Sisters for Sisters
Alice Night creates honest folk music and collaborates with electronic artists, classical composers and experimental sound-makers. Her voice reveals a delicate balance of powerful conviction and hauntingly beautiful intimacy. She is an artist noted for the richness and breadth of her voice, her courageous stage presence and her unique, bold and poetic lyrics.
She performs at Sisters for Sisters, a night that features women artists raising money for a not-for-profit women’s mentoring program. Also featured are ELSZ, Merryn Jeann, Ilona Harker, bellydance by Lakita and crew, Olivia Rosebery and more.
Friday 8pm at Kulchajam. $15.
Going Holm
After his TV stint on Australia’s Got Talent, Dolphin award winner Andy Holm is well known to Australian audiences, especially since he became a finalist. He’s also been spied performing at Splendour in the Grass and countless gigs at our local markets and venues.
After releasing 16 CDs in Australia and a publishing deal for the European market, Andy played also in Germany, Singapore and several times in Thailand. His last two tours to Thailand were so well received that Andy is leaving our Shire in three weeks to relocate to the island of Koh Phangan, which will be his base for a while, booking also concerts in Goa, India and Singapore. Listen to his farewell show on the Arts Canvas show on Bay FM on Thursday.
Catch him on Sunday at the Brunswick Heads Sound Shell for a last world-music concert from 11am till 1pm.
From Paris to Vienna
Byron Music Society presents soprano Emilie Lemasson singing French Mélodies accompanied by Nicholas Routley on piano and Margaret Curtis on harp. The program will begin with the song Invitation to a Journey, and will then embark on a romantic musical journey from Paris, with the gorgeous textures of Debussy and Ravel, through Greece, Italy, Spain, and Czechoslovakia, finishing in fin-de-siècle Vienna with the sumptuous sounds of Strauss, Wolf, and Brahms.
Soprano Emilie Lemasson was born in France, and has studied voice and piano from an early age. She completed her tertiary studies as a student of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, gaining a Bachelor of Music and a Diploma of Opera. Emilie has been the recipient of several Helpmann awards at the Conservatorium and prizes from The City of Sydney Eisteddfod. Emilie has more recently become a recipient of funding from the Wagner Society. Along with performing with Vavachi Entertainment she currently works as a freelance singer around Sydney and the northern rivers region.
Byron Theatre at 3pm Sunday. Tickets $35, $30 members, seniors and children $10.
Barefoot Miss Max sings You, Me and the Sea
Hailing from Coral Bay, Western Australia, Miss Max inspires with her laidback oceanic tunes. After moving to a town of 100 people by herself at age 16, Miss Max found her true calling for the ocean while working as a deckhand on the stunning Ningaloo reef.
Long starry nights beside the campfire – after guiding snorkelling tours and swimming with turtles, sharks and rays – fuelled endless smoky jams that would soon prompt Miss Max to find her talent for singing and writing songs. ‘I always enjoyed singing and was passionate about music,’ commented Miss Max, ‘but I always pushed it to the side for other things, such as my obsession for being underwater.’
Poinciana Cafe on Saturday at 6pm.
on Friday
Funk at the Rails
Multi-award-winning songstress Kellie Knight and her seven-piece jazz/funk ensemble The Daze are playing at their beloved hometown venue, The Rails.
Picking up awards for three of the five tracks from debut EP Twisted in 2015, the northern New South Wales outfit have played their gangsta funk, soul groove ’n’ smooth jazz on many of Australia’s world-renowned festival stages, including Bluesfest, Adelaide Fringe and Woodford folk festivals. Influenced by artists such as James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Miles Davis and the like, this band show their might with guitar and keyboard improvisation that will blow your mind, a rhythm section that holds the dance beat and one of the most powerful voices you’ll hear. Friday at 7pm.
Moonfire mantra trance
Following the June release of their debut single Enchanted Moment, emerging Brisbane alternative-trance/new-soul band Moonfire are touring over July, kicking off in Byron.
Moonfire are a live DJ and vocal trance band that is a totally immersive and uplifting dance and sound experience for everyone and known as Trance Mantra Experience. It’s the mantras for your soul, melodies from the heart and overall a complete and immersive experience that’s summed up as ‘party naturally’ and ‘let the music and mantras take you away’.
