FESTIVAL FEVER
Queen's birthday weekend saw the Top Half Folk Festival and I was performing in my own right on the main stage. A 25 minute bracket. It took awhile to choose the songs. I had Fritz Risler lined up to play fiddle on 3 songs and Ka Brown was doing vocal back-up on the Crocodile Song. Then I had a jam session around the campfire on Friday night with Jen, Nadja and Freya from South of the Berrimah Line. Jen is an intuitive bodhran player and her addition to The River was Flowing along with Fritz's violin made the song even more powerful. It was a privilege to play with them both. I've got into the habit of honouring the ancestors of the land I'm performing on and my own cultural ancestors so I am still singing "Do you love an Apple" which I learned at the Irish World Music summer school in 1998. Mary Gauthier's Mercy Now, once again accompanied by Fritz, saw me break through my nerves about singing that song in a performance. Its usually a library, Nightcliff and campfire song. I finished with the Murrumbidgee Maid which got its usual laughs. I keep promising myself I won't sing it for 6 months however other women love it and tell me its empowering. One day I will upload a decent version to Youtube.
So now its on to preparations for the Fringe Festival and I'm appearing in two shows, Revealing Women and Dirty Old Fokkers with Kevin McArthy.
In Revealing Women I bring to the stage Clare Bizley, VJDebs, Gwen
Leggett, Kerry Battersby (Batt), Marlene
Murphy (Mitch) and Robyn Wells, women exploring themes that link to
relationships and sexuality.
Have you ever wondered what makes women vulnerable, how they feel about
being naked, what they consider as forbidden and how they are when they feel
strong?
This fearless, poignant and honest performance will be Revealing Women.
Dirty Old Fokkers are Kevin McArthy and yours truly. We are Darwin-based singer /
songwriters who are involved in the local music scene. We'll be entertaining
you with bawdy ballads and reflections about love, lust and misadventure.
Kevin celebrates his Irish heritage and his sense of place here in Darwin through his music which has a particular focus on songs from Australia’s north. He runs the
monthly Sunset Music Sessions at Nightcliff Foreshore, produced The Turbulent
Years – commemorating the effect of Cyclone Tracy on Darwin’s Lifestyle, and is
co-producing Bringing Them Home – a musical celebration of the Irish in
Australia.
I'm from Wiradjuri country in NSW, the daughter
of Paddy O’Toole, a bush musician and Sheila, a red headed Smith. I'm a singer/songwriter,
poet and storyteller. I directed Women’s Wisdom, stories of women over 50, in 2015 which gave me the impetus to create Revealing Women for this year's Fringe.
If you live here or you're planning a trip to Darwin, come for the Fringe Festival. There is so much happening you can't possibly get bored.
Anyway, back to work for me.
Sliant`e
