require people to behave like human beings, unfortunately, they’re not so good at that. “At this moment, real significant aid is not being allowed into the country, so everything is very grassroots. So, it’s literally somebody buying medicine, buying food, flying down and handing it over to either the children’s hospital, or to any hospital at all, or to any community, or any community centre. It’s not going to feed everyone, but it’ll lessen suffering. It’ll lessen a little bit of suffering at least, and that’s how it works.” Ma is available through Nonesuch Records. 79

CD: General TREVOR J. LEEDEN, CHRIS FAMILTON, SUE BARRETT, MICHAEL SMITH, IAIN PATIENCE, DENISE HYLANDS

THE AINTS!

5-6-7-8-9 ABC Music/Universal

The first iteration of The Aints appeared back in 1991 and over its four years released a single – a revisiting of The Saints’ debut single, ‘I’m Stranded’ – three EPs and two albums. To “celebrate” the 40th anniversary of the release of the original version of ‘I’m Stranded’ in 2017, singer, songwriter and guitarist Ed Kuepper pulled together a new Aints, adding an exclamation mark as well as Sunnyboys bass player Peter Oxley alongside jazz keyboards player Alister Spence, trumpeter Eamon Dilworth and drummer Paul Larsen Loughhead. Last year saw the release of a debut album, The Church of Simultaneous Existence, and now comes a “mini-album” (if that makes sense in current parlance), its title referencing a Saints EP from 1977 titled 1-2-3-4. Essentially alternative versions of two songs featured on that debut album, along with three reworked songs from Kuepper’s vast catalogue, 5-6-7-8-9 kicks off with stomping album track ‘Goodnight Ladies (I Hear a Sound Without)’, which he wrote while still at school back in 1969, definitely a sign of things to come – it’s basically ‘I’m Stranded’ as T Rex might have played it and Ringo Starr might have sung it, with a dash of Blood, Sweat & Tears. ‘The Laughing Clowns’ was the song the band rejected that prompted Kuepper to quit The Saints and start the band to which he gave the song’s name. It still chugs along very nicely, with Spence delivering 80

a suitably bent solo. ‘Memories (Are Made of This)’ bops along nicely, while ‘Hang Jean Lee’ begins suitably funereally – for its ostensible subject, the last woman to be hanged in Australia – before shattering into another propulsive helterskelter of distorted, chunking rhythm guitar counterpointed by bright brass and piano lines. The band drops out for an acoustic rendition of ‘Country Song in G’, a mellow end to the affair. MICHAEL SMITH

without ever feeling derivative – it celebrates the American origins, even delivering a searing reading of Neil Young’s paean to the students gunned down by state National Guards at Kent State University during an antiVietnam War demonstration 49 years ago. In the process, Big Merino have come up with an album that has a truly timeless quality, with plenty of subtle, magical musical moments. MICHAEL SMITH

BIG MERINO

COUNTRY SQUIRE RCA/SONY MUSIC

SWEET LITTLE ANGEL Foghorn Records/MGM

Once again, Stuart Davis’ unerring ability to build just the right vocal harmonies to embroider just the right parts of each of these 11 songs adds a level of sophistication and earthy authenticity that has become the hallmark of this Sydney-based four-piece. And fair enough when you take into account his background in gospel vocal groups Café at the Gate of Salvation and the Heavenly Light Quartet through the ‘90s and early ‘00s. Now lead singer and Big Merino’s co-songwriter, with lead guitarist Alex Craig, Davis has allowed his wider passions within the vast spectrum of genres that crowds under the makeshift umbrella dubbed American roots music a far fuller expression, embracing country rock through funk, Doobie Brothers to New Orleans brass band. This second album doesn’t contain any of the elements that gave debut album Suburban Wildfire a distinctive Australianness. Rather – and

TYLER CHILDERS

Tyler Childers had a breakout last 12 months with his album Purgatory catching the ear of many a critic and country/folk music fan, winning Emerging Artist Of The Year at the Americana Awards and scoring opening slots with Americana heavyweights John Prine, Margo Price and Sturgill Simpson. That album was produced by Simpson and he returns in the same role on Country Squire, a record that refines and expands Childers’ songs of struggling souls. Like so many artists these days, Americana seems the best catchall description of Childers’ sound. It’s a true stylistic potpourri, drawing on Appalachian folk, breezy country and honky tonk – the common thread being his gnarled yet melodic, mountainsoul voice that bends and curls around his stories. ‘House Fire’ rides an agile Steve Earle-styled guitar line, the title track hits an old-school country twang and two-step groove while the single ‘All Your’N’ is as good as anything he’s written with its

deep soul feel that navigates the devotional aspect of love. “I’ll love you ’til my lungs give out, I ain’t lyin’” sings Childers on the most unabashed and optimistic moment on the album. Elsewhere it’s the underdog and the disenfranchised that Childers places in his songs. Individuals like ‘Matthew’, struggling to make ends meet in dead-end jobs and that guy at the end of the bar, trying to figure it all out in his hometown. There’s a certain romanticism to the great American struggle portrayed here, partly due to the music that more often than not has a real swing and shuffle to it – a feature that may be down to the influence of Simpson and his kaleidoscopic approach to country music. On Country Squire Childers has consolidated and progressed his undeniable talent, but as good as the album is, you sense his masterpiece is still to come. CHRIS FAMILTON

BRYAN ESTEPA

SOMETIMES I JUST DON’T KNOW Lilystar Records/ Rock Indiana

A highlight of 2019 was the Van Duren documentary, telling the tale of two Sydney fans trying to find the American power-pop artist and pondering why he didn’t become a big star. Maybe one day a couple of American power-pop aficionados will track down Sydney’s Bryan Estepa. It remains a mystery why Estepa has not been more successful as he has a knack for crafting melodic mini-masterpieces. “Let me introduce myself,” Estepa sings on Sometimes I Just

CD: General TREVOR J. LEEDEN, CHRIS FAMILTON, SUE BARRETT, MICHAEL SMITH, IAIN PATIENCE, DENISE HYLANDS Don’t Know, his aptly titled sixth album. The 10 songs sound like old friends, instantly familiar and forthcoming, with hooks that will have you humming all day. Sure, Estepa is not reinventing any wheels here; this is just classic pop songwriting of the highest order. And there are enough twists and turns to ensure that you’re always wondering what pop treat is coming next – check out the delightfully dark detour that is ‘Granted’. “I can’t win this on my own,” Estepa acknowledges in ‘Rattled & Rolled’. Yep, even the great artists need a little luck and a lot of support. But the strength of these songs shows that if fame does come calling, Bryan Estepa is ready. JEFF JENKINS

faith. But she still celebrates her dark and quirky side. ‘Bad Woman Blues’ (one of several co-written with Rune Westberg) warns her man to join her for a fun - possibly bumpy - ride, or keep walking. Hart credits producer Rob Cavallo (Green Day, My Chemical Romance) with allowing her unique and candid style free reign on this album. Her considerable command of the piano anchors songs in balladry, jazz, Latin, pop and gospel forms. ‘Let It Grow’ hits emotional buttons complete with gospel choir. Raw and righteous. CHRIS LAMBIE

HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER

TERMS OF SURRENDER Merge Records

BETH HART

WAR IN MY MIND Mascot Label Group/Provogue

part love letter, and yes, Terms of Surrender is certainly all three – apology in particular to the daughter his relentless touring ensures he doesn’t see as much as he’d like; plea to a father to whom “I’m still your kid”; love letter to both and his mother and partner, his fans even – “I got up and sung in a whole lot of places like this… I guess we only get so many chances to shine” (‘Down at the Uptown”). So, a deeply personal statement rather than any serious sort of observation on that “broken American moment”; but then that’s all any of us can contribute at any moment, in any context. And sometimes that’s enough. Taylor presents his often vague musings in the kind of shimmery musical context that has become the timeless auditory language for so much American music since the Byrds embraced Dylan and he then embraced The Band. Why not surrender for a little while yourself? MICHAEL SMITH

CHARLES JENKINS

WHEN I WAS ON THE MOON Silver Stamp Records

American singer-songwriter Beth Hart is as fearless in her songwriting as she is prolific. War In My Mind, her ninth studio release, offers further proof that she pulls no punches in telling her story. Revealing a lion’s share of hard luck and troubles, Hart’s powerful vocal delivery is more defined and distinctive with each recording. From a whisper to a roar, it seems to serve as a practice of cathartic release. Though she’s battled a war in her mind, this is not the voice of surrender. Recent salvation (from grief, substance abuse and mental illness) has redirected her life via marriage and religious

Here at least is one singersongwriter who, as MC Taylor, the heart and soul of Durham, North Carolina band Hiss Golden Messenger, puts it in the opening cut, ‘I Need a Teacher’, on their 11th album in 11 years, can see “Beauty in the broken American moment.” There’s certainly no anger evident on Terms of Surrender, just a gentle reverence cloaked in Americana classicism. Recorded for the most part in the studio in upstate New York owned by The National’s Aaron Dessner, Taylor coproduced the record with his bass player Brad Cook, Dessner contributing acoustic and electric guitars and piano, while Jenny Lewis contributes some breathy backing vocal harmonies here and there. Taylor describes the album as part apology, part plea,

When I Was On The Moon, the latest album for prolific Melbourne singer-songwriter Charles Jenkins (no relation to this reviewer), opens with a song called ‘Do Not Disturb’. It sets the scene: you’re all alone, apart from one man serenading you with his voice and nylon string guitar. “Let the tide turn itself in,” he sings. “And let the tide turn out again.” Beautifully poetic, Jenkins is capable of catching your ear with

a surprising turn of phrase that hits you right in the heart. “For when we kiss, time stands still,” he confides in the title track. Jenkins sings of opportunities lost – “I could have gone to Paris and then gone on to Spain. But I ended up in Fairfield in the pissing rain.” But instead of rancour there’s just quiet resignation. And at the heart of the record is the joy in simple things. ‘Monday Nights At The Retreat Hotel’ celebrates the artist’s long-time residency in Brunswick. “So Mondays are for winners,” he sings, “and very clean folk singers, the saints and the sinners, the barflies and the beginners.” When I Was On The Moon is not an album that pokes you in the chest. Instead, it’s a record that gently touches your arm and guides you to a better place – all in just 10 songs and 24 minutes. Simple pleasures. Intimate observations. Jenkins is a masterful songwriter at the top of his game. JEFF JENKINS

EILEN JEWELL GYPSY Signature Sounds/Planet

From the moment the sweaty swamp-rock intro to ‘Crawl’ starts up before evolving into a fiddle driven Cajun strut, you just know that there’s something special going on here. In recent times there’s been an album of obscure blues covers, but this is Jewell’s first album of original material since 2015, and the wait has been well worth it. True to form, Jewell dabbles in old time blues, folk, country, and >>> 81

CD: General TREVOR J. LEEDEN, CHRIS FAMILTON, SUE BARRETT, MICHAEL SMITH, IAIN PATIENCE, DENISE HYLANDS >>> some 60’s inspired rock’n’roll to conjure up a sound that’s all her own. Awash in swooning pedal steel, ‘You Cared Enough To Love Me’, written by Idaho legend Pinto Bennett and the only cover on the album, is Classic Country at its purest; the swampy Creedence meets Cajun potion re-emerges on the choogling ‘Beat The Drum’, its rallying message to maintain hope in the face of adversity a pointed change of approach for Jewell. Delving into social and political commentary is unfamiliar terrain for Jewell, but on the folk-blues singalong ’79 Cents (The Meow Song)’, she does so with considerable panache and subtle humour as she takes issue with discrimination and sexism. Turning to playing electric guitar on record for the first time provides a sinister edge to ‘Working Hard For Your Love’, and elegantly understated horns burnish the exultant paean to motherhood ‘Witness’. Each new play of Gypsy uncovers new wonders, and with a voice as smooth and sweet as honey, Eilen Jewell firmly remains Boise, Idaho’s Queen Of The Minor Key. TREVOR J. LEEDEN

LOST RAGAS

THIS IS NOT A DREAM INDEPENDENT

On their their third album, Melbourne band Lost Ragas take their brand of psychedelic country music further out into the cosmos, though its title and various thematic references suggest the territory they’re exploring is our internal 82

subconscious and its relationship with the realities of the modern world. They’re a band in the truest collective sense but the songwriting centres around Matt Walker and Shane Reilly, who split the songs 50/50 this time around. That said, there isn’t a clear sonic and poetic delineation between their respective songs. They all incorporate mystical, swirling psych-pop elements, that add colour and otherworldliness to what are essentially songs from the template of classic country music, whether that’s the smooth tones of the Tulsa Sound, Willie Nelson-styled balladry or the arch-songwriter shapes of Harry Nilsson, Jimmy Webb and Randy Newman. Opener ‘Keeping Up With Yesterday’ is an audacious start, on the back of Reilly’s soaring string arrangement. Walker’s ‘Just Wastin’ Time’ is a melodic honky-tonk number that switches between earthbound and daydreaming moods. ‘I Broke A Heart’ demonstrates how inventive they can get with guitar and pedal steel sounds, adding a Twin Peaks vibe to a Roy Orbison-styled croon. ‘People Funny’ takes the sonic gumbo approach to the outer limits with its tough groove. ‘Black Rose’ on the other hand plays it straight, allowing its perfect mix of melody and melancholy to ring true. This Is Not A Dream is populated by songs that touch on reality vs. inhabiting one’s self-created world. There are some heady concepts at play yet the band never overcook them. The real stroke of genius is the way they’ve married those ideas with a symbiotic musical universe. They may be part of the Americana scene but Lost Ragas aren’t the stay-at-home types, they’re adventurers looking to explore new and psychedelic frontiers and the transmissions they’re sending back are quite mesmerising. CHRIS FAMILTON

LUCIE THORNE

KITTY & FRANK Independent

– at times infectiously playful, at others dark and affecting. Lucie Thorne is touring from September-November. MARTIN JONES

