Qld NSW and Melbourne recap now we play Victorian shows.

 Upcoming Shows

Sunday 16^th June, Coolart, Somers, Vic

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1206509

Sunday 23rd June The Stables - The Cosmopolitan Hotel Trentham Victoria
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1206519

Friday 28^th June The Flow Bar, Old Bar, NSW

https://www.dramatix.com.au/events/2274

Saturday June 29^th- Wauchope Arts Hall, NSW

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1224720

Sunday 30^th June Bellingen Memorial Hall, NSW 

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1222781

 

Friday 5th July, Link and Pin, Woy Woy, NSW

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1226741

Saturday 6^th July, The Vanguard, Newtown NSW

https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/dave-graney-clare-moore-album-launch-strangelyemotional/165484

Sunday 7^th July, Dangar Bowls, Dangar Island NSW

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1219608

 

Friday 26th July, Murray Delta Juke Joint, Goolwa SA

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1234804

 

Saturday 27th July, Wheatsheaf Hotel, Thebarton SA

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1228687

 

We  have been playing two sets at all of these shows we have been doing. A lot of songs from (strangely)(emotional) and a lot of songs from other albums. Thanks to everybody who has been coming along. Also thanks to our agent Steve Griffiths for finding interesting venues for us to play in. Its been really challenging for us to work out how to play some of the songs and then also to present it all to people. An enjoyable challenge. But thats what we think musicians and songwriters and performers should do. They should keep on bringing stuff out from within themselves and then chuck it out into the world. They should stand by what they do as well as what they have done in the past and see how it all stacks up as a piece.

Clare and I flew up to Brisbane from a very cold and wintry Melbourne. We decided to go for a streetwear look for these dates.

We met up with Adele Pickvance who was going to play bass with us and the first gig was on a Thursday night at  The Bearded Lady in the West End of Brisbane. This was a pretty regular rock'n'roll type room. The young sound guy was so 2024. By that I mean he was very attentive and helpful as well as very sensitive and skilful. He really took care to stop and listen and make eye contact with whomever he was talking. Nothing was a problem. A really good backline was provided and I played through a Roland amp. I love them! I had decided to use my Ibanez Talman guitar only (as opposed to carrying two through the airport) as it was really good for quickly changing tuning as well as having a lot of variation to the tone with the two Gretsch Filtertron pickups. Unfortunately the case was not hard plastic and there were signs of it having been tossed about by the baggage handlers as all the latches on it were bent. (Baggage handlers seem to take pride in damaging music gear). This was a pretty raucous show, though we began with the delicate guitar and keys songs from (strangely)(emotional). My oldest friend David Edwards was in attendance as well as Federal MP Graham Perrett, Mick Medew and Ursula  and Pascalle and Ian from The Stress Of Leisure. We loaded out into a strangely empty and misty street.

pic by Gawain Barker

pic by Pascalle Burton

Friday 31st May the Majestic Theatre, Pomona Qld

 

On the next day, Friday, we travelled to the Sunshine Coast in Adeles car to play the Majestic Theatre in Pomona. A community run venue. It was raining steadily for most of the day but it wasn't cold at all.

This venue deserves a lot of pictorial coverage here. 

pic by Adele Pickvance

This lovely theatre was all run by volunteers and they have silent movie screenings every week. A gem of a venue. You could hear a pin drop during the quiet songs.

 

Saturday 1st June Eltham Hotel, Eltham , Northern NSW

 

Eltham hotel on Saturday was a cool couple of sets in a sheltered outdoor area with soft rain falling on the roof. Good to see Dave Wray (who has played a lot of sax on our two most recent albums)  and Andy and Dave Brown from Mt Gambier party scene days. Derek Bovill had helped out with sound and backline for the Pomona show and he was with us for these three dates. He brought a Fender Deluxe Reverb amp for me. I love those amps!

