When we launch the ‘Frank the Poet’ compilation album on June 1 & 2 there’ll be a couple of notable absences from the weekend’s line-up. For one artist in particular, making it to Adelaide, and our beloved Wheatsheaf Hotel in Thebarton probably would’ve been a bit of a stretch. Unfortunately for us (but fortunately for her), Mia Dyson has left her native shore to tour the US, and will be on the road, someplace between Venice California and Ann Arbor Michigan when the rest of the artists hit the stage.
We wish her happy travels and are sure that the tour will be an almighty success.
For her contribution to the album, Mia has recorded a striking acapella version of Moreton Bay, similar (although obviously quite different) to that sung by Simon McDonald and collected by Norm and Pat O’Connor back in September 1960.
Mia’s song was recorded by Erin Sidney & Patrick Cupples in a tree house somewhere in New Hampshire. Apart from being quirky in the extreme, this rather unusual recording environment seems to have had a powerful effect and has imbued the song with a quality that you simply couldn’t replicate in a traditional studio, particularly given it was raining! Although Mia left her guitar in the case for this one, the song is by no means deficient in intrigue. Her trademark husky vocals, remarkable clarity of enunciation and the sense of longing she has brought to the song creates a veritable feast for the auditory senses.
We’re not really sure what it is about this song. Patrick Cupples reckons there’s “an earthiness to the recording”, but what ever it is, we’d put money on it (if we had any) that the minute you hear it, you too will be transported to a place across the ocean called Moreton Bay.