REGGIE YOUNG

SESSION GUITAR STAR Ace

So, Lucie Thorne attends a rural NSW bushranger tour. Her imagination is piqued by the epic gold rush love story of bushranger Frank Gardiner married farm girl Kitty Walsh. She accepts the challenge to write a song from Kitty’s point of view and begins seeing the glimmer of a concept album. She retreats to a bush hut on the Howqua river to develop the concept and what does she take with her? An acoustic guitar? Maybe a banjo or mandolin? No, she borrows a friend’s synthesizer and begins constructing a modern electroart-pop soundtrack to tell Kitty & Frank’s story. At its most upbeat, songs like ‘Thief’ and ‘Catherine Christie’ pump along with a real groove, employing drummer Hamish Stuart like Thorne never has before in their illustrious partnership. Meanwhile, synths play a significant role, either bubbling away all spooky as background atmosphere, or sometimes soaring out front as big phat melodic leads. All the while, Thorne’s voice retains its composed whispered intimacy. It’s a cocktail that implies confusion on paper, but in reality it’s a disarming surprise. ‘Wheogo Hill’, for example, is so deep, lush and inventive you’re transported to a postRadiohead rock soundscape, before ‘Nothing Comes Close’ drops back to something far more similar to Thorne’s previous recordings – bare voice, guitar, piano. In between these extremes, it’s always compelling

When discussion turns to the “greatest guitarists on the planet”, you can bet that those who have made a career as a session musician don’t enter the picture. Young first came to prominence as a member of the revered American Sound Studio house band The Memphis Boys, before moving to Nashville where he left an indelible imprint. For over sixty years, he was the ‘go to’ guitarist for hundreds of artists on sessions and hits too numerous to count, prompting Eric Clapton to state “Reggie was one of the best guitarists I had ever heard”. No single album is going to go close to defining his contribution, but this 24-track compilation will, if nothing else, showcase the melodic mastery of a man who operated out of the spotlight. It didn’t matter the genre - soul, country, blues, rockabilly, pop, R&B, rock’n’roll, even instrumentals, his versatility saw him play on recordings by the likes of Bobby Bland, Dusty Springfield, Merle Haggard, Elvis Presley, Jimmy Buffet, Solomon Burke, Natalie Merchant, Waylon Jennings and J.J. Cale. All are featured on this compilation, and yet this barely scratches the surface. Reggie Young passed away in January, aged 82; his contribution to popular music as one of the finest guitarists you’ve never heard of cannot be overstated. TREVOR J. LEEDEN

CD: World Music & Folk BY T O N Y H I L L I E R

THOM ASHWORTH

HEAD CANON Planet

Thom Ashworth is in the van of a new generation of venerated male English folk artists who are as adept at reinterpreting centuries-old traditional ballads as they are at writing songs that pertain to current times yet resonate of yesteryear. As such, he is comparable to past masters such as Steve Tilston and Chris Wood and contemporary innovators like Jim Moray, Jon Boden and Sam Lee. Along with his aforementioned talent to blend old and new and his superior ability as a songsmith, Ashworth has a tenor voice that truly commands attention, both in terms of tonal quality and phrasing. While he’s accomplished on a handful of stringed instruments, his weapon-of-choice, a 4-stringed acoustic bass guitar, helps promote his distinctive sound. The arrangements on Head Cannon stretch from an a cappella cover of Ewan MacColl’s ‘Exile’ to Fairport Convention-like fiddleenhanced rocked-up back-toback readings of the standards ‘Ratcliffe Highway’ and ‘Derry Gaol’. Rhythmic ingenuity helps Ashworth recast other British folk evergreens ‘High Germany’ and ‘Poverty Knock’ in a fresh light. The first of his articulate and vaguely dystopian selfcompositions, ‘Pathfinding’ holds its own with the opening standards, but it’s his concluding number ‘The City & The Tower’, which follows a riveting version of British classic ‘John Barleycorn’, that really puts the seal on his skill as a writer.

YE VAGABONDS

THE HARE’S LAMENT River Lea The Irish folk scene and the future of traditional song is in safe hands with the young Carlow brothers Brían and Diarmuid Mac Gloinn. Quality seeps through the siblings’ second album in as many years, both in terms of their singing individually and, more impressively, in harmony and their playing of bouzouki, guitar, mandolin and fiddle. On the downside, the song selection on The Hare’s Lament is on the conservative side, with only superficial attention paid to re-arrangement of some wellgnawed chestnuts. Four of the 10 songs are delivered in Gaelic; the ones in English include some of the most recorded traditional British Isles folk standards of all time. Even so, Ye Vagabonds version of ‘Willie O’Winsbury’, an 18th century traditional Scottish ballad that has been covered by folk deities Andy Irvine and Dick Gaughan and bands of the stature of Fairport Convention and Pentangle, is up with the best. It merited placement above the worthy but somewhat austere renditions of ‘The Foggy Dew’ and ‘Seven Little Gypsies’ in the track listing. The Mac Gloinn bros took a lucrative leaf out of Irvine’s book by coupling the title track — a song of northern Irish origin — with an East European (Macedonian) tune.

VARIOUS ARTISTS

PERFECT PEARLS Steady Steady/Planet

One of Australia’s most historically significant industries comes under a multi-cultural musical microscope with this most meritorious compilation. Masterminded by W.A.-based musicologist and musician Karl Neuenfeldt and his equally well-credentialled associate, Cairns studio proprietor/ producer Nigel Pegrum, Perfect Pearls unsurprisingly contains pertinent songs from albums they cut with their star charge, Seaman Dan, over his 20-year dual ARIA Award-yielding recording career. Apart from ‘Forty Fathoms’, ‘Black Swana’, ‘Sayonara Nakamura’, ‘Are You From T.I.’ and ‘Watching The Weather’, the Torres Strait veteran signs off with a short recitation from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, recorded only a few months shy of his 90th birthday. There’s plenty more to savour, such as the superlative singing of Cairns songstresses Nikki Doll (‘Full Fathom Five’) and Rubina Kimiia (‘House Party Hula’) in songs co-written by Seaman Dan and Karl Neuenfeldt. Northern Territory legend Ted Egan, mercifully sans beer carton percussion but with strong vocal backup in ‘Taking You Back To Broome’, Broome’s much-loved Pigram Brothers (‘Saltwater Cowboy’) and folk singer-songwriter Enda Kelly (‘Master’s Buttons’) make fine self-composed contributions.

NEIL MURRAY & SAMMY BUTCHER

TJUNGU Island Home Music

Founding members of and cowriters in the Warumpi Band, the ground breaking collective formed in the remote NT desert community of Papunya, renew their association here after a 20-year hiatus. Five years in the making after encountering various obstacles, including Sammy Butcher suffering three strokes shortly after the commencement of recording, Tjungu also features the keyboard playing and production skills of Midnight Oils’ Jim Mogine. Completed with much love, patience, perseverance and quiet but dogged determination, in the words of project spokesman Neil Murray, it’s a seductively melodic and upbeat 10-song album of roots pop in which the old mates swap lines — Butcher in English and language — about Aboriginal life and other matters in various roots genre settings. ‘Government Man’, a rock & roller that provides sardonic commentary on public servants, and the reggae-inflected ballad ‘Sweet Love’ are among the standouts of a solid set.