 

 

 

 

 This venue is unfortunately having to fight in the courts to stay open due to one neighbour complaining. There are 30 houses which are much closer to the hotel than the litigant who are all happy to have  a well run social and musical hub in their midst but thats all it takes. I hope the hotel is allowed to continue. We stayed the night in the fantastic upstairs rooms (no tv) and then breakfasted and drove to the Gold Coast.

 

Sunday 2nd June Tom Atkin Hall, Tugun, QLD

  Sunday afternoon we played Tom Atkin Hall in Tugun on the Gold Coast. Wonderful community run venue. BYO alcohol and food! We brought a PA in thanks to @dungeondungeon and Bobs yer uncle! Two sets from 3pm. Bring on more BYO gigs! Thanks to all who came to gigs in Qld and Northern NSW and special thanks to Adele Pickvance and Derek Bovill! You made it so easy.

  We drove back to Brisbane after the show and then caught a plane to Melbourne in the morning.
We had last played with Stuart Perera on guitar and Stu Thomas in February at the single launch for Creative Creep at Northcote Social Club. We had a rehearsal at Pony Music in Hallam on the Wednesday afternoon. 

Stu Thomas and Clare Moore

Stuart Perera and Stu Thomas

 

Saturday 8th June Kindred Bandroom, Yarraville, Vic

 

 

 With Stu and Stuart we are able to do more songs from our 2022 album In A Mistly. Two guitars , bass and drums and lots of vocals.

Kindred is a venue on the west side of Melbourne where there has been little music activity over the years even though many musicians live there. 

Thats a problem as it takes people an age and then another age to know where a venue is. Its hard enough for us to connect with people in Melbourne in the best of times. In the end, they found us and we had a fantastic night. Again, playing two sets of music. 

Kindred is all new. No sticky carpet, no smells, no graffitti in the band room area. The young sound engineer was as skilled and as sensitive to anybodys needs as the one in Brisbane and indeed as Drek Bovill for our other shows. He worked hard and took care of all the business. I played through my Vox amp head with Fender speaker box and Clare used her own kit. I wore a light blue suit with white t shirt and my Adidas Gazelles. I was going for a Phil Collins at Live Aid look, though I forgot to roll my sleeves up enough. .

 

pic Clare Moore

Pic Henry Manetta

Pic Wendy Catling

Heading to Queensland and Northern NSW

 

I've been writing updates to do with all our live dates at my substack that I started. It has links to a podcast of the same name I am intending to update more regularly as well.

https://davegraney.substack.com/

To recap, in a way, we have been playing live shows with Clare Moore truly bringing all her skills to the stage, playing vibes (on occasion) keys,  melodica, rhythm machine, percussion and vocals. (As well as working with our agent Steve Griffiths to get the shows happening). 

 photo Helen Flint

I have been playing acoustic and electric guitars and singing. A lot of the songs on our last two albums involve open tunings of G and D and DADGAD.

photo Helen Flint

In recent shows in NSW we played with our old friend Greg Thorsby on bass and will do some more with him later in  July.

photo Helen Flint

In WA we played with our old friend and comrade Marty Casey (Triffids/Bad Seeds) on bass so Clare could get behind the drumkit as well. 

 

For our next run of dates in Queensland and Northern New South Wales we will be playing similar shows with Adele Pickvance on bass. 

 

On June 8th we play a very rare Melbourne show and so a rare outing with our band the mistLY, (Stu Thomas on bass and Stuart Perera on guitar) at Kindred Bandroom in Yarraville.

 

photo Barry Douglas

A lot of the venues we are playing are either not appropriate (too small a stage) for a band setup with drums or are too far away or isolated. For these shows we play as a duo with keys, guitars, rhythm machine and vocals. All of them being two sets / two hours as well. We bring our best to every show.

We are playing songs from across our career. Each show is a new one and also a new adventure.

