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- With the ‘tall man’ – Andrew Clermont
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- Graham Black
Left Melbourne, a few days with family in Sydney, then by chance Fri and Sat at the ‘Lost Highway’ Karuah River of Music Bluegrass Festival. We just happened to be leaving Sydney on the Friday so it seemed crazy not to stay and try and get some picking in with a few friends at Karuah as we passed through. Mmmmm, interesting little event!!! Can’t say I’ve jammed till 2pm in the morning in a Mobil Station 24 hr diner before – that is a first…. but the acoustics were great and we had a ‘mighty fine’ pick with Graham Black, our friend from St Albans Folk Festival, and some new acquaintances from the Blue Mountains from a trio called ‘Lime and Steel’. And we got freshly cooked bacon and egg burgers to go home with at 2.30am!
Lovely to catch up with some various bluegrass buddies over the weekend, Nigel Lever, Pete Fiddler, Andrew Clermont, Jenny Shimmin to name a few….and catch a few acts that we hadn’t seen or heard of before. BUT our listening pleasure was seriously marred by very poor sound engineering all weekend. So frustrating to see mixers with no idea about these acoustic instruments or this style of music, failing so badly to produce a good band sound – and to watch outstanding players giving it their all and not be able to hear them in the slightest. REALLY brings it home to me – the importance of having good sound crew who understand this music!!!
A few days on the Gold Coast, sorting stuff out and we’re off in the caravan. First stop Joey Buttons, then Hervey Bay! Pretty spot – but back to the live karoake/pretend live music scene!!! It is sad and disillusioning what passes for live music!