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[Home/Menu] Articles on this page: | Listen to Folk Music on the Net | The Honey Eaters | STOCKADE | The Floor Spot | | Online Musical Collaborations & Recordings | Liability Insurance for Performers | Old Bush Songs |Folk Radio Show for Brisbane/Qld | |Les Barker Heart Attack| CROWS NEST - A Small Country Town |
Ahoy you landlubbers who yearn for the songs of the seas! If you happen to be passing through Sydney, this can be arranged under very salubrious conditions on board the beautiful fully-restored 134 year-old square-rigged sailing ship the James Craig moored in Darling Harbour at Wharf 7 near the Australian National Maritime Museum. During our last trip through Sydney we were indeed fortunate to be in town on the right night. These most enjoyable sessions are organised by Mike Richter with the enthusiastic support of The Roaring Forties. The Shanty Singalongs generally run on the fourth Thursday evening of each month from 7.30, but it is wise to look at the Sydney Heritage Fleet website www.shf.org.au/WhatsOn/WhatsOn.html or give Mike a call on 0419-992-119 ahead of time, to check whether there are any date changes because of special circumstances. These cheerful gatherings are held below decks in the comfortable area that once used to be part of the cargo hold. This spacious floored area has a galley and heads (toilets, to you landlubbers!) and makes a very snug acoustic space for the stalwart crew to exercise their vocal chords. In the warmer months they gather on the main deck, enjoying a glorious view of the city lights across Darling Harbour. It's not just the great singing that we enjoyed so very much, but also the interestingly varied input of those folk in attendance. The evening we were there, Don Brian had brought in a copy of A Selection of Chanties from the Nimrod. Next, a shanty night first-timer read a poem she had written - she was looking for a tune to set it to. In this enterprise she was offered very able assistance from the very fine wordsmith John Warner, whilst Kathie McMahon-Nolf from Kurrajong suggested a traditional tune that suited her words very nicely. Patricia Early had a recently unearthed book of songs by the late Stan Rodgers. Mike had some interesting material about the early days of South Australia's maritime history from a 1928 publication The Making of A Sailor. Margaret Walters was in fine voice and brought forth some real gems from her broad repertoire. Sandra Nixon (of the great acoustic venue, The Loaded Dog) was busy with other crafty tricky-fingered fibre and fabric folk who continued the old foc'sle tradition of the visual crafts. Dawn Richter, Mike's wife, is a keen quilter who has actually pieced a fine commemorative James Craig quilt. The scope of the many and varied interests of those on board was truly limitless! We were all enjoying ourselves enormously when a powerful voice joined in our chorus from the above deck. It heralded the arrival of Martin Pearson and Marina Hurley from Melbourne who were in Sydney for a performance the following day. Their accommodation was nearby so they decided to pop in and say hello and join in the singing circle. By this time we were beginning to think that things couldn't be much better. That was, until Dawn Richter called us all to supper! No 'ard tack on this ship! Besides the usual basics, there were warm savoury treats that melted in the mouth and then, the piece de resistance, Dawn's brilliant Chocolate Cake. What a great night it was! Our many thanks go to those cheery folk who made it all possible. Each evening's modest $7 per person contribution covers the cost of supper and helps towards the maintenance of this wonderful ship, so if you'd like to partake in all these delights, just give the ever-helpful Mike a call. We're now on his regular James Craig Shanty email list, and very much looking forward to our next nautical sing on board when we travel south again. Evan and Lyn Mathieson
The Don Henderson Project by Mark Gregory Don Henderson was one of the first in the folk revival to take up the pen to write about things happening around him, in the cities, the mines, the building industry, the maritime industry. He took up issues too with many anti-war songs prominent in his work. Although Don died in 1991, a number of his songs found a new use - particularly in opposition to the Iraq War and in the struggle to protect Rights at Work. Don's work shows that he comfortably spanned musical boundaries, folk, country, rock, blues, rock opera and talking blues. Sally Henderson and Mark Gregory set up the Don Henderson Project to begin the process of producing an up to date selection of Don's songs on CD and introduce his songs to a new generation of the folk song and Labour movements in Australia and elsewhere. The project is established under the auspices of the Queensland Folk Federation. The project has the support of many singers of Don's songs: Gary Shearston, Alex Hood, Helen Rowe, Dave de Hugard, Danny Spooner, Tommy Leonard, Anne Bermingham, Bill Berry, Griff Bignell and Craig McGregor. The Don Henderson Project is funded through a sponsorship system whereby a donation of $150 entitles the donor to 3 of the double CDs when they are published as well as being named in the CD booklet (more info at donhenderson.com.au/sponsor.html ). To date the sponsorship has raised more than $4000 from individuals, folk clubs, folk festivals, folk federations and union and Labour history branches and even a foundation. We are getting close to our target, but we hope this update will encourage further sponsorship! Please visit donhenderson.com.au for more info and download a sponsorship form.
