Andrew Clermont's Touring Details and Latest News - New CDs from TG, DYA,MOWERS,FidFeast, SupperClub & don't forget the Photo Gallery at end of page!!
TOUR WITH JOSH BENNETT MELBOURNE ROUND COAST TO DORRIGO&ACROSS TO ADELAIDE - 2 MONTHS!!
Guitar News! It's BACK! Thanks all for looking out!
Missing for a fearful month & half till turning up not far from where stolen - Locally sorted they said! Not much more info - just a misguided not so young kid.
Tour News - Blues to Berserk from Melbourne round SE coast to Dorrigo/Coffs Harbour in May through June
with Josh Bennett (Dya Singh Group plus recently performing for Ravi Shankar & opening for Jeff Beck in Adelaide)
Guitar
My precious Terada Guitar came back just before the Easter Weekend. Apparently a not so young lad did an early morning snatch of the guitar from under the stage at Frances Folk Gathering but eventually word got out of a guitar where no guitar had been before. Pressure was exerted and as was quoted, It was sorted locally!
Dya Singh was driving passed just after it's return to Frances (1 & 1/2 months later) and he kindly picked it up and delivered it back to me in time for the National Folk Fest where it's first performance was a loan to Carl Pannuzzo for his first 'Pot & Kettle' concert there with recent wife (congrats) Penny.
Tour (gig guide below)
Finally free from their bands (briefly), they've come to tell it all.....
A twisted taunt of Celtic Blues Swing Bluegrass Jazz Indian adventure.
The roads and flights between Kenya and Calcutta, London, Vancouver, LA & Oz weave a soaring night of music, song and story between Josh Bennett & Andrew Clermont
- Both in Dya Singh World Music Group (twice World Music Group of Australia), The Supper Club & The Lawnmowers (at the cutting 'hedge' of Bluegrass!)
Andrew Clermont - http://www.myspace.com/andrewclermont
has finally settled down, nestled in 6 (or so) bands / 5 or 6 instruments appearing in Austria/ Kenya/ USA/ Canada/UK/ Germany/ Taiwan/ Malaysia/ Hong Kong/ Singapore/New Zealand/ and Australia wide! Pumpkin powered in Totally Gourdgeous (Voted Best Live Folk Band '08); 3 time Bluegrass National Guitar Champ; flying with the Fiddlers Feast; very Australian as Terra Australis (Heritage Award & BushBand winners); and Celtic Conundrums - to be sure, to be sure!
Andrew initiated the NoHoldsBarred Fiddle Contest and is a Director to the Golden Fiddle Awards. These are both sponsored by Epoch Violins with Andrew touring the unique 5-string models while also sponsored/ assisted by Maton Guitars, Gilchrist Mandolins and White Swallow Banjos.
Josh Bennett www.myspace.com/joshbennettmusic
fresh from a rocking Jeff Beck support appearance in Adelaide and playing at Ravi Shankar's George Harrision Birthday 66 tribute concert in India - and closing music for 'Stateline'
I've been doing this for as long as I can remember, but a starting point I suppose was when I started performing on stage when I was 15. I played Guitar Blues back then, and still do, but now it's mixed up with whatever music I find that speaks to me. More often than not that's been culturally significant (or roots I suppose you could label it) music from all over the world, in particular India, Africa and Ireland.
Also been playing Sitar, Tabla and Dilruba - a bowed instrument similar to Sarangi, for about eleven years.
I play all over the place, in different guises. These days I'm playing around the world with Dya Singh, a world music group that's been around longer than the term world music. I play solo, with jazz musos, blues, folk, experimental, film scores, ... the list goes on, which is why it's so much easier to just say I play music from my soul and leave it at that.
