The Songroom- Season 3

I have spent the past two Tuesday nights at the Northcote Social Club for tapings of Season 3 of The Songroom. While Jess McGuire has returned as host, Kris Schroeder and Tim Heath from The Basics are now overseeing things from behind the scenes. The new house band features Brett Wolfenden on percussion and Benji Miu on guitar. As with the previous seasons, veteran and newer artists come together on the day of the show, and each person gets to play two originals and two covers as they take turns singing in the round.

27 November
Brett and Benji came out first and played a couple instrumental versions of songs to warm up, including Chris Issak’s "Wicked Game." Jess McGuire then introduced each of this week's guests one by one: New South Wales singer-songwriters William Crighton and Melanie Horsnell, and Melbourne hip-hop artist Sirak Abu. The magic of The Songroom is how everyone plays on each other's songs and the unexpected things that can happen. William Crighton decided to change songs last minute, and played his song "Fire In The Empire" about a massacre of Aboriginal people on the land he had been camping on. As a response to that song, Melanie Horsnell switched up her next song and played "Sugar And White Man" about the stolen generation and loss of culture. It was an amazing moment to hear those two songs back to back. There were also some great covers with Melanie doing Edith Piaf's "La Vie En Rose" and William singing Leonard Cohen's "Bird On The Wire" and Neil Young's "Roll Another Number (For The Road)," which finished off the night.

4 December
This evening's guests were Melbourne music royalty Dave Graney and his long-time partner Clare Moore, and the band Rudely Interrupted, which features Rory Burnside on lead vocals. It was quite an upbeat show with lots of humorous moments both through the song lyrics of Dave and Clare's songs and Rory's stories. Highlights included Clare Moore's "A Lot To Drink About," Dave Graney's "Apollo 69" (which is from my favorite mid-90s Graney era), and Rudely Interrupted's "No Goodbyes." There were also some interesting covers, with Clare playing John and Beverley Martyn's "Auntie Aviator," Dave doing The Rolling Stones' "Time Waits For No One," and Rory playing Modern English's "I Melt With You." They all finished the evening playing the Rudely Interrupted track "Calculus & Tea."

Here's The Songroom episode featuring Gotye and Monty Cotton, which was taped in late December 2016 (see if you can spot me in the crowd):

The Basics Present The Songroom- Gotye and Monty Cotton

On Wednesdays during November and December The Basics and MC Jess McGuire have been hosting the second season of The Songroom at Northcote Social Club. The Songroom pairs established and up-and-coming Australian acts in an in-the-round session of original songs and covers, with Kris Schroeder and Tim Heath from The Basics acting as the house band.

Mary and I have been a bit delinquent in attending The Songroom this time, but tonight was the last show of 2016 and featured Monty Cotton and the one and only Gotye (aka Wally "Basic" De Backer). As you can imagine, this show sold out soon after Wally was announced as the other special guest.

Wally was introduced first and kicked off the evening with "Coming Back." Tonight was an unique opportunity to get to hear Gotye tracks done in a stripped back, acoustic fashion and the versions of "Bronte" and "Hearts A Mess" (which included Wally playing a little bell) were outstanding. Jess quizzed him on what is happening in New York with the recording of the new Gotye album and Wally said that he's been working with Franc Tetaz on songs. There are also some satellite projects that are a part of the bigger picture, which is what's causing some of the delays. He is hoping to release some songs in 2017. For covers Wally chose to do Simon & Garfunkel's "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" (partially due to farewelling his Basics bandmates in a week when he heads back to the US) and Kate Bush's "Army Dreamers."

Monty Cotton, a former accountant turned musician, outed himself as a long time fan of The Basics. He is best known for his Johnny Cash tribute show called A Boy Named Cash. For his original tracks he played "Stay With Me Tonight," "No Reason To Explain" and a song he put together of different Irish reels that gradually increased in pace. It was quite funny to watch Wally on percussion keeping up with the fast beat at the end. Monty's cover songs were The Seekers' "I Am Australian" and one of his Dad's songs called "Walkabout." It was at this point that we learned some interesting facts: a) Monty's real name is Alex, and his Dad's name is Monty, and b) he is recording an album of his Dad's songs while also having taken his Dad's name as his stage name.

As the house band for The Songroom, Kris and Tim make a couple "Sultan's Choices" for cover songs each week. Midway through the set they played Stevie Wonder's "They Won't Go When I Go" (a song also covered by George Michael), and at the end they did Robert Palmer's "Addicted To Love" (which inspired a conversation about misheard lyrics). Normally this would have been the close of the evening, but for perhaps the first time ever there was demand for an encore. After people got Tim a beer and Kris a white wine we were treated to two more songs. Tim sang The Basics' "Hey Rain" and they finished the night with Gotye's worldwide smash "Somebody That I Used To Know" (with the women in the audience singing Kimbra's part). It was a great show and hopefully there will be future seasons of The Songroom in 2017.

The Basics Present The Songroom

The Basics have begun a new venture on Wednesdays in May at the Northcote Social Club with The Songroom. Each week features Kris and Tim playing along with two other artists in the round with special guest MC Jess McGuire.

4 May

It was a small and intimate gathering of punters for the very first Songroom event. Kris and Tim started things off with The Basics classic "Home Again." This evening's special guests were Kiwi singer/songwriter Skyscraper Stan (Skyscraper Stan and the Commission Flats) and Felicity Cripps (Hoy, Slow Galo). Each artist played a couple of their own songs, with Jess McGuire interviewing them in between tracks. Stan's love of Americana and Delta Blues suddenly became a running joke about "Delta Goodrem Blues" throughout the night. We also learned that Felicity is the songwriter in the Heath/Cripps household, but Tim contributes music (and does the dishes). There were numerous lesser known cover songs played from a range of artists, including Johnny Cash, The Triffids, The Everly Brothers, Elton John, Stevie Nicks, David Bowie and Joni Mitchell. The final song for the night was Crowded House's "It's Only Natural." It was a good first attempt at a format that I'm sure they will iron out over the coming weeks.

11 May

I think tonight's gig had at least twice as many audience members as last week. The Northcote Social Club provided bean bags for people to sit on and the "in the round" was lit by a series of large and small desk lamps. Kris and Tim began the evening with a cover of John Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over" as a way to ease some tensions between the two of them from the previous week. The special guests tonight were William Crighton and Angie Hart (Frente!). The show went much smoother as there was a set list and it seemed like everyone's parts in each song had been arranged ahead of time. Jess McGuire's interview questions between songs were quite insightful, covering such topics as Cold Chisel's "Khe Sanh," the writing process, and what it was like for Angie to have fame at such an early age with Frente!. William and Angie each played a couple of their own songs as well as some covers, with highlights being Angie's duet with Tim on "Little Bridges" (a song she co-wrote with Mark Seymour), Smokey Robinson and The Miracles' "You Really Got A Hold On Me," Frente!'s "Ordinary Angels," William's song "Priest" and The Bangles' "Walk Like An Egyptian." They finished the evening with "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" by Stevie Nicks.

There are two more weeks of the The Songroom remaining so if you are in Melbourne be sure to check it out.