CD: Blues AL HENSLEY

JIMMIE VAUGHAN

BABY, PLEASE COME HOME Last Music Co./Planet Co.

For over 50 years Texan guitarist/singer Jimmie Vaughan has committed himself to keeping the blues alive. This new CD confirms his dedication to keeping faith with the source of the music remains undiminished. A traditional stylist, the dry-toned vocalist couches his well-measured guitar chops in the tonal purity of early electric blues guitar. Taking the listener on a journey of rediscovery, Vaughan pays a deeply-felt homage here to artists that have inspired him during his formative years. From the opening Lloyd Pricepenned title song Vaughan gets right in-the-pocket, bonding with his long-time touring band of rhythm guitarist Billy Pitman, bassist Ronnie James, drummer George Rains, tenor saxophonist Greg Piccolo and baritone saxophonist Doug James. There are occasional variations to the line-up such as augmenting it with a full-blown time-honoured Texas five-piece horn section or stripping back to an organ trio featuring keyboard maestro Mike Flanigin. All the players innately understand the language of classic R&B and post-war urban blues. Fluid and soulful playing, spirited singing and collaborative musical symmetry flow effortlessly through selections from the songbooks of Bill Doggett, Jimmy Reed, Chuck Willis, Fats Domino, Etta James, T-Bone Walker, Gatemouth Brown and more. 84

THE CASH BOX KINGS

HAIL TO THE KINGS! Alligator/Only Blues Music

Chicago blues band The Cash Box Kings return with this follow-up to their 2017 Alligator Records debut Royal Mint. Founded in 2001 by dynamic harmonica playing singersongwriter Joe Nosek, the band took off when charismatic singer-songwriter Oscar Wilson joined them in 2007, their subsequent Blind Pig Records albums garnering prestigious blues music awards. Co-led by Nosek and Wilson, the band’s music is representative of traditional old school south-side Chicago blues in the style of The Aces, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. The current line-up includes premier Windy City blues guitarist Billy Flynn, upright and electric bassist John W. Lauler and drummer Kenny ‘Beedy Eyes’ Smith, son of Waters sideman Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith. Among the session guests are keys player Queen Lee Kanehira and the powerful soul-drenched voice of Shemekia Copeland who turns a playful duet with Wilson on ‘The Wine Talkin’. Nosek and Wilson’s 11 original songs are based on real-life modern topics from prejudice and racism to light-hearted humour. Exhilarating takes on Jimmy Reed’s ‘I’m The Man Down There’ and Mercy Dee Walton’s ‘Sugar Daddy’ complete the set list for this master-class on real-deal post-war electric blues.

THE BB KING BLUES BAND

THE SOUL OF THE KING Ruf/Only Blues Music

After playing with recently departed blues icon B.B. King for 35 years, this 10-piece band’s music breathes with the soul of its late leader whose towering influence on the genre remains indelible. Here they salute King’s legacy by supplying some of their own forward-looking songs to complement revivals of a few of his classic sides. The band’s chief songwriters are bassist Russell Jackson, saxophonist Eric Demmer and trumpeter James ‘Boogaloo’ Bolden, each performing vocals deeply imbued with ubiquitous lacings of Southern soul blues. Among a star-studded array of guest artists, Kenny Wayne Shepherd plays snappy lead guitar on Jackson’s ‘Irene Irene’, tuba player Kirk Joseph giving his ‘Low Down’ the New Orleans second-line treatment. King’s ‘Sweet Little Angel’ gets a fresh makeover by Kenny Neal, his timeless ‘The Thrill Is Gone’ is lovingly invigorated by Michael Lee, and Mary Griffin’s duet with Taj Mahal heats up King’s immortal shuffle ‘Paying The Cost To Be The Boss’ with more of the same scintillating vocals and guitar. ‘Regal Blues’ is singer/guitarist Joe Louis Walker’s personal tribute to King, while Doc Pomus and Dr. John’s ‘There Must Be A better World Somewhere’ - which King made his own - is soulfully rejuvenated by singer Diunna Greenleaf.

CHRISTONE ‘KINGFISH’ INGRAM KINGFISH Alligator/Only Blues Music

Hailing from Clarksdale in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, 20 year old Christone Ingram is a young man with an old soul. Though he enjoys the hip-hop music his schoolmates used to listened to, the guitarist/ singer-songwriter found that blues tapped into something deeper inside of him. Through the music education program at Clarksdale’s Delta Blues Museum, Ingram drew inspiration from the works of blues pioneers like Charley Patton, Skip James and Son House. A blues torch-bearer who incorporates modern sounds into this rich, timeless music, Ingram draws younger fans towards the style’s purer forms. Prior to the release of this debut album, Ingram has shared the stage with such well-known blues artists as Buddy Guy, Bob Margolin, Guitar Shorty and others. Guy joins the young prodigy here on ‘Fresh Out’ performing brawny guitar licks and full-bodied vocals. Keb’ Mo’ plays guitar on five songs, resonator guitar on the country blues ‘Hard Times’, and sings a duet with Ingram on the sweetly soulful ‘Listen’, Chicago blues harp master Billy Branch appearing on ‘If You Love Me’. Ingram co-wrote eight of the CD’s dozen original songs, mostly with producer/drummer Tom Hambridge. Ingram’s blistering fretwork is economical and concise, and the soul-deep timbre of his voice belies his age.

CD: JAZZ TONY HILLIER

PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND

A TUBA TO CUBA Sub Pop

The previous release from Preservation Hall Jazz Band, 2017’s So It Is, saw this venerable New Orleans institution edging away from trad-jazz and heading towards Cuban influences. It was merely an entrée. The main course — a much more expansive legacy of their “life-changing” pilgrimage to America’s Caribbean island neighbour in late-2015 — comes in the shape of their latest album and a companion documentary that has been compared to its late-1990s’ counterpart, Buena Vista Social Club. Percolating Afro-Cuban percussion rhythm and lacerating Latin horn lines pervade A Tuba To Cuba as the PHJB explore the musical nexus between New Orleans and Cuba. Several tracks are improvisations recorded during the trip, such as a cruisy opener that has one of the band’s saxophonists playing solo in a Havana alcove. Another piece emanates from a chant led by the drummer during a street jam in Santiago. A repetitive deep double bass figure provides an apt pulse for ‘Corazon’, a heartstopping Fender Rhodes/tenor saxophone meditation. Other original compositions directly prompted by the trip, such as ‘Kreyol’ and ‘Malecon’ (the latter inspired by Havana’s famous seafront promenade) are an irresistible blend of Cuban and New Orleans jazz. Alongside are classic vintage recordings — one from the 1940s, another from Preservation Hall’s archive — and a 21st century funk cum rap thang that’s more reminiscent of PHJB’s Crescent City cousins the Hot 8 Brass Band.

