Tag Archives: Aussie Music

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News and Touring

Big Merino’s New Single Something to Hide

Big Merino’s new single is OUT NOW.
Recorded in just one day at the new Damien Gerard Studios just out of Sydney,
this tune is a fine example of the bands songwriting ability.

Plus there’s a live show to support the release.

The official launch is on Sunday October 25 at Camelot
Due to COVID the venue is limiting numbers
so you have to book in groups of 2, 4 or 8.

 ‘Something To Hide was written after we heard about the destruction of the Juukan rock shelters in the Pilbara.  It’s a little like blowing up the Sistine Chapel except the Sistine Chapel is less significant but at least we get to sell some iron ore, cheap, to the Chinese’ – Big Merino

Big Merino play songs that blur the lines between rock, blues, roots, and soul.  Despite their passion for Americana their music also sounds quintessentially Australian, shaped by landscape and stories.

Despite an obvious passion for what’s often called ‘Americana’, Big Merino somehow still sound quintessentially Australian – the lyrics and sound shaped by the landscape and their own stories.  The live sound is a classic combination of acoustic and electric guitars, vocals, bass and drums.  But the album is fleshed out with multiple guitar layers, gospel style harmonies, Hammond organ, piano, horns and percussion.

In 2018 the newly formed Sydney-based band released their debut album ‘Suburban Wildlife’ thru the Foghorn label, made two cinematic film clips with director Alan Harca, and performed all around Sydney.

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The band has done numerous Interviews & live-to-air performances including ABC 702 & RN, 2SER Dirt Music, Radio Skid Row, Eastside Radio, Aussie Music Weekly and 2BBB.  The single ‘Black Cockatoos’ was top 10 on AMRAP Metro and Regional playlists in 2018.

To follow their well-received debut the band started work on the follow up early in 2019.  ‘Sweet Little Angel’ was released in mid-year and the band toured and performed various festivals around the country, starting with Murringo and Quandialla in June.

Something to Hide is their newest single for 2020 and includes a home recorded B Side ‘Tell Me Something’

Something  to Hide hits in quick with guitars and then band and vocals catching your attention.  The Beatles-esque chorus features a 6 part harmony from gospel master Stu Davis.  With hooks, riffs and even catchy bass and drums this one is a winner.

Something to Hide is out today September 25
on Foghorn Records through MGM. 

Stream or Download:

Connect with Big Merino:

For further information, Cd’s and Interview requests please contact:
Marshall Cullen at Foghorn Media
0416 143 030
marshall@foghornrecords.net

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News and Touring

Steve Kilbey New Solo Album – Eleven Women

 Steve Kilbey New Solo Album- Eleven Women

Update

Steve’s Next Live Venue  show

‘STEVE KILBEY (THE CHURCH), AND HIS WINGED HEELS- GARETH KOCH (SAFFIRE) & ROGER MASON (ICEHOUSE) PERFORM
“SONGS FROM ANOTHER LIFE”
LIVE AT BRASS MONKEY CRONULLA
FRIDAY  25 SEPTEMBER 2020

Get tickets for the early session at 530pm DINNER AND SHOW
or the late session at 8:30pm DINNER AND SHOW

Steve Kilbey has created a fine new album for 2020. His first solo release for an astoundingly creative year reveals a dazzling array of songs brimming with ideas, personality & effervescence. The collection is at once whimsical yet personal, and in a masterful sleight of hand Kilbey’s Eleven Women are not quite as one might expect.

Eleven Women is full of melodic invention & lyrical surprises. Singling out tracks for special mention is frankly impossible since this album consists entirely of highlights. Amongst these bijous however the timelessly beautiful Think of You shines brightly. This song has the unmistakeable stamp of eternity & evokes a sense of having existed since music began.

September 4 Foghorn/MGM

Hear it now

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Read the Rolling Stone Review

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Plus the RS Interview

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Watch the Zoom Interview with WhatsMyScene

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and for some insights into #thechurch as well read this great interview from backseat mafia

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Wanna see Steve play Sheba Chiba Live Acoustic- just click here

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Connect with Steve

https://www.facebook.com/TheMezcaltones/

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News and Touring

Margaret Anne and The Rock It Man Don’t Look Back

After releasing the inspiring and amazing Americana song and video clip ‘Soul Laid Bare’ at the end of last year, Margaret Anne and The Rock It Man have released two exciting new songs. ‘Don’t Look Back’ co-written with Shane Nicholson and ‘My Mumma’ written while watching the passing of her mother 2 years ago.

