Tag Archives: acoustic guitar

CB Ghost Releases Single ‘Hold Down Hymn’

June 21, 2024 Marshall Cullen

Three days before hitting Damien Gerard Studios to record his album CB extended a poem he had been working on into a song with instrumentation and a chorus. An ode to the ocean, a ballad only a true surfer could write.

In order to embrace the inevitable ‘hold-down’ surfers encounter, CB Ghost wrote a Celtic hymn to sing to himself, to keep him calm, under a wave, at the ocean’s mercy.

CB Ghost: ‘The ocean is a mighty teacher, and the song reflects surfing’s hazards as much as life’s. Sometimes you get beat down, nothing you can do about it, just roll with it and resurface.

This song has become my secret weapon to calm my mind when I’m in the ocean’s belly. I use it to count down from 10, but get to zero, still under, next stage, panic! Now I have Hold Down Hymn to keep me company, it works amazing’.

CB Ghost is a songwriter with an honest simple folk-rock style that captures the essence of a complicated existence with singalong tunes and poetic lyrics and sometimes a banger beat. CB Ghost has emerged from a close-nit coastal surfing village in Australia. His background provides him with a deep connection to toe tapping Celtic, country and straight-ahead heartfelt rock music mixed with salt water from the ocean.

A former pro surfer, CB Ghost is driven, bold and dedicated to his evolving sound and a deep love of blue-collar folk stories and sensibility – and most importantly playing live to crowds who love to drink, dance, sing and have fun.

Having recently toured Northern NSW and Queensland with Sydney band Pinky Ring, The Ghost is finding his feet live and now incorporating a full band at most shows (his solo shows are still a must see for that intimate intensity). His first single ‘Hollywood Hills’ was a wee glimpse into what’s to come.

The second single ‘Hold Down Hymn’ takes you to places you never want to go (namely under waves at the bottom of the ocean), lyrically, spooky and totally relatable. With its oceanic tempo the song sends you adrift with its simple melodic ambience and features a guitar solo that soothes the soul. The video clip, shot under the ocean is a visual accompaniment that adds to the salty surfers tale of near drowning.

Stream the single

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Kilbey Kennedy Release New Single ‘That’s Gotta Hurt’

March 7, 2024 Marshall Cullen

Both of these guys are on a post covid roll, The Church’s Hypnogogue Album has received worldwide acclaim and Martin’s work has been far ranging and prolific as always.

Building on the success of Jupiter 13 (2021) and The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus (2022), Steve Kilbey and Martin Kennedy are about to releases their latest epic, ‘Premonition K’. The album unveils sumptuous sonic soundscapes courtesy of Kennedy paired with Kilbey’s lyrics that delve into the dark and enigmatic realms that exist between the boundaries of life and death.

Steve Kilbey, best known as frontman of legendary Aussie post-prog rockers The Church, infuses each track with an emotional resonance and sense of mystery. Martin Kennedy co-pilots this sonic odyssey with Steve Kilbey, weaving an intricate musical bed for Kilbey’s lyrical dreamings. Drawing from his twenty years of soundscaping with All India Radio, Kennedy adds layers of sonic complexity, at once warmly familiar and mysteriously strange, creating an immersive experience for the listener.

The first single from the new album ‘That’s Gotta Hurt’ – upbeat jangle-guitars and Kennedy’s familiar electronic swirls provide the stage for Kilbey’s trademark lyrical magic.

Steve Kilbey says, “That’s Gotta Hurt is about the existential pain of loving and losing and of attachment to the roles we play in this theatre of the absurd.”