This musician is a very special performer with a mesmerizing quality
that evokes landscapes, and the drama of big skies. For a former underground Geologist, there is
an awful lot of sunlight-on-dappled-waters kind of feel to his lyrics and
melodies.
He is a renowned finger-style guitarist who had a ghastly accident
last year, when a knife went through his hand.
This was a major disaster for a man who earns his living with his
guitar, a trusty Gibson Loo of seventy years old. However he, like Django Reinhardt, has found
new ways of doing the old things. I
would never have guessed his hand was in any way impaired from his captivating
performance at the National.
By the time he reaches us he will just have returned from touring Canada. In his other musical persona, he is the
drummer for the ‘Waifs’. I suspect there is a third man inside too, since his
writing is also riveting and I hope there will be a book one day. (Try his Blog)
“Penguin Eggs” magazine, Canada, described him this
way: “Gentle grace and captivating
melodies, songs that employ powerful imagery to evoke strong emotions and
poignancy, stirring and soothing – often both at the same time”.
One of his CD’s (I got two) has a great little gift inside, which
guitar aficionados will appreciate. It
is a free CD with twelve tracks, each one on a different hand-crafted
Australian guitar, and a nice long track from each. That’s in addition to the songs CD in the
other pocket.
Supporting on the night : We
are lucky that Springtide, Greg Wilson and Jaquie Luke are available to
complete the line-up. Having recently
taken up residence in Dungog, I hope we will see more of them, and their huge
family of instruments. Jaquie mostly
plays the hammer Dulcimer, and Greg is strings and squeezies.
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