Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Súnas on Twitter
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Sunas and Dougie MacLean
Dougie hadn't played the didge for nearly 11 years, but when he bought a new, tunable one from somewhere outside Eumundi, we couldn't resist the opportunity to ask him to play on Travelling Man.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=XqddGxQgrz4
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Good Blogging Intentions . . .
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Woodford The Mythical Last Day (Paul)
The Fire Event was just wonderful. There was a bit of a worry as it finally started raining during the afternoon, but by the time the infectious plonkety beats of Jambezi had started up, it had eased off to a fine drizzle. What didn’t ease up though, was the amazing electrical storm, and during the concert great fingers of lightning would rake across the sky, almost as if on cue. The river of fire, made up of hundreds if not thousands of small paper lanterns with candles inside, flowed down the natural slope of the amphitheatre to where the giant puppets played out their mummeries of a young girl’s imagination. The music was wonderful, from the choir-fed version of This Love will Carry led by Dougie, to Nancy & James Fagan (and Nancy’s reading) and the chaos of the Trans-Balkan Express. It was grand. The best one I’ve seen. Kudos to Nicole Murray from Cloudstreet how put together the music!
Later on, there was a very special session inside the Committee Bar. It was an eclectic mix, not just the standard belting out of Celtic tunes. Dougie & Jennifer, Liz Frencham (who taught me the chords to a truly beautiful song that she has gracefully offered to us), Johnstone and Andy from Auld Grey Whistle, the amazing JP on fiddle, my fellow Súnas chums, John & Nicole… the list goes on. The difference here was he promised that we’d also do songs and other things (something which doesn’t happen too often in the Guinness Tent, mainly due to the noise of the surrounding venues). It was a smashing evening, even if there wasn’t any cider.
The extra was really interesting too, as we didn’t have much of an idea what we were doing. A small stage was set up in front of the lake by the Duck, and we basically played a lantern parade down to the water, then a whole bunch of dancing fire people who thanked the volunteers with flaming letters. It was a great privilege to do this, as without these people Woodford wouldn’t exist. From the staffer in the Green Room who gave me a packet of tissues from her own bag when she saw me struggling with hay fever one evening while blogging, to the always-happy Kyle who helped us find a plum camping spot, thank you so much from all of us. You’re what makes this festival so smooth and effortless for difficult muso-types like us :)
Of course it pissed with rain the next morning while we were packing up, but we didn’t mind as it just gave us an excuse to stay longer!
We have three days now until we leave for Tasmania and the Cygnet Festival, where we will once again catch up with Dougie. We talked about doing a song together, so that’ll be just amazing. It’ll also be grand to catch up with Ethereal after a couple of years, JP the fiddler and our good mate Roz Pappalardo who’s performing with her ‘other’ band, Women in Docs. I’m hoping she’s brought that awesome Fender Jaguar down with her…
Then we have a Masterclass on Songwriting and Arranging to give. This is a whole day thing, and we’re really excited as it’s a whole new direction for us. Personally, I think we’re going to confuse the arse out of 15 poor folk, but hey, it’ll be fun! Then there’s our usual Thursday night gig at the New Sydney Hotel, and a wee performance at the Lark Distillery, which is practically our home away from home. I’ve just run out of whiskey too!
And let’s not forget the pies and buns of Jackman and McRoss.
But most of all, we’ll be catching up with our dear friend and Súnas fifth member, Helen.
We love Tasmania.
Good times ahead. Oh yes.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Woodford Final Day (Paul)
it's still the last day.
Except this time it isn't. We've once again received a call from Bill's
Donger, asking if we'd like to play at the farewell ceremony. Now we didn't
even know there was a farewell ceremony. Apparently, on the day after the
last public day, there's a dinner and a small lantern ceremony to thank the
volunteers. To the Woodford organisers, this is a big deal. There are over
1300 volunteers that make this place run smoothly. That's an awful lot of
people. So of course, we said yes (we don't usually leave until well into
the day after anyway, so spending another night would be no trouble at all).
We're not sure what we're doing at the moment, but like most things here,
it'll seamlessly fall into place nearer the time.
It's interesting to see how the festival grows as the days go by. Here's a
wee example: People start fresh, in their own clothes, but towards the end,
everyone is in Thai fisherman pants and a tie-dyed shirt. I often wonder how
long the goodwill would last. It is really a different place, or would the
usual human bickering, pre-justice and ignorance start to reassert
themselves after a week, two weeks, a month? Actually, I don't think I
really want to find out. I'd rather live with what we have here.
Yesterday I almost started an international incident as I nearly caused
Dougie McLean to be hit by a bus. We found ourselves walking back to the
Green Room together, talking about guitars. Dougie knows of Davy Stuart, the
Scotsman that built my guitar, and was curious about it, so we'd stopped in
the middle of the road to pull the instruments out and have a comparative
strum (I've been in love with Moon guitars for ages, but am more than happy
with mine). Needless to say, we were both off in our own worlds, and barely
heard the bus...