CROWS NEST - A Small Country Town How many of you have driven through a small country town, blinked, and missed it? If ever you are up Crows Nest way, make sure you stop and check it out! It’s amazing what you can find bubbling away under the surface. Rhys and I have been living up in Crows Nest for almost three months now, we thought it would be a peaceful, quiet change from the city – boy were we wrong! As we were signing up and collecting the keys for the house, Catherine, one of the ladies at the real estate agency, invited us to come along and see if we would like to join the local choral group. All we had to do was turn up with a drink and a plate of food, the fact that some of us aren’t too great at singing, like me, didn’t seem to matter. So along we went and that was the start of some wonderful new friendships and lots of music. At the fortnightly gathering there is a mixture of singers, musicians, artists, writers and lots of chat and music. It has become an evening not to miss and Liz our choir mistress comes up with some amazing songs for us to try. We were meeting at Catherine and Randall’s home but have now been able to hire the local CWA hall across the road from The Grand Old Crow. Everyone is so enthusiastic that it has been decided to have a Music Session on the alternate Fridays, which I’m sure is going to be just as much fun and I can’t wait to try out my three mandolin chords. The Arts Council is very active in the town as well, with various happenings all through the year. They often hire a bus to take people to shows in places like Esk, Toowoomba and even Brisbane. There are Operas in the Vineyards, Crows Nest Day in October where our choir will be singing even though the “Worm Races” are the highlight. In November they are putting on a French Theatre Restaurant Show which is being written by a local playwright and we will all participate in this event as well. Every third Sunday the Grand Old Crow pub has been putting on live music out on the sidewalk thanks to Chad and Michelle from Up In Folk and Steve and Mel of Piccolo Poets. It is hoped that this Sunday afternoon event will take off and there are a lot of musicians in the area and more moving in all the time. People from out of town are always welcome. There is also the Crows Nest National Park with walking tracks to The Valley of Diamonds and a rock pool complete with waterfall and granite gorges. Can’t guarantee how much water is in the waterfall at the moment. There are picnic areas and camping grounds and just along the road there are the two dams, Perseverance and Cressbrook. On the first Sunday of the month we head to Strummers in Toowoomba, only 46 km away and a guarantee of some more great music thanks to Allan Mackey and Toula. Rhys and I have also been lucky to have had so many friends visit us from the big smoke and these visits have turned into some great music weekends. So next time you pass through our new home, Crows Nest, stop and have a look around. There is an Art Gallery, Coffee Shops, The Grand Old Crow pub, huge Antique place, the Carbethon Folk Museum & Village also Crows Nest markets on the first Sunday of the month. Just out of town there is the Bunnyconnellen Olive Grove & Vineyard on the road to Haden and Goombungee where there is another great Art Gallery and Antique / Coffee Shop, plus a great pub The Pioneer Arms. Heading towards Toowoomba you have Hampton where they hold the Hampton Food , Arts and Music Festival every May. You can then keep driving along the New England Highway passing through Cabarlah where you have more Art Galleries, The Farmers Arms Tavern, Black Forest Hill Cuckoo & Grandfather Clock Centre, Danish Flower Art and heaps of nurseries. If you don’t want to head into Toowoomba itself you can head down the mountain to the Spring Bluff Railway Station. The other option is from Hampton through the Ravensbourne National Park and Esk. Both are beautiful drives. So we look forward to seeing you all up this way sometime,
don’t forget your musical instruments, voices and winter woollies.
It can get quite cold up here at times.
Les Barker - Mild Heart Attack Les Barker is currently recovering
from a mild heart attack.
