Barran Can (The Holy Grail)

Started out seeking fortune and glory

It’s a short song, but it’s a hell of a story,

when you spend your lifetime trying to get

Your hands on the Holy Grail

Mark Seymour

Eureka! Lucky strike!

Location: Tamworth the heart of Country music and former venue of the now defunct Hohner Golden Harmonica Championship.

The search for the holy grail of Aussie Mouth Organs is completed. The Miniature De Luxe (12 single holes) Boomerang is now in the Shep collection and it only cost a flesh wound – south of a Granny Smith. I had looked at bidding on one in the United Kingdom, in a blue box, but that went north of $250 plus postage. The tortoise shell box according to Ray Grieve wasn’t common with this Boomerang. He reveals, “I’ve only ever seen Miniature De Luxes in blue boxes and Large De Luxes (12 double holes) in that style of box that you have.” Interestingly, the box is marked Made in Germany while the harmonica is marked Made in Saxony! Why is it so?

You would think that the Boomerang shaped mouth organ was the crème de la crème model, but Albert’s specifically recommended two other models.

Perhaps the De Luxe Boomerang mouth organ was a great beginner’s instrument. When you throw it away in frustration, it comes straight back. The Perseverance Proletariat Peace Pipe! The price nonetheless would suggest an expensive beginner’s pipe.

It appears my addiction is cured.

The title for today’s blog is derived from the language of the local people. The First Nations people of Tamworth referred to the Boomerang as the Barran and I believe this was of the returning type. There were between 500 and 600 different Indigenous languages at the time of European settlement each with its own term for a boomerang. Of course a boomerang that doesn’t return is just called a stick.

Album

In the in-between

Where it hits you between tonight and tomorrow

So try and hold on

In the in-between between tonight and tomorrow

Matt Joe Gow

Following on quickly after his successful Music Victoria Award-winning album Between Tonight & Tomorrow Matt Joe Gow has dropped another ripper The Woodshed Sessions. Recorded live in the studio (all in one take) Matt has acoustically rejigged and revamped previous releases with fine aplomb. The stripped back treatment highlights the timbre in Matt’s voice and allows the lyrics to shine through. Love the addition of a squeaky chair to the instrumentation on I Let You Be.
I contacted Matt about three of the tunes that jumped out at me; Just This One, I Let You Be and a soulful rendition of Between Tonight & Tomorrow. I’ll let Matt give you the lowdown. “Thank you for the kind words Shep, yes, I thought ‘just this one’ over piano with the harp was a really cool touch, you definitely hear it less piano and harmonica! And yes all live off the floor so all the noises – real acoustic noises! ‘I let you be’ gets revived from my debut album and ‘between tonight’ works great in that format I feel”.
I felt ‘Just This One’ was superior to the original (and that’s not easy). I also wondered how easy it is to play the harp and piano simultaneously. “Thanks, mate! Yeah, it has a slightly more bluesy field due to the way the harmonica is played, and some of the bending and, flat fives I incorporate into the vocal melody. Playing piano and harp rack is no harder than guitar tbh, it’s fine after some practice. But on this one it’s actually me singing and harp hand held and piano is my band mate, just as when I played the piano and blew the harp it was a bit much for the Coles mics we had over the keys. Engineering spiel – all tracked live as was the whole album.” Head over to Bandcamp to hear and buy the album – The Woodshed Sessions. 👏🏻

Single

Drop your cards and your life, leave it all behind.
Your former self is just paper in the wind. We could start again

Tom Harrison

Tom Harrison (aka Hugo Stranger) has released his third solo single from his forthcoming EP Old Growth titled Start Again. A bright and breezy little number with a positive message to boot. Tom reflected on its origin. “If my first song ‘How Long’ was about reflecting on this overseas trip (North America) I took and how I spent my time, ‘Start Again’ is very much about the start of the journey and telling myself that there’s so much out there to explore and create or recreate in myself. Seize the day!” Tom hails from Moreton Bay and is a multi instrumentalist. On Start Again he’s performing vocals, guitar, harmonica and drums. Tom was a latecomer to the music scene penning his first composition on his thirtieth birthday and he announced himself to the world in 2018 with his band Hugo Stranger and the Rattlers. I look forward to grabbing a copy of the EP when it arrives. Always travel in expectation rather than arrive in disappointment!

