Club Night March 2010

A big night with lots of regulars and quite a few new faces too. "Hillbilly Mike" must be spreading our influence in the East as there were a few other folks from the other side of town too, lovely to see (and hear) you!

Alan and Christine started us up with All I Have to Do is Dream, followed by Bill and Marilyn with Mr Bojangles. (Music trivia question: who wrote Mr Bojangles? Answer at the bottom of this report. )
Suanna played a couple of originals - Pirate Song and Hello Fiddle, showing that she's not only a great player but a talented composer as well!
Raymond gave us a superb version of the convict classic Moreton Bay, filling the hall with his rich voice. In her first solo performance, Christina performed The Entertainer on ukulele - as she said, it seems to work pretty well on piano so why not uke? Nice work Christina!
There were a couple of Simon and Garfunkel classics performed during the night, with 59th Street Bridge Song from Tiya and Sound of Silence, complete with the original S&G harmonies, from Christine and Alan.
There was also a bit of a blues theme going, with John leading us on Red House...(once you get a good 12-bar blues going it's hard to stop!) and a little later Gail with another one...can't remember the title but it got just about everyone playing along!
Lots of dance tunes and singalongs (and another first - Bruce on fiddle!) took us up to 11 o'clock when Alan wound us up by getting everyone singing along to Leadbelly's classic Sylvie. It's a big sound when everyone joins in! Thanks everybody for another great night of music!

Music trivia answer: Mr Bojangles was written by Jerry Jeff Walker, see Wikipedia.

Newport Bush Orchestra Monday 22 March

Present: Leonie, Kathryn, Rob R, Chris K, Annette, Bruce S, Greg O, Wendy, Alasdair, Simon D, Bruce W, Mary-Ann, Rhonwyn, Rob D, Christina, Michael DV, Dave I. and 3 newcomers Helen, Annett and Cathryn

In the first half tonight the rhythm group reviewed the tunes we learnt this term - Gardebelayton, Syd Briggs, God Bless You and Bugger Me, Sally Sloane, Sofala Cuckoo, Moonan Flat and Och Nee Ochen Sue.

Greg taught the melody players School Polka.

After the break we ran through all of the above tunes together.

This was the last meeting of a very busy and productive Term 1. The Bush Orchestra will resume for Term 2 on Monday 12 April.

See you all then.

Bruce Williams

Bush Dance

What a great evening! The weather was perfect, lots of people and lots of willing dancers. The Newport Lakes Primary School choir started us off with bracket of great songs and actions to suit. Thanks kids, you were great! Also wonderful to see lots of Mums and Dads there, joining in with the dancing too. Tuppeny Kit (Neil and Maryanne) followed them with some traditional songs. Then it was the first bracket of dancing, with the Newport Bush Orchestra sounding better than ever and Neil demonstrating and calling the dances.



After half an hour of energetic dancing it was time for a change of pace with Rob Durbridge and then Dave Isom entertaining us with everything from soulful ballads to political broadsides. Then more dancing, with an even larger group than before!

After we'd worn everyone out with dancing, Georgina and Isabel Stewart took the stage and gave us a bracket of beautiful songs including Lily Allen's Smile. By this stage we were running a little ahead of schedule, so the Barbershop Chorus were only just ready to go on stage, but go on they did and they certainly rose to the occasion with their beatiful and intricate harmonies. Then it was time for yet another round of dancing, finishing off with a circle of 82 people (I counted them) in the circle for the Hokey Pokey.

Special thanks to Christine McDonald for organising the event, Dave Isom for promotions, Eamon Spillane for operating the PA, event partners Friends of Newport Lakes, and Hobsons Bay City Council for funding support.

Bush Orchestra heads North in 2010

Bush Orchestra heads North

The Newport Bush Orchestra spent the weekend of 12th to 14th of March working the streets (and river) of Echuca as part of the 2010 Echuca-Moama Celtic Festival. All had a great time as we found wonderful spots to park ourselves and play to the festival-goers. One enthusiastic (and generous) gentleman was so enamoured of the music that he insisted on shouting the entire orchestra drinks! Some of the members did a fun gig on the Paddle Steamer Canberra. All in all it was a wonderful weekend of music and song Newport Bush Orchestra style.