But, I'm also occasionally seen on stage with including Chris Finnen, The Silk Road Project, Guitar Safari, The Universal Jazz Band - you get the idea
Thu 30 April 8pm The Lomond , Nicholson St Brunswick VIC
Sun May 3rd 1pm
Hickinbotham Wines @ Dromana Sunday , Melb south of Frankston 194 Nepean Hwy Dromana 3936
194 Nepean Highway (Near Wallaces Road)
Dromana 3936
Victoria, Australia
Phone (03) 5981 0355
Email info@hickinbotham.biz
FRI 8TH MAY
MINGLING WATERS CAFE - MIKE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY
Princes Highway
Nowa Nowa Victoria 3877
Phone: (03) 5155 7247 Mobile: 0409 515 572
Fax: (03) 5155 7247
Nowa Nowa/ Lakes Entrance - Josie Jacobi 5155 2464 - local philanthropist - must ring
bungalook@bordernet.com.au
Sat 9th 7.30pm Mallacoota , Workshops 4pm The Mudbrick
WORKSHOP/CONCERT AT SCHOOL Lisa Broom 0428 586357
Fri 15th May 7.30 Candelo Arts Society , South Coast NSW 0401180749
Sat 16th May 7.30 Cobargo, Yuin Folk Club, House Concert - Graham Friar & Coral Vobach 0264936758
Fri 22 May Karuah (North of Newcastle, NSW)
Jam time at River of Music Festival - Bluegrass Feature
Sat 23/5
banjo wkshop (Dave Hellens) - 9.30 - 11.30
Concert - The Lawnmowers 3 - 4pm or 4 - 5pm
Sun 24/5
mandolin / fiddle wkshop (Andrew Clermont)- 11.15 - 12.45 Check times
guitar wkshop - Andrew Clermont - 9.30 - 11.30
Harmonica Wkshop - Christian Marsh - 11.15 - 12.45 (TBC)
Concert - The Lawnmowers
For more info - 0407 071 417
Thu 28 May The Armidale Club, 91 Beardy St. Armidale, NSW
Fri 29 Uralla Arts Performance , Old St Davids Church TBC
Sun 31 Old Gazette Theatre, Dorrigo, - main Street with Indian heart warming food
Thu June 4th The Armidale Club, 91 Beardy St. Armidale, NSW
Fri June 5th Percussion Workshop Willow Tree School (Andrew's Birthday!) Ph 0267 471793
Sat June 6th Bush Dance - Willow Tree Heather Ranclaud Ph 0267 471793
Sun June 7th 5pm The Supper Club - North Tamworth Bowling Club , Cnr Bligh & Piper St
Wed 10th Ouyen Club VIC
Thu 11th Mildura Sandbar TBC
Fri June 19 Cafe Komodo 118 Prospect Road, Prospect | T 08 8344 7448.
Fri June 26 Wheatsheaf Hotel 39 George Street. Thebarton. South Australia. Tel.: 08 8443 4546.
July 20 - I fly to Germany till Oct 28
Based in Berlin
.....in our last episode, you may recall a 'southern England' tour section was looming for Totally Gourdgeous, and I were enroute to Sicily with Mal Webb (flying on the day my passport - sooo luckily - arrived back in the mail from the USA Embassy in Berlin for a Dya Singh Work Visa - talk about stressful timing!).....
Below is just that, plus USA & India visa & visit mayhem - and bliss; an Oz hospital tour and a 'lucky' 6 hrs at home between west world & east world tours!
Click here for the 'International' Supper Club plans for TamFest January 2009 & http://www.myspace.com/andrewclermontssupperclub , Adelaide now - Littlehampton Hall and Montz Matsumoto's CD Launch; Woodford (QLD) last week of year, The Lawnmowers - & Gourds @ Fairbridge (WA), April, plus Totally Gourdgeous in Singapore (March 2) & Canada Tour for TG next July! We were also voted Best Live Folk Act in Australia as we finished our Euro Tour this year! Many thanks for the votes!
