july 2013 - lucky to be playing in some northern sub tropical climes

Five nights went by very happily at the Butterfly Club. It was quite an emotional set of songs to do most nights, focussing on songs written with the streets I grew up in, in mind. Or maybe I'm just getting more emotional as the years stack up on me.

The set went like this

I ain't natural (2010)
I don't wanna know myself (2012)
where the trees walk downhill (1980)
swingy george (1983)
chads car (1981)
I caught my heel in a crack of time (1990)
that the way its gonna be (1993)
you had to be drunk ( 2008)
three dead passengers in a stolen second hand Ford (1993)
out there in the night of time (1993)
mt gambier night (2012)

and some nights I played a new song called "how can you get out of London?" London is the other place I am obsessed with.
I have recorded this song and the album it sits with should come out some time next year. Its pretty much finished. I recorded all the acoustic guitar tracks for it in January this year and did a couple of amazing days with Lisa Gerrard at her studio recording my vocals. She's a force of nature and totally inspired me.
Some of the tracks have a pop feel with bass vibes and xylophone, bass and electric guitars and percussion added. A third of the album will be pretty stark acoustic guitar and vocal in nature. Lisas microphones and pre amps are deluxe. Great spread of sound in a  room, like a 50s Country album.
It sounds great.

On the EARLY FOLK shows I played my maton six string to begin, then my K Yairi 12 string and then this lovely Ibanez Salvador which I scored in April...

Its got a lovely  hollow sound. Pretty delicate thing so it'll be strictly for solo shows. Probably not for travelling either.

A lot of this year has been spent working on my book, the FUNG. Been through a few drafts. I am almost happy with it. Still to go through another editing session. The cover is all ready. The book is dense. In both meanings of the word. I hope it gets to be a reality. Who knows?

With the Moodists show, the Coral Snakes reissue , the  EARLY FOLK shows and the DAMES imminent album release, it's been a half year of great challenges.
Harry Howard and the NDE recorded a new album in June. Twelve amazingly great songs from Harry. Clare and I learned 6 of them just before we recorded them.
I have also begun a rap duo with Will Hindmarsh from GoGo Sapien called WAM and DAZ and we have recorded 6 or so joints . Wam is mixing that.

Very demanding shows and reconstitutions. Clare is often saying that musicians have no need to bungee jump or throw themselves out of planes. We do that sort of shit all the time...

We are in Darwin on July 6th at the Railway Workers Club.

Then

July 12th dave graney and the mistLY are at the Prince of Wales Hotel front bar in Fitzroy street st kilda.

July 18th THE DAMES are at the Retreat Hotel in Sydney Rd Brunswick.

Friday August 30th - dave graney and clare moore will be playing in Tanunda SA

Saturday August 31st and Sunday Sept 1st dave graney and the mistLY will be playing at the Wheatsheaf in Adelaide , SA.

Every friday evening in september dave graney will be playing an acoustic solo set at the Cornish Arms in Sydney rd Brunswick.

after four nights at the butterfly club

yes, the experience has been very exciting.

People have been turning up at 6 and then 7pm to this new room and I've been doing a  show of my songs all about my attitude (as in direction) coming from Mt gambier SA. To the world. Songs from 1980 in the Moodists up to this year.

Playing songs and talking. People from country towns have come up and hugged me!

They laughed crazily about their own experience. A lovely woman told me last night of her greatest ever netball game, playing for POrtland againts North Gambier in the gloomy timber town of Dartmoor in the South East.

A woman from New Zealand shared a laugh as well, and another from Greville street. Old friends from the Seaview scene appeared out of the darkness and hugged me , also.

Some cousins I had never met and a fellow who'd been my boss in an office job decades ago.

Last night tonight- Sunday 23rd June  - at 6pm. Carson Place in the city.