Wonderful Folk Music Programmes – Listen
to them on the Net An article by your Webmistress - MaryB You don’t need to stay awake until some ‘ungodly’ hour - all of these programmes can be listened to whenever you wish by clicking on “Listen Again”. Keep up with what is happening on the folk scene in UK. Play along with the "Virtual Session." Mike
Harding’s Folk Programme (BBC Radio 2 - recorded Wednesdays) Folk
Club hostel by Colum Sands (BBC1
- Radio Ulster) (recorded Sundays) Geneveive
Tudor’s Sunday Folk (BBC1 - Radio Shropshire) Folkscene (BBC1
Radio Merseyside) North Yorkshire Folk Folkwaves (BBC1
Radio Derby) Travelling
Folk (BBC1 – Radio Scotland) (recorded Thursdays) The
Virtual “Session” (BBC Radio 2) [top]
STOCKADE
Based in Coffs Harbour for the last 16 years, this talented couple have paid their dues in the clubs and pubs playing a wide selection of music from Café Jazz , R&B , Country Rock, Old time dance and good ol’ Rock‘n’Roll. They have returned home to Brisbane to settle at Mt Cotton and have bought a refreshing mix of earthy roots and blues with touches of the Irish and Aussie to the Folk Redlands crowd. Chuck plays acoustic guitars and wonderful mandolin while Chris, who is best known for fine piano skills and fabulous harmonica, backs up on accordion & mandolin. Both are singer/songwriters and delighted the crowds at Redlands Folk Festival 2007 with originals like Social Security and Public Liability. As Chuck says Stockade is like a bus…people get on & off… and the latest to join us is Geoff Carwardine on bass & vocals… it’s great to have him share in this continuing musical journey. Not only are they professional entertainers, their talents in live sound mixing are of a high standard. Performers & audience appreciated their last minute filling the breach at the last Folk Rag Fundraiser concert in East Brisbane and more recently their work at Folk Redlands Festival. STOCKADE plays engaging earthy roots music with fine harmonies…. it's good to have them back in Brisbane. Contact: Phone: 07 3289 9724 or [top]
THE HONEYEATERS Brisbane Folk Scene welcomes the delightful Duo Roo Friend and Clytie Binder to the fold. Congratulations are in order... The couple Tied the Knot on Easter Saturday a few weeks after playing to a full house at Folk Redlands. Clytie Binder grew up in Balmain, Sydney, and comes from a family of artists. She studied classical piano as a child, started to play keyboards and guitar in bands as a teenager, and graduated from the Contemporary Music Degree at Southern Cross University Lismore specializing in jazz piano influenced by World Music. Clytie's music is influenced by all genres of music, especially the work of Keith Jarrett, Alain Stivell and Joni Mitchell. Roo Friend was born in the UK and travelled widely with his family before settling in Australia at age 11. After a stint on the ukulele Roo began playing bass in rock bands at age 13 and went on to play guitar, banjo and drums professionally for 35 years with acts such as Ol'55, Col Joye, Judy Stone, Lucky Starr, Normie Rowe and Long Way To The Top. Roo is a graduate of The University Of New England (Musicology) and studied at the NSW Conservatorium and also under Ike Isaacs. He has also performed on the shamisen, a Japanese 3-stringed fretless lute. Roo's influences are also wide and include Paul Simon, Seals and Crofts, Stefan Grossman and Wes Montgomery. Roo and Clytie first met in Lismore where they played in a jazz rock group together. The Honey Eaters, formed in 2003, mostly features Roo's original compositions. Their music is influenced by bluegrass, folk and country music but also draws on other genres including jazz, classical and music from other cultures. www.myspace.com/honeyeaters or www.geocities.com/the_honeyeaters The HONEY EATERS are available for Gigs ... They also have a CD out. All songs written by Roo and Clytie. Tel 07 3391 1514. Pat Hall [top]
The Floor Spot By John Thompson of Cloudstreet Performing a floor spot is the best way to get a booking in an English folk club. While the name may suggest spontaneity, a little research, a recommendation or two, and a phone call to the organiser of the club can make all the difference. When we first landed in the UK in 2003, we knew very little about English folk clubs. For a start they seem to number in their thousands, and no two are the same. Some clubs meet monthly, others weekly, some only “occasionally”. Some clubs are constantly on the move, while others proudly proclaim the longevity of their tenure in the one pub (until their recent move; the Herga held the record at 42 years!). For some clubs, an audience of 30 will be a big night, for others (such as the Red Lion in Kings Heath in Birmingham) 60 is a small night with over 200 expected for their biggest nights (e.g. whenever Vin Garbutt is in town). The clubs in the UK are very much grass-roots organisations, run by their members so that they will have somewhere to play, with their role as a venue often seen as secondary. Many of the clubs regularly run singers’ nights, with no guest artist being booked, but everyone paying a small amount to attend. (In fact for some clubs, these are their best-attended nights). A common pattern is for a club to run singers’ nights every week, then use the money raised to subsidise a monthly guest night, with booked performers. We were keen to establish ourselves on this circuit and were looking for a way to introduce ourselves to some of the larger clubs. We’d been told by friends familiar with the scene that floor spots were the answer. The idea is that you contact the club organiser as early as you can before a guest night and offer to play an unpaid spot before the main act. As an unpaid support act, you at least have the opportunity to