So we've been back a few days from the Tamworth Country Music Festival and thought I'd give a bit of a round up.
There was a hellava lot of music going on around town - like, honestly, this town supported more acts during this festival than I reckon Sydney does in a month. Really quite amazing. Even though numbers were down this year due to the effects of the floods, the whole place was buzzing. With all the buskers in town you can imagine the collections of sounds in Peel St. The sight of so many musicians walking about with instruments in hand, setting up, packing down, showing their stuff was terrific.
Some highlights:
Amongst the buskers, the stand-out act for me was Graveyard Train. They made and awesome sound that lay somewhere between Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Tom Waits and The Brian Jones Town Massacre. Great presence and the band had a fantastic junkyard vibe with one fella playing the chains. Well worth checking out if you get the chance. Here are some pics and a clip:
This is what the band looked like. The guy squatting played the chains with a hammer.
Remember those quaint, old fashioned things called 'Record Companies'? I think they used to do this sort of stuff.
OMG packing and sending out Carl's Chair to everyone who wants one (and some that dont...or dont know they do!) is a rather more arduous task than it would first appear.
For all our community radio mates, stand by, the albums on the way! If you think you should be on our Press Distribution List but aren't, drop us line via the contacts page.
For those that want their very own retail copy, you can get Carl's Chair by clicking on the link (look up to the left, see the big red box? Click on it!) Meanwhile, I have to go fill in customs forms for all the O/S stuff we have to send. Bless our local Post Office, they have been helping me out with the forms, boxes, taping, yikes. There really is something to be said for digital distribution....
Read more: Carl's Chair CD send outs started today
As promised, here's some of our experiences from the 2011 Tamworth Country Music Festival. Can I get a yeeehaaa?
Ahem. Totally out of sequence, here's a moment from the festival as Mike 'Fettler' Kerin, Steve Passfield, Andy Toombs and Brad Bergen jam it out at the morning gig at Diggers
Skies over Tamworth on Day 1
The boys will (hopefully) post their own blogs and pics, so you may need to check a few different perspectives to get the whole picture. I was on Kitchen Patrol for most of the tour (gotta keep them costs down) so I didn't get out to as many bands as the guys did, but I did get more sleep...
Another note, thanks to an Early Birthday Present, our new blog camera is in HD (oooooh! Nerdalicious!) which means all the videos are huge (filesize) so its taking me longer to blog, and sometimes, lower resolution is a little nicer (think of soft focus).
Howdy folks. I'm blogging from tamworth after our last show here for this years festival. We're shelving the sunday gig so apols to anyone who wanted to catch us this Sunday. It was always a tentative gig as Sunday is usually reserved for the awards stuff and our hosts Los Cabarets Del Oxley are heading back to Victoria early due to some family circumstances. With all the flooding and bushfires, you know how it is at the moment, so we opted for a final show this arvo.
Its been a heck of a week in a gorgeous location. in the coming few days the temperature will climb back up to 39C, but right now, as I type, its simply perfect. The stars are out, the boys are off seeing the Blues Cowboys and taking some well earned R&R after 7 shows in 7 days and I got time to blog.
After we get back to sydney I'll post some pics and vids from the tour and we're back on stage again this coming saturday (i think) at the Ivanhoe.