News

AUSTRALIAN FOLK MUSIC AWARDS FINALISTS ANNOUNCED 0

Greg Phillips Sep 03, 2021 Blog

Charm of Finches

The folk music sector makes up a large and vibrant part of the Australian music scene lending tradition, identity, regional identity, storytelling and interpretation embedded in the communities that make up this country.

The Australian Folk Music Awards Night will be held on Thursday 14 October @ 7pm (7.30pm EST/  5.30pm WA) at the Nexus Arts Centre, Lion Arts Centre Adelaide. As a live and livestreamed event. Please join us!

A panel of judges from around Australia have selected the following acts as the 2021 AFMA Finalists:-

Traditional Folk Music Album of the Year – FINALISTS

·        Cloudstreet & The Little Cloud Orchestra (Qld)

·        Fiona Ross & Shane O’Mara (Vic)

·        Liam Gerner and Luke Moller -The Bulletin Debate (Vic)

·        Paddy Fitzgerald & Lisnacrieve (Vic)

·        Perfect Pearls – Australian Pearling Songs  (Various Artists) (WA)

Contemporary Folk Music Album of The Year – FINALISTS

·        Bill Jackson – The Wayside Ballads Vol 3 (Vic)

·        Kerryn Fields -Water (Vic)

·        Miriam Lieberman – Just Transforming (NSW)

·        Mzaza – The Birth and Death of Stars (Qld)

·        Xani – From The Bottom of The Well (Vic)

Artist of the Year – Solo  – FINALISTS

·       Claire-Anne Taylor (Tas)

·       Daniel J Townsend (Tas)

·       Kaurna Cronin  (SA)

·       Khristian Mizzi (Vic)

·       Ruth Hazleton (Vic)

Artists of the Year Duo/Group/Ensemble  – FINALISTS

·       Bush Gothic  (Vic)

·       Montgomery Church  (NSW)

·       Rich Davies and the Low Road  (Vic)

·       Weeping Willows  (Vic)

·       We Mavericks  (NSW)

Youth Folk Artist of The Year  – FINALISTS

Award recipient and Runner up to be announced

·       Charm of Finches  (Vic)

·       Cooper Lower   (Vic)

·       Ella & Sienna   (SA)

·       Mel Taylor  (Vic)

·       Sadie Mustoe  (Vic)

AFMAs People’s Choice –  There are NINE Finalists with the award winner to be determined by public voting / VOTE NOW for your People’s Choice Australian folk act (One vote per individual email) go to https://www.folkalliance.org.au/afmas/awards-finalists to cast your vote.

Voting Closes midnight EST September 30th .

The People’s Choice Award will also be announced at the AFMA Awards Night on 14 October

FINALISTS –

·        Alice Cotton  (NT)

·        The Borderers  (SA)

·        Hillbilly Goats  (Qld)

·        Montgomery Church  (NSW)

·        Sásta (Qld)

·        The Water Runners (NSW)

·        Weeping Willows (Vic)

·        Rebecca Moore (WA)

·        Ruth Hazleton  (Vic)

AFMAs Community/Cultural Project of the Year – FINALISTS

·        Darlene Proberts & Christine Mimmocchi –  ‘Singing in Language’ (NSW)

·        Haystack Mountain Hermits – ‘The Horses Stay Behind’ (Qld)

·        Illawarra Folk Festival (NSW)

·        Nicole Murray ‘Nicole’s Anywhere Choir’  (Qld)

·        Penola Coonawarra Acoustic Music Festival (SA)

AFMAs ‘Contribution to Folk’ Award

·        This Award Recipient (s) will be announced at the AFMAs Awards Night on 14 October

The Eight Award Recipients will be announced at the AFMAs Awards Night our special night for Folk music on Thursday 14th October @ 7.00pm to be held at Nexus Arts Centre – Lion Arts Centre, North Tce, Adelaide as a lead in event of the 2021 Fleurieu Folk Festival, featuring award announcements and an array of live music performances, link ups.

