A selection of Musos Reports from 2012
The night of 12 jan 2012
Last night was one of the best sessions we’ve had, not only as the size of audience was good, and people stayed for the whole evening to enjoy all the acts, but also because once more we had a number of new artists appear and as always the standard is extraordinarily high - each of our 3 new artists does or could have a professional career.
Norm Smith is a fine singer and guitarist with an entertaining style, who backed an act then gave us a good short set of his own, including an original. Doug Pullen played bass backing an act and then took up the acoustic guitar and produced a humorous set with numbers from Billy Connolly, Shel Silverstein, a take on David Bowie, and then a classic short “funny” from Jim Keys inspired by Keys’ bout with cancer. Greg Bryant was the last act of the evening and produced some truly stirring music. Beginning with a rendition of the classic “People get ready”, which with his soulful light tenor voice and disciplined finger picking was an evening highlight for me. He also played a version of the Talking Heads “Physco Killer”, Roger Miller’s “King of the road” and an original called “I am”. This was a beautiful song dealing with, in Greg’s words, “impossible love”, and with lines such as “Bloom across the veil of time” he presents as a thoughtful and poetic lyricist. We look forward to more appearances from Greg along with tonight’s other newcomers Norm and Doug.
Other regulars who performed included Frank Moroney who gave us a thoughtful set with some aptly timed Australiana from song writer Stan Coster, Drift with Michael and Sheree Bochow, The Revelators (with Paul Fagan and your truly), an original set from Mick Od who sounded much fuller with a 3 piece band, and on that point, a thank you to our two drummers – Danny and Ralph, for helping out. The session ended with a guitar jam led by Paul Fagan which was a nice wind down for the evening.
Michael
The Glasshouse Mountains Musicians Club is growing!
About 50 people attended the opening night of the Musos Club at Beerwah RSL on Thursday June 28. 11 acts performed including Greg Bryant, Peter Gawith with Andy on harmonica, Tommy Leonard, Richard Bojack, Paul Fagan, Glenn Major, Frank and Pam Moroney, Mick Od, The Merkin Brothers (Gerkin, Derkin, Ferkin and special guest Uncle Zerkin) and yours truly. The theme of the evening was Australian songwriters and, not surprisingly, they dominated the evening. Original songs were a feature with Greg Bryant introducing us to his lyricist Nel Tronnolone, who wrote the words for the three songs he performed. As Nel commented to me, it is not hard writing words for a performer who is as compelling and emotional in his delivery as Greg. Two of the Club regulars – Doug and Paul, created a new award for the Musos at Beerwah RSL - The “Most” award. It is a most imposing looking thing with a guitar head sitting atop a finely carved block of wood. The winner of the “Most” for this month is Peter Gawith, who impressed all with a song he wrote for his father entitled “He was right”. As Peter said it was only written the evening previous to the event, so we were pleased to have heard his performance “hot off the press”.
You can now check us out on the Sunshine Coast Council Community Hub: http://community.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/directory/glasshouse-mountains-musicians-club?s=1391
Michael
The Glasshouse Mountains Musicians Club in Beerwah
It was another great night for musicians and their friends at the Musos Club session at Beerwah RSL this last Thursday July 26 with 12 acts including 4 new performers. Amongst our “fresh” artists were Sherry Anderson, Mary Martin, Steve Steaton and Aaron Tregea.
Sherry treated us with her lovely, strong voice and original songs as did Mary, who displayed a fine sensibility as a songwriter and played a beautiful old Hohner guitar which had a number of our guitar lovers salivating. It was great to see a solo instrumentalist in Aaron Tregea, who displayed impressive musicality in his guitar performance. Amongst Steve Seaton’s songs was How can a poor stand such times and live, written in 1928 by Blind Alfred Reed. Steve prefaced his performance with reference to the parts of New Orleans that were allowed to flood both in the recent floods and also those of 1929, and of course they were the poorer areas where the largely black population live. I enjoyed his song introductions taking us into the world in which the songs were created or in which he found inspiration.
Peter Gawith entertained us with 2 songs from the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, including the powerful Po Lazarus which saw him unaccompanied on the drum kit. Leanne Zadkovitch performed some beautiful originals for us including one - The little things, written for her partner who was in the audience. Other performers included Rose Palmer – who, along with Leanne we are pleased to welcome back after some months away, Glen Major and regulars Greg Bryant, Frank Moroney, Mick Od and the Merkins. I am enjoying Mick Od’s development as an artist. A new original he featured allowed his backing band, who until then hadn’t heard the song, to cook up a storm! The Merkins set featured Paul Fagan on one song as vocalist and banjo player, and included a version of A whiter shade of pale sung beautifully by Greg.