ORQUESTA AKOKÁN

THE INSTRUMENTALS Daptone Records Those familiar with Orquesta Akokán’s eponymous 2018 debut album, which was nominated for a Grammy Award, might find the swift follow-up somewhat superfluous. As the title suggests, The Instrumentals is a version of the self-same set minus the vocal tracks rendered by a handful of young New York Latin aficionados on the original. The Cuban musicianship on show (from gun players young and old), the arrangements and the ambience of the Havana recording studio (EGREM) made famous by the Buena Vista Social Club revival is of such an inordinately high standard that the set loses nothing in quality sans singers, as the Orquesta, which includes members of such stellar Cuban bands as Irakere and Los Van Van, harks back to the classic mambo big bands of the 1940s/50s’ led by luminaries like Tito Puente, Arsenio Rodriguez and Beny Moré while injecting 21st century pizzazz. The material and the arrangements will find admirers among dancers and non-gyrators alike.

houses and record in makeshift home studios in the city’s outer burbs. Taking their cues from club culture and soul music, they’ve created a style that draws on retro and yet is of the now. The compilation reflects collaborative spirit in terms of both shared personnel and the styles that bind them. Within the signature sound are variations that range from the meditative dreamscapes of drummer Phil Stroud’s ‘Banksia’ and the equally spiritual vibe of singer/keyboardist Allysha Joy’s ‘Orbit’ that bookend the set, to the 21st century bossa nova of saxophonist Alejandro “Silentjay” Abapo’s ‘Eternal / Internal Peace’ and the throbbing pulse of bassman Horatio Luna’s doof-inflected ‘The Wake-Up’. In the beguiling ‘Bleeding Hearts’, singer/ trumpeter Audrey Powne comes across as the female equivalent of Vince Jones. Erica Tucceri’s soaring flute enhances the edgier groove of Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange’s ‘Powers 2 (The People)’.

MATTHEW WHITAKER

NOW HEAR THIS Resilience Music Alliance

VARIOUS ARTISTS

SUNNY SIDE UP Brownswood

Although Sunny Side Up is out on an English label it actually shines the spotlight on Melbourne’s evidently flourishing underground nu-jazz scene, which is centred on a co-op of young, independent musicians who live in share-

As a blind Afro-American jazz pianist, 18-year-old prodigy Matthew Whitaker will inevitably be compared to Stevie Wonder. The closest he comes to the pop superstar here is in an infectiously funky and soulful Hammond organ take of Eddie Harris’s ‘Freedom Jazz Dance’. But elsewhere the young man’s style leans closer to legendary mainstream jazz pianists like McCoy Tyner, Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson as he incorporates a palette that

spans from gentle swing to hard bop. The Tyner influence is evident in a trio rendition of the standard ‘Bernie’s Tune’. Whitaker’s Latin chops are amply displayed in a cover of Michel Camilo’s fiery ‘Caribe’. A suitably sensitive reading of Ahmad Jamal’s ‘Tranquility’ shows his ability as a balladeer. The tyro’s sidemen include ace percussionist Sammy Figueroa and the well-credentialled guitarist Dave Stryker.

DREAM SHANTI

MUSIC IN OUR DREAMS Ear Up Records

The versatility of Jeff Coffin — reeds maestro in the Dave Matthews Band and Bela Fleck & the Flecktones and a muchin-demand Nashville session musician — is underlined in Dream Shanti, a collective that attempts to bridge the divide between American jazz and Indian classical music. Coffin’s passionate soloing on soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones and various flutes and clarinets is, along with Chris Walters’ elegant piano playing, the glue that helps to bind the former element with Subrata Bhattacharya’s tabla and Indrajit Banerjee’s sitar grooves. Some pieces are straight-out funk with just token Indian content while others are more genuinely integrated. Stefan Lessard’s bass lines give ‘Take It To The Bridge’ continuity. Set opener ‘Joy’, a Bhattacharya composition, has a tabla and sitar duet as its centerpiece. In ‘Miles Meets The Mahatma’, Coffin solos on sax over a harmonium drone and chattering tabla before passing the baton to sitar, then on to piano. 85

VINYL: STEVE BELL

DAVE RAWLINGS MACHINE NASHVILLE OBSOLETE Acony Records/WMA AUTHENTIC AMERICANA

A few years back Americana stalwarts and partners-in-crime Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings had an epiphany listening to Van Morrison’s 1968 classics Astral Weeks on vinyl and – besotted with the potential audio quality – determined on the spot to press their respective catalogues to wax for the first time. They then doubled down by buying their own record lathe for quality control purposes, and most recent recipient of this reissuing honour is the gorgeous 2015 Dave Rawlings Machine album Nashville Obsolete. Already a pristine example of the roots music oeuvre – recorded, as it was, at Nashville’s Woodland Studios, these days also owned by the pair – it’s now been pressed to 150gm audiophilequality vinyl and sounds incredible, the instrument separation and way their voices intertwine and collude making it seem like you’re in the room with them. The album itself is rife with melancholic magic, opening number ‘The Weekend’ a piece of languid beauty while the epic ‘The Trip’ and the brooding ‘Short Haired Woman Blues’ carry plenty of heft and closer ‘Pilgrim (You Can’t Go Home)’ finished in a rush of beautiful three-piece harmonies that make you just want to flip the album and take the ride again. A peerless album just got better. 86

BUDDY & JULIE MILLER

PURPLE MOUNTAINS

BREAKDOWN ON 20TH AVE SOUTH New West HEARTFELT COUNTRY ROCK

PURPLE MOUNTAINS Drag City STYLISH ALT-COUNTRY

It’s been a decade since we had a duet album from Nashville-based husband-andwife team Buddy and Julie Miller, largely due to Julie’s ongoing health issues which have kept her from the fray for a few years, augmented by Buddy’s increasing profile for his production skills (having worked on records by artists including Robert Plant, Steve Earle and Solomon Burke). Their return to the recorded realms with Breakdown On 20th Ave South – their third album together – is therefore both welcome and wonderfully realised, the songs written by Julie and produced by Buddy and perfectly fusing the pair’s unique musical talents. Julie’s acerbic lyrics at times shine a light on their relationship itself – ‘I’m Gonna Make You Love Me’ and ‘Everything Is Your Fault’ channelling more enmity than empathy – but there’s a clear simpatico between here which inherently endears, while Julie’s unique, fragile voice and Buddy’s intricate, earnest guitar stylings give their music a distinct timbre and make strong tracks like ‘Underneath The Sky’, ‘Spittin’ On Fire’ and ‘Storm Of Kisses’ near imperative for roots devotees. The 150gm black vinyl pressings sound fantastic and allow for plenty of nuance, perfect for music like this which aims for the heart and head in equal measure.

It had been more than a decade since we heard new music from the late US singer-songwriter (and acclaimed poet) David Berman, whose Silver Jews project started out as a Pavement side-project in the early-‘90s but who over the course of their six albums constructed a catalogue of hyper-literate indie rock that proved routinely spellbinding. Now seemingly apropos of nothing Berman returned from the wilderness with a new project Purple Mountains and an eponymous debut album, which builds on the Silver Jews aesthetic with help from excellent Brooklyn psychfolk band Woods (after separate false starts working on the album with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, both sessions scrapped completely). Berman’s adroit way with words and peculiar worldview remains steadfastly intact, but ‘Purple Mountains’ overwhelmingly comes from a place of loss: after Berman overcame a long fight with substance addiction his mother suddenly passed away – she’s eulogised here on album centrepiece ‘I Loved Being My Mother’s Son’ – while the singer also endured a painful divorce, so tracks like opener ‘That’s Just The Way I Feel’, ‘Nights That Won’t Happen’ and ‘Storyline Fever’ drip with existential angst and uncertainty. Thankfully it all manages to present as down without being depressing, with both the new project and its first strong batch of tunes proving a most welcome return from self-imposed exile.

