The pictures are mostly by Simon Imrei, the words are by Lachlan Bryan
For the uninitiated, Tamworth is our Australian country music capital – and the Tamworth music festival is a ten day event that happens every January. We’ve heard some say it reminds them of SxSW, but no-one yet has compared it to Woodstock or Glastonbury. It’s essentially about as far from a traditional music festival as I can imagine. This is the third year in a row that The Wildes have performed at the festival. When we first came, nobody at all knew who we were – now they at least write our name on stuff.
The lineup...
It’s fifteen hours drive from Melbourne to Tamworth. We filled the time with brilliant conversation.
Photo – sleeping.
We arrived just in time for our radio spot on 2TM – they were broadcasting live from the main street. Our two song set was followed by an interview with Australian roots icon John Butler – possibly the healthiest looking man I have ever seen up close. We took a photo of him to reassure our Mums that the music business isn’t as bad for you as the media would have you believe…
Tamworth is filled with pretty singer-songstresses – Tenielle Nada is one of these. We caught a little of her set out the back of The Albert Hotel on our first afternoon in town. Our friends The Harnetts were also there – they were the first people to ever make us feel welcome in Tamworth and it is always good to see them.
Each year over 450 buskers perform on the main street during the festival. Between them they cover a catalogue of about 14 songs – most of them made famous at one time or another by Johnny Cash. I don’t know if the man in black ever made it to country NSW, but his shadow hangs long over Peel Street at all times. Some buskers actually play original tunes, whilst others are just genuinely authentic – it’s these two groups that impress us most.
We particularly recommend Mojo Bluesmen. They leave all the dirt on every song. Hearing them is like eating peaches straight off the tree.
Thursday was hot and humid. Just like every other day. We drank coffee from an Espresso Bar on Peel down near the Albert and The Hog’s Breath Cafe. It’s the best coffee in Australia outside of Melbourne – but sadly I never got the name of the place. They also made toast with wholegrains ricotta and honey. Delicious. If you’re in town look fr the sign that says Espresso Bar – I think it’s the only one. That night we performed at a special event at the Town Hall – kind of a Grand Ol’ Opry style thing called The Buttercup Open House. It’s a Tamworth institution and we were honoured to get an invitation.
The beautiful ex-pat turned English rose Ange Boxall joined us on stage – just as she did all week. It’s hard to imagine somebody more at home in a country dress and a pair of cowboy boots. I expect she’ll be a regular guest on stage in future…
The shy country gal...
From Buttercup we headed to The Family to see Shane Nicholson perform. His show was beautifully understated – filled with the warmth and family atmosphere that is such a part of the real country music we always seek out. Of course, it Shane’s case, it really is a family affair – accompanied as he was by father-in-law Bill Chambers on guitar, slide and mandolin. Wife Kasey also made an appearance. Ange introduced me to the generous and humble Troy Casser-daley after the show and he regaled us with first hand stories of the very recent Queensland floods. He’d lost a lost of material possessions, but remained optimistic and thankful – he knew others had it worse. A truly charming and modest man.
Chambers, Nicholson and Bennett
Earlier this year we’d visited Tamworth out-of-season. On that occasion we had a great time with the radio host Kelly Fuller – presenter of the morning show on ABC New England. She asked us back and as usual I tried to take over the show. There’s something about getting behind a microphone that turns me into the attention-seeking 8 year-old that used to perform concerts on the large window sill at home. Eventually Kelly wrestled back control of her show in time for a much-delayed news update.
The coolest geek in country...
Our main performance of the week was at The Family Hotel. We were delighted at the crowd that shuffled in for our 3pm start.
Above-mentioned crowd shuffling in...
We were even more delighted that they stuck around for 45 minutes whilst the PA speakers were replaced (the horns had blown prior to the soundcheck). We knew by the huge cheer that erupted when the new speakers were brought in that we’d have a fun show.
Lads backstage...
Our set ended up stretching to a little under two hours and we worked through about two-thirds of our growing catalogue. It’s traditional in Tamworth for artists to throw in a few covers – but this year we bypassed that tradition. There were too many new songs that we wanted to try out. We gave away a stack of free copies of our new EP, and the crowd left smiling. A nice afternoon’s work.
We were sad to leave Tamworth this year. We saw a lot of music, we drank a lot of coffee, we sampled the popular NSW beers (before settling on vodka) and in my case I even wrote a couple of songs. The accommodation was luxurious as always.
Casa del Wildes
The drive home was long. We stopped at West Wyalong and were so tired we couldn’t even be bothered waiting for Jesus to drive through.
2011 is the new 21...
We were out of conversation, so we mostly played cds on the way home. We know a lot of our fans aren’t necessarily country music people – so in case you fit that category we’ve recommended some stuff that might surprise you and bring you over to the dark side…
Brilliant!
Great update Lads. Sounds like a blast!
Hey there great blog. I think the good espresso comes from the Sleepy Monkey in Tamworth – and if you want great coffee outside of Melb, next time you are playing at Bulli come to Fireworks cafe at austinmer – we’ll make you a fine brew
Hi Jill, thanks. But no the good coffee was down the other end of Peel Street – I know the Sleepy Monkey but haven’t been in there cos it’s right in the manic part of town during festival time. I’ll take you up on that Bulli offer!