July 6th - dave graney and the mistLY at the Railway Workers Club - Darwin

Friday August 30th - dave graney and clare moore will be playing in Tanunda SA

Saturday August 31st and Sunday Sept 1st dave graney and the mistLY will be playing at the Wheatsheaf in Adelaide , SA.

two nights in to the butterfly club season

An interview about the show from the AGE

The turnout has been very good! I was expecting two people a night but its been very warm.

a review of the first night from the AGE

I've been catching the train in (takes an hour), walking to the club, setting up and playing, then catching the train home. The first night - I set up the mics myself (yes I decided to use the pa and an amp) .

I've enjoyed playing the songs. Its been developing its own momentum. Some songs are heavier than ever. Actually the whole show packs quite an emotional wallop for me.

I'm playing my Maton 6 string, my KYairi 12 string and my Ibanez Salvador archtop...

La Mascara caught the show on the second night....
"Though solo acoustic shows are an anathema to this rock'n'roll heart, I couldn't resist the temptation of an early [7pm] seated show on a winter weeknight a few blocks from work. Also I was releaved the show's billing - Early Folk - referred only to the timeslot not the musical style.
It's the third of Dave's Butterfly Club apperances - preceeded by Point Blank and Live in Hell. The [now relocated] Butterfly Club is an intimate cabaret venue that lends itself to Graney's informal chat style. He opens by saying he's best at introducing himself and lets the audience know the evening's theme will be songs inspired by his hometown - Mount Gambier S.A.. But he's quick to point out it's not going to besome misty eyed nostalgia trip nor is it a colour supplement style "musical journey". Instead it's Dave's ascerbic anecdotes interspersed with songs from throughout his 30+ year musical career .
The big surprise for me was how well a handful of early Moodists songs came accross acoustically. Where the Trees Walk Downhill, Chad's Car, and Swingy George all revealed unexpected subtleties when presented on the twelve string - with all due respect to the mighty Machine Machine of the Moodists rhythm section. Perhaps previously I really just hadn't paid much heed to the lyrical content of these songs - let alone known from wence they came. Even the later Coral Snakes and Lurid Yellow Mist's stuff benefits from this "closer" inspection. [Again I accept it may just be my own lazy rhythm lover's appreciation of the originals that is at fault here.] But in this situation Dave's playing and half talked / half sung style really does highlight the narative of these tunes.
And songs aside some of his interludes - particulary those about "sperm stock clearance" - border on stand up, yet are just as effective in painting a picture of a time and a place.
More than a musical memoir - an amusing evening's entertainment. [And home by 9!]"

Was honoured that Margret Roadknight was there last night. An actual FOLK icon!
Strangely, for a show built around songs concering Mt gambier, two relatives I'd never met before showed up on the first night and came for me out of the darkness!

dave graney EARLY FOLK shows at the butterfly club 19th-23rd June - more details

The Butterfly Club is now at Carson Place in the city of Melbourne. Off Little Collins st between Swanston and Elizabeth.
The shows are from 19th - 23rd June.
I never do "secret" shows. All my shows are secret!
Wednesday 19th and Sunday 23rd start at 6pm. the other nights are a 7pm start.
You can book tickets here.Much cheaper with groups of people!

I am unsure whether I'll be doing it totally acoustic or not. I mean no amplification or microphones at all. Probably try it that way on the first night and then see how my voice ( and the room) handle it.

I was going to do  a set of my songs about the places I've lived in. I started to go through them and never got my mind out of Mt Gambier SA. Always been thinking of that area. My sense of self as an outsider came from there. Coming to Melbourne. From outside.

There was the early songs with the Moodists like "where the trees walk downhill" and "chads car". "I Caught my heel in a crack of time", "you had to be drunk", "leavin' the Mount",

"thats the way it's gonna be", "everybody's gone". I wanted to touch down to earth with these songs.

I always loved abstractions and poetic flights to dead ends. Circling emotional terrain from other heights.

Its going to be five nights so I imagine it'll be different on the Sunday from the Wednesday.

It'll be me and a couple of acoustic guitars. Six and twelve string guitars. A Maton and  KYairi.

So I'm lookin' forward to the show. EARLY FOLK. Its like its my own early folk. My blues.

That window is in one of the bars. It looks out onto Collins Street.