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26th July 2010


For myself, Moz and Ben it was a 7am start on radio Hot Country, piped outta Noosa to Goondiwindi, The Darling Downs and St George. It was the morning of our first show , Eumundi QLD, launching our new box of tricks , Shake it Down, the title track that we have now sung about 50 odd times in 3 weeks.Jac Stone supports us at Joe's Waterhole. (It should be called Dan's Waterhole just for the record.) Jac manages to stop the room in it's tracks. It's one of my favourite moments when a group of people completely stop for music. I think I managed to stop the room too for all the wrong reasons when I blanked on the first line of Jolene .A song I have enjoyed singing a hundred times with these fellas. I had also shaved off a couple of months worth of beard just moments before the show so I was a baby deer on the slippery slope that a spotlight can be. It was a good show for us to blow out the cobwebs and remember this thing we do. A great time was had.
      
Night two at Brisbane Powerhouse is a real special one. The good folk have tried something different for us, putting on a ticketed show in what they affectionately call the Turbine Room. Dunno if it's just just me but it kinda reminds me of the Thunderdome in Mad Max 3, with hay bails...which are a cute touch for everyone except Salty who goes into anaphalactic shock the moment he gets near them. It's really well put together, vibey nights like this that make it all worthwhile, AND the band has invented a new game of lawn bowls using twenty cent pieces and gaffa tape while Jac Stone again reduces the room to rubble in support.        

The people at ABC/Universal have pretty much quadruppled the promo on this tour which has us constantly going from radio stations to record shops and it's showing in the crowds. Who would have thought that if you let people know about the show then they might actually show up! God I love this band. For once there is no rest for the truly wicked. So we are off to Byron's Beach hotel and good on em for breaking the moulded plinky plunky softey surfey wallpaper music and baby boomer covers to let us in the door in all our urbane grotty glory. The turn out is great and folks who haven't ventured into Byron for years seem to have come down from the hills to see the show.        

We adjourn again in Melbourne two days later for mondo promo and a TV appearance for sunday arts which will apparently go to air the day after we all wake up from this "election" campaign on August 22. Danny was happy coz he got to meet his favourite weather girl's make-up artist. We also had the pleasure of playing for and talking to Alice Keath on Music Deli. Salty flies out directly after the tele and I play a solo show at the mighty old Gem. Salty gets caught in traffic and misses his flight back so the other four of us play for the internet at spazz o'clock, 3PBS at twenty passed spazz and eventually at Basement Discs all before 1pm the next day. Basement discs is a safe house for music nerds like us. Bless em.        

Moz is fading. We drive on through locations for the new video for the second single. (Jesus it almost it almost sounds like we know what we are doing.) Ironically the song is Half a Man and at this point so is poor Moz. And WOW we are in Geelong. Moz gets very ill at this point and retires hurt upstairs at the Nash. Ben makes it back and the four of us do the gig to a room full of people who all resemble John Bedggood! (for the record that is Bedge NOT vege)... and that's probably enough said about the Nash or the gig we did there. Except that our Danny Widdicombe spent the night there trying to sleep above the "dance" floor as some kind of right of passage to his flight out the next morning where, back in Brisbane, on behalf of Moz and himself he collected the Grant McKlennan fellowship. Let's just say he earnt every bit of the novelty cheque and we are looking forward to trying get our humble music ensemble overseas in the new year.   
    
God bless you Melbourne.4 stars in EG! We discuss how we never won trophies at school. Except Moz who is a jock lets face it. Where would we be without you Melbourne? Don't answer that. It's Friday night at the East Brunswick Hotel, Chris Altman and the Wolfgram Sisters have warmed the room beautifully and with a full contingent and a packed house we are flying now. And very bloody thankful to be here. Thanks to Jason, our complete carer and sound wrangler, we are right where we wanna be after some of the trials of the previous few days. Salty is on fire! There is laughing and dancing and tonight the big bad world can wait because I am playin' music with my mates and we are very bloody lucky bastards. Thanks Ains and Bridge and Agro for all the help with our travelling convienience store.        

It's Saturday in St Kilda and we are playing Pure Pop Records when Bedge leans in and says "how European".We try to not make Dan Kelly mad because the way he can turn is the stuff of legend and he is on after us.No not really. We get ourselves outta there and on the highway the Castlemaine. I reckon the band would agree that what happened next was the gig of the tour from a voodoo point of view. I have a well documented soft spot for both Castlemaine and my mate Mark Anstey's very benevoolant and very beautiful LOT 19. Thankfully the good folk came out of the night to join us for a very inspired evening of music, one atom at a time. We are surrounded by some fine artwork on the walls, fed on delicious food and the crowd are on our side and all of it makes perfect sense in this magnificent place.        

The next morning we play and talk to nicest barefoot man on earth, Alan Brough on Melb's 774.Back in the Nasa vehicle and the uber Jason 3000 gets us to the airport in time to scream over to Adelaide for an arvo show. Leah and the great mob at the Wheatsheaf Hotel are always a pleasure as are the Yearlings who open the show. ( BTW the Yearlings have a new album on the way and it's a warm fuzzy miracle.)        

We adjourn again and meet in that much maligned music meca - Penrith, the following Friday for our second last radio interview of what has been quite the blitz.It's another rambling chat about the story of the Pickers. Our last chat will be at 7am the next morning and having now done this 3 or 4 times so early in the last few weeks I am quite convinced that playing harmonica (with all it's ratty high frequency right in front one's head) at 7am is a BAD IDEA! But hey, we'll be back in oblivian in a coupla days so no-one's complaining. In spite of the gig getting Gig of the week in Drum and an obtuse 3 and a half stars from BZ , it's not sold out at the Raval and the sound manages to knock the edge off our enjoyment of the show. Thankfully not jumping out of my skin is about as bad as it gets though. Go Seaman Nick!        

Apparently it's snowing in Katoomba when we arrive the next day for our last show. We are to play Jack Thompson's Gearin's Hotel and apparently Jack was there last night teaching the bar staff a thing or twenty about tequila. The last show is for us. It's a pleasure to get the music tight and dynamic after a few weeks together. The promo has been kinda awesome compared to what we have individually been used to . The response to the album and the show has been very gratifying. We blink and it's a big hullo from oblivian.... where cooking shows are genuinely more interesting than the election campaign; the Wilson Pickers are still not strictly a bluegrass band; and though I can't ruley spell I am truly happy to have written it all down for once...... Anyone looking for a carpenter?

Thanks Pickers.

Sime