Gonski

Daniel Champagne – Westernport Hotel San Remo Friday 2nd February

The Sheppard clan (which includes Kazalenko) ventured the short trip to San Remo to experience the unique, enigmatic talent of Daniel Champagne. Daniel’s mesmerising skills on his specially designed Cole Clark guitar (it takes a beating) took all and sundry on a sublime journey beginning with the vibrant percussive That’s Why I Still Chase The Sky to consummation with the powerful, moody Same Enemy where his trusted friend is raised to the heavens and then laid to rest on stage with notes fading into the ether. All bar two songs were original compositions, there was a fine rendition of Dire Straits Fade To Black and his penultimate song an exquisite interpretation of Don McLean’s Vincent.

Daniel reveals his respect for an early guitar teacher with (my favourite) The Pursuit, an instrumental. The capo is transposed along the fret board to great effect in this song – hear below. He acknowledges his humble origins from busking and open mics through to this virtuosic performance we witnessed on the night. Putting into words the dynamic use of his guitar in creating a soundscape would never do justice, so I recommend you do yourself a service and see him live. There was no harmonica (it wasn’t missed), but there were many rhymical flourishes of harmonics. You may remember that my youngest reviewed Daniel’s Sooki gig last year.

Up & Coming

Kevin Borich Duets Tour

I had to use this picture as a billboard. Kev informed us he was preparing for bush fires (had floods instead!) clearing a fire break when he unearthed this twenty ton monster Granite Guitar shaped rock. Just six letters – Gollygeewowee!

Guitar slinger (living legend) Kevin Borich is in town next month (three nights only) with a special Express line up. I’ll let KB introduce them. “In Melbourne I’ll have two Great Aussie Legends joining with me in Gil Matthews on drums (ex Billy Thorpe) and Roger McLachlan on de bass (Little River Band). So, this will be an exciting experience and fun catch up with these two Comrades !!” Good to see you see you again. If you can head on down you won’t regret it.

Spectrum – St Kilda Blues Festival March

Mike Rudd and the boys are still going strong – isn’t that right Mike? Catch ‘em at the St Kilda Blues Festival. He’ll play his guitar & harmonica and then he’ll be gone.

Melbourne Boomerang Mouth Organ Band

Following on from the forementioned Boomerangs, I recently unearthed this photograph where Crackajack devotees Harold Collier is under the conductorship of Alf Fletcher in a Boomerang band. Well I never. Who would have thought? If you haven’t already check out Cracka Duck.

Happy Birthday

Happy 80th Birthday (January 31) to the legendary Charlie Musselwhite. In 2014, Charlie received a Grammy with Ben Harper for the album GET UP. A few years back HRR contacted Charlie on his association with Ben and particularly the tune Movin’ On from their second collaboration NO MERCY IN THIS LAND. This was his response.
“Hi Shep. Ben would give me these long solos which were way longer than when I give my self solos with my own band. So, it forced me to be creative for a longer stretch and this was good for me because it gave me time to explore ideas and this was beneficial to my own playing. Also, all Ben’s songs are unique so I had to learn how to fit what I do with his music. I couldn’t just jam along like any old Chicago blues shuffle and this called on me to be more inventive too. So, playing with Ben had a ton of pluses, but just one of them was improving my improvisation abilities. Movin’ On was a big favorite in concert. It was a wonderful time being on the road with Ben and The Relentless Seven.”

El Pollo Loco

Studio time has been booked for next month to lay down my second instrumental Adler Huffer Fest better known as Ruffled Feathers 🪶 🪶 . You can go fund this recording by downloading my first hit Locomotive Weave over on Bandcamp where Ruffled Feathers will fall. Also if you haven’t already check out my tones on some of Benoit’s fantastic toons. You might enjoy Someday I’ll find my way or even Sometimes words, they’re not even needed. A new live album will drop soon.

Digger

If you remember Digger from last month’s review blog and that I thought he may have known the thieves, well Pat ‘Guru’ Missin had a different take on it, suggesting Digger may have been in on it! Shifty Digger!

Cuckoo

Look what I discovered over on the Salvos’ online store – a Cuckoo eight string banjo mandolin. No I didn’t pur-chase – Cuckoo harmonicas (and accordion) only!

Review Dawg Blawg

Were are downsizing (in a way) here at HRR with a feature blog now going out whenever – after next month’s Song For Winter. The Review Dawg Blawg has morphed into feature like proportions and it will continue to do so. If you missed this month’s The Great Mouth Organ Heist ya should check it out.

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