MEMOIR OF TAMWORTH COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL 2011

Tamworth Country Music Festival is over for another year,
the 39th year to be exact, and i thought i`d tell you all about
the time i spent there this year and what took my fancy the
most. Like the two previous years, i only went down there
for about 4 days in total, so i am really going helter-skelter
trying to fit in as many shows as i can in such a short time-
frame. Unlike 2009 and 2010, i opted this year to give the
pubs and free shows a miss and instead go to a couple more
paid shows, and at the same time, give myself time to actu-
ally catch my breath and have half a day of rest and recre-
ation. I had already bought five tickets before i left home,
which were for Felicity Urquart, Graeme Connors, John
Williamson, Troy Cassar-Daley as well as the Maton Gui-
tar Showcase. While i was in Tamworth i tacked on The
Wolverines and the Tamworth Country Music Awards
finale on the saturday night, the latter dishing up some
controversy which i will get to soon. I haven`t got a lot
of time for the buskers on Peel Street, even if i do feel a
bit sorry for them. To me, if i am going to listen to coun-
try music, then it has to be good quality stuff, and quite
honestly you dont get too much of that on the street in
Tamworth. Being the rock man i am, i decided to go to
a Wolverines concert at the Tamworth Services Club.
The Wolverines are a bit like a cross between ZZ Top
and Rolf Harris, with a few country licks thrown in for
good measure. They`re a 3 piece rough looking bikies
band, but below the rough exterior you have three big
softies in reality. The Wolverines have an absolute gem
of a song called `65 Roses`, which sounds so much like
Cystic Fibrosis when sung in the manner in which lead
singer Darcy LeYear does. The woman who wrote the
song won a songwriters award for it, its a very poignant
song about a young girl who gets 65 roses for her birth-
day but who cant even get up and play because she has
Cystic Fibrosis. Another great song by the Wolverines
which i adore is the upbeat blues rocker `No One Rides
My Harley But Me`, which is sung by the guy with the
big white bushy beard, John Clinton. No it isn`t Santa
Claus. Felicity Urquart, along with Catherine Britt, to
me are the dual Queens of australian country music.
Felicity`s concert at the Capitol Theatre was simply
fantastic, her husband Glenn Hannah is also her gui-
tarist and he really is damn good at playing country
music with a meaty rock edge to it, Felicity always
can hit the high notes, and she`s not a stick in the
mud who is limited to just crooning country tunes
either. She really knows how to rock and swing so
well. Her support act, Victoria Bailey, who has the
song `Shit Happens` in her repertoire, is also one
hell of a good singer when she wants to be. That
song doesn`t do her any justice at all. I had nev-
er seen either Graeme Connors or John William-
son in concert before this, Graeme put in a pearl-
er of a performance which was mostly made up
of songs off his latest and argubly the greatest
album of his career, `Still Walking`. The song
`All The Money`s Gone` is a brilliant pisstake
parody of the global financial crisis and all the
corporate big wigs who brought it on. His per-
formance at the Town Hall was made even a
lot better thanks to the most underated key-
boardist and piano accordianist in Australia,
the great Tim Weddes, who has previously
been a member of The Flood. His touch on
the keyboard is up there with Jim Capaldi
and i dare say Elton John. Weddes is truly
one of the best musicians in the country &
Connors would be crazy to ever let him go.
John Williamson was something really diff-
rent for me because he is so damn country.
I was expecting his concert, which was also
at the Town Hall, to be a cross between say
Don Williams and Redgum. I am really into
rock music, so the idea of a guy sitting on a
chair for two hours without moving strum-
ming an acoustic guitar was a gigantic leap
of faith for me in country music. The fact is
i enjoyed Williamson`s concert immensely,
he is not flash and there wasn`t a bass gui-
tar or drum kit in sight, but his storytelling
style of songs are quinessential australiana.
He did have his mate Colin there playing an
acoustic guitar as well, and together the two
of them jammed together better than most
blokes could without a drummer or electric
guitarist to give them some volume. It was
definitely more exciting than Don Williams.