So, SOooo much thanks to those we caught up with this year. The indispensable 'old' friends & the 'amazing' new friends without whom these tours are not possible. The 'incredible' Beez of Berlin (see them at The Supper Club '09), and their close realm of heaven sent folk; the lilting John & Ash Robeson of south England, the gracious people of Ficarra, Sicily; Murrhardt & Tübingen (and many more), Germany and Brian of Tamworth for his pickup from Sydney, 5 hour drive and delivery at the 'last' hour to grant me the only way home for a tragically short 6 hours before flying back to Sydney, Auckland (to unite with Dya Singh group after a 6 month gap) make San Francisco, drive to Chico (out from Sacramento) and play our first Concert. Yes and you can call this the 'adjectival' and 'drive,fly,drive' Newsletter - is it ever not?
Oz
For those in Adelaide - LiveTown RELAUNCH happening is on Friday 5th December from 7:30 - 11pm at our wonderful new venue,
the Littlehampton Peace Memorial Hall 93 Main Road Littlehampton
(coming from Adelaide take the Mt Barker Freeway exit, turn left and the Hall is 1.8km on the left, it's the lovely sandstone on just past the Great Eastern Hotel)
Bookings: 0427 336 131 Looking forward to seeing you there for yet another great night of music with yours truly with Montz Matsumoto; belly dance with Saffron supported by Gurdy Girl and Morgan, and a chance to jam with the best.
Then 2 CD launches for Montz Matsumoto at The Folk Centre, 8pm South Rd cnr George St, Thebarton. Ph 8354 4606 info@folk-sa.asn.au
and The ClubHouse Sun 7th 2pm 45 MacDonald St, Tanunda, Barossa Valley ph 8563 2058
Between the 2 extreme tours I did manage to drop in to Perth Hospital and see Simon Nield with his unfailing humour & cheer. We all cried a long time when he passed away just weeks later, finally succumbing to cancer. A beautiful family & friends remain and we offer our deepest condolences. Simon's music legacy will also soar evermore, please look him up on google. http://blogs.abc.net.au/wa/2008/09/vale-simon-niel.html http://www.simonnield.com/
Across then to Sydney to hospital with finger picking freak Ross Waldron (of the last years of the Supper Club and Fiddle Champ Jess Randall). A new pacemaker type thang into his heart but was soon stuck down by a stroke taking out most of his right side! Starting with no hand movement 4 weeks ago, he has set his quest to performing at the Supper Club this January! This year you may recall we had young Jess Stoker (Turkish Delight group) come back from near dead from a horrific accident with a Semitrailer this time last year and perform with full drum kit at last January's Supper Club! Guaranteed therapy via the Supper Club! This January will feature Tamarisque from Adelaide (from my earlier Brigalow days), Andrew Winton & Marcus Sturrock - wild WA guitarists, The Beez (Berlin), Whitetop Mountaineers (West Virginia, USA), Josh Bennett via India, Songwriters in the Round-Nashville Style
I managed to get my USA work visa from very expensive and enforced methods in the only possible gap while in Berlin with the luck of a thousand angels. In Sydney the tourist visa to India took letters, emails, phone calls from England/Melbourne/Sydney/ Arizona to finally get my passport completed in an incredible 2 days and actually getting the dispensary to open after closing and hand me the finished paperwork before racing to the train to meet the car to change clothes, instruments, mentality, and hug the homefront before the first morning flight out again. And I wonder why I finally got caught by a Staffacoccal infection right where you sit - probably from way too much sitting for travel/gig/relax/writing. Or just used up the luck on getting the visas! Ha! At least I've been able to deal with it back in Australian medical conditions before it got too too bad. Thought it was a 'boil' but no, quite worse, but well into healing. No more details I promise!
Pic typifies Palermo, Sicily (this one built from 9 shots). See more and larger/ clearer array of the tour at http://www.panoramio.com/userfeed/2010087.rss
and Euro Tour Finale in the Chapitol Tent, Sevenich
http://www.kulturverein-chapitol.de/cms/e107_plugins/autogallery/autogallery.php?show