 

Thursday May 30th The Bearded Lady, Brisbane
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/dave-graney-clare-moore-new-album-strangelyemotional-brisbane-tickets-884680612527

Friday 31^st May the Majestic Theatre, Pomona Qld

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1210325

Saturday 1^st June Eltham Hotel, NSW

https://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/dave-graney-clare-moore/165253

Sunday 2^nd June Tom Atkin Hall, Tugun, QLD

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1218173

Saturday 8^th June Kindred Bandroom, Yarraville, Vic

https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/dave-graney-clare-moore-album-launch/164786

Sunday 16^th June, Coolart, Somers, Vic

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1206509

Sunday 23rd June The Stables - The Cosmopolitan Hotel Trentham Victoria

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1206519

Friday 28^th June The Flow Bar, Old Bar, NSW

https://www.dramatix.com.au/events/2274

Saturday June 29^th- Wauchope Arts Hall, NSW

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1224720

Sunday 30^th June Bellingen Memorial Hall, NSW 

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1222781

Friday 5th July, Link and Pin, Woy Woy, NSW

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1226741

Saturday 6^th July, The Vanguard, Newtown NSW

https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/dave-graney-clare-moore-album-launch-strangelyemotional/165484

Sunday 7^th July, Dangar Bowls, Dangar Island NSW

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1219608

 26th July, Murray Delta Juke Joint, Goolwa SA

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1234804

27th July, Wheatsheaf Hotel, Thebarton SA

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1228687

 

Live dates in West Australia this weekend

 

Baroque Room - Katoomba. May 4th 2024. Photo Helen Flint.

 Had a great time playing in Orange, Katoomba and Newcastle on the weekend. Thanks to everybody who came along. We generally played two sets each night. It was a lot of driving, a lot of playing and a lot of fun.

Greg Thorsby on bass for two of the shows allowed Clare to get behind the kit as well as play keys. 

We know Greg from back in the 90s Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes touring days when he was playing with The Atlas Strings. We have kept in touch and he has played with us  a couple of times but always on guitar before this. 

The next two shows are in Western Australia and we will be joined by Martyn P Casey on the bass. One of our oldest musical mates from when he was in the Triffids and we were in the Moodists. We also know him from his integral role in the Bad Seeds.

We played some shows with Marty in Perth and Fremantle last year and we actually played a couple of Moodists songs.

Playing shows

May 10th Lyric Lane , Maylands Perth https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/cde423b8-dc29-4cef-b7ea-c31160848d0f

  

May 11th Duke Of George East Fremantle https://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/dave-graney-clare-moores-album-strangelyemotional/163211

 

 

May 18th Northern Arts Hotel , Castlemaine https://events.humanitix.com/graney-and-moore

Thursday May 30th The Bearded Lady, Brisbane
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/dave-graney-clare-moore-new-album-strangelyemotional-brisbane-tickets-884680612527

Friday 31^st May the Majestic Theatre, Pomona Qld

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1210325

Saturday 1^st June Eltham Hotel, NSW

https://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/dave-graney-clare-moore/165253

Sunday 2^nd June Tom Atkin Hall, Tugun, QLD

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1218173

Saturday 8^th June Kindred Bandroom, Yarraville, Vic

https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/dave-graney-clare-moore-album-launch/164786

Sunday 16^th June, Coolart, Somers, Vic

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1206509

Sunday 23rd June The Stables - The Cosmopolitan Hotel Trentham Victoria

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1206519

Friday 28^th June The Flow Bar, Old Bar, NSW

https://www.dramatix.com.au/events/2274

Saturday June 29^th- Wauchope Arts Hall, NSW

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1224720

Sunday 30^th June Bellingen Memorial Hall, NSW 

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1222781

Saturday 6^th July, The Vanguard, Newtown NSW

https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/dave-graney-clare-moore-album-launch-strangelyemotional/165484

Sunday 7^th July, Dangar Bowls, Dangar Island NSW

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1219608

 

 

(strangely)(emotional) track by track and Live Dates happening from this weekend.

