Tag Archives: singer songwriter
Luke Escombe – New Single – Whale Beach Road
Luke Escombe’s personal and professional life reached a high point in 2019, culminating in him moving into a new home with his young family in one of Australia’s most sought-after postcodes. Everything was going great. Then the world ended.
A giant cloud of bushfire smoke descended on his Northern Beaches paradise, and the excitement of 2019 was replaced by a creeping sense of anger and despair. “Whale Beach Road”, the first single from Luke’s upcoming album, his first in over five years, came at the start of an intense period of song writing and soul-searching fuelled by his desire to reclaim a sense of love and hope.
Checkout the video
Recorded at Damien Gerard studios on the Central Coast in 2020 and then added to in stolen moments between lockdowns, the track features soaring strings and Luke’s fiery electric guitar over a tense rock-reggae groove laid down by some of Australia’s most acclaimed players, drummer Evan Mannell, bassist Zoe Hauptmann, guitarist Aaron Flower and organist Clayton Doley.
“Luke Escombe is a rock-soul singer, raconteur, blistering blues guitarist, comedian and songwriter, and very good at them all” – Sydney Morning Herald
Luke Escombe is an ARIA-nominated singer-songwriter who combines his blues, rock and soul influences with subversive humour, poetic lyrics and heartfelt storytelling. He is the creator of the internationally acclaimed one-man show “Chronic” and the writer and front man of multi award-winning Aussie kids band The Vegetable Plot.
Checkout The New Single OUT NOW on Foghorn/MGM
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Kaiyah Mercedes – After Summer Ends(Lyric Video)
John Kennedy Releases Raining Treasure Vol. 2
Volume 2 of Raining Treasure from John Kennedy – iconic Aussie Indie Covers from the golden age – Physco, Shivers, The Nips are Getting Bigger to name a few
John Kennedy’s 2019 album Raining Treasure Vol.1 celebrated the golden era of Australian independent music from the late ‘70’s and the 80’s. This album, Raining Treasure Vol.2, goes both deeper and wider into the world of Australian indie music. Kennedy compiled a list of classic indie songs (and some obscurities) from that era and with his band, John Kennedy’s 68 Comeback Special, has covered songs from Radio Birdman, The Riptides, The Cruel Sea and more.
Some selections covered are likely to create controversy with indie music diehards. The Sports and Mental As Anything? Indie? Really? The Mentals released their records on Regular Records, the Sports on Mushroom; both Australian independent labels. The Angels ?!?! They were on pioneering Australian independent label Albert Productions. Weddings, Parties, Anything (WPA) were on major label WEA. What defines these songs as indie for Kennedy is the independent spirit of the music and the bands who originally recorded them.
An enthusiastic young music journalist once described John Kennedy as a humble genius. Kennedy is neither a genius nor particularly humble. He is the writer and performer of many fine songs, some of which have found a place in the hearts of music fans of the golden era of Australian independent music. Kennedy started his music career in Brisbane in the ‘80’s with his band JFK and the Cuban Crisis. The band moved to Sydney and after establishing itself on the indie music scene, broke up, leaving Kennedy to pursue a solo career with his band vehicle, John Kennedy’s Love Gone Wrong.
Despite numerous indie hits, commercial crossover proved to be elusive leading to his decision to leave Australia. Kennedy spent the ‘90’s living and playing music in Berlin, Hong Kong and London before returning to Sydney’s Inner West in 2000. He formed a new band, John Kennedy’s 68 Comeback Special and continues to perform and produce independent releases.
Over the years Kennedy has shared stages with many of the acts covered on this new album. His band members have come from or gone on to The Triffids, the Go-Betweens, Pop Mechanix and the Lime Spiders. The current line up of the band boasts its own fine indie pedigree. Long time drummer, Peter Timmerman was an original Love Gone Wrong member before moving on to the Widdershins.
Bassist Phil Hall played with Sardine v and the Dropbears. Guitarist Murray Cook started out with indie hopefuls Finger Guns before going on to form what is probably Australia’s most successful independent band, the Wiggles. Together with Kennedy they have created versions of these Australian indie classics, reinterpreting some, expanding some and celebrating them all.
The tracklist is:
The Album Launch Show is on the 6th of May @8pm
At the Petersham Bowling Club
Raining Treasure (Australian Indie Gold Covers Vol.2) is out now 22 April 2022,
on Foghorn Records through MGM.
Stream or Download
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CJ Shaw – Belconnen Arts centre album launch, radio rotation and video
Since releasing the album All Sorts in 2021 and iconic Australian Story Stop Animation Video ‘Ain’t Many Like Lennie’ to be aired on SBS CJ Shaw has built on these success’s to move into 2022.
