Swift Success for Morgan Evans
Novocastrian Morgan Evans is a star on the rise.
After being chosen to play with Taylor Swift and Alan Jackson, playing in Nashville at the world’s biggest country music festival and with a swag of CMC Music Awards in his possession, including Oz Artist of the Year, Male Oz Artist of the Year and Australian Video of the Year, this is one country boy worth catching.
Ballina RSL on Saturday October 11.
Creative Hiatus
Grammy-nominated contemporary soul outfit Hiatus Kaiyote will be special guests at the next APRA Songwriters’ Workshop at Southern Cross University on Thursday, 2–3.45pm in Studio One29, D Block Theatre, Contemporary Music Building, Lismore campus.
Melbourne quartet Hiatus Kaiyote, is a collaboration between Nai Palm (vocals, guitar, keys), Perrin Moss (drums, percussion, electronics), Paul Bender (bass, electronics) and Simon Mavin (keys, synths, electronics) will be presenting the workshop for students of SCU’s contemporary music degree and local high school music students, the community is welcome to attend for free.
Jon Stevens talks music
For Jon Stevens, the remarkable 30-year career as a singer/songwriter may just as easily not have happened. In our feature earlier this week, we discovered how the New Zealand-born Stevens was well on the trajectory for playing football. But life had other plans and here he is with us this week.
Jon Stevens plays the Bangalow Bowlo on Thursday. Show at 7.30pm. Tix $40 at the door or $35 presale at the club.
King of the North goes south
King Of The North are a hard-rock duo comprising Andrew Higgs (guitar/vocals) and Danny Leo (drums/backup vocals). Their intense live shows and powerful brand of modern rock have blazed a new trail in the two-piece band format.
King Of The North play everything live; there are no pre-recorded noises or samples used live or on their recordings. All sounds come from two voices, guitar and drums.
Saturday at the Hotel Great Northern.
Castlecomer
Sydney up-and-coming five-piece Castlecomer are hitting the road again to launch their latest single Fugitive. Taken from the band’s forthcoming EP – recorded with Tony Buchen (The Preatures, Tim Finn, Andy Bull) and released later this year through Liberation – the song was inspired by the movie of the same name.
Fugitive is about not being able to be with the people you love, for whatever reason, explains Bede. ‘I wrote it after watching the Harrison Ford film thinking about how difficult it would be to live a life on the run – which is sort of what most bands experience with the whole touring thing.
See them live at the Hotel Great Northern on Friday.
Waxing on
Waxhead are a four-piece formed late 2012 up in the Byron hinterland. Finny, Moffo and Beggson are all born and bred Byronians, while vox man Froggy was born and spent his early years in Santa Cruz, California, moving back and forth from the States to Byron until he was eight years old, then he settled into the chilled, surfing lifestyle with the other boys.
They all met each other in the early years of high school, but only formed a band together recently. Influenced by great mother ocean, people, Byron and 70s culture, and intrigued by the sounds and style of good old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll legends such as Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Nirvana, Neil Young, Clapton, Hendrix… the list could go on. All these guys want to do is surf, chill out and make music in the hills.
Saturday at the Brewery from 8pm. Free.
Full Moon at the Treehouse
Melody Moon is heading to Byron as part of her Down to the Sea album launch tour. Her folk-indie songs are capturing the hearts of many around the country and receiving widespread airplay.
She’ll be supported by looping and harmonising extraordinaire Tyto, the Melbourne pair raising awareness and funds for ocean protection group Women for Whales.
Come and support Melody and Tyto at The Treehouse this Saturday and the Yum Yum Tree Cafe on Sunday.
Rockin it back to the 50s
Miss Amber and Stukulele invite you to The Court House Hotel in Mullum to sing and strum all your favourites from the 50s with special guests Clelia Adams, Warren Earl on guitar, Al Brooker on bass and John Proud on drums.
Featuring songs from the Everly Brothers, Rosemary Clooney, Buddy Holly, Doris Day, The Drifters, Roy Orbison and of course The King himself… show off your 50s fashions and rock around the clock this Thursday from 6.30pm.
Join the mailing list at ukemullum.com for the link to the songbook. Entry: Adults $10, kids under 15 $2.50.
Black Vat & Ruthie
Black Vat Trio are a Sydney-based three-piece that bring you delightful classic Klezmer and Romani gypsy tunes, as well as original polkas and sea-shanties with their own thumping eastern European-inspired fare.
