G'day Folks,

Well, The Gympie Muster was an incredible success again this year... and particularly so as a rain-making event. Dubbed locally as 'The Gympie MuDster' the event lived up to its name yet again. I was approached by a farmer in Kilkivan who asked me if it could be arranged to run country music concerts four times a year up there. When I asked him if he was that keen on Country Music, he said, "No, but every time you run that thing it rains, and we can sure use a lot more of that around here!"

Working for Clive and Phyl at the Noble Lake Side Resort on the Gold Coast was also a great experience. Lake Side Resort is one of those new breed of 'over 55' settlements that have sprung up with the aging of the 'baby boomers'.
However, far from being "a detention camp for old people" as I described it on a stage :):):) it was a very vibrant community of people who obviously had a great community spirit. I'm very much looking forward to returning to play there next year, with Karen.

The next night saw the beginning of 'The Naked Poets' third Queensland tour. In conjunction with the release of "Naked Poets 3...Butt Seriously" the tour began in Maryborough and the next four nights took us up and down the Sunshine Coast through Brisbane and Tweed Heads and on to Warwick.
It was a real thrill headlining at Twin Towns to a crowd of nearly 400 people. Warwick, the last night of the tour was also completely sold out.

A Big Thanks to Mary, Clive, Phyl, Julie, Russell and Sandy who organised the shows.
Something like a mix between The Goons and Banjo Patterson, The Naked Poets show has gone from strength to strength over the past two years. Retail Pre sales on 'Naked Poets 3' have been enormous and we now finally have accounts with HMV and Sanity as well as our stalwart supporters at The ABC Shops.

The new album features five singles starting with "Marilyn Monroe was a size 14" and "If I Die Before Keith Richards I'll be Pissed off to the Max"; songs which have been very popular over the last two years."Are you talking to me?", Murray's terrific new poem about a bloke who rings up his 'problem neighbour' and gives him "the Full Serve" only to find that he has rung the local vicar by mistake :):) is probably my favourite from the CD but there are plenty of great moments from Bobby, Shirley, Marco, Bobby and Ray, as well. By September, the support from 4AAA and John Nutting's ABC Saturday Night Country had already had a big impact on sales.

Sadly, what I was not to know, as I drove away at the end of the tour, was that it was the last time I was ever to see Bobby Miller. In what was an enormous shock to us all, our much-loved Naked Poets compatriot, passed away suddenly in November. Bobby , fondly remembered for the 'Bingo', 'The Burglar' and other such classics was a pivotal member of our troupe. His funeral in Maryborough was a moving affair, lots of tears and laughter as would befit one of Australia's funniest and most talented bush poets. The Naked Poets shows in Tamworth this year will feature a special tribute section to our mate, Bob. Our sympathies go to Sandy and the family.
Tributes to Bobby are on The Naked Poets Website at http://www.nakedpoets.com

The trip home was eventful. Travelling East from Warwick, over the hills of Woodenbong in the middle of the night, I almost ran over two young runaways looking for a ride. They had a puppy and a kitten with them and a very little else. What made matters worse was that they were also hopelessly lost. They were trying to get to Dubbo; but had for two days been travelling east toward the coast. All of which sent me off on another of my adventures and complicated my life enormously over the next two days until I was sure that they were safe with a responsible adult ...something no one has ever accused me of being!

Finally back home again, The Galston CM Festival continued it's tradition of beautiful Spring weather and great music on the 8th September. The Bullamakankas, Greg Champion and Carter and Carter were highlights, with other great performances from Wayne Law, Michael King and The Martin Sisters. The Festival has now made over $250,000 for charity since Tony, Vikki, Len, Frank and I, began it five years ago.

It is now doubtlessly Sydney's biggest Country Music Event. Thanks so much to Galston Rotary and to all the artists who have participated since 1997. I've redesigned the Website and it is now open for business at www.galstonfestival.com Check out the photos from this years event.
The Illawarra Folk Festival began the following week. Once again I compered the Children's shows with over1500 children from local schoools descending on the Festival in the early week. It's always a good chance to play some of the kids songs that I've written over the years and to try out new routines and, although sustaining that level of energy is a little tiring over two days, Karen and I had a ball. The shows and workshops towards the end of the week were a complete change of form and a welcome opportunity to showcase the more political material from the last year.

Perhaps the most uproarious event was the 'bad taste' concert where artists were invited to play their worst or most politically incorrect material. It was the only time I have ever been game to play "The Man Who Should Have Handled my Divorce" at a Folk Festival. For those we haven't heard it, it's a 'tongue in cheek' ode to King Henry the Eighth and others whose direct approach to the question of maintainance was bound to make them less than popular with the Family Law Court!!!

Speaking Of politics, 4 years on the board of the CMAA have finally yielded some satisfying results and a complete new judging system for Gold Guitars will be introduced next year. The introduction of Independent Record Company of the Year and the Independent Country Music Entertainer of the Year; a guaranteed performance spot for independents to perform at the Industry Achievers Awards at the Metro this year were also very welcome developments.
Strong safeguards incorporated into our constitution to prevent any conflict of interests in the board's dealings also make me very optimistic and confident about the future of both the awards and the CMAA as a representative membership body.