 

 

 

 Our friend Barry Adamson did a remix of a track from (strangely)(emotional). I gave him a playlist of the songs and asked him to choose one to work on and he picked I Said No To Myself. Will Hindmarsh and Emily Jarrett did amazing backing vocals on the song and Barry took the rhythm instruments out from the start to just lead it in with those beautiful vocals. Will Hindmarsh also put together a video clip from various clips I gave him. Shots of us over the last few years in Sydney, Kiama, Ulverstone Tasmania, Darwin and Port Campbell in Victoria. Thanks Will and thank you Barry! 

 

We did a great interview with Glenn Williams at MAINFM in Castlemaine about the album. He asked us a lot about our film music work which was nice.

 

Excellent interview with Dave Graney by Giacomo Bianchino for THE STRAYING MORSEL. 

 Some notes on the songs on (strangely)(emotional)

All instruments played by Dave Graney and Clare Moore.
Dave Graney, guitars, bass, autoharp, harmonica, vocals.
Clare Moore, drums, vibes, keys, percussion, backing vocals.

Joined by Shane Reilly (Lost Ragas) pedal steel on the opening track, Dave Wray (aka Frank Bennett) on tenor and soprano sax for three songs, Genevieve Fry on harp on one song, Will Hindmarsh (aka Twinkledigitz) and Emily Jarrett on backing vocals on two songs and Catherine McQuade, bass and mixing on another.
Mastered by beats / hip hop producer and drummer Plutonic Lab who had collaborated with Dave Graney on the homage track GRACE TAME IS PRESIDENT in 2022. 

Back In A Day
Dave Graney vocals, guitar
Shane Reilly, pedal steel 

Drop D tuning. I hear people say "back in the day" and often wonder what day they are talking about. The song says "better to say back in a day..."

Family Gatherings I
Dave Graney, nylon and steel string guitar, bass, vocals.
In open D tuning. A song about my uncles and aunties and their kids-my cousins-all visitng for a few years when I was a boy.

My Cancellation Came Through
Dave Graney, nylon string guitar, vocals
Clare Moore, keys,
Dave Wray, soprano sax

Open G tuning. Just a whimsical song about getting cancelled and the peace and quiet that would come with being in that state.

Creative Creep
Dave Graney,  steel string acoustic guitar, bass, vocals
Clare Moore, keys, bass drum, percussion
Dave Wray, soprano and tenor sax, congas

A vintage drum machine and kick drum beat with keys, sax and acoustic guitars. Swinging like a ragtime pop tune. “Don’t fence me in! And get in too! Let me be! Let me be! A creative creep! Ya standin’ too close to the flames!”

I kept hearing about all sorts of "creep" in economic reportage. I also kept hearing about "creatives" and the like. Talking about real estate agents and advertising people.
Also cooks and wedding planners.  Brian Wilsons father, Murry, did box him in the ears.

Love Story
Dave Graney,  electric guitar, bass, vocals
Clare Moore, keys, piano, percussion
Dave Wray, soprano  sax, congas

Thanks to Dave Wray for playing so much great sax, again! Lyrically talking about first romantic and sexual struggles.

I Said No To Myself
Dave Graney,  electric guitar, bass, vocals
Clare Moore, keys, percussion
Will Hindmarsh and Emily Jarrett, backing vocals.

I am in awe of people with self discipline and the ability to keep to personal plans , diets and exercize regimes. A song about an inner voice, and who it is speaking to. Or who is speaking? Or who is hearing?

Ice Bergman
Dave Graney,  electric guitar, bass, vocals
Clare Moore, drums, vibes, percussion

Recorded at the sessions for In A Mistly. Written and played a few times during our 140 Lockdown live streaming shows. A swinging jazz R&b groover 6/8 time . The chorius is "I'm gonna be old in the end times" but I didn't want to call it that and Clare came up with the Bermanesque title. Or Iceberg-esque title?

