fit for queensland...

the final stretch....tear.

we're up in brisbane now, enjoying a little re-grouping session before the two final shows of the tour.

only two pieces left. how ironic.

the past week - post organic farm - has been a whirlwind of music, sunshine and large laughs. the lovely lady foursome, Jungal (www.myspace.com/jungal3) rolled into byron bay a little early, with plenty of time for us all to catch up since we've hit the road. our shared gig at the rails on thursday was one stop on their mini-east-coast tour, as well. it's always such a pleasure to play with friends. especially these girls. the gig was heaps of fun, as the rails always is. being the transient, exciting little town byron bay is, we made loads of very fresh friends, who made the trek down a few short streets to check us out, which was so sweet. even sweeter though, was seeing the whole crew from jasper hall (the organic farm), all suited up for the event -- and a big night out before the big drive in (to the mountains) for the next day's early start. ah, can't wait to get back there! needless to say, we made the best of our thursday in byron and jammed with some locals outside of the station until the wee hours!

friday saw us all getting our tans on at the beach, before a short trip to byron for Jungal's show with Aurora Jane (who is also very much worth checking out: www.aurorajane.com) in nimbin. oh, nimbin. this little one-street town is one of those places you really only need to stop into once...for the early afternoon. the lush greenery surrounding the place is absolutely stunning, and the storefront artwork is most definitely worth checking out....but the place itself had an incredibly sketchy tone to it. could've just been the massive drug bust that had apparently shaken it up earlier that day.....who knows!?! (either way, we'll be back...sunday, for our last gig. hahaha. well, the gig will be just oustide of nimbin in a super-cute cafe surrounded by the pretty trees, so i think we're safe).

saturday started off with a very early drive down to coffs harbor (approx. 4hrs) for the Open Arms festival, which Jungal invited us along to for their show. great festival! we had an amazing time dancing along in the mud...especially to Blue King Brown - an insanely talented bunch from melbourne, whose lyrics just spill political and social goooooooodness. check them out, tooooo! www.bluekingbrown.com

our sunday show in brisbane was great. we played at a funky little cafe/bistro called "the joynt", here in the west end...which is a super cultured little 'burb (love it. we've been hanging around these bits for the past few days and just can't get enough!). the set was long and relaxed, which just happens to be my favorite. an excellent opportunity to break out some brand new tunes (there are a few!), as well as the old dusty ones. the sound was spectacular, as well, which made it all even sweeter.

so here we are now, just about ready for the two pieces tour debrief...

i want to do it all over again!!!

...more in store...

f:)

in the rough where the diamond sits...

....when i said west coast i meant east. very much on the east side. eek.

Reeling-in the Sun....

As we continued the long drive from rutherglen to belgrave then back again, we found ourselves as exhausted as Ruby’s rubber tires, but giddy with excitement at the anticipation of seeing (and playing alongside!) our good friends, April Maze and Quinn Band, who had invited us to slip in for a quick set at the Marlin Hotel, since, as luck would have it, our touring paths crossed again. This Ulladulla gig was only one hour south of our Nowra show the next day. Ah, fate.

We pulled into Ulladulla with plenty of time to catch a big family dinner with the crew and setup for what was a fantastic(ally eventful) show in this huge, small-town pub on a Friday night. The interesting unexpectancies were all just a lead up to our bar-closing exit towards the beach, for what turned into a three-band-and-friends jam until a disappointing sunrise-shower would have us all in a panic to coil leads and get the full setup of instruments and amplifiers back into our vans. The ‘Maze carried on with us though, despite the wet stuff, for a little circled chant of appreciation of the amazing music that had come before our breakfast-bedtime. We certainly all felt lucky to be alive, living in our respective vans, touring the country in different directions, knowing that our songs would bring us together soon again.