The duck gig was great. The sound was a little dicey up on stage, but the
front of house was ok we were told. For our last Woodford gig, we usually
play the stuff we really enjoy, so we threw in a few cover songs, the fast
tunes etc. Yesterday's gig had been just incredibly hot. I'd arrived and
straight away seen the huge fan at stage left (where I play) but alas it had
to be turned off as according to Sarah: "It makes my hair stick to my lip
gloss." And they call me precious! This time though, she had her hair up, so
I got to play within a vortex of hot air, which was nicer than just
stillness which drives me a little crazy. The gig today was the first time
I'd actually had my guitar feel hot, I mean really hot. The wood of the neck
felt like it had been in an oven. The tuning stayed wonderfully stable
though, a testament to Davy Stuart's genius as a luthier. Actually, thinking
back through the whole festival, the hardest thing for me as a guitarist has
been that having a damp scarf around my neck has meant that my fingers, and
my playing callouses, have been soft so playing has been a bit
uncomfortable. Still, that's nothing compared to last year, where I remember
seeing the water beading off my guitar.
Weather: Hot, steamy, crystal blue skies
Doughnuts eaten: 2
THE BARS ARE OUT OF CIDER!!
Pairs of pants bought: 2
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Woodford Day...Something by Paul
The gigs have gone just wonderfully.
It’s always difficult to know just what to play, as the audience’s tastes seem to vary with the time of day, the temperature, who else is on etc. Today, we decided to do a set of just original material, mostly songs and the tunes the girls have written. After the gig in the chai tent with no fans, blazing heat and Sarah getting a mild case of heat stroke afterwards, we wanted to take things a little easier. Of course it was the usual different story when we were up there (we just can’t help ourselves it seems). Everyone seems a little mellower today, so we finished up with the trad a cappella song, The Yorkshire Couple, which we don’t often do. It was great to hear all the singing and laughing. Best comment afterwards was someone telling us that Sarah’s new song, Drink Up Me Boys, had made him cry. In a good way, of course.
The heat is still incredible, though not as relentless as a few years about where it topped 40 degrees every day. This year, it’s more the humidity. I’m only surviving because I soak my Krama (A Cambodian Khmer scarf giving to me for Christmas by my friend Kevin) in ice water then drape it over my neck. And to think, on the first day, people would ask ‘why are you wearing a scarf, numpty?” Hahah. Dust is pretty bad though, and I can kind of feel it beginning to lodge in my nose and sinuses. Good job I’m not a singer!
We've been taking so many photos (most of them too rude and terrible for general consumption), but I'll wait until I'm back on my iMac at home before I post them. There are already some up on Facebook though. Use 'Paul Brandon', 'Sarah Calderwood' & 'Bridget Masters' to search the tags (Mannie doesn't have a Facebook account as he thinks it's the work of the divil) and hopefully, I'll collect the whole lot on Picasa really soon.
Right, more icey Krama goodness, more doughnuts, more Guinness...
Cold Showers today: 3
Byron Bay Doughnuts: 1
Langos (Hungarian fried snap bread with gulash): 1
Waking Time: 5am (Mean bin men!)
Fallen over a guy rope: 0 (!)
Spilled Guinnesses: 1
Clean underwear Left: 1 Pair
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Woodford Day Dunno (Paul)
It's just after midnight on I think Tuesday, although I guess it's now technically Wednesday. I'm really not sure anymore. It only matters when it comes to remembering gigs anyway. You know where you are in the program because the previous day's page is dusty, tattered and most likely has coffee, kofka balls and Byron Bay Doughnut stains on it. I'm in the wonderfully-named Green Room, and it's just occurred to me that perhaps Green Rooms are thus named because they're places of peace and solace, away from the madness that surrounds. People are asleep on the giant bed pallets, catching a few zeds under the cool of the huge fans in here. It's a nice place to sit, recharge (both body and iPhone) and people watch. These blogs take me ages to write, not because I'm ogling famous types, but simply because I get sidetracked by the interesting people. There are ten thousand stories at this festival, and I want to write about them all.
But I'm here to write about ours.
I'm really proud of that segue!
So today, I met Dougie MacLean.
I'm not going to go into details about how I feel about his music; everyone in the band has been influenced by him in a very personal way, but I'll just mention that seeing Dougie perform live has been pretty much at the top of my musical to-do list for well, over twenty years. And to see him perform then get to chat and play with him…
As a performer, he is just sublime. Music, humour, and and amazing self-deprecating sense of self that has audiences sitting mesmerised. When he struck up those wonderful first chords of 'Not Lie Down' (which I've been picking at soundchecks but never performing for years), I was lost.
When you meet people who have had a profound effect on you (and I'm talking about meeting them here on professional level rather than as a fan, as we're all here to perform at the festival) it can go many different ways, but we all kind of knew that he'd be great. But that initial moment when you strike up conversation is always tricky. It's very easy, particularly with someone held in such esteem as Dougie, to make a complete arse out of one's self, but he's a wonderfully warm and at-ease character so all went well. We're going to be playing again at the Cygnet Festival next week, along with Dougie so we wanted to make sure we got off on a good foot! Some stonking tunes and geeky guitar talk was a great start! Now I have to work on the idea of playing something together at Cygnet. The idea has been floated (and very well received). Watch this space...