2007 News
...will be happening shortly.
From the Archives
Marg's reflections on 2006
Most things that happened early in the year have been swept from the memory
banks. The calendar says there were folk festivals at Cygnet, Georgetown, Bulli,
Cobargo and Canberra. I do remember doing a support act for Jez Lowe and the Bad
Pennies at the Harp.
In early March, my second granddaughter Lene Cub was born to my son Michael and his partner Jenny. She's now sporting front teeth and crawling and is a real charmer. It hasn't been an easy year for Mic and Jen living in Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains but working in the city. They manage by sharing the parenting and working part-time. A move to Katoomba in mid-December comes with a resolution to find jobs closer to home even if it means work other than landscape architecture and landscaping/gardening.
Son Ben has been caring for his daughter, Grace (now 3) since her mother's death in a car accident in mid-May. It's a long sad story. Ben owns his own house and has been doing a design course by correspondence and this means he can be a full-time parent to Grace. They're doing really well. The maternal grandparents want Grace to be with them in Kurrajong, west of Sydney. Court hearings so far give Grace residency with Ben. We are hopeful that access arrangements can be resolved soon.
News of Gabby's death came a week before I was due to fly to England for a tour of folk festivals and clubs with Danny Spooner. I couldn't see how I could support Ben from overseas, and realised that Danny could easily take on all the gigs on his own. So instead of the northern hemisphere, I opted to spend my long service leave on the mid-north coast with Ben and Grace. I am grateful to the overseas organisers who were very sympathetic at the last minute change of plans. Danny kindly sent me postcards from all ports of call reassuring me I hadnt been forgotten by friends in the UK.
My experiences over the next couple of months would account for several episodes of a soap opera! I hadn't spent so much time with Ben since his pre-school days thirty years previously. I wondered at how much he was like me, and how much he was like his dad and couldn't conclude which of these various attributes frustrated me most! Ninety percent of the difficulties arose from house keeping and renovation issues. Ben didn't need any advice on parenting he's a terrific dad and Grace's wellbeing emotional and physical is his absolute priority.
While I was away Kerrie Maguire a lovely singer from Tasmania was living in my house and we had such a good time together when I returned to Sydney in mid-July. Kerrie stayed more or less until the end of September and we walked a lot and enjoyed several movies. Lots of talking and philosophising which was just what I needed. Not enough singing together though!
There was a lot of work to do catching up on life and working with Christina Mimmocchi who was producing Yarri of Wiradjuri John Warner's song and verse cycle which we had recorded late in April. The CD was launched at Gundagai in September and a couple of concerts since in Sydney and the Blue Mountains. Information about the work and reviews of the CD are on John's website www.folkjohnwarner.com.
By the way there's a review in The Living Tradition of an album by Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman who had the good taste to record John's song "Bring Out the Banners". The reviewer says "You'd be hard pressed to find a song to follow this stirring version of a Union Anthem This is my current front-runner for CD of the year." Well I read that as "best song on best album of the year" and hope lots of people will agree with him! Pity John hasn't recorded it himself as yet!
I made a bit of a stab at marketing in the last month or so with updates to my website and Johns thanks to Chris Robertson and sorting our PayPal facilities.
I had a couple of nice solo gigs in the latter half of 2006 with Virna Sansone and Silvia Entcheva at Eastside Arts in a concert called The Naked Voice; and with Danny Spooner at the Loaded Dog. There was a trip to Brisbane with John singing songs at the Brisbane Labour History conference. I am presently looking forward to working with Don Brian as "Southern Cross Trawlers" when we perform at the Cygnet and Tamar Valley Folk Festivals in January 2007 songs about convicts and whalers. Then there are festivals at Bulli, Cobargo & Canberra with the Roaring Forties.
I
couldn't have got through this very taxing year without the support of
many people friends and strangers were just wonderful.
--Margaret Walters, PO Box 615, Glebe NSW 2037
mwalters at mail.usyd.edu.au
News from March 2006
Margaret started 2006 attending folk festivals in Tasmania Cygnet and Tamar Valley lots of good singing especially at Georgetown. Margaret joined Danny Spooner for presentations of industrial songs and sea shanties at both festivals a precursor to concerts the two will be performing together later in 2006 when they have a tour in the UK (Danny has a more extensive one in mainland Europe).
There was a 6-week period in 2005 when John Warner and I were part of the Rattling Navvies an outfit thrown together by Warren Fahey that included musicians Marcus Holden and Gary Steele to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Rail in New South Wales. So our collection of traditional and contemporary train songs got a great old airing.
With the Roaring Forties and Don Brian there have been some very rewarding performances of John Warner's song and verse cycle, Yarri of Wiradjuri. This entails the normally unaccompanied Forties stretching themselves instrument-wise! We had performances at several clubs in the latter part of 2005 performing it at Wollongong, Canberra, Gundagai, Sutherland and Paddington. In February 2006 we performed it at Cobargo and had a particularly gratifying response One chap told the organiser that this was one of the most powerful presentations he had seen in many a year and in his view if he had not attended anything else at our Festival this performance made the Festival for him. And another wrote: The highlight of the Festival was the performance of Yarri. We found it a compelling story, told with respect for the Aboriginal people, emotionally quite draining, yet presented in such a wonderful format. The next performance is scheduled for the St Albans Folk Festival on the Anzac weekend.