For full details of the AFMAs Awards Night Event please go to www.folkalliance.org.au/afmas

AFMAs Awards tickets are available at TryBooking https://www.trybooking.com/BTTNY

Can’t be in Adelaide?. Join on-line. The event will be Livestreamed on the AFMAs YouTube channel:-

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_y6nONuGqCKVgipLc4de6w

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY COLE CLARK GUITARS 😎 0

PHIL LYNOTT (THIN LIZZY) DOCO OPENS IN OZ IN SEPTEMBER 0

WATCH: AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE – JOHN MCLAUGHLIN ‘LIBERATION TIME ‘ INTERVIEW 0

Greg Phillips Aug 11, 2021 Artists, Interviews

Frustrated with not being able to tour due to the pandemic, guitar legend John McLaughlin sought out his musician friends around the globe, along with some newer shining lights in music, to assist him in remotely recording a new album of material titled Liberation Time. From the opening notes of the first track As The Spring Sings, John comes out swinging. There’s no easing into it, straight into the frenetic guitar licks. It’s almost like he’s saying ‘I cant be contained anymore, I have to play, it’s liberation time’. Despite not being able to record face to face in the studio with his fellow musicians, he’s still captured an incredible energy that pervades throughout the entire album. On Liberation Time, John also returns to the piano for two short but beautiful piano pieces, Singing Our Secrets and Mila Repa, which serve as brilliant interludes between the lively guitar-based tracks. The piano is an instrument he has not recorded on since his 1973 collaboration with Carlos Santana, Love Devotion Surrender. Interestingly, the piano pieces were actually recorded 40 years ago as MIDI files and via a software application, were outputted as  Bösendorfer  piano files. The result is stunning. Liberation Time is an album of it’s time. It’s the album John needed to make and it’s the album all jazz fusion fans around the world needed to hear.

Featured musicians on the album include: John McLaughlin – Guitar / Guitar synth / Piano, Roger Rossignol – Piano, Ranjit Barot – Drums / Konokol, Jean Michel. ‘Kiki’ Aublette – Drums / Bass, Vinnie Colaiuta – Drums, Nicolas Viccaro -Drums, Julian Siegel – Tenor Sax, Etienne MBappe – Bass, Gary Husband – Drums / Piano, Sam Burgess – Bass, Jerome Regard-  Bass, Oz Esseldin – Piano.

In an Australian exclusive, Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips speaks in-depth with guitar legend John McLaughlin about the creation of his new album Liberation Time and his approach to music in general.

John McLaughlin is a true pioneer of jazz fusion, his music combines elements of jazz with rock, world music, Indian classical music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues.

After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made Extrapolation, his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with Tony Williams’s group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his electric jazz-fusion albums In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, and On the Corner. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.

McLaughlin’s solo on “Miles Beyond” from his album Live at Ronnie Scott’s won the 2018 Grammy Award for the Best Improvised Jazz Solo. He has been awarded multiple “Guitarist of the Year” and “Best Jazz Guitarist” awards from magazines such as DownBeat and Guitar Player based on reader polls. In 2003, he was ranked 49th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. In 2009, DownBeat included McLaughlin in its unranked list of “75 Great Guitarists”, in the “Modern Jazz Maestros” category. In 2012, Guitar World magazine ranked him 63rd on its top 100 list. In 2010, Jeff Beck called McLaughlin “the best guitarist alive,” and Pat Metheny has also described him as the world’s greatest guitarist. In 2017, McLaughlin was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music. (Bio courtesy Nocapshows)

Liberation Time is out now  https://www.johnmclaughlin.com/

OUR SOUNDTRACK, OUR STORIES INITIATIVE TO HELP LOCAL ARTISTS 0

Greg Phillips Aug 05, 2021 Blog

JOIN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY’S CALL TO ARMS

Australian music’s artists, leading businesses and industry bodies are sending out a different kind of S.O.S. to the nation’s corporations, media and anyone willing to listen: it’s time to add our soundtrack to our stories.

What is ‘Our Soundtrack Our Stories’?

