CONNORS THE KING OF COUNTRY IN THE CANEFIELDS
The Tamworth country music festival, which is held every January over the space of ten days, has helped australian country musicians enormously to shed the hillbilly stereotype which has often marginalised country music since the very beginning.
The all American twang style is very different from the more contemporary style which the majority of successful Australian country music stars normally adhere to.
I have been to Tamworth twice and I'd have to say that there is in fact more pop and rock influence in Tamworth than old fashioned C&W.
I listened to a lot of stuff like John Denver when i was young thanks to my mum, which is why I do have an ear for sophistication in country music and not much time for Chad Morgan and too many steel guitars.
Talking of John Denver, he may or may not have liked the comparison, I dont know because I cant ask him, but veteran country crooner Graeme Connors from Mackay in Queensland is someone who can tell a great story in his songs just like the late great Rocky Mountain boy.
I have only listened to one Graeme Connors album to be honest, and its his very first one from 1988, called `North`. I do hear other much more recent songs of Graeme Connors on the radio, because my mum often has 4AAA in Brisbane going, but I haven`t had
the opportunity of finding out the names of any songs that Connors has recorded besides the ones on his debut album.
the opportunity of finding out the names of any songs that Connors has recorded besides the ones on his debut album.
He hasn`t changed his style much over the years going by the sound of his latest stuff, except to say that he probably has done away with so much of the atmospheric feel that was the essence of `North`.
He has a very simple formula, good storytelling lyrics and a rather meandering style of guitar picking which doesn`t drown out his best asset, his singing.
North begins with an atmospheric gem called `A Little Further North`, which ironically was picked up and recorded by John Denver around the same time.
I would have to say that I like Connor`s keyboard orientated version of the song more than Denver`s calypso-Caribbean
flavoured one, even though I think it is still a great interpretation of it.
flavoured one, even though I think it is still a great interpretation of it.
Connors wrote the song, not John Denver,
just for the record. `Let The Canefields Burn` is a great stab at the callousness of the big banks and the ruthless manner in which some of the sugar cane farms were being re-possessed in the Mackay area, obviously it was an issue that was close to Connor`s heart and one which had affected him personally.
just for the record. `Let The Canefields Burn` is a great stab at the callousness of the big banks and the ruthless manner in which some of the sugar cane farms were being re-possessed in the Mackay area, obviously it was an issue that was close to Connor`s heart and one which had affected him personally.
The line in the song that goes like`let the politicians and the bankers in the city look up and wonder at the glow in the sky` is a very cynical reference to the aftermath of when a cane farmer sets his own house
on fire in a final act of defiance before the bank comes in and sells his farm from underneath him.
on fire in a final act of defiance before the bank comes in and sells his farm from underneath him.
The poignant and autobiographical `Sicilian Born` tells the story of a man's family heritage and no matter where one happens to be born, home will always be where a `man is prepared to die`.
The rowdy chorused `Cyclone Season` is obviously still a very appropriate song for a North Queensland audience, knowing that cyclones are always a threat in Mackay and other towns along the coast of Queensland
between October and April.
between October and April.
And it`s a great song, Connors really gets into it and puts on a real tonsil-ripping
performance.
performance.
`The Metho Man` tells the very sad story of an Aboriginal man who resorts to drinking metho to drown his sorrows, obviously a real life observation on the part of Connors.
The playful & slightly bluesy `A Heartache or Two` is wickedly witty and I`m sure
a lot of blokes can relate to the pisstakery in the song.
a lot of blokes can relate to the pisstakery in the song.
And to finish off the album we have `On the Edge of Paradise`, a very experimental and calypso laced diversion for Connors which proves he wasn`t going to ever be a stick in the mud and trapped in any artistic time warp that stopped him from giving his brand of country music a dynamic and fresh contemporary feel.
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