They Walk Among Us
Dave Graney,  electric guitar, vocals
Clare Moore, drums, organ, percussion, backing vocals
Catherine McQuade, bass and backing vocals.

Recorded at the sessions for In A Mistly. I intended it to be a short instrumental theme to be used a few times like "Night Theme" on Iggy Pop' and James Williamsons's KILLCITY album. I kept hearing and seeing "sovereign citizens" yelling across the internet fields. I wrote a lyric about "florin entities/bitcoin buddies/shilling villagers, guinea townfolk..." etc  . We had worked on a  soing with Catherine McQuade and she offered to mix a track and this is whaat happened. She played bass and sang B/Vs and mixed it.

He's Talkin' To His Base
Dave Graney, six and twelve string  electric guitar, bass, vocals
Clare Moore, keys, percussion.

I had been working on this since the first Trump election and finally found an album for it to land on. A lot of guitars, using an R&B chord shape that Stuart Perera showed me.

I'll Cluster It
Dave Graney,  electric guitar, vocals
Clare Moore, keys, percussion

Possibly the most actual (strangely)(emotional) track. Music worked out from a 2012 track called KING OF THE DUDES. I added some more guitars and Clare put some keys down.  Lots of gutteral sounds. Lyrically talking about very personal stuff. I dont mean emotions (though it is strangely emotional) , I mean habitual ways of behaving and seeing the world. Patterns and clusters. "I put all my clusters in a row/ I'm neat/ I like patterns..." "walk out of the door-any door/ and turn right. No! the gate! That's the way into town from my old place..."

I'm Already Missing The Lockdown
Dave Graney,  nylon string acoustic guitar, harmonica, vocals
Clare Moore, piano,  percussion

Open G tuning. My old nylon string guitar. One of several songs alluding to the pandemic and its attendant lockdowns. We had about seven in Melbourne. An incredible moment that everybody on earth shared. So many things happened. In Australia, it included a trial run of a Universal Basic Income. So many things were revealed to us!

Poor Covid
Dave Graney, electric guitars, vocals
Clare Moore , synth bass, keys

I thought the title sounded like an old folk song. Like Tam Lin from Fairport Convention. I thought I could write a song being sympathetic to Covid. In some ways like NAS voiced a gun on his early song I GAVE YOU POWER. A cool beat from Clares Ensonix MR61 keyboard and a bluesy groove frm my guitar Some squelchy synth coming in at the end.

You Were Gaslit For This
Dave Graney,  six and twelve string electriic guitars, bass, vocals
Clare Moore,piano, percussion
Will Hindmarsh and Emily Jarrett, backing vocals

A song built up from a drum loop I found on the sessions for The Dave Graney Show album which we did in 1998. I played a suspended chord on electric twelve string and Clare played that Hitchcok Movie sounding descending run on the piano. I ddoubled that on another guitar and then spent a few nights playing with some delay pedals on the guitars. I also flew in some of Will and Emilys vocals from I Said No and effected those as well. We recorded the coda on realk drums and guitars and I tried to get it to merge or morf into that.

Madly, Softly, Hardly
Dave Graney,  electric and acoustic guitar, bass, autoharp, vocals
Clare Moore, vibes, drums, percussion
Genevieve Fry, harp

Drop D tuning. We kept writing and forgetting entire songs during this last few years of Covidly affected interior life. I kept working on this. Lyrically its a long story. A nine or ten minute song. You should listen to it. A song about getting older and mad fevers of nostalgia that get into a person. And all the time you are losing sharpness and power to see or feel or understand.
When we begaan to tour again oiutside of Melbourne we drove into Qld and NSW in our van. At one point a gig was blown out and we didn't want to drive back to Melbourne so we found a FARM STAY and put up our tent by the side of a river at Port Macquarrie. We stayed there for about five days. I kept hearing a particular bird call and tried to record it on my ZOOM. The birds and insect sounds that open and close the track (along with beautiful harp ny Genevieve Fry) come from that moment.

