2nd February 2010

It's been a while so we have to go back to September 2009 to start this update.

The 5th September saw me conducting a writing and a preforming workshop for members of the Brisbane Valley Writers Group. They were a fantastic and enthusiastic bunch and I really enjoyed my day with them. As with all workshops I learnt a little myself and hope to have inspired others to either keep writing, start writing or to endeavour to work at improving the technical aspects of their poetry. Members of the group certainly did not lack in passion and I can see many great poems forthcoming from this group.

Back to Casino Village RV Resort for their National Camp Oven Festival for 11th, 12th &13th September, where I was roving announcer as well as bush poet. This event is completely different to the Australian Camp Oven Festival held in Millmerran and both events are worth a visit and have their own highlights. The crowd at Casino where a happy friendly group and willingly joined in all novilty events and the camp oven cooking competition where some amaing dishes were created. I personally was delighted to see a traditional corned meat meal come out the surprise winner.

Colleen McLauchlin and her sister Lorna again played host to a wonderful Poets Breakfast at Old Rainworth Fort just outside Springsure on 20th September. Ray Essery made the journey with me and Tom Oliver was agin on hand to help keep a very large crowd entertained. With the assistance of Darryl Haywood an a few other singers and muso's we were able to keep the crowd entertained until well after lunch and although Colleen was suggesting it may be the last annual show, I have a feeling we may be back next year, lets hope so.

It was great to see local poet John Watkins launch his first book at this event We have been watching John improve consistantly over the last few years and there is no doubt that he writes it how he sees it and his work is a real snapshot of rural Australia. I was happy that I was able to assist John through the process by pointing him in the direction of a good printer and pointing out a few pitfalls that can appear along the way.

Ned's Corner Roo Retreat hosted a gathering of men's groups from throughout the area and as always is the case at Ned's it was a very enjoyable and relaxed afair. I had a great time performing to an appreciative audience and by the way they all tucked into Ned's camp oven cooking I think they all went home very full and happy. Ned Winter certainly has not lost his touch with the camp ovens an always puts on a very entertaining display of cooking, yarn spinning and singing.

Next day it was off to Texs for their third and largest Country Music Roundup. This event seems to be on a winner with great facilities, great entertainers and friendly volunteers. On the poetry side of things I was once again aided by Jack Drake and Jim Brown who always produce the goods and a healthy amount of walkup poets on hand to add great variety to the two poets breakfasts.

My daughter, Kelly was once again one of the feature artists along with the likes of Shazza Leigh, Lindsey Butler, Brian Letton, Greg Bain, Pete Smith, Lana Ross, Geoff Gibson, Natalie Foley and a whole host of other great entertainers.

This two day event on the last weekend in September is quickly building a great reputation that not even those wild dust storms could dent this year, although a few singers and poets were heard at times coughing up Lake Eyre topsoil during their performances.

October started with a trip to Killarney on 4th for a poets breakfast with Marco Gliori, the breakfast went down very well with a sizeable audience and it is hoped that this emerging country music weekend can get enough support to remain part of the annual calader of events in South East Queensland.

10th October saw me travelling with daughter, Kelly to Toogoolawa for a charity concert to raise money for one of our many valued FM radio stations, these stations support not only bush poetry but a whole host of Australian singers and songwriters and it felt good to be able to give something back. Lynn Bennet arranged the weekend and although I could only attend the first day it was a huge success and will more than likely be happening again next year, please support it if you can.

Next day I was off to perform bush poetry and do the roving announcing for the Youth Enterprise Trust's annual Bush Fair at Tambourine, their major fundriser for the year. Continual rain throughout the day did little to dampen anyone's spirits and while it may have stopped a few people from actually coming, those who did come seemed to bond together and make light of the situation. All in all it is a great day for a great cause and is held annually around this time so it would be great if people could put it in their calander of events for next year.

Woodford Hotel launched their first Country Music Festival on 17th October with hopes and plans to run at least one a year. They have done an amazing job refurbishing the hotel and have wonderful staff on hand to make any visit there a pleasure. Shirley Friend and myself were engaged to perform at the poets breakfast which started things off at 8:00am. The crowd was pleasing for a first off event and Manfred Vijars and Wally Finch stepped in as walk ups to give us a poem each, one of the days sponsors showed more than a little talent when he respectfully asked to have a go. We rounded the Breakfast off by featuring rising country music star Kelly Fogarty who took just three songs to get a standing ovation from the audience and steal the show. It is hoped this event will continue as I believe it has great potential to grow.