Our Soundtrack Our Stories is an open invitation from our country’s music community to the rest of Australia to discover, champion, share, and consume more local music. It exists to promote our artists, promote the enormous economic and cultural contribution of local music, and to ensure a bright, bold, diverse and exciting future for the next generation of musicians and music lovers alike. The initiative arrives exactly one week after Jack River, real name Holly Rankin, posted the now viral call-to-arms for Australian media and business to get behind homegrown music as it struggles under the pressure of a new wave of lockdowns, all but eliminating prospects for live touring for the foreseeable future. The initiative calls for a public commitment from media and business to increase the inclusion of diverse Australian artists in the commercial and mainstream landscape.

How will ‘Our Soundtrack Our Stories’ help home grown artists?

Greater support from corporate Australia means greater reach for our artists, which translates to everything from higher streams and new fans to increased royalty revenue. That support could not come at a more important time, with over $64 million in revenue lost since 1 July 2021 among just 2,000 respondents to the I Lost My Gig survey. With 99% of that revenue revealed to be uninsurable, the real figure is significantly higher.  This push will invite everyday people to view Australian music in a new light. 

BUSINESS OWNERS

I am a local business owner, how can I support ‘Our Soundtrack Our Stories’?

1. Make sure you are playing homegrown music in your store or business and obtaining the right licence, so that these artists can get properly reimbursed for their music, you can find out what licence is best applicable to your business by visiting OneMusic.
2. Play a radio station that champions local artists.
3. Seek out the services of a Background Music Supplier to help curate the sound of your business.
4. Share any of the Our Soundtrack Our Stories social assets on your business and personal channels and encourage your followers to do the same.
5. Set yourself a goal and share your commitment to using more local music and keep your followers up to date on your progress. Share your own personal wins, that is how we keep momentum and positive change!

    

What do you mean by local/homegrown/Australian Artists?

While we appreciate the cultural impact of music released in the past few decades of Australian music this initiative puts particular emphasis on championing artists from a diverse range of genres and backgrounds, with a push towards music released in the past decade. 

What is a Background Music Supplier?

There are a number of different Background Music Suppliers in Australia who are able to create playlists that are best suited to your customers and update these playlists so that the music they supply you with is kept fresh. Some of these suppliers will have existing licences with organisations such as One Music so that the fees can be accurately distributed to the creators of the music. 

Costs range between around $35 and $200 a month, excluding music licensing fees, depending on the supplier and what other services and hardware are included. If you are a retailer, service provider or dining establishment, your OneMusic Australia music licence fees can also be bundled into the overall fees charged by the supplier.

For more information visit OneMusic Australia. 

Why do I need a licence to play music in my shop or business?

Firstly, it shows that your organisation respects and supports songwriters and recording artists – creators of Australian culture. Secondly, if you use music that is protected by copyright within your business, Commonwealth legislation requires permission (a licence) from the creators of that music. And last but not least – you benefit by using music: keeping your patrons and staff entertained, engaged and creating a better atmosphere.

By obtaining the correct music licence or enlisting the help of background music suppliers you can make sure that the artists you are playing are getting paid correctly.

Why can’t these businesses just change the music they play?

While we would love for these businesses to start playing local music overnight, in some cases, in particular with larger businesses, there are existing licensing deals in place that directly relate to the music they play in store, or in their hold music. That is why it is important to approach this initiative on every level so that we can preserve these existing relationships while making local music more accessible and these businesses accountable.

MUSICIANS

How can I get involved in ‘Our Soundtrack Our Stories’?

1. Share the artist assets.
2. Tag businesses that you would like to play more local music.
3. Use your music to re-soundtrack iconic Australian events.
4. Create your own themed playlists and share with your fans that is music you would like to hear at your local supermarket.

I am an Aussie musician; how do I make sure that I am getting paid if my music is played?

If you release recorded music in Australia, there are two copyrights attached to those recordings: one for the composition and one for the recording. The composition’s rights are overseen by APRA AMCOS, while the recording’s rights are handled by PPCA. It is free to register with both organisations and only takes a few minutes.

Find out more from APRA AMCOS and PPCA.

CONSUMERS

How do I get involved?