We have been fortunate in receiving a small grant from the SEARCH Foundation to help record Yarri and we have enlisted the aid of Christina Mimmocchi to help tame the unruly Roarers into a disciplined unit (!) and we have the renowned reciter, John Derum, to record the narrative elements of the piece. We'll also be having additional musicians. It's all looking very exciting and recording should start soon after Easter.
Which brings me to the National Folk Festival. Margaret is teaming up with Don Brian as Southern Cross Trawlers to do what they do in this combination traditional and little known Australian material much with a nautical flavour. They have three concert spots (Trocadero, Troubadour, and the National Museum of Australia) and two sessions we are sharing with Danny Spooner and Jerry Epstein.
Another music-related activity in the last 2 years is coming to fruition at Easter. I have been part of a team involved in the Chris Kempster project a compilation of the tunes that Chris wrote to poems by Henry Lawson and other Australian poets. This double album is being launched at the National. More information at www.chriskempster.net
There has also been the usual involvement with local folk clubs especially Almost Acoustic and the Loaded Dog, though in fact, the work-load with AA has been greatly reduced since the move to Eastside Arts in Paddington. There have been some problems with the venue in the last couple of months but everything should be running smoothly again by June.
It's always fun to have overseas performers come and stay. Stop-overs in 2005 included Donal McGuire, Bob Fox and Mick Maloney. This year Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies were here in March - I did the support for them at their concert at the Harp with John Warner playing guitar. Great concert. And Jerry Epstein from New York is due shortly.
It won't be long before the 2006 UK tour leaving 22nd May back 18th July.
See the Gigs page for details of the tour.
This is the publicity we've been using:
Danny Spooner and Margaret Walters are veterans of the Australian folk scene and both have toured abroad Danny in the UK, Europe and North America and Margaret in England. They have a pronounced preference for an unaccompanied style of singing, and Danny is an excellent concertina player. Both are strong lead singers; they each have extensive repertoires of British and Australian traditional and quality contemporary material, a love of chorus songs, industrial songs, sea shanties and harmonies. www.dannyspooner.com and www.margaretwalters.com
News from Feb 2005
Some lovely sessions at Margaret's place for friends visiting from overseas - including Ross Campbell (Fleetwood), Stefano & Noemi Kasangian (Milan), Corey & Deborah Dolgon (Boston). Singing "The Trampwoman's Tragedy" at a talk about Thomas Hardy at the State Library given by Suzannah Fullerton, President of the Jane Austin Society of Australia. I had a terrific time at the two festivals in Tasmania in January, particularly singing work and sea songs with Danny Spooner at both, and meeting the legendary Mick Flanigan. The solo gig at the Loaded Dog in November gave me a chance to perform 8 songs I hadn't done in concert before. And in the organising department - concerts for Cloudstreet and George Papavgeris. Several wonderful events coming up at Almost Acoustic with some favourite performers - Frankie Armstrong and Bob Fox.
News from Oct 2004
I had a fabulous time touring around England in June/July 2004. It was a modest tour several club bookings, a couple of festivals, and a lot of floor spots here and there. For a couple of reviews of how I was received, click here. I was overwhelmed with hospitality and dont ever remember being so thoroughly happy. But the experience made settling back in Sydney very difficult. Im still not up to answering questions about just what I found most enjoyable about the time away. I certainly came home with dozens of CDs and am gradually working my way through them. Ramskyte were a favourite find.
The only way to cope with not being in England seems to be to throw myself into organising events at Almost Acoustic and that is a satisfactory challenge since it entails a commitment of an endless amount of energy. The members of the Roaring Forties are all currently concentrating on individual projects, but they intend to make a splash in 2005 with some new material.
One of my own projects is to concentrate on some Australian traditional material in a new duo. Watch this space.
A recent recording venture was to do the backing track for a piece of dance theatre called The Three Sisters of Katoomba choreographed by Margaret Barr and performed at a celebration of 100 years since Margarets birth by the Diane Wilder dance group at the University of New South Wales in October. Diane is the dancer who choreographed many of John Warners songs for Pithead in the Fern and inspired him to write a song specially for Dear Diary called Windsong the first track on Power in a Song.
I have a solo gig at The Loaded Dog (www.freewebs.com/LoadedDog) on 27 November 2004 and have lots of lovely new songs in preparation.
Im not planning to go to any of the New Year festivals but am looking forward to two festivals in Tasmania in January 2005 - Cygnet http://www.cygnetfolkfestival.org/index.shtml and Georgetown and the Cobargo festival in NSW in February http://www.cobargofolkfestival.com/
OLD STUFF (early 2004)
UK 2004!
I am coming over 9 June - 23 July and have bookings at just a few clubs and festivals and will be attending others on spec, as well catching up with folk friends from Combe Martin to Gateshead. For some gigs I will be accompanied by a fine guitarist, Duncan McFarlane, whose web site is at http://www.duncanmcfarlane.co.uk.
Several Australians are touring in England this year: keep an eye out for Touchwood, Danny Spooner, Us Not Them, Kate and Ruth, The Fagans, Colcannon ... and meanwhile, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan and Cloudstreet are perennial favouries.
NB My solo album - Power in a Song - is available from Duncan at duncan.mcfarlane@ntlworld.com.
Highlights of 2004 gigs in Sydney included support for Jez Lowe at Almost Acoustic on 3 April Ruth Hart accompanied me on flute/whistles and Kim Poole on bouzouki, guitar, accordion and there were a couple of acappella songs - and the trio also performed 8 May to the history society in Kurrajong - singing songs pertinent to the local area.