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.

Music under the Elm @ Lanyon

Jazz is returning to Lanyon Homestead for a summer season: Friday evenings, 3 Feb - 10 Mar, 5.30-8.30pm. Gold coin donation. The series features several bands out of the CSM, starting on 3 Feb with Eric Ajaye's excellent trio called Straight Up! See my review of an earlier concert at Lanyon below.

Friday 3 February STRAIGHT UP! Eric Ajaye, lecturer in Jazz Studies at the Canberra School of Music, joins with drummer Chris Thwaites and pianist Michael Azzopardi to play modern jazz originals.

Friday 10 February 5.30pm-8.30pm FIRE ON THE HILL. Jazz guitarist Lachlan Coventry, joins with bass, drums and slide to play his original material.

Friday 17 February, 5.30pm-8.30pm MALONE. Singer/songwriter Gareth Malone plays original soul, R & B and contemporary jazz material with Charlie Meadows and Nick Hoorweg.

Friday 24 February, 5.30pm-8.30pm SWING GUITAR. Three prominent guitarists and double bass players come together to perform the swinging Gypsy Jazz of Django Reinhardt and the ‘The Quintet du Hot Club de France’.

http://www.museumsandgalleries.act.gov.au/lanyon/index.asp

Winter Concert Series at Lanyon

I saw Eric Ajaye's new trio at Tharwa the other day. Lanyon is conducting a Winter Concert Series, with a range of different musical styles. Last Sunday was "Straight up", with Eric Ajaye, lecturer in jazz studies at the ANU Canberra School of Music, drummer Chris Thwaite and pianist Michael Azzopardi. A great and intimate concert held for a very few people (despite this, it was standing room only!) in a converted stable. It was billed as "exciting modern jazz originals". Tunes were mainly written by Eric Ajaye, and the playing was stimulating. Look out for this band. They are collecting a mailing list to advertise their performances: contact Eric at the Jazz School.

For info on the Lanyon Concert Series, see http://www.museumsandgalleries.act.gov.au/lanyon/

You can also see Chris Thwaites at Trinity Bar (Dickson) on Tuesday nights from 9pm, and I've caught Michael Azzopardi at Das Kapital (Narrabundah) and Hippo's, and of course, Eric Ajaye at the Kurrajong Hotel on Fridays after work, from 5.30pm.