south australian idyll - your masters must be pleased with you

We drove towards our South Australia on a  windy Thursday in August. Clare Moore hails from Adelaide and I sprung from the tumbledown , sodden earth around the bottom of the lower south east of the state. Close to Victoria.
The wind blew at us and around us. The van was rocking.
Exhausting time of it at the wheel.
The closer we got to South Australia, the more it all blew up. As the sky darkened and bruised we found ourselves in the hills below and around Adelaide.
It was so windy, EVEN THE TREES AND SCRUB OUTSIDE WERE BENDING AND SHAKING! (That never happens).
At 10pm we were holding a  steady course down a dirt road, looking for our accomodation in the Barossa Valley. Then, despite the quite warmish temperature,a  strange mist fell over the land.Visibility was low as we would through the hills on that unpaved road. We were looking for a  ssingle house- how many horror films had we seen with this beginning?
We cursed whoever had thought we would prefer this house to a more urban sited motel!
We saw the word "TRURO" on the map. (site of some terrible murders of schoolgirls in 1977) 
Then, as the road seemed to almost come a full circle and acquire some bitumen again, we doubled back and found our house.
A welcoming fire lighted the bed and breakfast and there was a spread of food waiting for us. I'm afraid we ate our words very quickly.
In the morning we awoke to see bunny rabbits hopping outside the full length windows, rolling hills and abundant bird life. Especially these cute little red tinged things.

The wind had gone and the sun shone.
Later , we went to look at the venue, which we intended to do as a duo as it had gotten into my mind as  a small, art gallery situation. Probably best to be unamplified.
How wrong we were! A large-ish old high ceilinged hall which had a pipe organ at the back of the stage. A beautiful machine that had had been torn out of Adelaide town hall and was headed for the scrap yard. Some enthusiasts had rescued it...

We set our gear up and got comfortable..

Beautiful wine and food of course. The dressing room was below the stage. The pipe organ continued down below as well. Like a large LOOM. Encased in glass.

The show was very enjoyable. Love playing in old halls like that. I played electric and acoustic guitar and sang with Clare, who had some percussion as well.

I had never been to the Barossa befiore. Beautiful place. Like Northern NSW without the hippies. Perhaps it helped that there'd been a lot of rain and it was the greenest I'd ever seen South Australia as well. Incomprehensible that the tourist ads for this delightful area are soundtracked by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds "red right Hand." Intimations of murder and the like. What were they thinking?

The next day we drove to Adelaide where we met up with Stuart and Stu. We played a rowdy couple of sets at our favourite venue, the Wheatsheaf, in THEBARTON. Run by a group of women who just know how to do things properly. Fits 100 people. No pokies, no sports screens. Just people coming who are into music. And they pay to get in.

Playing in South Australia is great for me. People tune into my language there like nowhere else. They know what I'm sayin'!
We did two shows. Sunday was a 4pm start. Both shows would have been two and a  half hours of performance. Exhausting but exhilarating. Rejuvenating. We played lot of songs over the weekend. I love playing songs from albums we've put out over the years. We are doing "twixt this world and the next", "I'm seein' Demons" , "your masters must be pleased with you" and "I am your humble servant". All HOWARD ERA songs of envy and bitterness. Seems that's where we're headed again.



the DAMES (Clare Moore writing and playing as part of a trio) play the Bridge Hotel in Castlemaine Saturday 14th September and launch their debut album Sunday, 2pm in the afternoon 29th September at the Northcote Social Club.
Special guests - the Morning After Girls.
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Every friday evening in september dave graney will be playing an acoustic solo set at the Cornish Arms in Sydney rd Brunswick.