Their new original single Enchanted Moment is all about ancient mantras combined with the hypnotic and evolving rhythms that create an uplifting and magical experience that connects to your heart and awakens the soul to an everlasting, existing transcendental reality beyond this temporary mundane world.
Saturday at the Byron YAC at 7pm. Free.
When the music is sweeeet!
Since forming in 2010, Sweet Jean have built a reputation for evocative songwriting, stunning harmonies and stirring live performances. They are currently touring with a full band in support of their sophomore album Monday to Friday.
Sweet Jean is Sime Nugen and Alice Keath. Sime Nugent possesses one of Australia’s finest male voices. His songs can be heard on his numerous solo albums, as one-fifth of the Wilson Pickers and in Sweet Jean. Alice Keath has worked in many areas of music as a composer and conductor for theatre and dance, choir director, performer and RN broadcaster of The Live Set.
Sweet Jean plays Club Mullum at the Mullum Ex-Services on Saturday and the show features their full band: Alice (vocals, banjo, guitar and autoharp), Sime (vocals and guitar), Roger Bergodaz (drums), Nat Bartsch (keys) and Zane Lindt (bass). Supported by Andrew Morris. 7.30pm. Pre-sale tickets $25.
The Sign of the Cross
With roots in Ireland and Australia, New York city-based rustic folk singer/songwriter Vincent Cross is as much a poet and musicologist as a musician. Cross has been lauded by Odetta, which is understandable given he’s clearly rooted in the same 60s folk-scene sounds that produced the likes of Seeger, Guthrie and Dylan, who are obvious influences on his work. On his third release, Old Songs for Modern Folk, Cross weaves together mythical deaths, murder ballads, questions about mortality and tales of ancient loneliness with fearless emotional honesty.
Old Songs for Modern Folk reveals Cross, the troubadour, with a talent for inspired live solo performances. Playing banjo or guitar with a few spare riffs of harmonica, he sings original songs that borrow melodies and lyrics from the American folk tradition while telling stories old and new. Vincent Cross often performs solo on his trusty vintage instruments. Cross tours extensively in the US, Europe and Australia and has performed at some of the world’s finest roots music festivals, with upcoming shows in New York City at the American Folk Art Museum and the Irish Arts Centre.
So if you can’t be bothered nipping over to the US, catch him when he plays the Treehouse in Belongil on Thursday 21 July.
Cut from the Same Cloth
William Crighton and Claire Anne Taylor have carved their names into the Australian music scene this year with universally acclaimed debut albums and strong praise from live music reviews, each shaped by their formative years spent in rural serenity. Crighton’s journey started in the Riverina and has taken him around the world, with extensive time spent in Nashville. Returning to Australia, he settled momentarily on the rugged banks of Burrinjuck Dam, near the South West Slopes region of NSW, to record his self-titled debut. It’s a stirring songbook that captures the gritty essence of our vast country.
Taylor’s story also begins in the wilderness. The soulful singer grew up in Tasmania’s ancient Tarkine rainforest, where she was born into her father’s hands in the family barn among a congregation of her five siblings. In March, the flame-haired musician released her debut album, Elemental.
Crighton and Taylor are cut from same cloth. They wear their hearts firmly on their sleeves, penning songs that capture the human experience. They play the Court House in Mullumbimby on Friday.
Getting Dirty
Many artists struggle to establish their musical identity, laboriously trying on different musical styles like a piece of clothing, looking to find what fits. But there are others that emerge fully formed, in full command of their craft, their identity and their music.
Dirty River fit firmly in the latter category. The style and live performances are a captivating and moving experience that heralds the arrival of a gifted and significant new talent, one whose music feels familiar in the best possible way, while striking out on its own territory.
Dynamic duo Jimi and Lea are passionate storytellers who have the ability to make any song their own. Not ever wanting to be labelled as fitting into a particular genre, they find their style in everything from heartfelt folk ballads to soul, funk and alternative country blues. Individually they each bring something unique to the sound, but together they create a vibe that has been very well received in the local area, playing in hotels such as the Shaws Bay, Eltham, Federal, Slipway, Lennox and Yamba Pacific on a regular basis. They are continuing their journey, branching out into new venues, private functions and weddings around Byron Bay and surrounds.
They play Club Lennox on Saturday at 7.30pm.
