Australian Tour - Supporting Shelley Short

I can finally announce that I'll be supporting my Flippin Yeah Records label mate, Shelley Short, on her album release tour in Australia in January next year.

Shelley has written a really timeless album, Pacific City - which you can get here. It's a stunning piece of work.

I didn't expect to get back to Australia for a while, so it's really good fortune for me that Darren Hanlon, who runs Flippin Yeah, wants me to play enough that he's made it happen, all while being in the middle of a huge Christmas tour.

Thu, Jan 18, 8pm - Brisbane, The End (just me at this one)

Sat, Jan 20, 3pm - Sydney, Petersham Bowls Club

Sun, Jan 21, 5.30pm - Canberra, The Front Gallery

Mon, Jan 22, 7.30pm - Melbourne, Northcote Uniting Church Hall

Tickets are available from Flippin Yeah

Gifts, and 'Leave Love Out Of This' Socks

If you're in New Zealand - there is just enough time to put in an order for physical goods from the store to arrive in time for Christmas. All orders received by this Sunday evening will be sent before NZ Post's cut off time on Tuesday.

On that note - I'm proud to announce the arrival of the 'Leave love out of this' socks - designed by Karlya Smith, and made in New Zealand by the makers of Perfect Socks. They're just $20 a pair, and you can combine the postage costs with a CD or LP.

And yes, that song is coming - next year. Thank you for your patience, we'll make it a real event when it does - I know how lucky I am to have people waiting for a song based only on live shows.

EP lyrics

Someone who purchased the EP mentioned that they would like the lyrics to the EP. It's a reasonable request, so I've put them into this freely available PDF:

I'll look at putting up a full lyrics section in the new year - I'm pondering it a little because I quite like having just five sections on the site.

I've heard a few interpretations of what the song is about, all of them pretty good, so I'll try not to spoil them by giving mine. I'll just say that the song started with the line 'Ask her what she'd like to be and she stares at her hands.' The concept came to me when I realised (I was a little slow on the uptake when it came to biology) that without upright spines, we wouldn't have relatively free hands, and without free hands, we wouldn't have all the strange, wonderful and sometimes malignant jobs we have now. The line about seals I'd been trying to get into a song for a long time - I spent a lot of time watching fur seals in and out of the water when I was a guide on the Otago Peninsula.

Tally Ho 2 Playlist

I've been thinking a lot about the Tally Ho 2 show in November. It really was a special show, and part of it was just the well thought out track-order. So, for those that are interested - I've put together this playlist of all the songs played, in order. I started making it on Spotify, but then there are songs that are too obscure even for that service, so I had to move to Youtube - where I think it works better anyhow.

Of course, what made the show great was that all the songs were put together into the same musical palette, and I can't achieve that here. I have heard a recording may surface at some point - let's hope!

Coastella Festival

I'm delighted to announce a third festival appearance this summer - I'll be doing a pecha kucha and performing at the festival on Saturday, 17th of February.

Lyrics, socks, another playlist, and an Australian Tour