FILM AND DVD BY B R I A N W I S E

THE GIFT: THE JOURNEY OF JOHNNY CASH Directed by Thomas Zimny The recent Melbourne International Film Festival offered a strong program of music documentaries and we had the opportunity to talk to Thomas Zimny, who directed The Gift, which was made in collaboration with the Cash estate. Zimny has made a number of award-winning documentaries – including Elvis Presley: The Searcher - and has been working with Bruce Springsteen for the past 18 years, including direction of Springsteen on Broadway. He is also working on a film based on Springsteen’s latest album Western Stars. The remarkable aspect of The Gift is that it includes excerpts from 60 hours of interviews with Cash made by his biographer Patrick Carr. These tapes turned up during production necessitating an adjustment to fit in the new material. There is nothing quite like hearing Cash himself talking about the events in his life rather than having others interpreting what happened. “He was revealing a side of him both for the book,” explained Zimny when I spoke to him during the recent Melbourne Film festival, “but also the audio itself is conversational and confessional, and in it, you hear the sound of Johnny Cash reflecting. For me that was the best. That was the dream find as a filmmaker because it was bringing Johnny Cash into the cutting-room and letting him tell his own story.”

“So, I’m trying to take down the iconic imagery of him, and at the same time I’m trying to keep us in a story with voices, and having someone sit in a chair telling you in a contemporary mode, the story of Johnny Cash completely takes you out of the dream.” There have been other documentaries about Cash and an award-winning feature film, so what was Zimny trying to achieve that hadn’t been done previously? “One of the things when you’re making a film on an artist that has been covered by books and other films is that you start to look at what feels like it’s missing,” explains Zimny, “and with the Johnny Cash story, one of the key things is getting across the idea that he was a songwriter. Then the other thing was to really establish a sense of Vivian, his first wife. So, that things don’t fall into caricature, and really showing the battle of his addiction - not do something with salacious detail - but something that really was continuous throughout his life and not make the narrative become just a shorthanded version. I really tried to explore the battles and the addictions and the conflicts but also the spiritual side of his existence in a way that showed it as a journey. “So, my goal was to reveal a side of this artist that went beyond what you knew if you were a casual fan, or a deep fan. But

at the same time, not fall into anything too salacious and get too far from the idea that the music and his journey were the key focus to why I wanted to make the films. One of the pivotal moments in Cash’s life was his performance at Folsom Prison, which is dealt with in some detail. Rodney Crowell says the resultant album always had a redemptive quality and Johnny’s daughter Rosanne says that her father worked out his deepest problems on the stage with an audience. “Folsom Prison, I was attracted to as a filmmaker,” says Zimny, “because the set list itself seemed to reflect a movie I didn’t make yet - a set list full of songs of redemption, humour, country gospel, pure raw rock and roll, danger. You know that set list Folsom Prison and the sounds and sonic landscape that were captured on that recording was the perfect way to look at this film, and also the perfect secondary story to go to get a sense of Johnny Cash. “Folsom Prison, to me, was much more than just a special record and recording, but it was in many ways the testament of the man’s whole life story - and the good and the bad of it. I always like to find one moment in an artist’s life that seems to be the moment that they come back into the ring and fight for their lives, and the Elvis Presley was his ‘68 special, and for me with Johnny Cash, it was Folsom Prison.”

In addition, the film does not feature any ‘talking heads’ as such – just the voices of interviewees talking about Cash. “I could have five authors and a musician say that Johnny Cash grew up and had a hard childhood,” he continued, “but hearing Johnny Cash say that his father told him ‘you’re wasting time listening to the radio’, that was heartbreaking.” “I love the idea of being free in making these films that you don’t have talking heads on screen,” continued Zimny, “because I’m trying to create a space that is a dream world. The dream world of Johnny Cash. So, I’m spending a lot of time covering and discovering images, covering the film of images that haven’t been seen before. Images of Johnny Cash that really demonstrate the world that he grew up in, but also demonstrate a side of him that’s very human. 87

BY JOHN CORNELL

Defeating Radio Frequency Interference… A Problem You Didn’t Even Know Existed! When most music listeners think about upgrading or improving the sound quality of their HiFi system, chances are we might be contemplating higher performance speaker cable and interconnects or updating core components in the system such as the speakers or amplifier in an effort to enhance our music listening pleasure. However, there’s one crucial aspect of improving sound quality that is often overlooked. The sound that’s produced by your speakers starts its journey as electrical current – without it, no electrical component would work! Electricity flows through your system and is used by each component in turn to shape the signal that moves the speaker drivers. Therefore, what we hear is greatly influenced by mains electricity - it’s the fuel from which the sound or vision is created. Hence, the quality of electricity we feed our music or AV system has a profound effect on performance. The bad news is that mains power pollution is more prevalent now than ever before. Nowadays, not only is mains-borne ‘noise’

exacerbated by the cheap power supplies that are common in many modern devices from computers to kitchen appliances - it is also affected by the proliferation of radio frequency interference – or RFI for short. RFI is airborne interference created by the huge amount of radio frequency communication that have become such a part of everyday life in this connected age. Thanks to Wi-Fi (plus our neighbours and public Wi-Fi networks), smart phones, laptops, Bluetooth devices and cordless phones - RFI is everywhere in the typical modern home. Therefore quality power filtering and conditioning will make a significant difference and is why, without it, you’re not realising your systems full potential. An effective power conditioner will actively clean the power delivered from your wall socket before it reaches your hi-fi equipment and in conjunction with replacing the standard black power cables that come with your equipment (that beyond doing their basic job, function as RFI antennas) will filter out spikes, remove noise and prevent contamination from other components in the power supply chain. Like any product, power filtering is offered at various price levels and performance - any good quality conditioner from a reputable supplier will enhance sound performance and obviously, the more you spend the better the result. My first choice in powers conditioners is IsoTek Systems. IsoTek is an award-winning English company and recognised leader in

clean power technology. Their products are designed and manufactured in Europe and utilised by customers in over 45 countries. IsoTek offer solutions for a wide range of systems from entry level, to state-of-the-art. For those looking for a relatively affordable and effective upgrade, the IsoTek Polaris power filter with EVO3 Premier Power cable attached will set you back $1,048.00 RRP and is suitable for a complete music or AV system between $3,500.00 to $5,500.00. We also highly recommended additional EVO3 Premier cables for any components that feature a removable power cable. Or, if your budget allows and you’ve invested considerably more into your system, stepping up to the Performance series IsoTek Aquarius at $2,750.00 RRP will go even closer to maximising your systems full potential thanks to significantly reducing noise contamination further again. Even though only a quick instore demonstration should be enough to hear the noticeable performance improvements you can expect from these devices, remember that most reputable specialist Hi-Fi stores will happily refund if for any reason you’re not as convinced by the benefit of good quality power treatment as I am. Trust me - give it a go and discover what you’ve been missing. For more information visit www. isoteksystems.com

