May Club Night

This was a really outstanding night of entertainment, with many of our regulars plus a local barbershop quartet doing their first performance, storytelling, comedy, poetry, new people, new instruments, the famous 9-member 'barbershop chorus' and much more!

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Alan kicked off the night with The Water is Wide (everyone else seemed to know it too!). Then there was Greg H with his original song based on a Dorothy Hewett poem (there was a bit of a Dorothy Hewett theme as Dave later gave us a dramatic recitation of her poem Clancy and Dooley and Don McLeod.
Gail sang a lovely version of the Beatles song And I Love Her and then it was time for Kathryn to lead the Bush Orchestra in a set of dance tunes including Brown Jug Polka and Rita Baker's Polka.

Rob seems to have a great ear for songs that really work, no matter what the era or genre the song comes from, and tonight was no exception with a spine-tingling version of Dire Strait's Romeo and Juliet.

Then we heard from a new group - a barbershop quartet from Williamstown who have been rehearsing for a few months and chose us for their first public performance. They were great, hope they come back for another go!

Mira had brought her piano accordion this time and once again invited Greg O to join her in a medley of songs - what a wonderful sound!

The barbershop theme continued as we heard from the Barbershop Chorus (they can't really call it a quartet because there are nine of them). A big sound with some great harmonies and lots of good humour.

Speaking of humour, then it was time for the comedy writers who had attended Gary Adams' Comedy Writing workshop the night before to get up and do their stuff. They did not disappoint, with some wicked satirical references to recent news stories that filled the hall with laughter. Great to see our workshop program and the regular club nights come together like this.

Then there was Suzette with a medley of famous American songs, John with Summertime, Jackie with The Drover's Boy (a beautiful and poignant song by Ted Egan) and then a wonderful collaboration between Jackie and Greg J - Jackie told a story of the land-based whalers in NSW who for many years caught and killed Humpback Whales with the help of a pod of Killer Whales, then Greg followed up with a song of the NSW whalers.

At about 11pm we finished off as usual with everyone joining Alan in The Parting Glass. Its a great song to end the night, and this time we sang it in memory of Maurice Frawley (1959 - 2009), from Elmore, who was well known to those of us who have had a couple of trips up to Colbinabbin. Vale Maurice. http://www.messandnoise.com/news/3615654

It was an exceptional evening of jamming, joining in, playing, listening and laughing - and remembering. May there be many more such nights ahead.