Blogcard from Brisbane, Australia (part four)

Well this next Blogcard is written later than I thought.

Thursday evening, October 16^th, Claire performed with the Tara Trio in a small performance theatre of a classical music radio station here in Brisbane. The station, 4MBS, is located in what seems like a regular but somewhat historical house in a residential neighbourhood. Quite quaint. Its theatre is functional and set up so that sets can be built over its large stage area but Claire’s hosts did not develop sets for the event, thinking turnout would be small. Their expectation was less than 20 people arriving, but I think it ended up being an audience of 47.

The Tara Trio, three magnificent lady singers, sang traditional songs with classical arrangements yet into a style of their own. It was wonderful when they merges their voices with Claire singing and playing, but largely this was a show of two acts.

Claire surprised me by singing an almost totally different set to the rest of the tour so far, especially singing several songs from her new Journey With Claire Roche CD that sold well that evening in response.

Most surprising was Claire singing two songs from a CD she recorded with the Tara trio called “The Water Is Wide”, a beautifully produced CD that is released as a mesmerizing illustrated book with the CD perched beautifully in the front cover. The theme of this CD is of songs of the sea and waterways. There is no online presence for this CD yet, so I will be helping with that. What this means is yet another CD featuring Claire, even though she is really a guest, but still an essential CD for Claire Roche music collectors.

This was a superb, feel good, concert night.

Through Friday, Brisbane weather was cloudy cool and not as inspiring as we thought it may be. Both Claire and I were quite exhausted from the tour so far so this was firmly a day of rest. However, I was not idle. I have become more and more amazed and impressed by the musician services of Reverb Nation and a new service introduced by them is the digital distribution of music on iTunes, Amazon, eMusic etc.. As the hotel we are staying in has a decent 14 Mbps connection I took advantage of uploading the WAV files of Claire’s “Journey With Claire Roche” CD to create a digital release on these major download sites. This is a good idea for independent musicians as Claire has received a good regular return from digital downloads of her “Dancing In The Wind” CD. As we all know, it is this income that creates funds to record new releases.

While the WAV files uploaded I did substantial quiet research and learning of the ogham language ready for the planting of our Two Worlds Labyrinth Garden when we return to Ireland. The Ogham language is a language of trees.

Saturday turned into an outdoor adventure day. Anne of the Kookaburra Folk Club collected us to take us to seek out wildlife among the surrounding Brisbane hills and mountains. It was a colourful time on a beautiful and not too hot sunny day. We saw a duckbill platypus, that must be the strangest but most beautiful mammal on earth, with its constant grovelling for worms and shrimp underwater and brief surfacing to eat its catch. It is like a cross between a duck and a huge mole. We also saw various large lizards and what seemed like an endless variety of birds all with unique tropical sounding calls. A lunch outdoors we had to defend our food from the clumsy approaches of wild turkeys and the sneaky swooping of kookaburras.

The day finished with a delightful seafood buffet evening meal with a couple of Claire’s relatives who live in Brisbane.

Tomorrow afternoon, Sunday October 19^th, is perhaps the biggest show on Claire’s tour in the Tara Ballroom of the Queensland Irish Association. I will report that in my next Blogcard.

At the moment I am not sure if the next Blogcard will be from Brisbane or somewhere in New Zealand as tomorrow will be my last day in Australia, all too short. I will be flying to New Zealand from early Monday morning. Claire will then endure the 12 hour drive back south to Sydney for her last performance in Australia in Sydney at the St. Vincent’s Hospital during the morning and lunchtime of Tuesday October 21^st.