BOOKMARKS IN TIME Mark Lucas charts the last two decades of his solo career on a new retrospective, Prisoners Of The Heart. In June of 1981, Mark Lucas stepped off a plane at Sydney Airport and before they’d got home, the girl that he’d followed across the world dumped him, which he half-jokingly says “got … Continue reading
Mark Lucas has been a prolific songwriter in the alt-country realm for a number of decades now, as leader of the Dead Setters, member of 90s group The Parwills and as a solo artist. His latest release with band The Dead Setters finds the group loosening their shoulders and opening up into a more eclectic … Continue reading
Photographer and director Lyn Taylor has started producing some great clips of live acoustic performances of Australian folk and alt. country acts with Nick Payne recording and mixing the audio. The pair also form the core of folk/bluegrass group Dear Orphans. Here are three of our favourite sessions so far with Mark Lucas, Katie Brianna … Continue reading
Given our general focus on Americana music in this part of the world we thought we’d publish our favourite local releases from Australia and New Zealand in 2015. Some of these will also appear in our main Americana albums of the year list but until then, here are local folk who released music that caught … Continue reading
When it rains it pours in the Sydney Americana music scene. This week is a big one for shows with Suzannah Espie launching her album here last night and Shane Nicholson (who is currently in the studio working on Katie Brianna’s new album) plays Newtown Social Club tonight with his band The General Waste. We’ve … Continue reading
As part of the 2015 OXJAM Music Festival the Petersham Bowling Club is presenting OXJAM Inner Western featuring musicians from the local Americana banding together to raise money to support OXFAM’s efforts to reduce world poverty. Now in Australia & started in the UK in 2006, Oxjam is a month-long party against poverty where music lovers from all … Continue reading
The personal highlight of our week was the chance to chat with Jason Isbell ahead of the release of his new album Somewhere More Than Free. From his days in Drive-by Truckers to his solo career that seems to get better and better with each release, culminating to date with Southeastern that garnered Americana Music … Continue reading
Mark Lucas normally fronts the Dead Setters but here he steps out on his own with a collection of intimate and restrained songs. Lucas has decorated his compositions with fiddle, banjo, piano and even tuba without ever distracting from the personal and sometimes socio-political content of his lyrics. ‘Stranger’ possesses a beautiful, lilting melody, ‘Small … Continue reading
Circumstances prevented us from getting a Weekly Round-Up together last week but we’re back this week. Last Friday we presented a show at the Petersham Bowling Club in Sydney and it was an attentive and appreciative audience that were treated to stellar sets from James Thomson (accompanied by bass and fiddle), Davey Craddock and Roland … Continue reading
This week has mainly been about looking back at our favourite Americana albums (click on the image below) that have been released so far in 2015 plus reviews of recently released new albums (all 8/10) from Australian artists Liam Gale & The Ponytails, Raised By Eagles and Ruby Boots. We’d love to hear which albums have … Continue reading
It has been a big week for Americana related tour announcements with news that The Milk Carton Kids, Mary Chapin Carpenter & Tift Merritt and Ryan Adams & Jenny Lewis will be touring here over the next few months. Local acts have also got in on the action with Marlon Williams announcing an Australian and New … Continue reading
Mark Lucas is taking a detour from his work with band The Dead Setters to release his new solo album Little Town Blues on Laughing Outlaw Records. The first taste of the album is the song and video for ‘Tell The DJ’, a plea to the DJ from a heartbroken soul featuring Brielle Davis on backing vocals … Continue reading
The latest instalment of Six Strings, where we focus on an Australian or New Zealand songwriter and dig into their musical psyche, opinions and memories via our Q&A. This one features Mark Lucas, a long-time stalwart of the local Sydney scene who arrived here from England at the dawn of the ’80s and went on … Continue reading
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