A rare act, and a must-see. Up for an early spring jaunt with their good friends Ruthie-Ma-Toothie. Ruthie are a gorgeous Lismore-based two-piece outfit that take their favourite songs of yesteryear and give them a twist.
They put jazz into country and country back into jazz. Tunes range from gypsy-like versions of Ella Fitzgerald to spaghetti-western interpretations of Townes Van Zandt songs to Hank Williams as you have never heard him before.
At the Lismore City Bowling Club on Friday at 8pm and the Sphinx Rock Cafe in Mt Burrell on Sunday from 1pm.
Finding the Keys
German piano prodigy and composer Nils Frahm returns to Australia for a performance at the Opera House and music lovers in the Byron Shire are in for a treat when the 31-year-old composer includes a show at the Community Centre.
Deeply inquisitive and forever searching for the magic and spirit in every space, Frahm was schooled on Tchaikovsky and in the minimalist tradition of Philip Glass, and also gives a nod to the boundless stage craft of Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. Electronic admirers of Nils’s work include Thom Yorke and Four Tet.
Tuesday 7 October at the Byron Theatre. Tickets at www.byroncentre.com.
Kiosk from Hell
Devil’s Kiosk have taken it a step up and to the left, having wowed fans in recent years at music festivals across Australia including The East Coast Blues & Roots, Woodford Folk Fest and the Gympie Muster.
In September 2012 Devil’s Kiosk thrilled the crowd and won the Peoples Choice Award at the Blues Association of Southeast Queensland’s Memphis Blues Challenge and have since gone on to fulfill a busy playing schedule.
Check out Devil’s Kiosk this Saturday – 8pm at The Burleigh Underground Drummers, 31 Rudman Pde, West Burleigh. $15pp. BYO.
Man with some might big organs
Plucked from obscurity to perform on ABC TV’s Spicks and Specks, Barry Morgan became an instant audience favourite. Barry has also graced our TV screens on In Gordon Street Tonight, The Marngrook Footy Show and The Circle’s Royal Wedding Special.
He has also sold out live shows across the country including numerous festivals and performed to adoring young crowds at the Homebake and Falls festivals. In 2012, Barry travelled overseas to demonstrate his organ at 2012 NZ Comedy and Edinburgh Fringe festivals.
Barry comes to Byron for a show at the Byron Bowlo on Wednesday 1 October, 7.30pm.
Tix are $30 on the door or pre-purchase through www.stickytickets.com.au/19721.
Sensitive to the Touch
Back in 2004 Touch Sensitive (aka Michael Di Francesco)’s debut single Body Stop was one of the first tracks released on Future Classic. Cloaked in anonymity, its cosmic vibes and Italo authenticity made it a cult favourite among DJ circles from East London to Brooklyn.
Now a fully fledged in-demand producer, Touch Sensitive brings his music to the Beach Hotel in Byron on Sunday. Free Entry. 8pm.
The Skinny on Ts
The members of Tuba Skinny migrated to New Orleans independently of each other, all with the desire to play music. They met on the streets and began busking together then travelling around the United States, riding freight trains and making music wherever they would go, originally as the Dead Man Street Orchestra.
The group have continually been invited and re-invited to major European, Australian, Canadian and USA festivals. They have seen the growth of their audience from word of mouth, the international swing dance community, uploaded YouTube videos (most infamously via Boing Boing) and their barnstormin’, dance-driven live shows.
Friday October 3 at Mullumbimby Civic Hall. www.mullummusic.com
I dub you
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, to a Jamaican father and British mother on 30 January 1985, Nicholas Anson Murray was born with an unbridled passion for music. While studying abroad, Nicholas was listening to a song by Culture entitled See Dem a Come and was inspired to dub himself Conkarah because of his determination to conquer the world through music. Since then, Conkarah has been fulfilling his mission, spreading the positive vibes of reggae music to the world.
The product of this realisation comes in the form of Conkarah’s new mix tape Conkarah to the World. Friday at the Byron Brewery from 8pm. Free.
Cat songs launch in Mullum
Born and raised in Northcote, Melbourne, multi-instrumentalist Cat Canteri is best known as the singer-songwriter, drummer in alt-country group The Stilsons.
This year Canteri swaps drums for a guitar and launches her debut solo album When We Were Young, performing two gigs here on the north coast.
Cat Canteri plays St Martin’s Hall in Mullumbimby on Saturday September 27.
Tickets $15, $10 pre-booking/concession
Tickets available on the night, and at www.catcanteri.com
Doors open 7pm.
Show starts 7.30pm.
Cat also plays the Rails in Byron on Thursday
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