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.
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.
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.
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.
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 guitarSome 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.
