OUT ON THE WEEKEND 2018 - REVIEW
OUT ON THE WEEKEND
SEAWORKS, WILLIAMSTOWN
OCTOBER 13, 2018
BIRDCLOUD SAVIOURS FOR JESUS
“Honey I feel your bone, I'd rather sit here all alone/ Oh honey I feel your bone, I'd rather sit here all alone/ you tell me that you love me, don't try and corrupt me/ I'm saving myself for Jesus.” - Saving Myself For Jesus - Birdcloud
 |
It seemed fitting that two mock shock senoritas from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, would stage their satiric showcase opposite The Pirates Tavern on the outside stage of the fifth Out On The Weekend festival orchestrated by alt-country music promoter Brian Taranto. Jasmin Kaset and Makenzie Green, known as Birdcloud , formed in 2010 and caused outrage over five albums that have been perceived as gender jumping siblings of septuagenarian former convict hit writer outlaw David Allan Coe's country porn albums. The duo have frequently received death threats and boycott threats that stimulated their nouveau outlaw success. |
But today their salacious show, uploaded to Instagram with all its sensual interplay, was already top of the internet hit parade.
Song titles such as Vodkasodaburg, Wild Turkey 101, Problem Drinker, Do What I Want, Saving Myself for Jesus, Fiasco and Fuck You Cop ensured these birds flew well above and below the censorship clouds.
It was a vast contrast to other early artists Emilee South, Dan Parsons , Georgia State Line, Weeping Willows , The Dusty Millers , Sierra Ferrell, Roger Knox and Davey Craddock.
Equally joyous humour was delivered in the tavern by the harmonic Cartridge Family while C.W. Stoneking gave a bluesy acoustic set opposite.
JOSHUA HEDLEY AND HEDLINERS HONKY TONK HEROES
“If these walls could talk, I bet they'd sing a song/ one that's sad and lonely and a little too long/ about a woman who said she was through/ and a man who can't move on/ if these walls could talk, I bet they'd sing a song.” - If These Walls Could Talk - Joshua Hedley.
 |
Country purists dined out on former Old Crow Medicine Show multi-instrumentalist Willie Watson, Courtney Marie Andrews and Florida born Joshua Hedley and the Hedliners.
Unlike the Birdcloud belles, who shed sartorial accessories, Hedley lost and found his spectacles in his entrée song Night Life, penned by Octogenarian Willie Nelson.
Hedley name-checked Willie, Billy Joe Shaver and the late Merle Haggard, George Jones and Waylon in his segue into Weird Thought Thinker that he introduced as “this song is about me.”
Hedley previewed If These Walls Could Talk as a “song about a bar that doesn't exist anymore.”
And Counting All My Tears - “I wrote this next song about a woman who doesn't exist anymore, well she might.”
Hedley tested the venue by-laws by lighting a cigarette as he announced it was his ninth Australian tour and fifth Out On The Weekend festival for promoter BT.
“This is the best but I'm testing the limits by lighting this cigarette,” he quipped.
But that problem was hand-balled when he transferred the fag to his guitar strings during This Time before he stood on it.
“I'd like to introduce the band,” Hedley announced as they left their pedal steel guitar, keyboards, drums, bass and guitars to shake hands with each other.
“I stole that joke from Merle Haggard,” he quipped as he moved into Johnny Bush penned What A Way To Live that he credited to Willie, now 85.
Hedley, a generous gaucho, added “this feels like home to me, this is my ninth time here you really feel like family to me.”
At this stage he invited a song request from the audience and chose Hank Williams Jr song Old Habits.
“When I first went to Nashville I played for tips on Lower Broadway at Roberts Western World,” Hedley added as he volunteered another request from himself.
“My favourite Dwight Yoakam song is Ain't That Lonely Yet ,” Hedley revealed, “I would be lying if I said I hadn't had a bit to drink. This is a song about how much L.A. sucks.”
He then performed Yoakam tune I Sang Dixie from Dwight's 1988 album Buenas Noches From a Lonely Room .
Hedley finally introduced his band including bassist Tim Baker from Melbourne band James Ellis & The Jealous Guys and Brisbane drummer Tom Perkins before performing the David Houston classic Living In A House Full Of Love and his original honky tonk anthem Mr Jukebox .
The band closed their set with the Leigh Harline-Ned Washington penned Disney staple When You Wish Upon A Star - his tribute to his late father.
It was pure country delivered with panache.
MARGO PRICE TURBO CHARGED
“Well, all the Midwest farms are turning into plastic homes/ and my uncle started drinking when the bank denied the loan/ but now it's liver failure and there's mad cows being cloned/ and it's all American made/ but I was just a child unaware of the effects/ raised on sports and Jesus and all the usual suspects/ so tell me, Mr Petty, what do you think will happen next/ that's all American made.” - All American Made - Margo Price-Jeremy Ivey.
 |
Midwest Farmer's Daughter Margo Price proved from her turbo charged entrée Don't Say It that her live show was a vast contrast to her albums where her lyrics drove the train.
Here it was the band in the engine room with Price pulling the throttle as she revved up Do Right By Me from her second solo album All American Made and Tennessee Song from her debut disc Midwest Farmer's Daughte.
“The future ain't what it used to be/ let's go back to Tennessee / mountain high and valley low/ let's build down where the waters flow.”
That's where Price, now 35, recorded previous albums with her embryonic bands Margo & The Price Tags and Buffalo Clover with guitarist husband Jeremy Ivey.
Price was making her debut Australian tour with concerts at the Caravan Club in Bentleigh, another at Thornbury Theatre and two in Sydney.
The singer and band stayed in top gear for Texan Rodney Crowell's historic hit Ain't Living Long Like This.
“This is a character study of people I know back in Tennessee ,” Price revealed of faux outlaws in her anthemic satire Cocaine Cowboys .
To emphasise her message she switched from her guitar to a second drum kit for the dual drum driven marathon solo.
This enabled her to chill out on piano on her acoustic All American Made title track and A Little Pain that featured a young girl falling down stairs in tears in the bleachers at the back of the auditorium in an impromptu cameo.
Hurting on The Bottle from her debut album expanded into a three piece medley with verses from Merle Haggard's I'll Just Stay Here And Drink and the Johnny Bush penned Willie Nelson hit Whiskey River.
Multi-instrumentalist Margo indulged in her second marathon drum solo on Four Years Of Chances from her debut disc that preceded her band jam on Creedence Clearwater Revival 1969 hit Proud Mary.
By now Joshua Hedley was back on stage on tambourine for her Dolly Parton tribute finale 9 To 5 - the 1980 hit and movie.
Price returned to the stage and told her audience “I love you so much” with a promise to return.
She also activated her new found love for festival fans with a shower of roses - a gesture she admitted was inspired by the late soul and R & B singer Charles Bradley who died at 68 in 2017.
Promoter Brian Taranto ascend the stage and invited fans to return next year for his sixth Out On The Weekend celebration of diverse Americana music.
Review by David Dawson
Photo Credits:
Birdcloud and Joshua Hedley by Jeremy Lee.
Margo Price by Kip Karpik.