A Western Winter Warmer w/ Lachlan Bryan & the Wildes and Ben Mastwyk & His Millions - Sun 5 Jun 2022, 3:00PM AEST
w/ special guest KATIE BATES
Get yourself all warmed up for the start of winter with our inaugural ‘Wester Winter Warmer’, brining two of the best in local Americana southside for a double bill that will showcase their finely honed blend of country, folk and rock n roll. It’s a line-up that has been hand-picked by the fans to fill the MEMO Music Hall with classic songs of love, loss and good times that will transport your soul and have you dancing down the aisles.
LACHLAN BRYAN AND THE WILDES have been pioneers of the new wave of Alt Country in Australia and feature one of the country’s premier songwriters. Lachlan and band are taking time out from a busy national and international touring schedule to deliver a selection from their award winning catalogue of finely crafted country classics.
BEN MASTWYK AND HIS MILLIONS plunge headlong into Seventies country-soul glam with lashings of cosmic American pedal steel and psych-guitar glitz that erupt into swaggering bar-room gems. It’s a ‘must see’ live event every time Ben and his Millions hit the stage.
DJ Clip Clop will be on hand spinning some tunes between sets to kick start the two-step action – BYO double denim and boots!
So come on down and wile away your winter woes with an afternoon of western delights.
w/ special guest KATIE BATES.
More about LACHLAN BRYAN & THE WILDES
Lachlan Bryan and The Wildes have built their reputation on storytelling. Over the past eight years they have released four records, toured Europe and the USA multiple times, shared stages with Americana and country heavyweights and picked up a string of awards, including the Golden Guitar for ‘alt country album of the year’ with their landmark release Black Coffee.
But they’ve never told stories like the ones on new record ‘Some Girls (Quite) Like Country Music’. By far the band’s most ‘adult’ work, ‘Some Girls’ is a country record, but draws as heavily upon the influence of Leonard Cohen and Billy Bragg as it does Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt.
Lachlan, at the piano for much of the album, noticed the shift in his own approach as well as that of his collaborators. “We’re all feeling the weight of being grown-ups now”, he explains, “and it feels natural to write about grown-up things. The subject matter changed, and it happened without us even noticing it at first”.
Opener I hope that I’m Wrong sets the tone for the record, a pre-apocalyptic folk-song reflecting on mankind’s selfishness and irresponsibility, set against a sparse accompaniment of thumbed acoustic-guitar , bass and a distant, atmospheric telecaster.
Track two, A Portrait of the Artist as a Middle Aged Man, is a scathing attack on an older guy chasing a younger girl which Lachlan describes as “inspired by a few people, none of whom set out to do anything wrong, but all of whom spiralled”. Sadly it’s an all-too-common story.
“I tried to write that song without judgement”, Lachlan explains, “but it was hard. This guy, this character, he’s floundering. He’s stepped off the edge of civilisation – he’s running round with someone half his age and he’s starting to realise that everything about it is wrong. But by this point he’s gone too far, he can’t dig himself out now”.
Track five, Sweet Bird of Youth, takes a gentler tack and seems far more autobiographical. It also sounds like it belongs in a late night piano bar. “I started that song when we were making our first record, and I’ve rewritten it four times over the last eight years. I think it makes more sense now than it did when I was in my twenties – so I’m glad I took my time”.
Peace in the Valley, track 9, is perhaps the heaviest of all in terms of content, telling the story of a teenage girl gone missing, from the perspective of her absent father. Lachlan and band have always been good at sounding older than they are, and the slow country waltz of this song helps us to really get inside the head of a flawed family man.
First single The Basics of Love represents a lighter moment on the record – a sweet duet with ARIA Winner Shanley Del. It follows the story of a man and a woman who’ve been around the block a few times, in the tradition of Tom Waits’ I Never Talk to Strangers.
Other lighter moments include Stolen Again, a cheeky, dobro-driven tale of a much-loved promiscuous girl and the fiddle led, rockabilly-infused It Tears Me Up (Every Time You Turn Me Down). Careless Hearts, track three, is an uplifting celebration of the kind of ragged love and friendship that the band seems to specialise in, and is one of four songs to feature the stellar backing vocal contributions of young singer-songwriter Imogen Clark (including ‘In New York’, co-written by Clark’s partner and Wildes founding member/bass player Shaun Ryan).
Imogen is one of few outside the band to get a look in on ‘Some Girls’, which was produced with the lightest of touch by newest Wilde Damian Cafarella at EoR Studios in Melbourne. John Beddgood of The Wilson Pickers also shows up, playing fiddle on a handful of tracks, whilst James Gillard also contributes a little upright bass and a backing vocal on The Basics of Love.
“We really enjoyed leaving the dirt on” says Lachlan, “we didn’t want to round off the edges too much and we always chose the most meaningful take, which is almost never the most musically perfect”.
But it seems Lachlan and The Wildes have achieved a different sort of musical perfection – the kind that puts the listener in an emotional space from the first to the last bar. ‘Some Girls (Quite) Like Country Music’ is a ragged, poetic, alt-country gem.
More about BEN MASTWYK & HIS MILLIONS
Melbourne cosmic-country-rocker BEN MASTWYK writes his songs on the move. Planes, trains, rivers and highways set the mood. “There’s something about the rhythm of the world rolling by that stimulates the process” he explains. Gold-suited and rhinestoned, Mastwyk leads his seven-piece band THE MILLIONS into bold sonic territories where songs erupt into swaggering, psychedelic bar-room gems.
As a teenage noise-rocker, Mastwyk’s love of twang was instilled when he rode shotgun on the production of a family country record, exposing him to artists such as Cash, Kristofferson & Parsons and firmly establishing his love of classic country music. At art school he picked up a banjo and joined Jemma Rowlands and her Clifton Hillbillies leading to performances in Nashville TN and Austin TX; then a borrowed guitar spawned a flood of songwriting culminating in his 2015 debut album Mornin Evenin. Further journeys across America’s south inspired his second, more sonically diverse album, Winning Streak.
With a growing reputation as a dynamic entertainer and applauded songwriter, Mastwyk has become an artist to watch in the Australian country music scene. Twice nominated for Best Country Album (Music Victoria Awards), Mastwyk has toured his songs around Australia, NZ and the USA receiving high rotation across national radio. His third album, 2021’s LIVIN ON GOLD STREET, debuted at #1 on the Australian Independent charts and #2 on the ARIA Australian Country charts.
“Wonderfully crafted songs with superb lyrical observation, killer choruses and enough attitude to make you sit up and pay attention.” TAMWORTH COUNTRY CAPITAL NEWS
“Mastwyk plunges headlong into Seventies country-soul glam with lashings of cosmic American pedal steel and psych-guitar glitz.” COUNTRY UPDATE MAGAZINE
“The songs are rich with meaning and truth…real and raw, just as true country music should be.” RHYTHMS MAGAZINE
“A direct line to heartache, Mastwyk has captured the soul of country music.” POST TO WIRE
BEN MASTWYK & HIS MILLIONS WEBSITE