Just 2 months after leaving a 20-year marriage, ‘Don’t Look Back’ was written with country artist Shane Nicholson at The Dag Sheep Station in Nundle, near Tamworth.  While sitting on the porch of a farmhouse, Shane helped Margaret Anne peel back the layers to look deep within. Doug Weaver (aka the Rock It Man) produced and played not one but all of instruments on the song.
The result is a song that examines the essence of her marriage, the struggle to get it right, the decision to move on from the wreckage and not look back.

‘My Mumma’ was written on the back of a bereavement envelope in about 10 minutes.  When faced with the death of her mother, Margaret fell back into childhood, writing this emotional ballad of grief while waiting and watching her pass away.  Played by her brother, the accompanying guitar forms the song into both a collection of vulnerable memories and a haunting goodbye.

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Connect with Margaret Anne:

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News and Touring

A chat with Adam Blacksmith

On the eve of the first single ‘I Hope I’m Wrong’  from his forthcoming album ‘Blind to the Sea’ we sat down (via zoom) to chat with Adam about all things musical -

 Photo: Matt Weddis www.instagram.com/mattweddis

Tell us about the moment you decided to become a song writer? What did your family/friends have to say about it?

I was driving in my car In 1999 when I heard”Asleep in Perfection” by Augie March on JJJ. I had to stop the car to take it all in. I had loved folk music for years but had lost faith in the radio to play bands with the lyrical substance of Dylan, Joni and The Tea Party until that moment. Hearing it renewed my faith in radio and music at the same time and it gave me the hope that I could transform my poetry into music.

All my  friends at the time were in metal bands and were very supportive of my direction and my family felt the same, however, If I am honest, I don’t think they believed I’d stick with it.

Who are your early influences?

I tend to have an “all or nothing” approach to most things, not excluding music. I grew up listening to heavy metal (and still do). I was always drawn to death metal bands such as Carcass and Morbid Angel because they combined lyricism with aggression and technical mastery. I harbored a dream to either sing or play guitar in a grindcore band however didn’t really have the dexterity or disposition. I was simulaltaneously drawn to folk artists, such as Dylan, Joni Mitchel, George Harrison, Nick Drake and later Augie March as they sang about philosophy and expressed emotions through their music that I had trouble expressing myself.

Tell us a little about your writing process, how does a song come along? What gets you going creatively?

I always have a guitar with me in my loungeroom. Mostly I just muck around with chords and sounds and record anything that I like on my phone, about one in fifty ideas stick. When I’m stretched for ideas I attempt to learn a cover song and usually get some ideas from there.

Lyrically, I am inspired by my work in the jail system, from borrowed words I have jotted from Dickens novels or Audio books and from documentaries. I have a phone full of ideas and musings that may or may not find their way into a song. My latest album features two songs inspired from the plight of Aboriginal Austrlians which have a particular significance to me after learning of my own Aboriginality in more recent years. 

What is the first record you bought and why?

Dr. Feelgood by Motley Crew. I had just started earning money with my first casual job at Target while I was still in high-school. I couldn’t afford the $26 for the CD so I convinced my sister to go halves. Given she was listening to U2 at the time, I always knew it was going to be mine. Technically I still owe my sister $13

 What current/new Artists/Bands inspire you and why?

Augie March, The Drones, Marlon Williams, Julia Jacklin, CW Stoneking, Ben Howard and High Tension.

I absolutely love the lyrics of Glen Richards and Augie March and the Raw unapologetic energy replete with Australiana that the Drones bring to the table. I guess the commonality of all these artists is their brilliant lyricism. High Tension on the other hand are just phenominal live and a must see…

Stream the new single here – out Friday August 21 via MGM

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Connect with Adam

https://www.facebook.com/TheMezcaltones/

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News and Touring

Andrew Barnum New Single – Dear Ancestor

Andrew Barnum’s Single Dear Ancestor
Andrew Barnum is a singer-songwriter, whose musical style is a combination of folk-based Aus alt-folk and home-pop-tronic-rock. Welcome to a visually transporting road-trip of the Australian experience today.The song-writing-performance duo of Andrew & Lissa Barnum, aka Vitabeats, had a national hit with ‘Boom Box’ (Hot/EMI) in 1985. This was followed by singles ‘Audrey’ and ‘Build it Right’ from the album ‘Spot the Spanner.’ The band stopped recording and touring in 1988. Andrew never stopped writing, recording and performing his own songs.Andrew’s current sound is a blend of the acoustic and electronic arcane – forgotten analogue technologies, merging with digital interfaces and an array of musicians, including vocals from Lissa and Cayenne Barnum, all coming together in accomplished composer-producer Boris Hunt’s Black Rabbit Studio in Hartley, NSW.

