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”

The Open Road Down Under

We turned in the rental car we have had for the last month today and left Alice Springs for Sydney and public transport. I have to admit, I felt a pang giving up the vehicle. After the initial anxiety about driving on the wrong side of the road, I’ve come to be at home behind the wheel (which also happens to be on the wrong side). I’ve done most of the driving for the group, and the best thing about driving here is that there is so little traffic in the outback. In fact, once you leave a city, there is little traffic at all. We drove 100 K (60 miles) out of Adelaide into the rolling hills of fine wine country and saw only the occasional car on the road. It was like driving through Napa 60 years ago. The drivers are conscientious and mostly courteous, the roads well maintained (which, we suspect is not so hard in a country that rarely freezes), and every public restroom is impeccably clean (if awfully few and far between). We have driven over 3000 miles and have only scratched the surface of this wonderful country.

As we bid farewell to the outback here are a few memorable scenes.

Teresa, who Ted Egan renamed the Wyoming Strider for her long walks, greets the Northern Territory

A path for a lookout toward Uluru.

Our first view of Uluru.

After the vastness of the desert on our Uluru/King's Canyon journey, we jumped at the chance to head west of Alice Springs in search of swimming holes. Ellery Creek Big Hole seems like a miracle in this hot, dry land.

Ormiston Gorge may be even more beautiful than the Big Hole

Teresa's New Zealand high school friend Janet May–who is now a nurse in Darwin–joined us on this outing. The day reached 37 degrees Celsius, which is almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Now you know why they are smiling.

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.

OZ-ified

We arrived in Australia a few days ago and are now sitting on the back porch of a lovely seaside cottage in Anglesea watching kangaroos bound around the golf links. This place sits along the Great Ocean Road midway from where we’ve been the last few days, Melbourne, to our destination, the Port Fairy Folk Festival. With this post I want to show you some images from the National Gallery in Melbourne of Aboriginal paintings. They are not only beautiful works of art but contain so much meaning. They are at once, map, story, and deep spiritual representations.

First though,  a photograph from a lovely birthday dinner in Melbourne with dear old friends reunited, and some new friends.

Teresa's Birthday Dinner, Melbourne, 3/5/12: Waddie Mitchell, Ted Egan, Nerys Evans, Hal, Teresa, Judy Turner, Neil Adam, Sandy Merrigan, Lisa Hackett

To view the description of Living Water on the National Gallery of Victoria website, click the image

To see the writeup on the show in Art Guide Australia, click the image

To view a slideshow of the artists with their work on the Australian Associated Press website, click the image

Blossoms in the Kinder-Garden

Friday, on our way south to Wellington, we said goodbye to Manaia, that had greeted us so warmly with the smell of bread, and where we had spent such a good time with our friends Dinny and Grant. We stopped in Patea to visit a kindergarten where my friend Robyn serves as headmistress. Everything in the school supports a sustainable philosophy, from the toys made of natural materials to the large garden that the kids help plant and maintain … and where they happily graze. It was lovely to see Robyn in her element and to fall in love with the kids. We sang them a song or two and they returned the favor.

We shared strawberries and tomatoes from the garden

Blue Smoke

Chris Bourke has published a wonderful new book, Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music 1918-1964.

Teresa’s chum from Hawera High, Audrey Young, gave me the book. She’s the political editor for the New Zealand Herald and Chris is her friend. Through her I arranged an interview about the title song for the book, “Blue Smoke,” for our NPR series What’s in a Song. In the photo above we are sitting in his living room apartment overlooking Wellington.

New Zealand, particularly the North Island, is an interesting mix of British and Maori cultures which draw in lots of American influence to create a unique musical scene. As we have driven around, we have been amazed at how the background soundtrack in cafés and other public places is often American oldies, especially rock ‘n roll. But we learned from Chris that there have been a variety of very active New Zealand music scenes in every genre–jazz, folk, country, and traditional island music-–for many years. He also told us that in every case, many of the finest practitioners have been Maori.

Gone Missing: Friday

From Hal: We promised, dear reader, that we’d report daily on our trip but right out of the gate we’ve discovered Friday has gone missing. Thursday morning, we caught the shuttle to Las Vegas and boarded a flight for San Francisco where we met our daughter Anneliese and her boyfriend, who took us out to lunch. They had us back to the airport in time to board an Air New Zealand 747 heading south. The last I remember it was Thursday.