Hoot’n’nanny-ing

The first week of this year’s Lanyon Music Festival was rockabilly heaven. Two bands singing harmonies with slap double basses and pedal steels. They were both local bands: The Wedded Bliss and The Fuelers. OK, so they were in a similar vein, but these are different bands. Wedded Bliss had lovely male harmonies that just sang so sweetly. Some originals with perhaps a bit of seriousness thrown in, playing the “holy trinity of music - blues, country & jazz” with Hank Williams country-clean guitar solos. I didn’t know the band and was enjoying both harmonies and that lithe pedal steel sound from inside the homestead at startup. Then I walked out to find Lachlan Coventry on pedal steel and chanky guitar. Lovely! The vocal harmonies were spot on. Blair has a good front line voice and Matt provides high notes while chopping away at the bass and Lachlan the low notes. “If you’ve got the money, honey, I’ve got the time / We’ll go honkytonking”. So lonely I could cry. Wedded Bliss are Randall Blair (guitar, leader, vocals), Matt Nightingale (bass, vocals) and Lachlan Coventry (guitar, pedal steel, vocals).

I had great memories of the Fuelers when I saw them playing for that sadly unsuccessful Rock & Blues Festival at EPIC several years ago. (Aside: The Canberra Blues’n’Rock festival was held on Canberra Day long weekend, 15-17 March, 2003. It was an incredible line-up. Sadly there were more volunteers than paid customers and more performers than volunteers and more watts than performers. Names included: Chain, Renee Geyer, Kevin Borich, Ray Beadle & the Vipers, Black Sorrows, Screaming Jets, Geoff Achison, Diesel, Bondi Cigars, Spectrum, Chris Wilson, Phil Manning, Vika & Linda, Ross Wilson and lots more. Wow!) These guys are seriously a show! Great patter, lively music, ongoing themes, great interaction with the audience. Not so pure in harmonies or solos, but fabulous entertainment, like “The white slave trade amongst musicians … it’s not dead yet” or the song about Bigman Power Tools, no safety catches … or the love song to the notchy 6-speed transmission of his beloved Mac 1964 Thermodyne Model D. These guys play dieselbilly and do it sharp as. Great slap bassist, too. Talk about living the life - they even turned up in a '60s Valiant. I imagine this was a family friendly outing, so be prepared for an adult version if you catch them when the sun’s down. The Fuelers are Blindboy Murray (guitars, vocals), Caltex Star (double bass, harmonica, vocals) and Thingamy Bob (drums, vocals) and Lachlan Coventry sat in for a few tunes on pedal steel.

Lanyon is a working property on the edge of Canberra with a historical homestead from the days when Canberra really was a sheep station. Here are a few pics to prove it.