Stories from the road – on tour with Tour Manager Aimee Gray
With four folk musicians, four guitars, a banjo, a fiddle and plenty of bunting we hit the road to our first small hall ‘Rocky Creek’.
As we meander down the dirt road keeping an eye out for the wallabies cooling off in the shade, we turn a corner to find an 83 year old corrugated shed with a buzz about the air.
The full moon rose and a lightening show powered across the range and our wonderful musicians Harry Jakamarra, accompanied by his brother Elwood Gray, and Lisa and Brenley from Madison Violet brought the house down and welcomed the start of the tour, and the start of hopefully more rain in these drought affected regions.
A wonderful turnout of every generation enjoying the festivities and food the local community put on, along with the music the Festival of Small Halls brought. Massive smiles all round!
Continuing on down the road we take a turn for a couple of shows in northern NSW. Mallanganee and Jiggi showed us the NSW hinterland hospitality with some captivating local support acts.
In Mallanganee, the local community put it their all with the country hospitality, with every cent raised being donated to the local Rotary to distribute for drought relief.
That night, we were blessed with rain that only added to the joy under that roof. Folks travelled from Tenterfield, Drake and Brisbane to attend.
Back up and west to Queensland for Moonie’s Small Hall festivities and the harvest has just started, even still people came out to get amongst their community, see these fine musicians and take a peaceful moment in a small hall.
As we drive to Peranga we start to spot more wildlife – not too much stuck to the road, but Harry has been keen on a new banjo skin for while and has been eyeing off some road kill.
The Canadians are showing an interest in Harry’s skinning abilities and have put in an order for Goanna skin guitar straps so we’ll keep you posted on how this turns out!
And after 1,198 kilometres, load in and load of out five small halls, a good amount of sausages and steak sandwiches, wonderful sing alongs, stamping feet and excellent conversations with the locals, we retire for a rest day ready to plan for week two.