Michael
The Glasshouse Mountains Musicians Club, 9 August 2012
We were pleased to have a special guest at the Musos Club this week in Anu Grace accompanied by Laurie Bycroft on bass. Anu, who also plays ukulele and flute, sang her own songs in a cheeky, delightful way and was enjoyed by everyone who attended. There were requests for her album, but we’ll have to wait for a few more months. Keep your eye on her website http://www.anugrace.com or ask us. She’ll be back down this way later in the year to put the finishing the touches on her album, so we’ll hope to have her back at the Musos then.
Other performers at this Club session included the superb singer guitarist Tommy Leonard, who continues to astound with his choice of beautiful repertoire, most of which is unknown to us – convincing proof that the work that is made available via the radio waves is really only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fine songs and, for that matter, talented singer guitarists! On that subject Greg Bryant once again supplied us with a set showing off both his song writing talents and engaging voice. Greg assured me he had a cold and was a bit down – if only most of us sounded a quarter as good when in top shape!
Doug Solow began the proceedings this session, wanting to feature his instrument of choice – the bass, in an uncharacteristic setting. He sung us a number of popular songs from the 50s and 60s accompanied solely by the bass – a novel approach, and welcome at this Club where artists are encouraged to try things out! Later in the evening Clive Bilby, accompanied by backing tracks, gave us short set of solo guitar songs of the Shadows. Someone commented they hadn’t heard one of the songs before and Clive noted that the Shadows had released 600 odd songs! Now that is an impressive canon!
Other performers this week include Aaron Tregea, Paul Fagan and yours truly making up the numbers.
Michael
The Glasshouse Mountains Musicians Club - 23 August 2012
It is rare for a Musos Club evening not to have a new act and last night at Beerwah RSL we had a trio featuring John Brown on guitar and vocal, Tony on bass and JJ (Julian Munyard) playing a Fender Stratocaster. Our good friend Ralph sat is on his electronic Yamaha drum kit and filled out a very competent bluesy set. So impressed were we with 9 year old JJ’s effort - his first time on stage, that we awarded him the “Most” award for this month. The award was created by two of our Club regulars – Doug and Paul, for someone whom we think is making an outstanding effort in music that month at the club. The evening saw the return of Beats Working, formerly known as the Montville Boys. They were joined on bass by their new recruit - Steve, who is a fine addition to the group. The “Boys” are a good example of what persistence achieves, as we haven’t seen them for a few months and they have been quietly practicing and are now clearly performing at a higher level. Frontman Brian sang Rod Stewart’s Tonight’s the night – a song perfectly suited to his soulful and slightly raspy voice.
Laurie Bycroft on bass joined yours truly and Paul Fagan for a few songs including a tasteful version of Carlos Santana’s Samba Pa Ti. Paul was in good form with some fine Stratocaster work, and he was like a kid in a toyshop with his tremolo arm, so it is either new or has been recently rediscovered in an old closet. A new Taylor guitar was proudly shown off by regular Mick “Od” Dawson. It was a only a ¾ guitar, and cut through the mix effortlessly, proving that size isn’t essential to a prominent sound. Aaron Trigger who has recently become a club regular showed off his new pickup and with it has lifted his quality of sound tremendously. Other regulars included Frank Moroney who gave us a thoughtful set of Irish songs and Doug Pullen with some humorous numbers culminating in the Mac Davis classic, Oh lord ain’t it hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way. Paul, joined by Laurie on bass, closed the evening with a stylish instrumental version of Stormy Monday.
Michael
Hi Everyone,
After chats with a few of the Musos Club members, and following the success of our Dylan night, we have come up with some more “Themed Shows” for our evenings at the Beerwah RSL. The idea of these nights is simple. You are encouraged to play songs that relate to the theme is some way. Of course we welcome people to come along and play anything they like, but this is a special opportunity for those of us who like a reason to learn new material, or perhaps to take a look at old material!
On September 27 (the 4th Thursday of this month), we’d like to celebrate 40 years since Neil Young’s Harvest album with a tribute to the music of Neil Young and his colleagues from that album.