perform before the club’s regulars and show them what you can do.. We found a good starting point was to scour one of the many free folk mags (like the Folk Rag in Queensland) and then pick a night when the club we were after had someone booked that we knew (early on we caught up with James Keelaghan and Bob Fox at the Twickenham Folk Club in London). Once you’ve done that, all you can do after that is play your 15 minute spot the best you can, and hope that the organisers like your set. We quickly found that club organisers were not averse to quick decisions. It’s best to have your diary ready! Out of 15 clubs around the South of England and in the Midlands, we were booked for 14 gigs as a result of our floor-spots (the exception being the night Nicole was sick and I went by myself – I’m still recovering emotionally). Each gig seemed to build on the last, with folkies being a gossipy lot who let each other know quickly that there was someone new on the circuit. Club spots can lead to recommendations to other clubs and to festival organisers and at festivals more club-organisers see your performances and so it goes. Although some of the clubs are quite small it is not uncommon for clubs to fill their bookings 12-18 months in advance. One organiser told us of his decision to never book an act on the basis of material mailed to him. In these days of technical wonder, he found that a great recording didn’t necessarily indicate an ability to “put on a show”. He was not alone in deciding that he needed to see an act before he could confidently book them. The large number of clubs means that, although each club may not represent the wealth of ages, it is possible to spend a season in the UK and perform at 3, 4 or 5 clubs in a week. This is good work for musicians who don’t mind a bit of driving. It does require an initial investment of time, and energy, and a willingness to take a chance on unknown venues across the country, but the floor-spot route into the folk club circuit is one way to get a start. And along the way, you can meet a lot of the people that make up the international folk family – singing their songs, playing their tunes, and keeping the music alive. Cloudstreet (John Thompson and Nicole Murray) are back in Australia after their 3rd UK tour. You will find them at www.cloudstreet.org [top]
Online Musical Collaborations and Recordings Ever thought what it would be like to have Alison Krause play fiddle on your next demo CD? What about Donovan Gall doing percussion and Barry Bales on bass for your humble musical creation? Maybe a bit of button accordion from Sean Quinn to augment your entry to the next TFF song writing competition? Well it is not as far fetched as you may think. David Pendragon, a Canberra musician and sound engineer has produced a CD – The Journey, which is a collaboration of 32 musicians most of whom he has not physically met. Mr Pendragon produced the album using the Internet as a means of communication. Musicians from all parts of the world have contributed their work via the web for this landmark CD. T he 16 diverse pieces of music on The Journey incorporate up to 10 musicians on some tracks and up to three on others. It took David over 12 months to put it all together. Amazingly in creating The Journey, David’s computer was the conduit and central processing station. It all started with David Pendragon meeting fellow musicians through forums on a number of online music distribution outlets (OMD’s). These forums not only provided an exchange of information and a chance to discuss various musical topics, but an opportunity to have each other’s musical compositions reviewed. It was an excellent opportunity for peer feedback. Among David’s musical cyber-buddies have been a Novocastrian mother of 4; Ian Cameron, a fiddle player from Ontario and a cedar wood flute playing Native American who records via his laptop in the prairie lands of USA. Some of Mr Pendragon’s reviewers liked his work so much that they offered to contribute to these compositions either as an instrumentalist or vocalist. To achieve this, a music file in the form of a backing track, usually comprising basic vocal and instrument, was uploaded (128kbs) in MP3 format to the contributing musician. The musician downloaded this MP3 music file on computer and incorporated it with appropriate software, e.g. Pro Tools. It was then up to the musician to devise an appropriate accompaniment to the back track. This in some instances required much time and experimentation in order that all instruments fitted and blended. David was also able to, through ‘Skype’ (a free internet telephone service), have a conversation with contributing musicians as they were accompanying the backing track. In this way Mr Pendragon could listen, comment and give valuable feedback as to how well the contributor’s vocals/instrumentation fitted in to the overall sound and feel of the piece. It was also important to create a click track for every music file sent, to enable the various online contributors to be synchronised with each other as well as with the basic backing track Sometimes a 24-bit file was needed for quality purposes and this would entail sending music files in a hard copy CD format via snail mail to a musical collaborator. David Pendragon stresses the need to have adequate back up storage (e.g. DVD or high GB hard drive), a broadband connection to the Internet due to its superior speed and capacity and good quality equipment. His recording studio situated at his home in Canberra consists of a Mac 1.42 gig dual processor with 1 gig of Ram, a Digi 002 sound card, Rode microphones (NTK, NT3, NT2), an Allen and Heath console with wizard 20 channel, Lexicon reverb, dbx compressor and Pro Tools LE 6.1 software. For beginners there are cheaper entry options available that give reasonable results. The website http://homerecording.about.com is a good site to explore for those starting out. So step one is to meet your musical peers through various OMD's such as [top]