Family Gatherings II
Dave Graney, nylon and steel string acoustic guitars, bass, vocals
Clare Moore, keys, percussion
Dave Wray, soprano sax, congas

 Two versions of this song on the album. This has more instruments and lyrics. I kept working on this and one day Clare said she preferred it as just acoustic guitar and voice so thats how it first appears. Then it returns with more musical colouring. Rather like we opened our 1997 album THE DEVIL DRIVES with Clare's instrumental song THE OBLIVION SEEKERS and then ended it with my lyrics added as it became the title track.

 I started a SUBSTACK for different kinds of writing and content. 

Its called Players Please.

 

Playing shows

May 3rd Agrestic Grocer, Orange NSW https://theagresticgrocer.yapsody.com/event/index/806127/live-agrestic-dave-graney-clare-moore

 

May 4th Baroque Room, Katoomba https://events.humanitix.com/fbdaveclarebaroque

 

May 5th Stag And Hunter, Newcastle https://stagandhunter.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/506df3f2-87c3-4886-b1e5-5c820ecf986d

May 10th Lyric Lane , Maylands Perth https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/cde423b8-dc29-4cef-b7ea-c31160848d0f

  

May 11th Duke Of George East Fremantle https://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/dave-graney-clare-moores-album-strangelyemotional/163211

May 18th Northern Arts Hotel , Castlemaine https://events.humanitix.com/graney-and-moore

Thursday May 30th The Bearded Lady, Brisbane
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/dave-graney-clare-moore-new-album-strangelyemotional-brisbane-tickets-884680612527

Friday 31^st May the Majestic Theatre, Pomona Qld

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1210325

Saturday 1^st June Eltham Hotel, NSW

https://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/dave-graney-clare-moore/165253

Sunday 2^nd June Tom Atkin Hall, Tugun, QLD

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1218173

Saturday 8^th June Kindred Bandroom, Yarraville, Vic

https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/dave-graney-clare-moore-album-launch/164786

Sunday 16^th June, Coolart, Somers, Vic

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1206509

Sunday 23rd June The Stables - The Cosmopolitan Hotel Trentham Victori

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1206519

Friday 28^th June The Flow Bar, Old Bar, NSW

https://www.dramatix.com.au/events/2274

Saturday June 29^th- Wauchope Arts Hall, NSW

Sunday 30^th June Bellingen Memorial Hall, NSW

Saturday 6^th July, The Vanguard, Newtown NSW

https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/dave-graney-clare-moore-album-launch-strangelyemotional/165484

Sunday 7^th July, Dangar Bowls, Dangar Island NSW

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1219608

 

 

(strangely)(emotional) coming out on classic jewel case compact disc April 12th.

 

 Art by Tony Mahony

 

Dave Graney and Clare Moore, (strangely)(emotional).

15 track album (includes two versions of one song).

All instruments played by Dave Graney and Clare Moore.

Dave Graney, guitars, bass, autoharp, harmonica, vocals.

Clare Moore, drums, vibes, keys, percussion, backing vocals.

Joined by Shane Reilly (Lost Ragas) pedal steel on the opening track, Dave Wray (aka Frank Bennett) on tenor and soprano sax for three songs, Genevieve Fry (Cold Hands Warm Hearts) on harp on one song, Will Hindmarsh (aka Twinkledigitz) and Emily Jarrett on backing vocals on two songs and Catherine McQuade, bass and mixing on another.

Mastered by beats / hip hop producer and drummer Plutonic Lab who had collaborated with Dave Graney on the homage track GRACE TAME IS PRESIDENT in 2022.

 “As I have said many times nobody else is making music like this. A combination of the familiar tropes of rock and pop intermingled with literary lyrical explorations, jazz elements, ambient sounds, and a degree of abstraction masking astute commentary on the state of the world today. There are more ideas in these 15 songs than most artists achieve in their careers”.