Dear Ancestor is a personal letter to our past about the future. 
It’s a lament to someone trusted and wise, asking for a way to awaken with purpose. 
Like the Zen master, it’s not with a gentle nudge, but with a crack from their stick.
The track was recorded live with Boris Hunt, Lucius Culliton, and Andy Gordon,
at Black Rabbit Big Room, Kanimbla NSW Australia. Mastered by Nat Love.

The overall sound has a a dark, smoky, haunting lyrical quality. Musically, it speaks volumes with a sense of longing, lingering, and meandering, that is full of romance.

Video click image below – (recently premiered on Scenestr magazine)

The video clip was a collaboration with students from Billy Blue College (Andy Marsh, Christine Kemeny, Bailey Sii, and Tony Taulaga) with Lissa Barnum’s inventive creative direction and videography of Andrew. All the footage was shot in 2 isolated locations, Sydney and the South Coast (Lissa), then edited with additional animated effects. The creative direction was based on the silhouette style of Indonesian shadow puppetry. The team set out to create the smoky, burnt atmosphere of the recent bushfires, the spirit of the Ancestor is represented by Australian birds. Special thanks to Christine Kemeny for the final production.

Stream the new single here:
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Official site 

https://www.andrewbarnum.com

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News and Touring

Fiona Joy Hawkins New Album Moving Through Worlds

Fiona Joy Hawkin’s Presents New Album and Video
Moving Through Worlds

As the Australian Bushfires crept toward her rural home, Fiona Joy Hawkins turned to her Stuart & Sons piano to do what has always bought her solace: writing music. After crafting 4 songs that she later marketed as fundraisers for firefighters and wildlife rescue – and which are included on this album – she began final preparations on Moving Through Worlds.

Although she began recording and conceptualizing the album three years ago, one could say it is an album 44-years in the making. One of the more classical-crossover pieces is “For the Roses” which a 12-year-old Fiona wrote for her Grandmother’s funeral.

Fiona says, “I believe music is a gift from another world, from ancestors of the past communicating to inspire and give us hope. Music is a universal language that connects us without prejudice, it speaks to us all equally, yet is received with great variation. My wish is to open a few more hearts to the power of music. Now more than ever we need the connection to our past to find the pathway to our future.”

The 14-track album was beautifully produced by Will Ackerman (Founder Windham Hill Records) and Tom Eaton. As per her usual style, Fiona defies genre by bringing Classical, Contemporary Piano, and New Age instrumentals together to create something uniquely her own, and reflective of all the worlds that she has moved through so elegantly while this powerful music gathered in her soul.

Fiona Joy Hawkins is an Australian Pianist, Composer and Singer who enjoys and regularly tours China and the USA and is also a member of the Contemporary instrumental group FLOW (Fiona Joy, Lawrence Blatt, Jeff Oster, Will Ackerman). Fiona Joy Hawkins is best known for her romantic, melodic songs and lush arrangements. A prolific composer, she has always been interested in creating music that evokes images, emotions and tells stories.

Fiona Joy is known for ‘Grace’, her song on a Grammy Winning album in 2014 and for her extensive catalogue produced by Will Ackerman (Founder Windham Hill Records). In 2016 she won two categories of the Independent Music Awards at the Lincoln Centre in New York and has been awarded Best Piano Album by International Radio (ZMR Awards) for several of her albums. Nominated alongside Pete Seeger for Best LIVE Performance Album in the Independent Music Awards,Fiona was an ARIA Finalist in Australia in 2008. Fiona works with Australian piano maker Stuart and Sons, and has several albums with Blue Coast Records (content partners with Sony Music for hi-resolution releases).

Watch the Video (Premiered on Scenstr) for Calling County Clare here

In the case of Fiona Joy Hawkins’ latest collection Moving Through Worlds, there are glorious exceptions where it’s not hyperbole in any sense and fits today, tomorrow and for all…let’s just say I can’t imagine there ever being a time in the future when listening to this deeply personal, socially conscious, stylistically expansive 14-track musical narrative would grip me any less than it does today, in the midst of world gone mad 2020. – Jonathan Widran, JWVibe

“Moving Through Worlds” is OUT NOW (July 7) via Little Hartley Music. 

Streaming

ALL OTHER DSP’s Click Here

Connect with Fiona Joy:



For further information, Files,  CD and Interview Requests please contact:
Marshall Cullen at Foghorn Media
0416 143 030
marshall@foghornrecords.net