…as it will.

f☺

movin' on...

the "two pieces tour" is now in full force. with 6 shows under their belt, and numerous busking and jam sessions taboot, ruby the van has taken us around rural victoria, up to numurkah, yarrawanga, rutherglen, beechworth, wahgunyah, belgrave, emerald, wodonga, and all the little places in between.

faye and brad have been gigging, busking, driving, sampling some fine australian wine, talking, sleeping, and gigging some more.

we're now at the border of victoria and new south wales. once we cross that line, there's no looking back. no, that's not true. but it's exciting to think about what's ahead. three (or more) states left to conquer. plenty more shows, new people to meet, and i'm sure a few more bumps on the road.


for now, i'll just give you a little list of things that we're learned on tour so far:

- never underestimate the friendliness of the small town country folk

- a three hour drive can often mean 4 or 5 or 7 hours in "ruby time"

- rest stops are our little haven. so are country towns, creeks, waterfalls, and forests

- even if the next gig is that night in a town that's 7 hours away, it still makes sense to stop for a little all-you-can-drink wine tasting

- it's really hard to sing a song while a hundred million flies are landing on your lip. might as well just eat them!

- three people sleeping in ruby ain't all that bad

- four people sleeping in ruby means leg cramps for weeks


long live the road!
x lisa

(and faye, brad, and ruby, too!)

Beechworth-it.

Oh, Beechworth! Your bakery and bottomless coffee: a sin,
Your streets with their “old western movie” grin,
A sepia tone over all who walk about,
Smiles on our faces, worries – without.

Oh, Beechworth! You heard us, as we busked near the Post,
The sun set, wiped your boutiques, as you stood, the finest host.
In water holes, we filled our bellies, water rushing through,
By your lakeside we stayed inside, for sleep we wanted too.

Oh, Rutherglen! You listened closely and some further away,
Through the vines, our voices carried, tired lips, so much to say.
But your happy clappers pushed us through the old familiar sounds,
Such spirit, we could feel it, this Sunday, all around.

Oh, Rutherglen! You lent us your locals, and their brick haven tucked away,
A treat for tired fingers to find such a place and space to lay.
You dipped us in your sweetest fruit fermented juice,
And waved us on our merry way, all well-read and loose.

Thank you!

f☺

from st. leonards to belgrave

after faye and brad's sunday stint at st. leonards vineyard, we retreated back to our good friend kat's parent's humble abode to enjoy a few days of quality r n' r. the winery gig wasn't what we expected, but was still an enjoyable day of live music, good food, and yummilicious local wines.

isn't there some sort of statistic about how many flies the average person swallows in a lifetime? i'd say that we each capped our max at this point! welcome to rural victoria, australia, aka fly country.

next stop -- ruby's in belgrave. it was a bit of a back-track, as we had to drive about 5 hours back towards melbourne. poor planning on the manager's behalf (woops!?). but it was all worth it. our fabulous-o friend kat joined us on the journey to belgrave as we passed beautiful green rolling hillsides, wild animals, and small country towns. the set at ruby's was short and sweet...and we ventured back to the oh-so-familiar emerald backpackers, where faye and i temporarily lived while doing some farm work last month. for some reason, the little town of emerald keeps pulling us back in for more. our sleep that night was slightly more squished than usual, as kat, brad, faye, and i all attempted to find an inch of space to sleep on in the back of ruby. i feel so much closer to these kids than ever before, and there are still many more cosy nights up ahead.

:) lisa

The Street(s) of Yarrawonga

Brad and I rolled in to the cutest town we’d seen since the start, Yarrawonga, a one-strip-wonder just on the border of Victoria and New South Wales. Things just seemed to be happening for us there, where the locals were all smiles and happy chats.

I actually had a pleasant banking experience, which says so much, considering international banking has been an absolute nightmare since leaving Canada……two and a half years ago! The ladies behind the counter were all ears for tour and travel info, genuinely excited about all of our moves and shakes. Needless to say, my quick banking transaction was a little drawn out…so much so, that Brad turned around at the sight of our big convo to grab me a hot bevey from the café he had just raved about, happy to return again. He came back, mocha in hand, with news of a landed gig at the café, if we were into a sunny afternoon session, which the two of us most definitely were.