Bob Osborne – DIFFERENT NOISES – Salford UK

(strangely)(emotional) is released April 12^th 2024.
Preorder the album here. https://davegraney1.bandcamp.com/album/dave-graney-and-clare-moore-strangely-emotional

 Early review of the album from Different Noises Bob Osborne in Salford UK

https://differentnoises.home.blog/2024/02/12/may-you-live-in-emotional-times/

Dave Graney and Clare Moore have in recent years been swinging between song focused studio albums (like this one) and more band focused rock albums, (like their previous set In A Mistly).

(strangely)(emotional) is so carefully titled because that’s the age we live in. A person has to be sure and careful of their words. It’s a sensitive area, the world, in 2024. Even though it is also brutal , viral and violent all at once. (The ground we walk upon is contested and just holding together with surface tension). So the words are quarantined from each other, in parentheses so as not to be qualifying or commenting on the other.

The sounds on the album come from vintage drum machines, electric (six and twelve string) and acoustic (nylon and steel string) guitars, pedal steel, harp, harmonica, electric piano, drums, vibes, marimba, mellotron and tenor and soprano sax.

The words are rich, playful and very personal. Dave Graney is a proud Creative Creep.

(strangely)(emotional) comes after a year where Graney and Moore toured the country to joy and acclaim with their 90s band Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes. This album was cooking away in the background all the while.

It’s a Dave Graney and Clare Moore album. They’ve always done their own thing. This time, it’s (strangely)(emotional)

 

CREATIVE CREEP First single from the epic 2024 album (strangely)(emotional) which is to be released on classic jewel case Compact Disc  April 12th. Touring near you, soon.

  Murry Wilson was Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys father. This is a link to his only album release.

Touring near you, soon.



Friday May 3rd Dave Graney and Clare Moore play The Agrestic Grocer, Orange NSW

Saturday May 4th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play The Boutique Room, Katoomba NSW.

Sunday May 5th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play THE STAG AND HUNTER, Newcastle NSW.

Friday May 10th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play Lyric Lane, Maylands , WA

Saturday May 11th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play the Duke Of George in East Fremantle, WA. 
Saturday May 18th Dave Graney and Clare Moore play the Northern Arts Hotel in Castlemaine, Vic
Saturday June 8th (strangely)(emotional) Melbourne album launch at Kindred in Yarraville.

Back In A Day

Just me on guitars and Shane Reilly on pedal steel.  Lyrically its setting down a bit of an agenda or course. Or game plan. People say "back in the day" so casually. Here I say "better to say back in A day..." It's an important distinction when you talk about your life.

Family Gatherings 

I wanted to write a song about a particular time in my life when my mothers sisters and my fathers brothers all had kids around the same time and they  would often come to visit. Young parents with their strange, rival children. A brief period just before I went to school. The visits stopped after a while and we had no car until I was a teenager so did no visiting of our own. I mention records my mother used to play and shoes and dresses they favoured. The guitar only on this version. Clare thought it sounded nice as just guitar and vocal. Tuned to open D.

My Cancellation Came Through

Guitar tuned to open G. Clare playing a drum sample on her Ensoniq which hits a low D note. Dave Wray on saxophone.  Just singing about how peaceful it must be when you are eventually cancelled by the social world. Its finally happened and you don't have to worry any more.

Creative Creep

A noun and an adverb and  verb. Two chords on the guitar, built up from a single lick on the guitar. Sax from Dave Wray. I tried to miix it low like the Stones used to do in the 70s. Dave played on several tracks on our last album In A Mistly. He lives up near Lismore.

Love Story

Dave Wray on sax. Another song about my first kiss. I play bass and guitar and Clare plays piano and keys (strings).  "That farm girl! Hot pimples on her forehead! Her hair was bone dry- like mine..."

