Small Halls - Week Four — Karl S. Williams

The end of The Festival of Small Halls Spring Tour! This was really only a partial week, we had two final shows in Goombungee and Texas then a rainy drive up onto the plateau for Dorrigo Folk & Bluegrass Festival.

Exhaustion was definitely getting a hold of me by this point but the music is a source of boundless energy. We began the week by driving from Caloundra to Goombungee which is very winding and beautiful country. Through Kilcoy and Esk we began to encounter some rain which was playing havoc all over the place.

Our support in Goombungee was Kadi Lillis and her Dad who were very lovely indeed. The venue was a beautiful timber hall with an open ceiling and the classic pressed tin cladding around the stage. I loved the mural at the back.

Our support in Texas were Girl Friday and The Silverbacks. Quick to remind us they were really farmers and not musicians - I think they did very well indeed.

I have been curious to get to Texas for a long time, partly because of the name and also because I’d seen pictures of the excellent art-deco facade on the hall. It is a wonderful little town and the people were very welcoming and engaged with the music. I love that everyone brought a picnic to the show! I can heartily recommend The Stockman as a very good pub if you’re ever out that way.

**Texas to Dorrigo**

We had a day without a show so could take our time getting to Dorrigo. This is lucky because there had been a lot of rain in this area and we were expecting to run into road closures.
The direct route to Dorrigo via Inverell was closed so we ended up on a different road which wound through some really quintessential highland bush. Unfortunately after crossing a couple of causeways we reached one that was completely unsafe so we had to double-back to the main road and take a slight detour via Tenterfield.
All this added quite a bit to our travel time so we holed up in Glen Innes for the night. The sky was dark with moisture but it made for some great rainbows as the sun fell.

Dorrigo Folk & Bluegrass Festival was wet but damn it was a wonder! So many great players, including a few over from the States, and full of that beautiful warmth that comes with folk audiences. I felt like I’d come home and indeed we were billeted in the most homely home (thank you to our hosts) - with a fireplace and a cat to curl up with.

Beyond everything else, they did the most wonderful job with the decorations. There were cloth penants and bunting hanging in different venues, as well as these wonderful paintings on floral fabric. It all lent to the warm feeling of the whole festival.

I have loved so much music from the American South and I greatly appreciate being able to hear it played by people from there. I have seen The Whitetop Mountaineers play before and loved what they did so it was a joy to watch them again. I briefly got to meet Martha backstage and she was a delight (though I regret my capacity for conversation was rather lacking). I’m not an exponent enough that I could really sit in but it was great to see them and others playing with local musicians. That’s the magick of music and folk forms.

These images came from the closing concert during which we all had a chance to play a song or two to thank the volunteers. I missed most of the artists during the festival so this was a really great way to hear almost everyone, straight-up acoustic into stage-mics… It was a beautiful place to find myself after a month on the road.

This seemed like an appropriate image to end with. The dirt of a beautiful festival and many more unseen layers after a long tour. Everything a little more worn, just as it should be.