1. Share the Our Soundtrack Our Stories social assets across all the channels that you use and share with friends and your favourite artists you are fans of to show your support. If you see a local business getting behind the initiative then like their posts as well!
2. Get creative, as there are no limits to how you can get involved. Here are a few ideas that some of our team are doing:
   • Create themed playlists with all homegrown artists to share with your friends that soundtrack your everyday moments. 
   • Tag five brands or businesses that you support and challenge them to play more local music.
   • Re-soundtrack iconic moments with local artists and their songs that you think would be great.
   • Set yourself a challenge to discover, play and share one or more Aussie artists every day for a week.

PARTNERS (Alphabetical order):

AAM, AMPAL, APRA AMCOS, ARIA, Australian Festival Association, BMG, Bolster, Chugg Music, CMAA, Disco, Eleven, EMC, EMI, Habit Music, Hutch Collective, Inertia, John Watson Management, Kobalt Music, Lemontree Music, Level Two, Linktree, Live Music Office, Live Nation, Made In Katana MEAA, Mirror Music Group, Mushroom Labels and Mushroom Group, Music ACT, Music NSW, Music NT, Music SA, Music Victoria, Nightlife, PPCA, Q Music, Sony Music, Sony Music Publishing, Sounds Australia, Support Act, The Annex, The Process, TMWR, UNIFIED, Universal Music Group Australia, Universal Music Publishing Australia, Warner Music Australia, Warner Chappell Australia.

GOLDEN ROBOT RECORDS VACCINATION INCENTIVE IS A HIT AND CONTINUES ON 0

Greg Phillips Jul 21, 2021 Blog

With almost every artist interview we’ve done recently here at Australian Musician, the interviewee at some point pleads with the public to get vaccinated so that they can get back on the road and bring their music to you. Record label Golden Robot Records has taken that plea a step further and has come up with a brilliant incentive to get people vaccinated.

It’s called Rock The Vax, and it’s a fantastic initiative to encourage Australian music lovers to go out and get vaccinated in exchange for a free album (vinyl or CD) from the extensive Golden Robot Records back catalogue. Their remarkable back catalogue includes huge artists such as Rose Tattoo, Dizzy Reed (Guns N’ Roses), LA Guns, Jefferson Starship, Gilby Clarke (Guns N’ Roses), Horsehead, The Cherry Dolls, The Lockhearts, Steve Kilbey, David Campbell, MiSex, Toe to Toe, Groom Epoch, Kilby Kennedy, A New Revenge, Destinia, Hayley Jensen, Palace of the King, Reece Mastin, Glenn Shorrock sings The Little River Band and Nick Barker to name just a few artists, there is sure to be something of interest for everyone.

And the numbers speak for themselves – the Rock The Vax initiative had over 500 submissions on day one, and those numbers are set to grow exponentially over the next few weeks. After receiving feedback, Golden Robot Records have extended their deadline for registrations until August 15 to ensure that those who are having trouble booking a vaccination appointment due to queues can still have a chance to get involved with Rock The Vax.

For those who are keen to secure their free album, all they have to do is email rockthevax@goldenrobotrecords.com with their digital certificate from the medicare app to prove vaccination through this mid-July to mid-August period, along with their GRR album request and postal address.

“As the owner of a record label and a dedicated music lover, I just can’t sit back and watch a country I love have one of the lowest vax rates in the world,” impassions Mark Alexander-Erber, President and Founder of Golden Robot Global Entertainment. “The music industry has suffered terribly since the start of this pandemic, as many bands rely on touring for the majority of their income. COVID-19 caused touring to come to a grinding halt and vaccination seems to be the only way to bring normality back to touring and our lives. Bands need to tour to promote albums and album sales can be elevated by touring.”

Alexander-Erber continues, “We did so well as a Nation to beat this horrid virus that affected so many in the community. But right now, we have to double and triple our vaccination efforts, so we can eventually (hopefully sooner rather than later) gain a sense of normality in our lives and not let it creep back into our community and cause ongoing lockdowns and inflict further pain and hardship. This latest Sydney lockdown for me was enough, I feel the need to act, as beating this virus is the most important thing right now and as an Australian company working on a global scale, I can see what is happening internationally and I believe people understand they need to get fully vaccinated eventually, but may just need an extra incentive to do it right now. There is no more time to waste, we need to avoid the risk of further lockdowns by getting vaccinated now!”

For more information, head to www.goldenrobotrecords.com