australianbluegrass.com

Joie de Vivre

One of the many workshops that feature in bluegrass festivals across Australia is the Cajun dance workshop. These have been a regular festival feature, certainly in the southern half of the country including the National Folk Festival, for some time.

After seeing the Beechworth Festival program this year I thought I’d delve into the person behind Cajun dance – Margot Hitchcock.

Margot started dancing with the Melbourne Colonial Dancers in 1983 and took an interest in Cajun music in 1994 after meeting Geoff LeBlanc who played at a Melbourne folk club. Geoff secured a video on Cajun dance for Margot and she started learning the dance style.

A year later, in 1995, after learning the Jitterbug, Two-step and the Cajun Waltz, Margot was ready to teach. Her first gig was the Cajun dance workshop at the National Folk Festival that Easter. Margot continues to conduct regular Cajun dance workshops and has been a regular feature at the National Folk Festival, at the Harrietville Bluegrass and Traditional Country Music Convention – since 1999, and the Beechworth Kelly Country Pick – since 2003.

Since teaching Cajun dance, Margot has broadened her dancing interests and has branched out to learn Rock and Roll, Jive, Swing, Lindy Hop, Ceroc, West Coast, Texas Two-Step, Tex-Mex, Latin dancing, Zydeco. She has also learned Appalachian clogging at a Cajun Creole festival in West Virginia in 2001.

On Friday 13th March, during the 2009 Brunswick Music Festival, Margot suffered a stroke on her left side while Cajun dancing at the Brunswick Town Hall to the music of the ‘Red Stick Ramblers from Louisiana. Margot was rushed by ambulance to the Austin hospital where she spent 4 days in intensive care. She was later transferred to the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre in Kew, where during the next 10 weeks she was learned to walk again.

Driven by her desire to dance, Margot was back dancing and performing in just 5 months.

My belief is that Cajun music is for dancing and through this art form, I hope to continue to share in the Joie de Vivre – Joy of Life - Margot Hitchcock.

Margot has not let her stroke stop her promoting Cajun music in Melbourne or her love for teaching Cajun dancing.  In her role as Cajun Queen and Honorary Cajun, Margot is dedicated to sharing this unique music and dance from Louisiana with her fellow Australians.

Visit Margot’s Cajun Website

Article, Festivals Beechworth, Cajun

We caught up with John Werner this morning and got chatting about the coming bluegrass festival in Beechworth where John is taking the bass workshop. So for all those bottom-end folks with bad backs heading to Beechworth in vans, station wagons or simply in a sedan with the front seat wound down, a great bass workshop awaits.

Ironically, the largest instrument in the bluegrass and old-time string band line-up is often the least considered, with the focus more on the front line. Hey, and rightly so I hear you say! They’re the guys (and gals!) who are taking the melody out for walk, weaving silky instrumental skills in between tight rhythmic chops and generally taking the lead roles in tune.
However, the subtle power of rock-solid and dependable bass playing, providing the foundation for these instruments and artists to shine should never be under-estimated. I look forward to meeting up with old friends and making new ones, and welcome bassists of all levels to an informative and fun Saturday morning Bass Workshop at the Priory – John Werner.

Festivals, Workshop Bass, Beechworth

Kelly Country Pick – Beechworth Victoria, 21st – 23rd August 2009.

Festival The Kelly Country Pick website has published a list of workshop tutors for this years festival.

Workshops and Tutors:

There is a fabulous weekend planned featuring concerts, instrumental and dance workshops, jam sessions, instrument displays, blackboard concerts and the Sunday gospel sing-a-long.

Visit the website Kelly Country Pick.

Festivals, Workshop Beechworth

The program for this year’s Kelly Country Pick has been altered. If you’ve downloaded the program for this year’s KCP from this site in the past couple of weeks, then chances are you may have an out-of-date program.

The revised 2009 program is available here – Beechworth Program.

Festivals Beechworth

Wendy Jackson from the Beechworth Festival has provided details of the program for this year’s Kelly Country Pick which is coming up 21 – 23 August.

Wendy Jackson and Peter Hisco are two of the principle organisers of the Beechworth bluegrass festival and on behalf or the bluegrass community can I offer our sincere appreciation for the work and commitment which you and your team of volunteers undertake for us all.