Songs

Shots

By Don Walker (Black Inc., h/b, $32.99)

hen Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, it called into question the place of song lyrics in our literary culture. There were those who felt Dylan’s gong derided those leading poets and novelists who’d plied their trade for decades and were thus denied their once-in-a-lifetime chance. For others, it was a no-brainer, the ultimate accolade and nod to Dylan’s towering lyric achievement, which has undoubtedly reached more people, and had greater influence, than the combined voices of tenthousand poets. Don Walker’s cherished place as one of our greatest songwriters is secure, and he is deserving – as have Dylan, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, and Paul Kelly before him – of having his lyrics soberly printed between the covers of a book. It’s an honour understandably reserved for the few. And while Walker’s songs are not poems per se – just as Dylan’s and Lou’s aren’t – they do exhibit a poeticism and storytelling that is perhaps unique to the form. It is arguable, of course, that songs suffer on the page in their being unhinged from the music for which they were written. Readers of Walker’s book will undoubtedly draw upon their own greater or lesser knowledge of his music as they confront the words. Case in point: could anyone read the lines ‘And I’ve travelled round the world from year to year / And each one found me aimless, one more year the worse for wear’ without hearing Barnsey belting out ‘Khe Sanh’. Walker’s book amounts to a generous selection, around 240 songs – including some never released or recorded – composed over a half-century. They are arranged in time periods reflecting when they were written, the earliest being 1970-76. For each period, Walker provides a brief introduction, outlining what was going on in his life at that time. As such, the book doubles as an inner autobiography, as if seen through the looking glass, stories lived and stories heard. Residing in Kings Cross in the late seventies, Walker proffers dark lyrics such as: This is the neon strip / Where barracudas cruise / Drivers, midnight looters / Zipped in sharkskin jackets / Waiting for a mark / Their brains are soft computers’. Touring with Cold Chisel through Europe in the early eighties, a time Walker refers to as ‘a long disintegration’, furnishes the lines: ‘I’ve been forty days and forty nights / In television land / I’d kill myself with cigarettes / If I could find my hands’. What’s apparent, reading the book, is that there has been neither a diminution of quantity nor quality in all that time, no dropping off

or dry spells. The most recent period 2013-18 has yielded 19 songs alone, not bad going for a sexuagenarian. Of course, not everything works equally on the page – songs with repeated choruses or more obvious rhyme schemes pale in comparison to those exhibiting stronger narrative or storytelling qualities. Taken together, however, Walker’s Songs is an indispensable guide to one of our greatest songwriters. In the words of Paul Kelly: ‘A bulls-eye straight to the human heart’. To coincide with the appearance of Songs, Walker’s publisher Black Inc. has seen fit to issue a tenth anniversary edition of his 2009 memoir Shots. I recall reviewing it in the pages of this magazine at the time and being wildly impressed. Ten years on, it feels even more like a classic. Forgoing the expected, Walker largely eschews his time with Cold Chisel, instead casting a penetrating gaze on his years spent away from the limelight, conjuring the loneliness and general weirdness of his itinerant life. His book is chockful of strange characters who cross his path, those inhabiting the dusty towns and urban squats he moves between. He eyeballs the landscapes, the urban streets. True to its opening sentence – “Poor Billy Keeper, hangin’ in the barn, discovered on Empire Day, the afternoon making its long eventful way on to cracker night”, Walker’s prose is shot full of desperation and longing, recalling the so-called ‘dirty realism’ of writers like Raymond Carver and Richard Ford. Rather than a coherent narrative, Walker delivers up impressionistic miniatures, his eye soaking up and describing everything in the frame. It’s worth savouring a typical example: “Perpetual motion, biblical hills and high roads, city states bejewelled with bars and one star motels strung like little party lights along a faint silver ribbon under the moon”. It almost demands to be read aloud. Shots proves the perfect title for these fragments, laid out as they are in long, looping stream-of-consciousness sentences. They are like memoryphotographs, each one described in immense detail, before moving on to the next. It is a book that burns bright with rhythm, reflecting the musicality of the songwriter. There are interesting correspondences between Songs and Shots, the same locales – Adelaide, Kings Cross, Broome, the backroads of Queensland – enter and exit the frame of each, the lyrics and stories shedding light one upon the other. Placed side by side, these books delineate the complex lines of a single life, lived to the full, mapped out in prose and song. 89

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL: I SURVIVED THE 80S ROCK SCENE IN AUSTRALIA By Tony Collins (distributed by AT Production) There’s good writing about music and GREAT writing about music. Reasons To Be Cheerful: I Survived The 80s Rock Scene In Australia by Tony Collins falls very strongly By Stuart Coupe in the latter category. This is the kind of writing that makes you revisit music you thought you knew well and hear it again with fresh ears and an entirely new perspective. It’s also the sort of writing that causes you to spend hours on eBay and Discogs wondering why you can’t find that CD by the Klezmer band from Alice Springs called Rusty And The Infidels. Heck, it’s the sort of book where listening to nothing but the Eagles Greatest Hits CD on the ten hour drive to Alice Springs not only makes perfect sense – but makes you actually want to do just that. It’s ostensibly reviews of gigs, most of them in Australia, but he also takes in Nick Cave and Johnny Cash at Glastonbury in 1994, Public Image Limited in London in 1987 etc). In fact if I have a criticism of this book it is that the subtitle only hints at what’s inside (and a lot of the writing is set outside the 1980s, the earliest is 1978 and the most recent 2017) – and the black and white cover image (hey, it’s self published and there’s budgetary issues with such ventures) doesn’t immediately jump at you. The tone of Reasons To Be Cheerful is set in the first chapter, a brilliant piece about seeing punk band The Bedhogs in Bathurst in 1980, another about Tutti Parze at Nimbin Town Hall in 1980, an absolutely hysterical piece about Dave Warner playing at a pub in Mooloolaba in 1981, and another about a Sunnyboys gig at Balmain Town Hall in 1980. One great piece follows another as Collins jumps around the country and the globe embracing music and gigs, even taking us back to watching Bob Dylan at Sydney Showgrounds in 1978. There’s an outstanding piece about The Warumpi Band, No Fixed Address and Mixed Relations at the Invasion Day concert in Sydney in 1992. In fact there’s not a weak piece in the collection. What makes these pieces so very wonderful is the sense of time’n’place that Collins seems to effortlessly conjure up in each essay. I re-read the final paragraph of the Sunnyboys piece three times to myself and then aloud to my partner. “We smoked joints at the back of the ferry on the ride home across the harbour to Circular Quay. We drank bottomless cups of coffee and ate chocolate crepes at Pancakes on the Rocks till 3am and then the fat hippie led us like a goblin down to the southern pylon of the bridge and showed us a secret hole that led to a passage way that took us all the way to the top of the big coat hanger that spans Sydney Harbour. The view from up there was staggering, like flying in on a Qantas jet from Brisbane when you sail in over Manly, bank left at North Sydney and pull that long view straight up the harbour to the orange-marbled pre-dawn sky through the Heads, with the bridge, the Opera House and the city skyline momentarily magnificent until you slide in low over Marrickville, skim the container terminal at Tempe and touch down miraculously on the western runway. We sat up there at the top of the world, smoking joints and talking about the best gig we’d ever 90 82

