Guy Kachel had an idyllic entry to the world of music. Born in Tamworth, he was raised on the banks of the Peel River. The landscape was a fertile ground for his imagination. Seeing this rustic world change, as Tamworth developed into an inland city and friends grew to sometimes troubled adulthoods, provided insights for the artistry that later powered his career as a performer.
His paternal grandfather, an itinerant harmonica duelist, gave him his first guitar at 15. However, bereft of musical guidance Guy progressed no further than the riff to Smoke on the Water until, as an apprentice electrician, he struck up a lifelong friendship with Lawrie Minson, who went on to become one of the country’s best-known journeyman musicians. Minson coached him through the rudiments of guitar and transplanted a love of hillbilly guitar picking and such southern-rock stalwarts as the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.
Skip forward several years and Guy found himself drifting east, to the Byron Shire where the fertile tropics energised his creative talents. He started writing songs, cathartically, about his past, Tamworth, the fate of his peers – and ultimately, himself. The result is startlingly confessional wry observations from a seasoned bard about people immersed in their dreams.
Guy Kachel will appear at the Ballina RSL as the special guest of the Soren Carlbergg Trio on Sunday from 2.30pm at the Ballina RSL Boardwalk.
