Tamworth 2013 Blog

Well that was Tamworth for another year, folks! Quite the trip up and quite the trip back. Oh and there were some gigs somewhere in between. Eight in seven days to be precise.

Memorable moments

Debut of new song & playing it live to air on 2TM. I’d had a chord progression and feel knocking around for a year or so and just before we geared up for Tamworth, Mr Wizard and I sat down and put some time into it, slowed it down, came up with a slide part for it and presented it to Mjeb who got some words happening for it. Once we were in Tamworth we sat down with Carl & Theo to work on bass and drums. The real surprise was when Jo added a harmony. By the time it came to the radio gig we’d played it live twice. It’s got a working title of “Sweet Adeline” but it may change. Either way I’m diggin’ it.

Having Jo with us once more – how could this not be a highlight. Aside from the softer songs that we keep for gigs with Jo, we also got to play Wine to Water, which although we occasionally do play, really cooks with Jo’s vocals added in there.

For the guitarists: sweaty guitars! The change in the weather between the Saturday and Sunday night gigs was so dramatic that my guitars broke a sweat (okay –maybe it was condensation) – but needless to say they were not dry. In the end I resorted to putting talcum powder on my hands – a trick I saw Jeff Beck do once. It worked a treat!

The weather driving there and back – so as we all know there’s been some pretty extreme weather happening. Here’s a photo of the clouds and mist that we encountered on the way up:

And some amazing blue sky also on the way up:

Less blue but no less spectacular:

Some from during the week in Tamworth:

And finally, some of what we saw on the way back:

and then:

also:

I love the colours we have in our country.

Fans:

It’s great playing to new audiences, but it’s also really great when you see familiar faces showing up as well. We are lucky enough to have some pretty amazing fans. I’m always staggered when someone travels out of their way to specifically come to one of our gigs. Some from the central coast (you know who you are!); some from Sydney; and then there was the lady who flew from Victoria to come to the show. Zoiks!

Other people’s gigs:

In between our own gigs I checked out what Peel St had to offer. I saw a band doing a country cover of “What’s going on” by 4 non-Blondes which was rather goodly. Funny to think that the song is nigh-on 20yrs old!

There were the three brothers who sang a beautifully harmonised version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” on Paul Robert Burton’s stage at the Atrium shopping centre.

Cash Only – shout out to Rosie, fiddle player – lovely conversation between us packing down and them setting up.

On the road music:

Confession: I am a musical snob. I believe I have the best taste in music. There it is. I think that some decades have been kinder to music than others. 50s, 60s and 70s were good to music. The 80s were pretty testy. The 90s were good and so were the 00s. I’m yet to be convinced that the 10s are treating music well. But I remain open. So my own collection is reflective of this. However, I would venture to say that while Mjeb and I have many tastes in common … there are also some departures! Moreover, when on the road the driver picks the music. Welcome to Mjeb’s “open ears” playlist policy! So we get musical selections like the following:

Howlin’ Wolf (cool) … Little Walter (no problem) … Pink Floyd (woo hoo) …  Fleetwood Mac (yep no problems) … Stevie Nicks solo (hmmm) … Bob Marley (woo hoo) … Aloe Blac (not bad) … a host of West Coast yacht-rock; and a bunch of 80s tunes (I’ll leave it to your imaginations as to just how good that was!) … La Roux (pushing it now) … and Skrillex. WTF! And then after that … Skrillex … same song again … and again! If you don’t know what a Skrillex is … I aint’t gonna be the one who directs you there! But if you liked the sound that your old 56k modem used to make, then this guy is making your kind of music.

Buskers:

At one point Mr Wizard and I were taking in the buskers and saw a kid doing a cover of the Paul Kelly song “To Her Door” on a Tomkins guitar – pretty cool! This is he:

We also caught a girl playing banjo and singing – personally I find walking and singing hard enough. Kudos.

On the road cooking:

When we travel as a band we keep it loose but we stay together and we dine communally – none of this ‘every man for himself’. It’s one of the ways to bond with the people with whom you spend so much time writing, recording and gigging. Mjeb does do most of the catering but we all try to pitch in in some way shape or form. Here's my list of the culinary highlights from the trip (no particular order):

Theo’s Bolognese - not much to add here - fantastic as always!

Mjeb’s Mexican breakfast extravaganza – where upon we supped on refried beans, chilli con carne, scrambled eggs … and a large variety of hot sauces.

BBQ at Gasman’s – Michael (yes another one) is a friend of the band and each time we’ve played Tamworth he’s invited us round for a BBQ. It’s a great chance to relax with good people some of whom are musicians (but we don’t hold it against them). It’s also where we first met Mike ‘Fettler’ Kerin (fiddle player for those still catching up) who has since gigged and recorded with us.

And I’m going to put my hand up and say that the gazpacho soup that I made was a bit alright too :)

Some random pics:

Guitars chillin' out

Last light after a gig:

Family photo on the porch:

(L-R: Elsa, Noodles, Mr Wizard, Bill, Mjeb, Jo, The Machine)

Mr Wizard and Mjeb playing "Sweet as pie":

Last highlight … that only a handful of people got to enjoy:

Sitting on the porch after the gigs, cooling my heels in a bucket of iced water … working on new stuff as the sun sank below the horizon. Peace, tranquillity and mung beans.

All in all a pretty durn good week.

Cheers,

Rosie