The program is available here – Beechworth Program.

Festivals Beechworth

Kelly Country Pick – Beechworth, Victoria.

The Kelly Country Pick website has had a facelift and now updated with all of the details on this year’s festival to be held in the historic town of Beechworth in Victoria on 21st to 23rd August.

Festival producer Peter Hisco advises that performers have been confirmed for the event and include: Uncle Bill, Blue Mountain Rain, High Time String Band, High and Lonesome, The Bridgland Brothers, Luau Cowboys, The Bluegrass Souls, Coolgrass, Appalachian Heaven, Senile Delinquents, Craig Woodwards Friday Night Old Time Band and Fat Chance and the Bluegrass Cowboys.

Instrument workshops over the weekend will include sessions for fiddle, mandolin, double bass, guitar, dobro and banjo.

Check out the new Kelly Country Pick Website

Festivals Beechworth

Beechworth Festival Victoria.

Festival producers Wendy Jackson and Peter Hisco have announced some of the details for 2009’s Kelly Country Pick later this year in Beechworth, Victoria.

In addition to an expanded artist schedule they have added  another two venues to the Beechworth festival. This will see two concerts in every time slot on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and evening, as well as Sunday.

The festival is developing into a  significant community event that attracts a tourist audience while, due to venue sizes, retains its intimacy.

The talent confirmed for 2009 includes:

• Gerry Hale’s Uncle Bill
  
• Blue Mountain Rain
  
• Bridgland Bros. (aka Southland)
• High and Lonesome
• Appalachian Heaven
• Craig Woodward’s Friday Night Old Time Band
• Mama’s Mountain Jug Band
• The Luau Cowboys
• Bluegrass Souls

The Kelly Country Pick is scheduled for 21st to 23rd August 2009.

Events, Festivals Beechworth

Kelly Country Pick 2009

The dates have been announced for the 2009  Kelly Country Pick which is a winter Bluegrass and Old Time Country Music Convention based in the historic town of Beechworth. It began in 1999 as an annual get together between a few pickers and families from Victoria and NSW for a relaxed music weekend. It now attracts some 300-500 musicians and patrons and is growing steadily.

Dates are 21st to 23rd August 2009.

Festivals Beechworth

I had never been to Beechworth, either as a festival goer or a tourist. My visit this year was to take in the Kelly Country Pick, an annual bluegrass festival now in its 10th year.

The KCP is gaining prominence amidst the Aussie bluegrass community. Although, if I was to host a bluegrass festival in winter in Victoria, I would not pick a town located so close to the Victorian snowfields – it was cold and bleak. Nevertheless, my desire to play music, and engage with other bluegrass musicians, kept me oblivious to the cold winds and lack of sunshine. Although, Sunday was blessed with some sunshine and picking did move outdoors in the afternoon.

The Kelly Country Pick has from the outset, been held in the Old Priory, an amazing building dating back to 1886, hiding a labyrinth of hallways, dormitories, kitchens, common rooms and other places I am sure are still to be discovered. In fact one may need to spend a year or more there to unearth the myriad of rooms that the multi-story building contained. Rumour has it that there are still musicians from the 2007 festival, roaming the hallways seeking a way out.

My wife – Ann – and I arrived at 7:00pm on Friday evening and visited the Old Priory for the first time. We were taken by the magnificence of the building in the half light and even more so by the grandeur of its imposing facade and gorgeous gardens and surrounds during the daylight.

We missed the concert scheduled for 6:00pm on Friday evening, so we wandered off to sample some of the local cuisine and were not disappointed. At 8:30pm we ventured down to the Tanswell’s Tavern to catch the evening concert that featured Appalachian Heaven, Senile Delinquents, Southland and Coolgrass.

In my humble opinion, the most impressive act of the evening – and for the entire festival as it turned out – was the troupe from South Australia – Southland. This band features the strong musical talents of the Bridgland brothers, John on mandolin and Geoff on banjo, teamed with John Hyland on Dobro and Phil Parker on guitar. They were joined – by invitation – by Gippsland’s John Werner on double bass. Southland’s bluegrass harmonies were real crowd pleasers and it was not hard to understand why when Phil Parker, supported by the members of Southland, presented the vocal harmony workshop on Saturday evening. We heard of the detail involved in their notating every note to be sung, and the subsequent discipline involved in learning their parts to the satisfaction of the groups harmony master Phil Parker.

