Newsletter 9/10/2015

Dear Friends of the Clermont path,
thank you all so very much for your attendances, including celebrating our 17th year of musical adventures last January and/ or at Woodford Folk Festival last Xmas for our 3rd time – or Estonia!?!.

Here be first a “quick” thanking summary, followed by new tours ahead with Totally Gourdgeous/ BluGuru and Zen Tripitalia with a special surprise, Rachel Johnston, from years in the Australian String Quartet! Then what is new for the Supper Clubs coming up and at Woodford & Tamworth Festivals next summer! Special guests via Italy/ Ireland/ Chile and plenty from Oz!

We also celebrated 10 years of The Golden Fiddle Awards at a packed Capitol Theatre during January’s Tamworth Country Music Festival with a poetic delivery from Pixie and a good cross-section from the youth with Pumpkin Juice and over 20 years of the Fiddlers Festival (Feast) band.
And a glance into the ‘surprise’ USA tour.
However for those who feel you’d love to help out in some way! There are definitely options for you too. At Tamworth we seek accommodation for our players, or help with their travel funds! Meanwhile you can buy Season Passes to the Supper Club all week – a definite way to show great support for the event !!

Holding a House Concert is also a brilliant way to bring the music to you – easier than you think! Now is a good time to put in your requests for next year!!

Tours !

Concerts ahead at Townsville (This Tue!! c/o Folk Club House Concert!) Kangaroo Valley, Gosford, Woodville (Newcastle), Murrurundi, Tamworth, Gunnedah, Wauchope, Uralla, Newcastle Uni, Enmore, Tomerong, Nowra, Canberra, Bega, Mallacoota, Beechworth, Mansfield, Harrietville VIC – perhaps even Melbourne! See http://www.andrewclermont.com.au/gigguide.htm

A QUICK LOOK BACK AT Tamworth Supper Club, January 17 – 24
This time about 85 artists joined us – from Adelaide to Yackandandah, Denmark (south coast WA), Melbourne, Brisbane, Estonia (next to Russia!), Tasmania, Fremantle, Sunshine & Gold Coast, Berlin (Germany), all over Victoria, Maitland, Sydney to Euroa and plenty local too!.
Special guests from The TRUGS (Tamworth Regional Ukelele Group) through to legend Leslie Avril & Jug Music extraordinaire Mick Conway with Robbie Long, the grateful return of Roshani in Urban Chiefs to The Switch, riveting Daniel Champagne, Women in Docs to G Louise & The Wild Women of Armidale, rootsy Sian Evans to sublime Sam Leman & Hawaiian dose through Lucy Leman and beyond to the word tales from Geoffrey Graham.
Wonderful regulars through the week included Pumpkin Juice fiddle kids, Simon & Marta, Jeri Foreman & Gage Stead, Paul Wookey & Philomena Carroll, Parris Macleod & Chontia Robinson, Louise Adams (going brilliantly on The X-Factor just now! See her next Tamworth Supper Club in celebration!!) “with lil Frankie nearby, Jude Iddison fiddling, Tullara Connors guitar journeys and the absolutely endearing Rauno Vaher percussionist with his euro twinkle in his eye 🙂 who put in a visit after The Supper Club went to Estonia last year – far reaching Marilla Homes, Maik Antrack and yet to be seen here, Chris Blyth (who will appear at the Adelaide Supper Club gathering at Wirrina Bluegrass Festival early this September).
Plenty invaluable contributions from Nigel Lever, Kate Mear, Pete Fidler, Jess Stocker (with choice family musicology in G Louise & WW Armidale). There was the well awarded Leaping Lizards and on Friday Mark Atkins Group with The Crosby Sisters on before them with some very wide ranging Tamworth music with Mark likely to appear anywhere in the world from Phillip Glass events to South American Festivals.
Our feature nights had great show & tell from Byron Bay’s Nick & Sam, Guy Kachel & Josh Lanyard on the Guitar Night; Tamworth essentials Randall Wilson & Phil Weaver with dynamic duo Kirk & Garry Steel on the Piano Night; local Emily Little strutting with all on the Fiddle Night, and young 7 year old Ameille Leitch on the Ukelele Night; as did local 19 yr old freak, Chloe Nott, on Banjo Night with mighty Montz Matsumoto; stage stars Brookie & Daniel Gillett shining on Girls Night with occasional visits from Aron Maclean (ex The Pigs) with still more from Brians Heywood & Moore and likely a few missed out but to ALL of you we are so very grateful.

