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Pre-Order Frank The Poet & Get a Free Ticket to the Fundraiser Feb 11.

Click here to pre-order!

We’re on the home stretch with our Frank The Poet compilation album. We’re lining up handful of final recording sessions, doing a smidge of fundraising and booking in our mastering.

You can now pre-order one of the limited edition hand-printed albums that will be created for the release of the compilation in late autumn. Every local pre-order gets a free ticket to our Frank The Poet fundraiser on 11 Feb at the Wheatsheaf Hotel featuring sets from The Yearlings and Max Savage.

Continue reading Pre-Order Frank The Poet & Get a Free Ticket to the Fundraiser Feb 11.

Heath Cullen at Botany Bay.

Heath Cullen. Photo: E. Green.

We’ve been advised that Heath Cullen spent a couple days down at The Yearlings My Sweet Mule Recording Lounge and laid down his rendition of Jim Jones at Botany Bay for our Frank The Poet compilation. We caught Heath for the first time at the Wheaty in mid 2011 and are wondering how we’d missed him. He stands about 6′ 10″ is lankier than a bar stool and writes beautiful songs that seem to bear witness to every great song to come out of the 20th century. His 2010 release ‘A Storm Was Coming But I didn’t Feel Nothing’ is an absolute pearler. Haven’t got it? Grab it.

 

His song for the album – Jim Jones at Botany Bay – is a bit of a mystery. It was first published in 1907 and has been a mainstay in the Australian protest singer’s kit bag since the 50s. Some say Francis McNamara wrote it. Others dispute it.  Mark Gregory says of the poem:

Is Jim Jones the work of Francis MacNamara? The evidence in the song itself suggests it is … its unusual defiance, its unusual construction, absence of moralising conclusion. The first three verses, threats in the voice of the English judge, the next three of description,defiance and retribution in the voice of the English (or Welsh) prisoner. The song is set to an Irish tune Irish Molly O, a tune MacNamara would certainly have known. The verses sound Irish (Celtic?) when read aloud. MacNamara often put the names of his heroes (and his enemies) in his verse in this case Jack Donahoe and Jim Jones.

We haven’t heard Heath’s version  yet but we hope it stands tall next to Bob’s gnarly and desperate vision. Respek.

Frank The Poet Fundraiser: How can I help out?

Throughout January and February our team of volunteers and supporters are passing around the hat to raise funds to ensure that Banished Now From My Native Shore is release in the Autumn of 2012.  Stobie Sounds has managed to fund 90% of the project out of our own coffers but need a little bit of help to get the project finished.

Our fundraising efforts will go toward:

  • Three studio sessions to record the final tracks for the album.
  • Compiling and mastering the final album,  and
  • (if there’s enough in the kitty) pressing the final album on 12″ vinyl for release.

Click here to grab tickets to the fundraiser gig....

‘How can I help?’ we hear you say.

It’s pretty easy to help out. You can do one of three things.

  1. Attend the ‘Frank The Poet Fundraiser Concert’ at the Wheatsheaf Hotel on February 11 featuring sets from The Yearlings and Max Savage. Entry is $15 and you can get tickets HERE.
  2. Throw some of your spare change into our pozible crowdfunding campaign. Any amount will make a difference but a donation of $30 will get you a copy of the album when it’s released. It’s kind of like a socially conscious lay-by system!
  3. Help us out by letting your friends know about our plight. Post a link to this post on facebook, website or any other place you can think of.  Share this Video (vimeo.com/34776778) with your friends.

 

 

 

 

 

Second Great Guitar Tup-o-ware Party This Weekend

Photograph stolen from www.donmo.com

This Saturday afternoon (3 December) Cal Williams Jr has invited a few of his favourite local craftspeople - Adelaide’s workshop junkies, who spend their days handcrafting guitars and gear for the local scene to celebrate their craft skills and share some music. Come down to the backroom of the Wheatsheaf Hotel Between 3 and 5pmto talk with the people who make these wonderful instruments and gear.

These craftsmen take great pride in knowing that each and every item they produce has been made by their own loving hands, scoffing at mass production.

The Great Guitar Tuppaware Party is a gathering of like- minded souls.