Other surprises for me included the Stringbeans concert at the Brewery on the Saturday. A great exposition of musical talent drawn from a variety of musical styles coming together to present solid, crowd pleasing bluegrass music.

The festival also presented a host of workshops all of which were very well attended. These included:

Fiddle – Donal Baylor
Guitar – Kevin Parsell
Mandolin – Paul Thompson
Dobro – John Hyland
Mandolin – Gerry Hale
Frailing Banjo – Ian Alexander
Bass – Bruce Packard
Clogging Belinda Gibson
Cajun dance with Margot Hitchcock
Banjo – Geoff Wright
Harmony Singing – Phil Parker

If you’re at a loose end in August 2009 and feel the call of a bluegrass festival, head on to Beechworth for the Kelly Country Pick 2009 – highly recommended.

Thanks to Peter Hisco and Wendy Jackson for their untiring efforts in producing one of Australia’s best bluegrass events.

This year’s festival was sponsored by The Guitar Gallery of Fitzroy Street, Melbourne; Tanswell’s Commercial Hotel, Beechworth; Bridge Road Breweries, Beechworth; Hibernian Hotel, Beechworth.

Festivals Beechworth

Southland heads east to Beechworth for the Kelly Country Pick
With over 160 years of bluegrass experience in their line-up, you’d think they’d be grumpy old has-beens fit only for back porch somewhere. We’ll you’re pretty darn right there because, that’s where they like it – being on the back porch playing more bluegrass more often. All the Southland players are from that finest old south land, South Australia, where the fields have turned brown, the dog has run away and the John Deere’s been sold. Southland is: -

Phil Parker – lead singer and guitarist. Phil has a clear and powerful vocal style, perfect for the great lyrics of this music. He has a commanding knowledge of harmony theory and technique, and ensures everyone knows their parts and remembers them! He can spot a missed note or harmony blooper from 50 paces. He’s been in a number of Adelaide bluegrass alliances, unions, collectives and ventures over the years, as well as a solo performer, and has an amazing repertoire – in fact some have styled him the “Bio-fuel Bluegrass Jukebox”. Phil brings a wealth of songs, experience, talent and surprise to the band – he’s always got a NEW song.

The Bridgland brothers – Geoff and John have been playing bluegrass since they mistakenly started the “Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys” in their garage at home in 1968. Failing to learn from their error, there have been several bands over the years and occasionally several at once. Geoff plays 5 string banjo as straight as he can and is sometimes allowed to irritate the old time fiddle for a short while. He sings baritone harmony. John plays mandolin and sings the tenor harmony. John is also an accomplished guitar botherer and scribbler, producing a welter of lyrics and instrumentals. The brothers enjoyed the 50’s but haven’t grasped anything musically since the 60’s.

Paul Thompson – Paul plays second guitar and is equally at home with flatpick or the Scruggs “thumb style” and works with Phil to build that unstoppable wall of sound that instantly distinguishes Southland from the Rex Humbard Choir. He shares sparkling lead guitar breaks with the mandolin and 5 string. Paul is also a varnish menacing mandolin player and joins John Bridgland for twin mandolin instrumentals. He is also no stranger to the tenor and baritone parts and shares the wailing work. Having been involved in the music since the early 70’s, he too has realised the full potential of a life devoted to bluegrass in Australia, but is hanging on bravely.

John Hyland – John’s main instrument with Southland is the dobro, and he has a driving attack style with the steel. He is now being encouraged only to use it only on the dobro. He’s also a highly competent guitarist and 5 string player, and an animated, entertaining singer, in the lead role as well as with harmony. Multi-instrumentalist and multi-talented, John is at home with a variety of roots and bluegrass styles – ancient and modern. And like the rest of the band, John also comes from long term involvement in the bluegrass community and is also slaving away at fame and fortune in other working bands at the same time as Southland.

Southland presents bluegrass and old time country the best they know how, for boys who never grew up on a farm, never had an uncle named Pen and never lost all their money but a $2 bill. Well – not often anyways. And they love to share their music.
Posted by Wendy Jackson for the Australian Bluegrass Blog

Artists, Festivals Beechworth, Southland