LIVE IN CONCERT: ABOUT THE BAND
Pic by Ryan Osland
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THE BACKTRACKERS:
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All pix: James Henry
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BRENDAN GALLAGHER and I first bonded it was probably some time around the early 90s, when I was DJing one night at the old Newtown RSL – whether it was with Brendo’s then-band the Leisuremasters, with whom I did a few gigs, I can’t recall – either way I dropped a Leon Russell cut, most likely 'Roll Away the Stone' (because that’s one that always gets people dancing), and Brendan ran up to me waving his arms going, Oh man, Leon Russell, I LOVE Leon Russell, I haven’t heard this track in years! And so I figured anyone who loves the Master of Space and Time as much as I do can’t be all bad, and we became friendly…
Brendo will still describe himself as a guitarist first and foremost – and he is a great one, who has written a celebrated book on the subject, The Open Tuning Chord Book for Guitar, and played the instrument in too many bands and on too many recordings to mention – but he is just as successful as a producer, arranger, educator and advocate (currently an artist representative on the board of APRA). |
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After the Leisuremasters, Brendan formed Karma County, who, starting with Last Stop Heavenly Heights in 1997, have released a total of six albums to date, winning an ARIA Award in 2000 for Into the Land of Promise. I saw a bit more of Brendo around that time in the late 90s because we were both working a bit with the late, great Jimmy Little, me with him on Buried Country, and Brendo with him on producing the ARIA-winning album, Messenger, that would give Jimmy a whole late-career rebirth, and propel Brendan himself into contention too. Since then, Brendan has continued to rack up the credits out of his Bondi bolt-hole, including releasing a string of fine solo albums, most recently the magnum opus Wine Island, and especially notably to me producing the great L.J. Hill album, Namoi Mud. In 2004, he reunited with Jimmy Little to produce the Messenger sequel Life's What You Make It – before Jimmy’s death in 2012 touched us all – and more recently he produced Kutcha Edwards’ stunning new second solo album. Check his website here.
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JASON WALKER is my Kiwi cousin who, since the 1990s, has played with practically everybody on the Sydney scene with a bit of bent towards country music, but should be better known as a solo-artist singer/songwriter in his own right – and which he will likely now be with the release of his third album, All-Night Ghost Town, on the local arm of esteemed American label Lost Highway Records. Of course, I first bonded with Jason because we were both footsoldiers in the brotherhood of ink (writers!), after he published his first book and still the best Gram Parsons biography, 2002's God’s Own Singer.
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Jason was a featured picker on the 2012 Jon Langford-produced Roger Knox album Stranger in My Land, and alongside (Youth Group’s) Toby Martin and singer Jimmy James, was a member of occasional aggregation the Rug Cutters, the only act to purpose-cut a track for the Buried Country 1.5 CD, their version of James’s grandfather Dougie Young’s classic 'Land Where the Crow Flies Backwards'.
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BUDDY KNOX and TEANGI KNOX are, of course, father and son, and so with Buddy being the son of Roger Knox, that makes for three generations of Knox in this show – and with TJ’s mother Serena, moreover, being the daughter of Auriel Andrew, that might make Roger and Auriel less the King and Queen of Koori Kountry than its grandma and grandpa! In the time-honoured Aboriginal country music tradition, Buddy, like Warren H. Williams and Frank Yamma, began playing in his father’s band when he was still just a pup. He was a member of Euraba when they recorded Roger’s first album Give it a Go at the old Enrec studios in Tamworth in 1983, and he has been alongside his dad at every step of the way since. And this is a pattern TJ has repeated too: When Buddy launched a solo career in the 2000s, TJ was the bassist in his band that also included Buddy’s other son Goori. Taking a sidestep into the blues, for which he long harboured a passion, the Tamworth-based Buddy has so far released two albums, 2007’s got da blues and 2009’s Buddy’s Blues, and these have established him as Australia’s crunchiest, funkiest, stingingest R&B axe hero. When Mary Mihelakos asked the young TJ if he thought he could handle the Buried Country repertoire, he shrugged and muttered shyly, "Oh, I know all of nan and pop’s songs." He is, like his father, and grandparents, a natural. Check Buddy's website here.
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JIM ELLIOTT was the Backtrackers’ first recruit, long before I christened the band by that name. I’m still not sure whether they all like it (the name, that is), but I’m digging my heels in on this one: If Paul Kelly approves, that’ll do me. Jim, of course, was one half of one of the greatest Australian rhythm-sections of all time, the Cruel Sea’s, alongside bassist Kenny Gormley. I’ve known him since the late 80s, when he started out drumming in the fondly-remembered Sekret Sekret, and I can vouch for him being one of nature’s gentlemen (Jimmy Little wasn’t the only guy in Australian music sometimes called ‘Gentleman Jim’) as well as being something of a master of space and time himself. Anything that gets him back behind the tubs is a good thing and he slotted straight into the Buried Country groove.
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