 

Here’s who’ll be showcasing their wares on Saturday:

Kimon Smith (SOUNDSMITH guitars)
Tim Wright (WRIGHT guitars)
Don Morrison (DONMO resonator guitars)
Wayne Shirlock (ROUGHNECK ukes)
Brenton Tregloan (GIGMASTER stands)
Jacob Habner (Stobie & Co Bottleneck Slides)

It’s hard for small scale makers to compete with the mass produced cheap imports being sold for next to nothing in the big guitar stores. This is the second of what we hope will be many events showcasing local craftspeople.

This event is a spontaneous attempt to nurture a co-operative type vibe amongst local makers and musicians and to let locals know how much is going on out in the sheds of the ‘burbs and hills’ of Adelaide.

 

Cal Wiliams Jr – King Billy

A late October release for King Billy is perfect timing. Crank it up on the back verandah during a balmy spring evening and you’ll be instantly chillaxed.

click play and read on….

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Come see Cal launch his lates LP. Wheatsheaf Hotel, Saturday 22 October.

Listening to Cal Williams Jr’s latest album I’m struck at how prolific he has been in the past couple years.  He has definitely been going through a purple patch of late and the ten tracks on King Billy are some of his best to date.  Tunes like  Hollow Lake Blues and Wounded Bird are lyrically and melodically near-perfect.  Brownsville, a highlight of his live sets of late, is a testament to Cal’s reputation as one of Australia’s finest interpreters of song.

King Billy is being launched at the Wheatsheaf Hotel on Saturday  22 October as part of the Backwater Blues and Roots Fest. Doors at 8pm. Get your tickets at oztix. (at the time of writing there are only a handful of tickets left).

Cal is a solid guitarist but that’s not where this album stands out.  He has a rare knack of creating a great vibe when he goes into a studio. His recent collaborations with Anthony Stewart at Red Brick Studio have produced some finely textured recordings.  Its the atmosphere that cal creates with these 10 tunes that makes it a cracker of a listen and well worth checking out. Perfect summer listening.

Old Gray Mule Australian Tour Release

click here to purchase. now.

We’re really excited to be able to finally do an Old Gray Mule Album Launch where they actually come to play! A new album ‘A Day in Mississippi, A night in Texas’ features 11 tracks recorded during two sessions the fellas recorded on a recent US tour. We’ll be launching the album at the Stobie Sounds House Party on October 22. You can grab a copy at any one of their gigs in Melbourne and Adelaide (see the schedule below for more details).

Before we get into the music, let us tell you that we’ve handprinted 100 copies of the album featuring a 4 colour lino cut Colt .44 and some deft letterpress text.

Only 20 copies available online. The rest of this limited edition run of 100 handprinted albums can be bought at gigs!

The album is chocka block full of their loose and raggedy blues boogie. Recorded during two session on a recent tour across the USA ‘A Day in Mississippi. A night in Texas’ is bucking with a sense of rawness that will make your pants cry for mercy. Don’t believe us? Listen to this:

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Continue reading Old Gray Mule Australian Tour Release

Stobie Sounds House Party – Saturday 22 October 2011 (Yeh, that’s this weekend!)

The secrets out! Event #31 of the Backwater Blues & Roots Festival will be a sizzling hot Stobie Sounds house party to be held this Saturday night at the old TPI mansion on the corner of Hutt St and South Tce, Adelaide.

Now this bit’s important so listen up. Bands start at 8pm. To get in you need to give a donation at the door. $20 will guarantee entry. Anything less and you’ll probably be crying into your beer (somewhere else). Why $20 you ask? Well it’s because you can bring your own booze…. and because there’s some heaps, heaps good bands, including two blokes who have flown from the Back of Bourke just to be here for Adelaide’s first ever Backwater Blues & Roots Festival. Check this out for a line-up.

 

Old Gray Mule (US)

Billy Bob & The BBQ Boys (SA)

Them Plasms (SA)

Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk (Vic)


Stobie Sounds recommends double-checking you have the following before leaving home:

1. $20
2. An esky filled with alcoholic goodness
3. Snacks & nibbles
4. An “I’m gonna boogie my ass off” attitude
5. Some more of # 4; and
6. A chair (just in case you do actually boogie your ass off).

Y’all be crazier than our geetar totin’ Texan friends from Old Gray Mule to miss out on what is likely to be Stobie Sounds’ last ever house party to be held at the old TPI mansion. Now giddy up that little pony or you’ll miss out.