Nosh Deli is the sweetest little country café you’ve ever seen, with a staff to match. As I walked in to catch up on the details, the five young, smiling faces greeted me, as they’d been waiting for the musos to arrive…so sweet. Excited for the twist to the day, the young ladies caught up on our recent activities and set us up with plenty of hydration for the sidewalk set.

We sat for roughly three hours, the sun scorching our happy faces as we played along for the locals, generous and sweet. The set saw backup singers and dancers, a short support slot by one of the owners’ sons (who is on his way to mega-guitardom), and a heap of cd sales. We left unwillingly, at closing time (which they so sweetly delayed), gourmet food and vegan soap in hand, wishing we could just settle for life and a residency here at the Nosh Deli, in Yarrawonga. …but alas, the tour must go on!

To the street(s) of Yarrawonga: We’ll be back!

heart,
f☺

life on the road is the life for sure

Week one on tour has been incredible, as expected. The lovely Ruby (our supervan) has not let us down, as she’s taken us through country Victoria and all of it’s beauty over this past pile of days and shows.

We left Melbourne in a huff, apartment and unnecessary things behind, towards Geelong, for the first show with the incredible April Maze and Quinn band, who kept us dancing until the wee hours, despite our midday slot for the Foodbowl festival in Numurkah (over 300km away) the next day. We’ve been lucky enough to have played shows with April Maze in Melbourne, and have since been busting into versions of their “Wisdom Teeth”, between spins on Ruby’s player. Ahhhh-Maze-ing (check them out: www.myspace.com/theaprilmaze ). The Quinn band lads are such a treat, as well (http://www.myspace.com/quinnacousticrootsreggae).

We left for Numurkah post-show and wedged a tiny nap in, making it to the festival just in time to set up and play. The town is absolutely adorable. The map wasn’t very hard for us to decipher, seeing as it consisted of a few blocks on the main road dotted with the pubs/venues, which faced each other. Cute. Apparently over 200 musicians made the trek to the first annual, just to be a part of it all, as small-scale as it was. Australians love their festivals, and support them all, big and small, which makes each one (that I’ve been to, anyway) an amazing experience. Our show went really well, despite exhaustion and on-stage delerium. The crowd was the perfect mix of music-loving country folk and fellow Melbournian muso friends of ours. Ahh, festivals.

The rest of the day, we gig hopped the blocks, and caught friends of ours Katt Beams, The Hazelman Brothers and Sal Kilmer & The Good Ole Boys, who, of course, blew us away. The music in this part of the world just makes you wonder what life without constant mega-music-talent around would be like. On-stage and off. As usual, we ended the musical day with a musical evening: a balcony jam on the top of the Numurhak Hotel with Katt Beams and Skiddle, Jessie Mitchell and his crew, and other lovely festival friends. Great times.

We wrapped up our playing on Sunday to friends and locals, all enjoying listening to music outside in the sun as much as we were enjoying playing it. Our early show gave us plenty of time to catch April Maze and Quinn band’s’ sets before saying our “see you soon”s as we all continued-on on our relative tours…

Brad and I stuck around Numurkah for the night to hang with the festival organizers and a few volunteers, with time to kill before our next date. We spent a large part of the next day playing piano and drinking coffee at the ultra-relaxing, mud-hutted, eco-friendly, Nine-Mile Café. Highly recommended. It’s not surprising that Chris, one of the Foodbowl Organizers, started it from the ground up. Such an inspiring bunch, those Foodbowlers are.

Post music-long-weekend, we headed for the hills….for more!



numurkah hotel

' nine-mile cafe

On the road again...

hello friends!

welcome to the tour blog, where we'll be keeping you post-ed on all of the whacky bidness we'll be up to over the next months as we make our way up the east coast!

life on tour is the life for sure!

keep checking in.....juicy tourtails coming soon,
f:)