I invite you to check out Wikipedia for a fascinating read on the making of the album and who appeared on it (David Crosby, Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Stephen Stills, and James Taylor contributed vocals). It includes gems such as the following:
(Some) mixing was done at Young's house. During playback at the ranch, (producer) Mazer ran the left channel into the PA speakers in the barn and the right channel into speakers in the house. With Crosby and Nash beside him Young sat outside listening to the mix. When asked about the stereo balance, he called out, "More barn."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_(Neil_Young_album)
One of our members - Craig Riley, who is a committed Neil Young fan, has kindly offered to accompany anyone who would like to sing some of Neil’s songs. In which case it would probably be good if you sent me through the name of the song and preferred key to pass onto Craig.
For October 25 (the 4th Thursday of this month) we’ve come up with a theme with a rather bold title, “Songs that changed the world”. A program with a title similar to this appeared on Radio National recently. It discussed the role that popular music played in the 60s, heralding the dramatic changes taking place in western society at the time. Songs mentioned include Dylan’s “The times they are a changing”, the Kinks’ “Well respected man”, the Rolling Stones’ “Under my thumb” and songs from the Who amongst others. I’m sure we could come up with our own list, and not just from the 60’s. Yours might even include songs that changed your world! Looking forward to whatever you come up with!
Michael
Glasshouse Mountains Musician’s Club, Thursday, 11 October 2012.
Jon Brown arrived at the Musos session at the Sports Club last Thursday with his Ipad and impressed us with the ease with which he brought up songs and changed keys. For portability and ease of use it is hard to go past an Ipad and the On Song app that Jon is using. Certainly as these apps become cleverer and add functions such as metronome, track accompaniment, automatic scroll and incorporate foot pedals for page turning, it is hard to look past them as the next essential for the gigging musician having to read charts for their songs. I particularly like the connectivity side where utilising bluetooth enables your fellow musicians to be “on the same page” all the time. If you are already a user then this is a no brainer, but with my crate of music folders looking more and more antiquated, and my laptop not quite matching in the portability stakes, I might have to bite the bullet and get an Ipad (for the Musos Club of course).
On the more traditional, instrument savouring side of our art form Ed Pannan turned up with three very beautiful Cole Clark guitars - an electric, an exquisite acoustic, and a Weissenborn lap slide. Singer guitarist Don was the recipient of the evening’s use of the guitars, and was so taken with them that at one point he offered Ed his hand in marriage as a means of gaining further access! He might have been joking but he seriously enjoyed playing the instruments. I had the pleasure of using the Weissenborn in three songs and found the clarity and evenness of tone across the instrument edifying. It was as though I had lifted a veil from the sound I was used to hearing from my instrument!
This week we were pleased to welcome back three very fine singer guitarists that we haven’t heard for a while – Ian Williams, Don La Brooy and Gary Josland. Don’s set covered vast musical territory leaping from the Box Tops to Canned Heat, from Johnny Cash to Ry Cooder, and from Rick Springfield to the Beatles! Gary’s performance is always soulful and committed. On Thursday I particularly enjoyed his version of the classic, Will you still love me tomorrow. Ian Williams remains for me one of our finest local song writers and his Let it fall, which I hadn’t heard before, was very moving. Other performers included our regular Doug Solow, Jon Brown, Toni and yours truly. Jon’s set included a version of the slow blues Stormy Monday with a dedication to Wiley Reed, the recently departed blues great who had been living in Brisbane since the 60s and was well known to local blues aficionadas. Thank you Wiley, you will be missed.
Michael
Glasshouse Coffee and Tea Merchants
The Musos Club is pleased to announce that we are beginning sessions at the Glasshouse Coffee and Tea Merchants Café at 1094 Steve Irwan Way Glasshouse on the second and forth Sundays of the month from 1 to 4pm, starting on Sunday January 13. We are hoping that being a weekend afternoon session this might attract those from outside the area happy to have a weekend drive up or down our way. As is usual we will provide a good quality PA, backing musicians (depending on who comes to the session, but at least guitar), and blackboard (you are welcome to ring through and book a time). We are also hoping to feature guests acts at these sessions who will perform longer sets for us. We will play in the gardens at the back of the café. There is parking right next to our covered stage. If you don’t know the area the café is less than a kilometre past the Glasshouse turn off as you head toward Beerwah. It is right next door to the Setter Market. As well as great coffee the café serves a lovely range of exotic loose leaf teas, handmade slices and cakes, so please come by to play or listen to music with us on the second and forth Sunday afternoons.
Michael