Album launch -Canberra This Weekend April 2
CJ Shaw’s latest album ‘All Sorts’ has been very well received by critics and fans alike (4 1/2 STARS BMA Magazine). Launching his album with two shows at the Belconnen Arts Centre on 2nd April 2022, CJ is excited to be playing these songs live. Dubbed “the ultimate family gig”, the first show has already sold out so get in quick.
ABC Canberra placing ‘Adelaide’ on rotation:
CJ Shaw’s single Adelaide is gaining frequent airplay on ABC Canberra radio. This song about the birth of CJ’s first child draws on the nuances of living in the Nation’s capital, evoking a sense of place. The hand- drawn video clip to accompany the song, referencing the scenery of the Capital was accepted by the Canberra Short Film Festival shown at Palace Cinemas.
Australian Spectrum Show Live in Person Interview April 5
Ross Fear’s internationally acclaimed album show will feature CJ and his acoustic guitar, plus album tracks and a hefty chat on the show next week April 5. Broadcast from Sydney’s Alive 90.5 and streamed worldwide.
Ain’t Many Like Lennie:
CJ Shaw’s latest single and video clip ‘Ain’t Many Like Lennie’ has gone from strength to strength.
With the support of Arts ACT, Canberra animators Eleanor and Giovanni created a music video with felt puppets following the journey of legendary 9 year old Lennie Gwyther and his horse Ginger Mick travelling unaccompanied for 600 miles to witness the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
SBS has selected this music video ‘Ain’t Many Like Lennie’ to be aired on April 1st 2022 and will feature on SBS on Demand streaming platform. The video was also shortlisted in the Munich Music Video Awards 2021 and is a finalist at the Animate Film Festival.
Tony Mott photo shoot
Earlier this year, CJ Shaw had an artist photoshoot with Tony Mott who is Australia’s premier music photographer. CJ Shaw said working with Tony Mott was a ‘career highlight’. Taken over one day, these photos will form the press kit for his future publications.
Latest Review
Nominated for a 2020 Music Teacher of the Year ARIA, CJ Shaw is an unadulterated, unashamedly Australiana rather than Americana singer-songwriter, sort of Shane Howard meets Fred Smith if you will. Shaw keeps it all pretty simple too, two and three chords at most as he spins his stories, some aimed at younger listeners – as you’d expect from a teacher – rambling, cheeky ditties full of whimsy – others serving more mature musical tastes with tales that ponder life as it’s lived in this wide brown land. “We would all do a lot less harm,” he suggests in ‘Choose to Chew’, “If we ate our Coat of Arms” – which makes sense of the recipe card for CJ Shaw’s Fair Dinkum ‘Roo Bolognese included! Obviously one of his children’s songs, but hey, we all need a bit of fun once in a while. ‘Werewolves’ straddles the generations, delivered straight-faced yet obviously not to be imbibed in that spirit. The seraphic Hannah Czaben takes the vocal spotlight on ‘Full on Heart’, another gentle two-chord stroll, a rumination on separate lives that could have been more lived more happily together that, along with songs like ‘Lonely Road’, is proof that when he allows himself, Shaw is quite the poignant singer-songwriter.
Michael Smith
Stream or download the album here
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Slide Milligan Releases Debut single – Feelin’ Fine
For fans of Classic Australian Pub Rock, Pink Floyd & Waylon Jennings, ‘Feelin Fine’ is the first single from Slide Milligan. The track is an undeniable summer anthem in the vein of the Sunny Boys, Australian Crawl & The Church and features vocals by Slide’s daughter Lani.
Slide Milligan’s musical journey has been half a life in the making but sounds as exciting as the latest Australian Rock & Roll export being paraded around the world. After years and years of playing in bands through the late 80’s/90s, Dave “Slide” Milligan gave up his musical dreams to pursue a trade in rural fencing and woodworking. To unwind after working all day in the paddocks of rural Australia and his sawmill Dave built himself a lap steel guitar.
Over the years he started to write a collection of exceptional songs that weren’t your usual “roots” music fare, mixing his hard rock background and his ability to tap into that authentic Australian sound. Despair and dread mixed with sunshine and water he caught the ear of local producers and with some help with production from Indie impresario Andy Clockwise (He was working on a fence on Clockwise’ farm when he was back from LA and the two lit a bonfire in the paddock) “Slide” has produced a psychedelic slide guitar masterpiece called “Blood Red River”. A pastiche of outlaw country, psychedelic post-punk & a different approach to the slide guitar. This music sounds familiar yet fresh in the current musical landscape. At the ripe old age of 52, this new artist is sure to make a splash in the country-indie-rock crossover here and abroad. Blood Red River will be released later this year.