I believe it is always important to remember where you have come from as a performer and never be to proud to give back to the community so on 28th October I ventured to the nursing home at Crows Nest where I was blown away by a very appreciative audience and wonderful staff who were very gracious hosts. I had a fabulous time and met some amazing people.

Bush Poetry tragic Jeff Close was kind enough to invite me to perform at the Highfields Historical Village Annual Bush Poets breakfast for the second time. While numbers were down a bit on previous years we all had a great time and I was abley supported on the day by Dan Thompson and Ned Winter with Elizabeth Thompson from the Brisbane valley Writers Group stepping up to the mark and accepting Jeff's invitation to feature an up and coming poet. This is a wonderful inovation by Jeff and I believe Elizabeth did herself proud and will be better for the experience.

Lex K was kind enough to ask me to organise the poets for Widgee Bush Balladeers Weekend at the end of the month and also invited my daughter, Kelly, to fill in at the last minute as one of the feature singers when the very popularLaura Downing had to withdraw. Once again we were overrun with walk up poets and had to serverly restrict the number of poems for each performer. Feature Poets were, Ray Essery, John Major, Jack Drake, Noel Stallard, Dennis Scanlon and myself. I think we may reduce the number of feature poets next year to give everyone more time on stgae. Kelly recieved some very encouraging comments about her singing, although freely admitting to not fitting neatly into the bush balladeer mould. One fellow performer went so far as to tell her she was the stand out performer of the weekend. Widgee continues to be a well organised and friendly weekend of great bush poetry and country music. I consider it to be a pleasure to do a fair amount of the compereing and to be introducing such talented performers to the stage.

Early November is always a great time for me as it involves one of my favourite Festivals of the year in Mud Bulls and Music, just north of Kilcoy this event combines great bush poetry, country music, 4 x 4 racing events and two nights of profesional bull rides. This year Neil McArthur and Bill Kearns joined me in the near new wine bar performance area where for the second year in a row we played to capacity crowds. This Festival just keeps on improving and if you don't mind camping out for a couple of days I can promise you a wonderful time can be had by all.

The weekend of the 21st & 22nd of November saw the Gidgee Coal Awards conducted once again at Pittsworth. I did a bit of compereing on both days and performed at the poets breakfast with Ray Esery and a host of walk up poets including Brian Weir, Ned Winter, Rodney Chrome, Aly and Rocket McRae to name but a few. Congratulations to all award winners on their success and well done to all finalists.

December was a write off as far as bush poetry goes as I went into Hospital on the Gold Coast on 2nd December to have spinal surgery. Five days in hospital were followed by a madditory stay of a further two weeks at the Coast before being allowed to travel home to Millmerran. At this stage every thing is looking good, my pain levels are down and I am being able to do more and more exercise each couple of weeks. The final results will not be know until Mid March to April 2010 but I am more than hopeful that I will be able to make serious inroads into the amount of painkillers I have to take by then. It was never a chance of 100% improvement but 70% to 80% is hopefully a realalistic target. Thank you to all those whop wished me luck and enquired about my progress through this time.

2010

This year started like most with Tamworth Country Music Festival, I had recovered well enough from my surgery to fullfill all my obligations and was happy with my performances and the crowds at all our shows. Jack Drake invited Ray Essery and myself to perform at a funtion at Dag Station outside Nundle which was very relaxed and well supported by local people as well as festival goers. Neil McArthur did his usual brilliant job running the Longyard Bush Poets Breakfasts and I filled in as compere on three days to give him a well deserved break, despite most venues sruggling with numbers this year the numbers for the Longyard Breakfasts were up on previous years. I did a day for Sam Smyth who does such a wonderful job organising the Poetry shows at North Tamworth Bowls Club and went along for a few impromtu performances at the tent that John Major and Ray Essery set up downtown. While Ray and John did it pretty tough due to the hot weather, I think every bush poet owes them a big thank you as they took bush poetry to people who in most cases had not heard it before and at times attracted audiences in excess of 100. I know for a fact that some of these people were then encouraged to attend other poetry events during the Festival, well done boys.

A flying trip back home to drop in at The Millmeran Australia day celebrations and perfororm one quick poem before heading to Toowoomba and perorming at Toowoomba regional Councils Aust day Celebrationat Picnic point. Thank God for all thr shade trees at Picnic point as it was a really hot day. The audienc was very receptive and it was a very enjoable experience.

That's all for now, I am gearing up for another busy year of performing and writing and with less back pain to deal with I am hopefull my performances will be bigger, better and more energetic than ever. 2010, bring it on.