Bruce Williams

Newport Bush Orchestra Monday 15/03/10

Present: Leonie, Kathryn, Rob R, Christine H, Annette, Bruce S, Wendy, Alasdair, Bruce W, Rhonwyn, Christina, Michael DV,Christine McD, Dave Issom, Rob D.

Lots of housekeeping stuff tonight. We had a quick debrief re Echuca-Moama Celtic Festival. Spent some time responding to the Festival Committee's survey of all bands. Then discussed organisational aspects of the up-coming Bush Dance at Newport Lakes (see website calendar for details). I also mentioned that I'll be playing in Paine Reserve Newport this Saturday from 10-11am to promote the Bush Dance. All Bush Band members are invited to join if they are free and feel up to it at that early hour (well for musicians anyway).

We then ran the sets for the upcoming Bush Dance. Tunes included clare jig, herb's jig, cunamulla, gallopede, black cat, railway hotel, blaydon races, veggie jig, cock o the north, syd briggs, rakes of mallow, rita baker, brown jug polka, tell me ma, 40 pound float, troika.

See you all at the Bush Dance.

Bruce Williams

Choir 3 March

The choir is sounding better and better and we are finally achieving a good balance of men and women - almost equal numbers this rehearsal, with seven men and nine women. We focussed on our coming performance at the Williamstown Festival (1:15pm Sunday 14 March at Commonwealth Reserve) and the repertoire is shaping up to be:

Canaan's Land
Dimna Juda
Pick a Bale of Cotton
All Night Swing Low Quodlibet
Roof Rack
Shut de Door
Sylvie

Go choir!

February Club Night

Alan & Christine started the night off with All I Have to Do is Dream inviting others to join in. Great to see Anton ( an old friend of the Folk Club) who brought along one of his students Steve, they delighted us with a number of tunes during the evening, one being Stanton Island. Ted can always be relied on to pluck out a selection of finger picking numbers and again tonight didn't disappoint us.



Jackie on uke dusted off an old favourite from her repertoire Leaving on a Jetplane. Dave recited a Banjo Patterson piece - Johnson's Antidote in his characteristic style. Kathryn was called upon to lead a few Bush Orchestra pieces and did us proud. Simon L invited Greg O to join him in The Blackbird – finding the only Australian Folk tune Greg didn’t know, but they did a great job. Moira, Nicola & Ric - 3 beautiful tunes... Greg J always comes up with an obscure number, tonight was Sam Hall, Chimney Sweep, with everyone joining in. Adrian challenged himself with a couple of songs, Neil Young’s Ambulance Blues and Jim Croce’s Time in a Bottle – well done Adrian. Rob R had the room joining in on his version of Banks of Ohio and a bit later with Battle of New Orleans.

Simon K played another of his own compositions, The Waterfall. After the break Christine & Alan brought out another harmony, The Beatles If I Fell. Bruce W and Greg O played a traditional Appalachian piece (whoops, what was it again?) on mandolin and fiddle. Then Greg O took us back with an old Australian song Riding to the Never Never. Bill kept us waiting til after the break to play his number Star of the County Down and it was worth the wait. Alan finished the evening at 11pm with the usual Parting Glass. Thanks all, another great night of performing and listening to music and spoken word together.

Newport Bush Orchestra Monday 1/03/10

Present: Leonie, Kathryn, Rob R, Chris K, Christine H, Pam, Annette, Bruce S, Greg O, Wendy, Alasdair, Simon D, Bruce W, Gyrah, Czarline, Zion, Zymone, Czarina, Athaliah, Mary-Ann, Rhonwyn, Clive P, Christina, Marilla, Michael DV.

Tonight we welcomed newcomer Christina Paulidis who played a mean fiddle, and Clive who has returned from holidays.

We worked on Frank Collins Polka and Och Knee Ochen Sue.

There will be no Bush Orchestra next week (8th March) due to the Labour Day holiday.

On the weekend of the 13/14th of March the Bush Orchestra will be roaming the streets of Echuca as part of the Echuca Celtic Festival.

Bruce W