Feelin’ Fine is OUT NOW on Foghorn/MGM
Stream or Download below
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Daxton Releases New Album ‘Electric Satellite’
Long Awaited New Electric Blues album from slide and blues man Daxton out today February 18
Daxton releases his new album ‘Electric Satellite’, a twelve-track slide blues album with up-tempo spacious songs produced by Pat Dow and Marshall Cullen. Daxton has worked with Pat on many projects – someone who has a keen ear for Daxton’s rustic blues mixed with psychedelic pop/rock sounds.
The new album is Daxton’s seventh following the release in 2018 of ‘In Verses’ which features songs covering his favourite themes: life and death, the yin and yang of life, love and loss, while still keeping his always positive and up-tempo vibe.
Producing and playing music since his early teens, Daxton’s passion has kept him continually creating new material both for his band and solo career. On stage, Daxton comes across like he was born to play, his unique guitar style blending perfectly with heart-warming vocals.
Daxton has appeared at major festivals including the Sydney Blues & Roots and Tamworth Country Music Festival where he supported artists such as Kasey Chambers and Beccy Cole. He also has had one of his tracks ‘Moody Liz’ featured in the popular American TV series Doll House.
Based in Sydney, Daxton is best described as a blues/rock artist with a twist of pop and rock. He plays slide guitar rock/blues songs with a fresh and innovative sound. The new album ‘Electric Satellite is a heavy, rustic blues rock album with psychedelic pop/rock sounds.
Song Descriptions
Electric Satellite
The title track to the new album is a frenetic up-tempo post punk folk blues anthem. A full band and all the rocking bells and whistles to make it work.
High As A Kite
Bluesy slide guitar starts this classic Daxton tune. Catchy backing vocal ‘ooh ahs’ and full band including the classic Hammond organ, complete this mid-tempo tune.
Bad Tmes
Down and dirty blues from Daxton, featuring blues harp, slide guitar. Mid-tempo drums and bass, snappy guitar licks and riffs and the whole thing comes in at a rockin’ 2mins 47seconds.
Daxton – Electric Satellite is out NOW February 18th
Foghorn/MGM
Download or Stream:
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Kaijin Solo Releases New Single ‘Pretty Cool Hat’
Pretty Cool Hat started as a response to anonymous emails from internet dating services. From there Kaijin moved to the search for the mystery that makes human relationships. Rather than complaining about what is wrong with Sydney, Kaijin reminisces about ‘The Cross’ and ‘Darlo’ in the 80’s.
Kaijin Solo is a contemporary singer/songwriter based on the NSW Central Coast with a blues rock influence.
He has been working and honing his craft for many years with various band line-ups and the plentiful bread and butter busking jobs and pub/club gigs around the coast (most recently at Link and Pin in Woy Woy). With the advent of Covid, Kaijin spent the downtime working on new material which resulted in the recording and release of a number of tracks last year.
Song Description
Pretty Cool Hat
Strong drums, bass and guitar start this retro rock tune from Kaijin Solo. Mid-tempo with a driving chorus full of catchy hooks. Kaijin’s Dylanesque vocals and lyrics weave in and out to complete the picture.
A Night In Sydney
Mid-tempo classic rock from Kaijin Solo comes to life on this narrative song of Sydney back in the hey days of Kings Cross and Darlinghurst by night. The band are rocking and Kaijin’s Marshall stack powered guitars puts the cream on the cake.
Pretty Cool Hat is OUT TODAY February 11th – via MGM
All DSP’s
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Jack Nolan releases single Faster Than The Speed Of Change
Sometimes a title or line drifts around for years, waiting for a song. Faster than the Speed of Change was just that, slowly waiting in the wings.
Into the dark
I drifted
Left behind
was gifted
To me but I couldn’t see
I heard you calling to me
The slow speed of change, or recognition, which rumbles along to a pulse via Jimmy Paxson’s mallets. A slow mover with a sparseness that invites a searing harmony and a crunching guitar to take the track home. A tribute song to a rich relationship that, at first, someone was too lost, too distracted to recognise.
I turned to look
I heard your voice
Love came
Faster than the speed of change
Jack Nolan is a singer songwriter based in Sydney, Australia, who’s s been performing and releasing music and albums since the mid 90’s. Along with a five-album solo catalogue Jack also fronted The Kelly Gang, with Rick Grossman, bassist for The Divinyls and Hoodoo Gurus along with Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst and guitar player Martin Rotsey. Their 2004 album Looking for the Sun was critically adored along with their energetic live shows of the time.
Within Nolan’s music, mysterious and shimmering chords unite his sound with that of the Americana genre, once quaintly described as ‘Darlinghurst Country’ uniting elements of folk, country, rock ‘n’ roll and ambient atmospheres fusing Nolan’s passion for intensely charged electric guitar and finger-picked acoustic guitar.