Troy Cassar-Daly was, as you could expect,
crisp, sharp and innovative on stage, as he
always does at his Tamworth gig, Troy in-
vites guest artists on stage (he calls them
his friends) to play a song with him, some-
times they just contribute instrumentals
but others contribute lead vocals and/or
instrumentals. Troy has a fantastic back-
ing band, the standout being a great sing-
er and guitarist by the name of Luke Aus-
tin. Luke has a very bright future ahead of
him as a country musician in his own right,
and he has the right mentor in Cassar-Da-
ley. Watch out for him in the future. And
may i put a plug in while i think of it for a
well known session and back up guitarist
around Tamworth by the name of Brendan
Walmsley. He has a lovely voice for a a coun-
try musician and he is in very big demand in
Tamworth each year for his services. He does
seem shy and prone to getting stagefright which
is a pity. He`s a very talented guy, just like Tim
Weddes. The Maton Guitar showcase, like it was
the two previous years, was slightly disorganised
and uncohesive, you were never sure if the artists
were going to end up playing one, two or three songs.
The format of the Maton Guitar Showcase is that each
artist is only allowed to use a Maton guitar of some de-
scription, with only a few other instruments allowed to
be used during the performance. Kevin Bennett from
the Flood opened the show with a couple of songs off
the first Flood album, the most unique and outlandish
song of the night belonged to the Paul Burton Trio, the
namesake of the band plays a double bass and looks like
what Iva Davies would look like if he hit the whiskey for
ten years straight. Burton is a very eccentric performer,
i`ll have to invent a new genre of music to be able to place
his music. There were too many performers at the Maton
Guitar Showcase to describe individually, but if you go to
Tamworth next year, do go along to it. It`s a really good
introduction to artists which you normally only hear with
an elaborate backing band. No electric guitars allowed. The
last thing i have to tell you about is the Tamworth Country
Music Awards concert, which is the night of nights for aus-
tralian country music. There was a couple of big controver-
sies on the night, one you might`ve heard about, another
which you probaly haven`t. Veteran Lee Kernaghan sup-
posedly won the award for album of the year for `Planet
Country`, only to find out after he had got up on stage &
accepted the award that it was supposed to be awarded
to Graeme Connors for his album `Still Walking`. Appa-
rently, dont quote me on this, the golden guitar plaque
which Lee accepted did have Graeme`s name on it but
it had the wrong year on it, 2010 instead of 2011. It has
got to go down as the biggest balls up ever in the history
of country music. Stand up comic Darren Carr also put on
a very controversial and abrasive performance as the fill in
for commercial breaks during the awards. Fuck is one word
which slipped through his lips at some stage, i would have to
say that Darren was simply way out of his league doing what
he did last saturday night. He is an excellent ventriloquist pup-
peteer and he can be funny, but Carr to be honest went down
like a lead balloon at TRECC. I know most of what he said on
stage didn`t go live to air on TV or the radio, but i suspect his
absolutely bizarre ending to the night`s proceedings would`ve
had to been broadcast because the MC`s for the night, one be-
ing Beccy Cole, had already exited the stage. Carr`s closing line
before the show was over was something like this- `fancy a big
fat guy like me being the last thing everyone sees on stage`. His
clumsy and grossly politically incorrect conduct on stage had by
now made me have a good chuckle. There was another technical
glitch which saw about two dozen performers having to `re-sing`
a song which they performed to acknowledge the flood victims, i
am sorry, i dont know what song it was but i do know it is a well
known tune, which was made only more embarrassing & humilia-
ting because of Carr`s hacksaw & antagonising presence on stage.
I was actually waiting for John Williamson to punch Darren Carr
at this point lol. All i can say is that i dont think you`ll be seeing
Darren Carr at TRECC next year. To end off, may i say i think it
is total crap that Kasey Chambers won 4 golden guitars and brill-
iant female singers like Catherine Britt won not even one. If you
ask me, just like it is in Nashville, the awards to some degree are
rigged, Kasey Chambers is OK, but you wont convince me in a
hurry that she is worthy of the 4 awards she recieved when ar-
tists like Catherine Britt and Diana Corcoran keep coming in
second. Corcoran has a unique voice, i`d venture to say that
she often is trying to sing too high but when she sings down
lower she has got a beautiful voice. Kasey Chambers to me is
so much better when singing with her partner, Shane Nichol-
son. They`re great together as a duet, but when she is on her
own i cant help thinking that she sounds a bit like Toni Childs
or one of those black birds that can smell a gun from two miles
away. Funny, funny! Anyhow, my trip to Tamworth was good,
i am still a rocker at heart but going to a country music festival
once a year gets you back to earth and enjoying what is essen-
tially just a variation of blues and roots music. Australian coun-
try music is in excellent shape, whether or not they keep giving
awards to the same people over and over, year in and year out.