been to until the sun finally came up and we finally came down.” The concluding review is of a Warren H. Williams gig in Alice Springs in 2017. At one point Williams is singing the Icehouse song Great Southern Land. Collins comments that he was never a huge Icehouse fan but recognised the song writing abilities of Iva Davies. Then he goes on: “But when this song, which spoke to our national identity and the bedevilment of our souls by the unspeakable mystery of the land, was performed in front of us by a black man whose ancestors have always been in this place, for me the song was reborn and, to my surprise, everyone in the room was singing it.” And it’s my guess that if you’ve never heard Warren H Williams singing Great Southern Land you’re looking for it right now. As well you should as it’s magnificent. There have already been the usual mass of music books published this year and there will undoubtedly be more. I’ve read parts of all of most of them and none are a patch on this. Reasons To Be Cheerful, like most self-published books, snuck out and I only found it by chance after seeing a post on Facebook - but it deserves a wide readership as it’s so very very good and has so much to tell us about music and it’s relationship with the world that it exists in. If you love music and writing you need this book. Get it here: https://www.atproduction.co

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83 91

Gelareh Pour

Jeff Austin

Jerry Lawson

Chaika

Rocky Ridge Band

Screaming Orphans

COMPILED BY SUE BARRETT Odd Socks Day, which aims to help remove stigma around mental illness, is being celebrated on Fri 4 Oct 2019. New releases include: Kevin Johnson, The Devil Found Work; Susan Werner, NOLA; Peter Mulvey, There is Another World; Barbara Higbie, Resonance; The Suitcase Junket, Mean Dog, Trampoline; Chaika, Arrow; Lucie Thorne, Kitty & Frank; Liam Kennedy-Clark, Another Habit; Mal Blum, Pity Boy; Soak, Grim Town; Thelma Plum, Better in Blak; Shari Ulrich, Back to Shore; Gaby Moreno & Van Dyke Parks, ¡Spangled!; Seeker Lover Keeper, Wild Seeds; Lonesome Chris Todd, Dark Horses; Tanya Tucker, While I’m Livin’; Screaming Orphans, Life in a Carnival; Thea Gilmore, Small World Turning; Steeleye Span, Est’d 1969; Rachel Hair & Ron Jappy, Spark. The Australian Women in Music Awards (www. womeninmusicawards.com.au) take place at Brisbane Powerhouse on Tues 8 Oct & Wed 9 Oct 2019, with Forums (Visibility in Hip Hop; The Art of Rebellion; Image Making) and the Awards Ceremony. Ahead of her 2020 Australian tour, Scotland-based Australian singer/ songwriter Jenny Biddle has a new album, Live in Scotland, which includes ‘Gifts & Words’; ‘Stories We Tell’; ‘Long Winter’s Day’; ‘Flare in the Night’; ‘Wild & Free’; ‘Hero in Me’. WAM (West Australian Music) is recording a Sounds of The Kimberley album, to be released in 2020. Performers include: Damar Isherwood, Monique Le Lievre, Tornina Torres (Broome); Arnold McKenzie (Derby); Dodge City Boys (Halls Creek); Elly Ottenhoff (Kununurra); Hillside Band (Bayulu Community); Lenny Gordon (Yiyili Community); Main River Band (Girriyoowa Community); Rocky Ridge Band (Wangkatjunka Community). Garden Quartet, formed by Australian-Iranian musician Gelareh Pour with Brian O’Dwyer, Arman Habibi and Mike Gallichio in 2016, has released a self-titled debut album, including songs in Farsi. Gelareh Pour told Rhythms, “The first musician I saw live was Hassan Kasaie. My father was very specific about the music he exposed me to. I hardly listened to any pop music, although I did start listening to heavy metal when I was fourteen. Iranian women can teach and perform music – there are restrictions, but within those restrictions there are career options. I was teaching music in Iran to young children and performing in choirs and orchestral ensembles. My research on The Lives of Iranian Women Singers in Diaspora [an ethnomusicology study undertaken at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music about a number of Iranian women singers who migrated to Western countries after the 1979 Islamic Revolution] was very much the story of my life. None of the women I spoke with in my research had performed on stage as a soloist in Iran [due to the restrictions]. Whilst my research focused on Iran, restrictions on female performers can be found in many places, so it’s an important story to tell.” Of Garden Quartet’s debut album, Gelareh Pour says, “To a degree, the whole album is quite unusual. We play IranianAustralian contemporary music and I’m not sure that has previously existed. There are many Iranian artists in Australia, most are either creating Iranian art or creating western art. What we’re trying to achieve is the culmination of the two, the sum of all our parts.” 92

The Museum of Sydney’s Songs of Home exhibition (10 Aug to 17 Nov 2019) tells of music played in NSW during the first 70 years of the colony. After releasing the album The Truth Appears earlier this year, Canadian-based American singer/songwriter Jamie Anderson is releasing a book on women’s music (An Army of Lovers).

…AND GOODBYE

English music magazine fRoots (aka Folk Roots) suspended publication in July, shortly after receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from Folk Alliance International and releasing its 40th anniversary issue Gary Duncan (72), guitarist with Quicksilver Messenger Service, died California, USA (June) American musician Dr John (aka Mac Rebennack) (77), multiGrammy winner and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, died Louisiana, USA (June) Jerry Carrigan (75), drummer, died Tennessee, USA (June) American mandolinist, singer and songwriter Jeff Austin (45), of Yonder Mountain String Band, died Washington State, USA (June) Kelly Jay Fordham (77), member of Crowbar and co-writer of ‘Oh What a Feeling’, died Alberta, Canada (June) English-born singer, songwriter and broadcaster Eamon Friel (70), son of a Derry man and Mayo woman, died Derry, Northern Ireland (June) Chuck Glaser (83), of American country group Tompall & the Glaser Brothers, died in June Blues and zydeco musician Paul Sinegal (75) died Louisiana, USA (June) Paddy Fahey (102), Irish composer and fiddler, died Galway, Ireland (June) American musician Dave Bartholomew (100) died Louisiana, USA (June) Roger Covell (88), music critic for The Sydney Morning Herald, died NSW, Australia (June) ABC presenter Chris Winter (72), of Double J / triple j, died NSW, Australia (June) Jerry Lawson (75) of The Persuasions, who released his debut solo album (Just a Mortal Man) in 2015, died Arizona, USA (July) Vivian Perlis (91), founder of Yale University’s Oral History of American Music, died Connecticut, USA (July) American composer and arranger Sid Ramin (100), died New York City, USA (July) Anthony Smith (61), of Flowers (which became Icehouse), died NSW, Australia (July) English born singer-songwriter and anti-apartheid activist Johnny Clegg (66) died South Africa (July) Art Neville (81), of The Meters and Neville Brothers, died Louisiana, USA (July)

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