Having caught the Tennessee bug while finishing his 2018 album ‘Our Waverley Star’, Jack returned to Nashville in February 2020 for two weeks of recording and mixing with his friend and multi-instrumentalist Justin Weaver, known best as the Dixie Chicks’ guitarist. After the most intense and enjoyable fortnight possible, Jack headed home in March 2020, a day before a hurricane wiped out Nashville, and less than a week before the world changed forever, if the word Wuhan rings a bell.
And so it is, Jacks latest album, Gabriel, released October 2021, keeps the wheels moving on the meaningful passion of this writer and performer.
Faster Than The Speed Of Change single Out Now February 4
Quay Records/MGM.
Stream or Download:
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CJ Shaw Releases Single ‘Ain’t Many Like Lennie’ with Animation Video
NEW REVIEW For CJ Shaw’s Album ‘ALL SORTS’
Nominated for a 2020 Music Teacher of the Year ARIA, CJ Shaw is an unadulterated, unashamedly Australiana rather than Americana singer-songwriter, sort of Shane Howard meets Fred Smith if you will. Shaw keeps it all pretty simple too, two and three chords at most as he spins his stories, some aimed at younger listeners – as you’d expect from a teacher – rambling, cheeky ditties full of whimsy – others serving more mature musical tastes with tales that ponder life as it’s lived in this wide brown land. “We would all do a lot less harm,” he suggests in ‘Choose to Chew’, “If we ate our Coat of Arms” – which makes sense of the recipe card for CJ Shaw’s Fair Dinkum ‘Roo Bolognese included! Obviously one of his children’s songs, but hey, we all need a bit of fun once in a while. ‘Werewolves’ straddles the generations, delivered straight-faced yet obviously not to be imbibed in that spirit. The seraphic Hannah Czaben takes the vocal spotlight on ‘Full on Heart’, another gentle two-chord stroll, a rumination on separate lives that could have been more lived more happily together that, along with songs like ‘Lonely Road’, is proof that when he allows himself, Shaw is quite the poignant singer-songwriter.
MICHAEL SMITH
Truth is often stranger than fiction and Lennie Gwyther’s story is no exception. A 9 year old boy who, along with his horse Ginger Mick, traversed 1000 kilometres of Australian wilderness to arrive in Sydney for the opening of the Harbour Bridge in 1932.
Along the way he became a celebrity, admired for his bravery and determination. He even met with the Prime Minister of the time on the ride north. This was during the depression years and heroes were in demand. This unassuming boy was an unlikely icon that united the country as a symbol of hope.
This song was written to teach Australian history to primary aged students (and curious adults alike). The storytelling lyrics allow students, the same age as Lennie, to imagine his courageous three month journey to witness a momentous moment in Australian history. One taken without parents, cars, electricity and, most unbelievably, mobile phones.
The stop-motion music video to accompany the song is made by award-winning animators ‘Eleanor & Giovanni’ and features 3D felted puppets who play out the historical story of Lennie Gwyther. These meticulously hand-made puppets and backdrops create a child-like physicality to captivate the audience – drawing them into this inspiring Australian story.
As the song says – “There ain’t many like Lennie”.
Checkout the Video on todays excellent Premiere courtesy of Scenestr Magazine
Song Description
Ain’t Many Like Lennie
Back to folk with this true to life story song. Mid-tempo, acoustics, banjo, mandolin, drums and bass.
Armed with a guitar and a swag full of harmonicas, singer-songwriter CJ Shaw’s intricate finger-picking, word play and storytelling never fails to captivate his audiences. CJ Shaw’s music is distinctly Australian in style, influenced by Paul Kelly and Slim Dusty. His lyrical storytelling and musicality lends itself to audiences of all ages.
In 2020, CJ Shaw was nominated for an ARIA Award for ‘Music Teacher of the Year’ with Jimmy Barnes as his official ambassador presenting him with the nomination. This prestigious music industry acknowledgement recognised his dynamic and poignant songwriting for primary-aged children. These celebrated songs are woven through his performances and albums, played alongside satirical and storytelling Australiana folk songs.
In 2021 CJ Shaw released his album ‘All Sorts’. Combining the best of his children’s songs with his unique brand of contemporary Australiana, Shaw has dubbed ‘All Sorts’ “the ultimate Family Album”. With over a decade experience touring and performing at music festivals in Australia and Timor-Leste, CJ Shaw is an exciting Canberra musician at the top of his game.
CJ Shaw – Ain’t Many Like Lennie is out NOW December 3rd through Foghorn/MGM
Download or stream:
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