Liability Insurance for Performers As many of us have become painfully aware, liability insurance is becoming a must for performers making public appearances these days. The QFF has been getting calls from quite a number of folk, particularly in the ‘not quite full-time muso yet’, or community group category’ who are looking for advice on affordable liability cover and they advise that a number of more reasonably priced options are now available, eg:
Annah Evington
Executive Major Projects
[top]
Old Bush Songs “ Australia is in real danger of losing one of its most important cultural signposts – the old bush songs and verse – passed down to us at the end of the nineteenth century.” So say folklorists Warren Fahey AM and Graham Seal, Professor of Folklore at Curtin University ’s Australia Research Institute. “We are particularly concerned that the old songs and ballads are disappearing, and many Australians seeing them as little more than colonial curiosities. Our language has already changed dramatically and as our culture continues to dumb down, we are forgetting about those nuts and bolts that identify us as a unique people. Young Australians know little, if anything, about the Australia of Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson, John Shaw-Neilson and Miles Franklin let alone the rich tradition of bush songs and poetry.” Fahey and Seal have teamed up to produce the centenary edition of Old Bush Songs which celebrates A.B. Paterson's pioneering role as a song collector, and documents the history of one of this country’s most enduring and important books. It includes recently collected material, rare illustrations and photographs, as well as background information to bring these old songs to life for today’s audience. “All is not lost,” say the two folklorists, as Australians are still singing these songs, “but the cultural warning bells are also ringing.” Says Fahey, “The days of campfires have been replaced with barbecues, stock rides by highway drives and the lounge room piano by the television set, but given the right opportunity homemade entertainment has a habit of resurfacing. Old songs, poems and yarns remind us where we came from as a people, and especially how we travelled down through the years. They remind us of our pioneering heritage, warts and all. Our language, also born of the bush, already reflects these influences and one could point to so many other aspects of today’s fragile society where our customs and traditions have bent to international influences. Says Seal, “Old Bush Songs deserves its special place in Australian literary and cultural history. For students and performers of Australian folk song it provides virtually the only sustained glimpse into an almost-vanished way of life, its attitudes and expressions.” Old Bush Songs - ISBN 0733315917 – rrp $32.95 – publication July 2005 Warren Fahey AM CM is a folklorist, broadcaster, writer, performer and graduate of the Dingo University . He is the author of numerous books, and writes regularly for The Bulletin magazine. He recently released two albums with ABC Music: APanorama of Bush Songs and Larrikins, Louts and Layabouts, and an ABC Audio Book of Classic Bush Poetry. He has a website for Australian folklore www.warrenfahey.com.au Graham Seal has just become Australia ’s first Professor of Folklore and works from the School of Australian Research Institute at Curtin University of Technology. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including the edition of Old Bush Songs published in 1983. [top]
FOLK RADIO SHOWS FOR QUEENSLAND! The Bay FM 100.3 Acoustic Harvest show, started by Colin Nightingale more than ten years ago, closed the faders for the last time on 18 July – but the show goes on! We have moved on to increased coverage, at two established radio stations based in Brisbane and a great addition to the team. Colin, Christine, Jan and Brian will be joined by Gibb Todd, whose mellow Scottish baritone and crisp sense of humour are now well- known to Australian folk music aficionados. The New Acoustic Harvest is revving up on Brisbane radio 4EB 98.1 FM, under the wing of the Multicultural group. At present it runs 2-3pm on the fourth (and fifth, if there is one) Wednesday of the month. We're aiming to make the folk show as big as possible to keep that independent folk music voice alive and well in Queensland and hope to move it into an expanded evening spot. You can help (this is the sales pitch) by becoming a member of the 4EB Multicultural group. You'll find all the info - and membership forms (cheap as chips - $25 , $15 conc.) at www.4eb.org.au . You can just join up and leave it at that or once you’re a member you can sign up for free broadcast and panelling training (Robert Taylor's an excellent trainer; I reckon you could fly a Starjet after doing a course with him). If you're a muso and you'd like your music played, if you're a supportive music lover or if you’re in the music industry and need more exposure, then giving this programme a boost by joining is a way to do it. Hope to welcome you to the team in the near future! The other good news (for inner-Brisbane dwellers only – sorry!) is that Acoustic Harvest, the Brisbane Edition will be airing on Planet Radio 88 |
James Craig - Shanty Singalongs
There
is something in the air in Brisbane, as yet another couple return to
join the acoustic folk music scene. Chuck & Chris Euston
are the driving force of STOCKADE. Its genesis was in
Irish/Bush music when the original line up included their two sons.