Karen Lynne and I have had some terrific gigs this last quarter as well. In late May, Karen and I travelled south for a series of shows in Canberra, Melbourne and Phillip Island. It was terrific trip full of great scenery and the wildness of The Southern Ocean; but it finished with a real marathon effort involving one of our great road leaps...from Melbourne to Moree in just 36 hours. After two years on the road together Karen has become a fabulous road musician adept at driving, packing, performing and whipping up a terrific spaghetti sauce late-night in the middle of nowhere; not to mention achieving consumate skill in the ultimate of Road challenges...finding a spare power point for the Curling Wand before the gig!

I think my favourite event this last quarter, was the Ulladulla Wine and Food Festival. A beautiful venue; a perfect day; fabulous seafood and great Australian wines. It was great to be back working with Phil Emmanuel again. His acoustic solo guitar version of "The Ashoaken Farewell" was an absolute delight as it cascaded across the green lawns of the festival site and out across the perfect blue sea of the South Pacific Ocean. Thanks to Narrell Brown at Jaybees for the superb organisation.

Speaking Of The Ashoakan Farewell... in what was a great tragedy for everyone who knew him, Ray Schloeffel that great-hearted bear of a man whose fiddle bore so much joy and passion; also passed away unexpectedly a few weeks ago. Ray generously gave his time recently to play at the Larissa Fletcher Memorial Benefit in the Blue Mountains, a benevolent event that raised over $27,000 on the night. At my request he played "The Ashoaken Farewell", a piece which he played so plaintaively that, regardless of how often I had heard it, never failed to move me. I did not know at the time that it was also to be the last time I would ever him play; that his great fiddle would be so soon silenced. Ray's funeral and wake was populated by most of Sydney's acoustic music fraternity. He will be very greatly missed.

On a lighter note, Both Karen Lynne and Allan Caswell have delivered terrific new albums to be released on our label over the coming months. Karen's CD, "Second Wind" features a beautiful version of "The Outback's Been Getting The Rain", one of my as yet unrecorded songs.

This album is a return to her much loved "Labour of Love" format of Country/Folk crossover tunes after her highly successful foray into bluegrass music with Acoustic Shock earlier this year. That CD yielded a #5 Country single with "This Ring"
Allan Caswell's new "Don't Count On It" CD represents his first album of new material in over five years, and there are some distinct changes of style which will grab some real attention in the country music scene.

My own two new albums; the first solo studio outings in some time ; "The Descent of Age" and "The Age Of Dissent" are well advanced with my second son, Peter, producing. "The Descent of Age" features a number of the gentler songs such as '18 Wheels', 'The Lovin Of The Bush', 'Circle of The Bells' and 'The Trolley Song' that folks have been requesting for some time while "The Age of Dissent" features the much harder edged political and protest songs such as 'Coming Home', 'Blame It On The Baby Boomers' 'What Goes Around' and 'Who Is That Refugee?' that have emerged in the last year.

Our eldest children, Matthew, Peter and Meghan have now been signed to the Network label and are being released Universal in the wake of the tremendous media interest in the project they released in March. Their first single through universal "More Than Love" made high rotation on over 30 radio stations across Australia, including Nova FM in Sydney and JOY FM in Melbourne. Check out their new clip at http://www.drummondesign.net

In a very Ice House/Flowers switcheroo development that have had to change their name to 'not the question' from Seedling and the name of the album to Seedling from 'not the question'; because they have now been released into Europe where a major independent pop band is already well-known as Seedling.

Their original Shoestring badged album has become a bit of a collector's item. Network will be re-releasing the album about June next year through Universal after two more singles from the CD have been released.

This last six months has been equally a time of great success and huge disappointment.
Around May this year I was commissioned by the ABC to produce the pilots for a new radio national radio program that I was to have hosted. Called "The Keepers of the Flame" the program was to have concentrated on political song writing and social activism dealing with a new issue each week.

Unfortunately since we delivered the pilots; we have learned that the series will not be proceeding, making it the second time in five years that a promising radio project involving Shoestring has collapsed at the last moment within an ace of going to air. Episode one of the program featuring Kasey Chambers and Gay activist writer, Judy Small. However, it is now available on The Keepers of the Flame Web site at http://www.keepersoftheflame.net
Grab Realplayer and Check it out; we had a lot of fun making the shows.

Home and Hearth

As many you what are also aware; on a personal level, there have been some significant health problems in my family of the last six months. My Dad, Trevor, recieved a pacemaker for a developing heart problem and my brother Ron; (well known to many of you as the Headmaster from school day shows and as "The Great Ronaldo" from The Rest Hotel years ) was diagnosed with an aggressive lymphoma.
He responded extremely well to treatment and we recently recieved news that he is now officially in remission. Thanks so much to all those people from our internet list who contacted him with messages of support and good wishes. I know it meant a lot to him.

He is currently at home again receiving treatment as an outpatient and you will be pleased to know that his characteristically bizarre sense of humour is still well and truly intact!

Carol is within an ace of concluding her never-ending child-care course, Josie has turned eight, Meg, Matt and Peter are hard at work on the new clips and Livinia, our 17 month old resident grandaughter has discovered 17 different ways of crashing the network on our computers by applying random keystrokes to any keyboard she can hit to the beat of her favourite Wiggles CD. Ah Life!?!?

All The Best

Pat and Carol Drummond