National Folk Festival

 

Canberra, Australia

 

 

I’m headed home after the Australian tour, flying from Sydney to Los Angeles. It’s one of those mind-bending thirteen hour flights where you arrive before you left.  …?

For the last few days I’ve been performing at the National Folk Festival in Canberra, Australia’scapital city (nope, it’s not Sydney). I played this festival six years ago and made some good friends, and many of them were there again, so on top of all the great music and general festival fun, I got to spend some good relaxed time with some good relaxed people.  

One family of three actually flew in all the way from New Zealand to see me play. Pretty cool. Little Brianna brought me a necklace that I’ll show you if you catch me at a show some time.

 

And now I get to go home to Deanna and spend the rest of her school vacation with her, so life’s good. We’re still not sure where we’ll go, which is the best way to take a break as far as I’m concerned.

My old friend Liz Frencham and my new friend Vincent Bradley sat in with me for all three of my festival shows, which was a treat. Liz plays upright bass and sings, and Vincent, a.k.a. ‘Cenzo (pronounced Chenzo), plays trumpet, flugelhorn and harmonica, sings and plays a mean bubble solo on S.S. Bathtub. The first two shows were to capacity crowds of over 1000 and the last one was in the 2500 seat auditorium, and it was full. 

That was great, of course, except that I couldn’t tell jokes about how musicians act on big stages, given that I was on one and all. I’ll have some video clips up soon, so stay tuned.

 

Bang On

Melbourne, Australia

It’s a hot morning in Melbourne, which is nothing unusual, actually.  Brisbane tends to be even hotter, but forty degree days haven’t been uncommon lately, and that’s 104 where I come from.

I’m staying with my old friend Liz Frencham and her very cool beau Steve.  Liz and I played a small festival near here on Sunday and will be meeting up again at Canberra for the National Folk Festival in a few days. I’ve played the National (or the Nash, as it’s often referred to here) once before, about six years ago, and I’m really looking forward to being back there. 

Vocabulary tips for the day:  ‘firing up the barbie’ has nothing to do with dismissing a blonde from her employment, but rather means grilling out on the barbecue. That’s what we did last night, with Vincent, another muzo friend of Liz and Steve’s, then we pulled a mattress and TV out into the yard, as it was just too hot inside, and watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind under the stars. I liked it, by the way. I can’t believe I managed not to see it until now, but it was worth a rental.

“Bang on” means perfect, not instructions on how to play a Billy Jonas song. “Hoon” can be a noun or a verb, and generally refers to young guys who drive loud cars too fast (though I guess old women could hoon if they want to).  So hoons hoon around. Vincent actually said he hooned down here on his motorcycle yesterday and got here faster than usual. I thought this might have descended etymologically from Huns, i.e. marauding ruffians razing villages, but I think it’s more onomatopoeic than that, and actually just refers to the sound the cars make.

 

The delivery truck dropped off Liz’s new CD of duets yesterday (think she looks happy?), so last night was a bit of a celebration. I’m here for two more days this week before we’ll all head up to the Nash, and we’re hoping to record a duet for the next volume sometime in here. I’ll let you know when we get it together and try to make it available on my web site.

In the meantime, stay cool, as it were.  It’s hard to believe I was in North Dakota two weeks ago…