I Said No To Myself

I thought I knew what I was talking about on this track but I think I might have been saying something else too. Sometimes that happens. It's a risk you take writing and singing words.  Clare on keys and me on guitars and bass. Will Hindmarsh (Twinkeldigitz) and Emily Jarrett from the Routines, Rockin Pelmets and GoGo Sapien and Damien Cowells Disco Machine contributed these incredible vocals.
UK soundtrack maestro Barry Adamson is doing a  remix of this song.

Ice Bergman

A swinging jazz R&B tune from the Soundpark sessions for our previous album. It didn't seem to fit with that.  I sing "I'm gonna be old in the end times" in the chorus but that seemed to be too much as a title. Clare came up with Ice Bergman. A play on words and a nod to a cold Swedish film maker. Clare on drums and vibes and me on guitars and bass.

They Walk Among Us

Recorded at Soundpark studios. Clare on drums and vocals. Me on guitars. I played bass but we asked Catherine McQuade to do a remix and she put her bass playing on it.  I heard all these anti vax "no" voting people yelling about being "sovereign citizens" and started to write about "ha'penny people", "bitcoin buddies" and "florin entities" "pounds shillings and pence over the fence no sense - LS Demons...." etc 

We worked on this track YOU CAME TO ME IN A DREAM with Cathy last year. I wrote the lyrics. 

 

He's Talkin' To His Base

They give free passes to right wing populist figures like Trump and let them say all manner of foul shit and excuse them by saying they are "talking to their base".  "Base" also meaning the lowest of a persons nature. Worked on this track for a few years. Just liked the chords. Built up the guitars and added base. Clare plays electric piano. 

I'll Cluster It

This is probably the (strangely)(emotional) song. Its parts of a groove I put together for a song called KING OF THE DUDES in 2012.  I just added this vocal one day. It seemed to be quite mysteriously confessional. Very oblique but very personal. Strangely emotional. I'm confessing to a few weaknesses. I can't help. I'll cluster it.

Already Missing The Lockdown

 Hey, who didn't enjoy a moment or two when the world ground to a halt there in 2020? And we learned so much. So much was laid bare. We didn't have to be anywhere. We couldn't do anything wrong....
Nylon string guitar tuned to open G. Clare on piano.

Poor Covid

A drum loop from Clare's Ensoniq keyboard and I started to play a bluesy groove.
I thought the title "Poor Covid " sounded like an old folk song. Like Tam Lin from Fairport Convention.
Covid was an illuminating moment that showed us how sick the world was.

You Were Gaslit For This

A simple looped rhythm. Discovered it while tooling around on an older song from 1999.  Twelve string electric guitar. Sampled aacoustic bass. Clare on piano and Will Hindmarsh and Emily Jarrett on vocals.
It has a stiff, automated, looped rhythm and then we played it on real drums and bass and acoustic guitars as a crazy coda to finish it. An interesting musical jump sideways all over, this track.

 Madly, Softly, Hardly

 One of the songs we started playing around with during a long lockdown in 2020. Then we forgot it and then found it again and recorded it with drums and vibes in at Soundpark studios. I asked Genevieve Fry from Cold Hands Warm Heart to play some harp on it. Its played with a  drop D string on the guitar.
I play bass on it. Autoharp and acoustic and electric guitar. Lyrically I say it all here. I was thiinking about people and events from the past and dwelling on it all. Madly, Softly, Hardly. Singing about getting older and losing your sharpness. Disappearing in many ways.

When we began to play live again in 2020 and 2021 we drove everywhere with our gear in the van. On one trip we were outside Port Macqquarie and a show dropped out but we didn't want to go all the way back to Melbourne ( a few days drive) and then back up again so we set up a tent by a river on a farm and stayed there for a week. An open fire at night and cooking on an iron griddle. I kept hearing this quite distinct birdcall in the morning and evening and recorded it on my zoom. I also recorded some cicadas and other birds and put it all onto the beginning and end of this track.

Family Gatherings II

The second version of this song to close the album. Some more lyrics at the end and a drum machine, a bass and dave Wray on soprano sax.