But we had hardly finished and ideas/ plans for next year’s Sup Club and between gatherings were quickly being sewn!

Winter Highlight!!
At the end of last Festival, Local Doctor/ Song-writer / Finger-picker/ story teller/ Supper Club supporter Phil Hungerford enlisted me to help with his 60th birthday in July, applying Supper Club methods into the fray and after a sensational 10 piece band concert of 18 of his songs the other week, we have a locked in special event for next year’s Friday Night feature – complete with a tick to his Bucket list – playing Mandolin on one of our party tunes, Macedonia (by Mark O’Connor)!

USA LINK UP!

Also at the very next festival – Yarra Junction’s Fiddlers Convention just outside Melbourne, over a fine glass of red, one Tony Schick, retiree Bass & Guitar man had plans to visit Boston, buy a double bass, drive it to Nashville (to gather it some stories), and bring it home. Turns out we thought it was a fine plan requiring just one little addition, Me! Every now and then one bites the bullet and goes with a whim.
Coincidentally it also turned out most of the folk we had asked about visiting were going to be home – like Supper Club guests, the Whitetop Mountaineers, Jay Ungar (who wrote the Civil War theme Ashokan Farewell), and more of that most influential New York Fiddle Fever band (when I was just learning fiddle!). We’d be able to see the western swing masters, Time Jumpers, in Nashville; spend a week in Boston jamming with the Bluegrass, Irish & Scottish players. Join a weekend of Scottish Music study with Alastair Fraser and Natalie Haas at Ashokan itself! http://youtu.be/et_FPWZkxNM And finally record the double bass in Nashville on a sublime country track “Over & Under” penned by dear friend from the Tom T Hall tours I did across Oz, Bob Angelo in his very substantial studio by the Nashville outskirts waterways.
And most special just before hitting the Crooked Road, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, were the visits to The Smithsonian Museums in Washington DC (primarily the Aeronautical versions) and Vintage Motorbike Museum in North Carolina.
Anyone who’d like a closer look at that astonishing trip that includes me playing a $200,000 Martin guitar… can give a hoy and there is a link to a blog on it with plenty pics & Vids. www.schickster.com.au/blog

We didn’t set out with too much of a plan and were able to ricochet from place to place with all the surprise a new day can bring. Much thanks to Tony for being such an easy going traveller – it was a month after all!!

TOURS AHEAD
Supper Club Guitar Fest at Wirrina Bluegrass & Acoustic Festival Sept 4 – 6 (Featuring Adelaide & Scottish surprises linking early & recent days in a woven matrix of harmony notes) Was great!! And just in the process of producing a road CD of the presented trio there – Zen Tripitalia! (Townsville Concert imminent!)
Totally Gourdgeous gathers at the Kangaroo Valley Folk Fest in mid October while (yep! All the instruments made out of awesome Gourds!).
BluGuru will make a lap from Sydney to the New England, with Bombay Bluegrass and well beyond ! Plus – as of this week – Bonus Guest :-

There’s been a special revelation of music with cellist Rachel Johnston – 7 years in the Australian String Quartet ! And is joining me on an introductory duet tour from Sydney to Melbourne along the coast with some of our favourite Halls, homes and Arts venues. Well met at her first visit to a Folk Festival, introduced by great friends, The Gordons from Adelaide, the Supper Club will also hear new twists & turns from this new heart and soul! And infact she is now joining the whole BluGuru Tour as well !! Hope you can make it.

See Gig Guide @ http://www.andrewclermont.com.au/gigguide.htm for next moments & Supper Club details as well!!

I must get this email out, OUT!!
Months go by and I try to squeeze in another year between them! LOL

We’ve had the Mildura CM Fest in just the last weeks was a great gathering of stunning voices & characters again. I became head of Production there this time, plus adding Fiddle & Mandolin at The Independant CM Awards. Tamworth’s Aleyce Simmonds drew many Awards & stunning performance.

Hope to see many of you soon

Oh! And on the baby front – Brookie & Daniel from the Supper Club had a fine son, Jules, earlier on, Josh & Parvyn are recently with news they are expecting, and my youngest daughter Tahlia is also just out with expecting news! Wishing you all health and music in your lives as much as possible!

Tall Regards, Andrew