March, 2008

You find the darndest things on the Interwebs. Today I stumbled across a link to a bluegrass version of Black Sabbath's Paranoid. And no, I wasn't looking - just because you can't see them doesn't mean they're not after you.

Sure enough there's a bluegrass band called Iron Horse and they have a collection of of Ozzie Osbourne covers called, you guessed it, Black and Bluegrass.

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High & Lonesome have been trying on and off to be accepted to perform at the National Celtic Festival, held at Port Arlington on the Bellarine Peninsula on the Queen's Birthday long-weekend in June.

The boys are well-known for their hillbilly bent - playing Bluegrass and Americana Country, but long-time followers will remember that High & Lonesome began more or less as a duo with mostly Celtic material.

Geoff has been playing Celtic material since the days of The Beatles, and there aren't many Celtic bands in Geelong that haven't utilised the wonderful fiddle playing of maestro Matiss Schubert.  read more »

Aireys Inlet will host an Open Mic Music Festival this April to provide a stage for both established and aspiring musicians. The festival is intended to be an open forum and will cater for all types of music and size of acts. There will be three venues - two at the Aireys Inlet Hotel (front bar and back room) and another at A La Grecque restaurant. These are opposite each other on the Great Ocean Road in Aireys Inlet so festival goers can easily wander between the two and enjoy the music and talent on offer.  read more »

High & Lonesome will be back for their second ever appearance at Bar Deli in Ocean Grove.

Clauda Collins organises regular acoustic Sunday afternoons at Bar Deli featuring three acts performing 40 minutes each. Bar Deli is licensed and offers full range of meals, snack and beverages.

64 The Terrace, Ocean Grove Ph: 5255 1832.

I have been a fan of The Band since I first heard them back in the early 70s. Eric Clapton and George Harrison regarded The Band as the best rock and roll band. Ever.

My appreciation has grown over the years as my own understandings of musicianship and band playing have matured with experience. The Band were either the tightest loose playing band or the loosest tight playing band. Their repertoire captured a glimpse of traditional America with a musical relevance to modern times. Extraordinary songs like The Weight, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, King Harvest Will Surely Come, played with extraordinary music.  read more »

The sole American in the Band, singer-drummer Levon Helm --the son of an Arkansas cotton farmer -- knew firsthand the hard labor, family ties and Dixie fireside tales that were the roots and soil of guitarist Robbie Robertson's songs. On Dirt Farmer, Helm goes home to the tunes and fables of his boyhood, including the traditional "Blind Child," the Stanley Brothers standard "False -Hearted Lover Blues" and A.P. Carter's cheeky "Single Girl, Married Girl," singing them next to rough modern diamonds by Steve Earle and Buddy and Julie Miller. The settings are vintage and natural, how the Band might have sounded in Big Pink during a blackout --fiddle and spindly acoustic guitar by ex-Bob Dylan sideman Larry Campbell, Helm's own mandolin and roadhouse-swing drumming, and porch-choir harmonies featuring Helm's daughter, Amy. Levon's vocals are a welcome miracle.  read more »

The High & Lonesome sextet will squeeze onto the Irish Murphys stage for another entertaining night of hillbilly Celtic, Country and Covers.

The High & Lonesome Shack has been moved to a new web host after months of troubles with the old one - MD Webhosting.

Back in December we were plagued by Russian hackers. In January a power surge blew up the whole shooting match. Since then the site has been up and down stored and restored and reinfected with Russian hackers. And I've lost two posts. Unbelieveable! Even yesterday, MD Web hosting were still having issues with ftp access and back-end access.

Finally The Shack has been moved to more solid ground at Jumba. No doubt there are still some gremlins lurking around the place and we'll sort them as we find them.