Final Photographs from Australia

We’ve been home from down under over a month and I’m still missing the smells, sites, and graciousness of our dear Australian and New Zealand friends. I hope it is not long before they visit us or we drop down under again.

Upon embarking on this adventure I vowed to post something each day on this blog. I failed miserably but with this final post I’m adding a few photos from our last 10 days in Sydney. About half the time we stayed at Humph Hall in a northern suburb of the great city where we did a fully acoustic concert and then stayed on for Easter weekend.

Before leaving to come home, Waddie and Lisa accompanied us to the central business district to put on our final concert at Radio National, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It was a fantastic experience. Teresa and I moved to the Executive Suite at a backpackers’ hotel near ABC for our final week (executive treatment in a backpackers’ hotel consists of two thin towels and a private bath) and I buried myself in the production of a one-hour radio feature which will air this coming July in Australia and will be available to listen online. I’ll keep you posted. The title of the radio documentary which will be broadcast as part of a regular show called Into the Music is “Following in the Footsteps of John Lomax.” Here is the link where you can listen after July 7. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/intothemusic/

Our final day in Australia we took a train out to meet 90 year-old songwriter and entertainer Geoff Mack and his wife Tabby, a former fast tap dancer from London. We had a lovely afternoon with them and I interviewed Geoff about how he came to write the American classic country song, “I’ve Been Everywhere.” Listen for our NPR, What’s in a Song series where he will answer that question.

Skywriters say it all: I love Teresa

A lovely venue, even without the people. We performed here at Humph Hall near then northern shores of Sydney, thanks to our hosts Wayne and Gial

In the horse arena at the Royal Easter Show with our host and official announcer of the events, Carol and her friend Clare

I’ve never thought of myself as a pensioner but I liked the reduced bus fare.

Dramatic lighting for concert at ABC for staff

Waddie, Lisa, Hal and Teresa with ABC radio producers extraordinaire Sherre deLys and Libby Douglas

The great producing team, Sherre deLys, Hal and engineer Louis Mitchell

Dinner with new friends, Libby Douglas, ABC producer and her partner Wayne Ashton

Hal interviewing Geoff Mack and his wife Tabby

Geoff and Tabby riding motorcycle from Germany through Turkey, before taking the bike apart and shipping it back to Australia

Tabby as fast tap dancer for USO groups after World War II in Germany

Geoff reviewing his royalty statement for “I’ve Been Everywhere”

Tonight, Join the Barbie at Ted Egan’s Sinka Tinny Downs

We’ve been lazing around Alice Springs with a lovely side trip to Kings Canyon and Ayers Rock, known now by its Aboriginal name, Uluru. We are in the center of this great island continent and when we are tempted to think we are at home in our own Utah red rock country, something pops up to remind us what an ancient and particular place this is.

Performing tonight with Eric Bogle at the Adelaide Fringe Festival

We are excited to be performing with Eric Bogle this evening as part of Adelaide’s Fringe Festival. The show has been sold out for a month in an intimate venue:

15 March – Clarence Park,  Adelaide,  Trinity Sessions,  8 PM, Eric Bogle and The Lonesome Rangers

Last night Eric and his wonderful wife, Carmel, had us over for a barbeque. They had planned for us to eat on the veranda overlooking the Adelaide Hills, but then the deluge began. The sky lit up and we all sat there amazed as over an inch and a half of rain poured down in only a couple of hours. In all the years they have lived in Adelaide, the Bogles had never seen such rain this time of year.

This evening we’ve been asked to join Eric for his amazing song “As If He Knows,” based on the experience of the Anzac Light Cavalry at the end of their time fighting in Palestine in World War I. We don’t expect to get through it dry eyed.

(This is a YouTube video; if you don’t see the usual arrow, click on it anyway and it should play!)

How Have We Missed Kristina Olsen?

Last night we heard Kristina Olsen for the first time and oh my! She gave an absolutely fabulous performance, playing with cellist Peter Grayling and accodionist George Betrumlis. She is an inspired songwriter with a great big bluesy voice who plays a mean guitar and a beautiful sax. We bought her album All Over Down Under, a live tour album with Grayling and Butrumlis, and we can’t stop listening to it. She is extremely popular in Australia and around the world, and

Port Fairy Folk Festival

A stop along the Great Ocean Road

We had a couple lovely days in a seaside town called Anglesea and then headed on the Great Ocean Road for Port Fairy Folk Festival, a gigantic event.  650 musicians and some 25,000 music lovers jam into this quaint little Irish-inflected town for four days of music and merriment. On Saturday and Sunday, Teresa, Waddie and I performed a total of seven times. Along with several shorter performances, we did two full 90-minute concerts as the Lonesome Rangers, telling stories, singing songs and reciting poetry.