| If I was to say Darren Hanlon was a force of nature it would belie his modesty, which is one of his great qualities both artistically and personally, but having got to know Darren as I have over the last couple of years as we’ve worked together on the forthcoming Buried Country vinyl LP, I am just totally taken aback by his energy, commitment, talent, good humor, imagination, generosity of spirit and general good shittedness. What a guy! And so it is with great pleasure I can now announce that I will be giving the Yuletide Address at his 2018 Xmas show in Sydney at the St.Stephens church in Newtown on Saturday, December 16. For which you can buy tix here… |
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| I came to know Darren via Buried Country sooner than his own music. But by now I’ve come to love his stuff too. The Gympie Songster showed up at the 2015 launch of the new edition of Buried Country in Sydney, after he’d been on the road in search of the ghost of Dougie Young, and then when I bumped into him again at an event at the Golden Age Cinema where Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records of Portland, Oregon, gave a talk and showed some films, well, what happened from there, to cut a long story short, was that we all got together to get together the vinyl LP edition of Buried Country to come out as a co-pro through Mississippi and Darren’s own Flippin’ Yeah label… and so basically after giving Darren a few leads, I just had to sit back and watch him scour all over the country in pursuit of doing the major right thing by this project. He is truly a modern-day troubadour, who just gets around in his shonky old van singing for his supper and enjoying whatever adventures come his way. He has gone way beyond the call of duty to ensure that the new Buried Country LP is not just another, further iteration of the BC brand-cum-juggernaut, but a virtual whole new entity in its own right. To be listening lately to the test-pressing (remember them?!) has just taken my breath away all over again. So, with the artwork currently in production – and that will be something special in itself too, which I’ll save for a surprise upon release – we can now only await the album dropping sometime early in the new year. |
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| Meantime Darren is on the road, as ever, and launching his twelfth annual Christmas show tour. You can read his account of some of his recent adventures on this road here, and get details on the tour dates here, which features special guest the Space Lady direct from San Francisco, and buy tix for the Sydney show here. And so when Darren called and asked if I would deliver the short Christmas address at the Sydney show, I couldn’t have been more flattered. I mean, these are significant shoes I’m being asked to step into, having been previously filled by the likes of Bob Hawke and the late Bob Ellis. I am filled with ambivalence generally about Xmas as it is, but I am willing to take on the challenge and look forward to doing so and I hope to see plenty of revelers there. If nothing else you certainly wouldn’t want to miss this likely once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the incredible Space Lady, check her out here: |
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