 Jan 1999Happy New Year! G'day Folks, Well, after the frenetic touring of the previous months settling back into family life has been a great relief. The new album 'Through the Cracks' has been selling strongly and is now 50% recouped so Carol and I would like to thank all those who pre-ordered CDs and came to the launches. Depending on the response over the next two months we are planning to start the new studio project in February. Thanks to all those broadcasters including Richard Porteus on ABC National in Adelaide; Big AL in Nowra and Bob McMinn in Towoomba, who a have already started playing tracks. It seems that "The Road to Damascus" has grabbed most of the attention so far with "Sombody Else's Slides" not far behind. Unfortunately due to delays with cover art we missed out on the nominations for this year's Golden Guitars by a mere SIX DAYS!!!! The album will be eligible for next years awards but by then we hope to have the new studio album out so TTC may not ever be nominated. A bit dissapointing. The last quarter of the year was planned to be a time of collaborations after such a long time a way on the road. Collaborations which I might add have produced some delightful results. In March last year after the Illawarra Folk Festival, I was sent the planning demo for an album by a talented young lady by the name Karen Lynne Frencham. I was immediately taken by the pristine quality of Karen's vocals and the roots-music honesty of the CD's country/folk material which included several of her self-penned compositions.
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In my typical opinionated manner, I contacted her with some suggestions about the final form of the project that I hoped she might find helpful. As I watched it all take shape over the next few months, I became totally convinced that the artist and the CD were in fact something special. So in November Karen and I planned and performed some dates together on the south coast at Narooma and Wollongong. I must confess these gigs were a delight for me. During the last tour, I began to hand some copies of the CD around in Tamworth where Karen has become increasingly well known in recent years. So imagine my sheer delight to find that the album "Labour Of Love' made top ten in the upcoming Toyota Australasian Golden Guitar Awards in Tamworth in both the 'Song of The Year' and 'Best New Talent' categories; and last Friday made the grand finals in the latter category. For me, there was somewhat a sense of De Jevu about that achievement, given that Karen's CD is totally independent and the culmination of four years' hard work and self financing. We wish her well in the awards. Karen and I have scheduled several more gigs together in the next quarter Wed, 3 Mar 1999 and Wed, 24 Mar 1999 at Shellharbour Workers Club, as a trio including her sister Liz Frencham from Celtica on double Bass, and at The Marulan Country Fair on Sat March 7th. I hope the South coast contingent will support these gigs. Karen will also guest at my shows in the Longyard at The Tamworth Festival. The December gigs at Banjo's with my brothers, Steve and Ron, were very satisfying. Rod Pittorino has asked back this year. It was great having a regular gig to showcase the close harmonies from the albums. |