Oh yeh, almost forgot the tune. This should get you in the mood for removing your ass through a process boogie motion. It’s from the Mule’s new album. Oops, now the other secret’s out….

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Free Beer & Blues @ Da’Laide’s Best

Yup, you read right – free beer and booty bumpin’ blues between 5 and 7pm, October 10 @ the Grace Emily Hotel.

To celubricate the launch of Adelaide’s inaugural Backwater Blues and Roots Festival the boys from Mojo Inc. and Stobie Sounds are chucking on a free keg to say thanks heaps to all the people who’ve shown their love and support for this upcoming music extravaganza. We really dig that you’ve all helped out by sharing, liking, linking, and just generally ear bashing all your mates about the festival, so we thought we’d return the love with something we know you all love – a free keg of Coopers Pale Ale and some hip-swinging tunes supplied by our Man with the Bam-Bam, DJ Clinical Clint and his Deck of Respek.

So give yourself an early minute this Monday 10 October, download this image to your phone or print it off , show it to the friendly GEH bar staff and an icy cold, refreshingly bubbly pint of Coopers Pale Ale will be all yours. Be sure to rock up on time though because there’s only 100 free pints to give away and the Monday locals are always thirsty for a couple!

Launch of the Backwater Blues and Roots Festival. It’s all happening @ the Grace Emily Hotel. 5pm – 7pm Monday 10 October. 232 Waymouth St Adelaide.

Frank the Poet and our new printer…

Inside the 2 disc demo.

After a couple  of months of building, adjusting and tweaking – our new ‘wolverton’ letterpress is up and running.  We thought we’d try it out while putting together a small funding application for the Frank the Poet compilation.  The line up is now locked in and we’ll announce it as soon as all the artists are comfortable with their requisite tunes.  The 4 track demo for the application features tracks by Matt Walker, Sean McMahon, Jimmy Dowling and Cara Robinson & Hat Fitz.  Also included was 5 tracks by local artists who will be making a contribution to the album.

The tracks we have received so far are sounding perfect and we’re getting excited for the next few months of hard work pulling the whole thing together. We learned a lot with the Big Joe Williams compilation and are now in a position to really throw ourselves into making this the best release a ramschakle mob in Adelaide can possibly conjour.

The ‘Wolverton’ press is working well. It’s based on the design for an old ‘Albion’ style handpress which was used prolifically in the  18th century to print all of those old ‘broadsheet’ style newspapers with huge pages and tiny type.  Here’s a short video of us printing the first layer on the front covers. Featuring ‘McNamara’s Curse’ by Jimmy Dowling which will be included on the final compilation.

Old Gray Mule Album Launch Party – 23 July @ the Hotel Metro

The Stobie studio has once again been at defcon five as the panic sets in about handprinting and sewing and spraying the new Old Gray Mule album: 40 Nickels For A Bag Of Chips. Release is locked in for 9pm on 23 July at the Hotel Metro on Grote Street, Adelaide. Front Bar, naturally.

The reviews are starting to come in and it’s clear that this album is hitting the mark. Sam J Fell, sub-editor of Australian Roots music bible Rhythms Magazine and sometimes contributor to Australian Guitar and Rolling Stone had this to say:

40 Nickels For A Bag Of Chips, the duo’s second record.  All instrumental, this is a dance record, this is charged and ready to roll, this is subtle skill set to speed and the results will singe the eyebrows off your face and warm your winter blues.  Guitarist, C.R Humphrey teams up this time with Junior Kimbrough’s son, Kinney, on drums and I defy you not to put this on at your next party and have the place heaving to these finely crafted trancey blues grooves.

Check this sweet cherry from the album – Funky Thang.

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We pray to the lord almighty that we’ll have the album ready in time. Can I get a witness?

the chairman hard at work

It’s an unfortunate fact that both C.R. Humphrey and Kinney Kimbrough won’t be able to fly to Adelaide from Texas and Mississippi respectively to play at the launch. BUT……

Charley has specifically requested that Sweet Baby James and Rob Eyers, Adelaide’s own purveyors of hill country skank,  play the album, in full, at the launch.  So the stage has been set. James and Rob will play the new Old Gray Mule album – from start to finish – in the front bar of the Hotel Metro on Saturday 23 july. Easy.

Come down to the bar for a drink and join us in celebrating this wonderful new album from Adelaide’s adopted sons.

 
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