Hello boogie friends,
What a blast it was to attend the Australian Blues Festival in Goulburn this past weekend!
Not only playing our own concerts, but also to hear the wealth of fantastic blues musicians and songwriters from throughout Australia, many of whom I hadn’t heard before (Geoff Achison, Lloyd Spiegel, Bonnie Kay) as well as many friends who I have enormous respect for such as Ali Penney, Nick Charles, and the electric blues band Tomcat Playground. Their performances gave me so much inspiration.
On Friday night we had Nick Charles sit in with us to play tunes he recorded from my latest CD “Play It Again Jan” and that show was a real highlight – I only wish he didn’t live in Melbourne!
And so to the present; coming up in March are 2 performances of my show “Wonderful Winnie” (the life and music of Winifred Atwell) in Canberra and Lismore, then NZ concerts around Easter in April. All details are on my website.
I want to make a special mention of our show this Saturday night at a unique venue in Wollombi, near the picturesque Central Coast and Hunter Valley. I’ve been playing there for years (since back in the day of the Wollombi Music Festival). The venue has recently changed hands and is now called the Harp Of Erin.
It’s a dinner/show format, the ambience and food is great, and the place is run by people with big hearts and good vibes. It’s $55 for dinner and show, with some places still available, so I would urge you to consider booking an Air BnB in the area and joining us!
Meanwhile here in Sydney in the blistering heat I’ve finished composing for the extraordinary BBC Scotland feature documentary “Border Politics” and am about to start composing for another film.
Only now am I feeling cheated by the lack of a break over Christmas and New Year and in surfacing this week it is with shock I realise the holiday season has been and gone, everything’s open again, kids are back at school, and I missed that particular boat!
At least I can wish you all a not-too-late Happy Chinese New Year and hope to see you at one of our shows.
Yours in boogie and blues,
Jan