DAVE'S DIARY - 17 DECEMBER 2004 - TONY EALES
TONY EALES - BURNS RUBBER AND RIFFS
"Summer afternoons, sun low in the sky/ another hot night of war on the clay/ so get on your feet, it's a hell of a show/ World Series Sprintcars is go." - Sprintcar Superstars - Tony Eales-Michael Flanders.
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Brisbane
country singer-songwriter Tony Eales is speeding in the slipstream
of fellow car crooner and multi Tamworth Gold Guitar award winner
Adam Brand. Eales grew up in Brisbane where he played wind instruments including trumpet in the orchestra at Camp Hill High School where he also sang in the choir. |
"I had
written bits and pieces over the years and aspired to write," Eales,
now 38, told Nu Country.
"I then decided to marry and have kids. I have two kids - Katie 12
and Lachlan seven. I had to get a real job. I'm a carpenter by trade and
work the car circuit as well. About four or five years ago I had voice
lessons that helped me to connect. I went in contests around Brisbane
and reverted to writing, honing my craft."
It was only after Eales was divorced that he returned to music and writing.
"It was therapy for myself, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed singing,"
Eales said as he promoted Life 101 produced by his multi-instrumentalist
co-writer Michael Flanders.
Flanders production of the sizzling session band is a powerful conduit
giving Eales songs maximum impact.
It doesn't hurt that Flanders also plays mandolin, banjo, lap steel and
keyboards on a disc featuring bassist Chris Haigh - husband of popular
NSW singer Rosemarie Rae - drummer Hanuman Dass, Matt Harrison on fiddle
and mandolin and Dallas Southern on pedal steel.
TRANSPLANTED LOVE AND FAITH
"Two
transplants given in love/ your body rejected both brothers' blood/ you
don't have a mean bone/ why has life been so cruel, have faith."
- Caroline - Tony Eales-Chaise-Michael Flanders.
| When
Eales belatedly recorded his debut at 37 he found solace in his reality-rooted
songs. The real gems are his songs of faith Caroline and title track penned with school friend Chaise and producer Flanders. Caroline is an uplifting paean to schoolteacher friend, Caroline Stewart just 31, now clinging to life after her body rejected two kidney and spleen transplants. "Caroline is a very special person," Eales revealed of the woman now in hospital in Maryland in the U.S. |
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"At
the time I wrote that song she had been in critical care and had died
a few times already and somehow come back. Basically we were told she
wouldn't survive more than a week and I wrote the song as a grieving process
for me. Amazingly she is still with us at the moment although almost died
on the operating table two weeks ago. She loves the song and has begged
me to play it at her funeral as an ode. She cried when she heard the song.
She said 'I cried because you made me feel like I was completely loved
by one person in this world."
Eales joined Caroline from the early stages of her journey when she suffered
kidney failure from juvenile diabetes.
"She had her first kidney and spleen transplant in 1992," Tony
revealed.
"We have been great friends ever since. Over 12 years she one of
persons I'm most honest with. We can lay it all out on the table and be
honest, like a sounding board for each other. She was a schoolteacher
before the first spleen and kidney transplant. Two of her brothers gave
her kidneys. They were compatible. One kidney went for five years. Then
the other brother gave her a kidney. It went for three or four years.
They tried to do another transplant about four weeks ago. But the last
dialysis port closed up. She's now at University of Maryland. There is
a 98% chance they won't be able to do another operation. The circulatory
system is now so bad. Her problem came from juvenile diabetes - the blood
pressure and the kidneys shut down."
CHAISE LONG
"I wanna ride on the edge of life/ reach up high and touch the sky/ find the truth of misery/ break its neck and set it free/ I wanna sleep with angel wings/ wrapped around my earthly body/ live my life with open arms/ embraced by life 101." - Life 101 - Toy Eales-Chaise.
Eales wrote
Caroline with Flanders and guitarist wife Chaise whom Eales hooked up
recently for writing after a 20-year separation.
"We went to school together for 12 years, swam together and stuff,
we lost touch after school and finally were brought back together after
not seeing each other for nearly 20 years," Eales says of the woman
who scored #1 dance tracks in the late nineties.
"She is the wife of my producer/manager Michael Flanders. He arranged
for us to song write together."
The duo also wrote the inspirational title track on a disc that maximises
mood swings from the joyous entrée Living In Sin to the
finale Rhythm Of Life.
Eales also penned the visually graphic Midnight Sun, Rocky Mountain
Free and finale with Chaise.
The tunes cover a diverse range of mood swings in the rich texture of
faded, jaded and resurrected love.
"This album has been extremely cathartic for me," says Eales
who has written songs prolifically for the past five years, "it was
like a final step to finding my true voice. It is a very personal album
for the people who connect with its essence. The tale of this album is
really amazing and it was brought together by a series of chances to form
itself. The universe drew in the people that were needed to make this
album what it is. I know that sounds all new age freaky but it is basically
what happened. A force much great than me created this thing."
MILE HIGH CLUB
"Her
and the dogs heading west, Rocky Mountain Free/ Rocky Mountain Free, so
that's how we got together/ met each other at 8000 feet." - Rocky
Mountain Free - Tony Eales-Chaise.
Rocky Mountain Free is a sibling song of I'm On My Way - celebration
of life on a Nashville trip.
Eales finds true love in a metaphorical sense en route to Music City.
So did Tony join the mile high club over Tennessee to source his song?
"I claim diplomatic immunity on that," he quipped.
"It's more metaphorical - about my current partner and ex-wife. It
was spawned from my wife in divorce court. We had a really ugly divorce,
she was on the stand and said the only reason she married me was for money
and security. She said: "I didn't really love you at all.' That stung.
I don't know if she meant it or just said it to get back at me but I have
finally met someone who I really connect with. We finish each other's
questions and sentences. I wrote the song in about two minutes."
I'M ON MY WAY
"Tim McGraw on my headset/ watch the wind blow by/ life flows to country music/ even way up in the sky/ that catchy sound keeps me grounded/ when I feel like floating away/ on a plane bound for Nashville/ where my soul tells me to play." - I'm On My Way - Tony Eales-Thomas Reed Smith.
Eales attributes
karmic dreams as inspiration for I'm On My Way.
"I had a dream, every time before something big happens I have this
dream," Tony added, "I call it my Kenny Chesney dream like a
piece of video from It Doesn't Happen Twice. He walks on this stage
in Knoxville to a sea of people. I had that dream the day before flying
to Nashville."
And the dream didn't take long to translate to song.
"I wrote that early this year flying to Nashville," Eales revealed,
"I heard the Tim McGraw song Watch The Wind Blow By on the
plane. I didn't know who it was until I read the booklet. I sat up and
wrote the song in two minutes."
Eales will perform songs from his album on the summer Sprint Car circuit
on the Australian east coast.
TONY TOUR DATES
December 26th, 2004 - WSS Round 6 Murray Bridge - Riverview Speedway
December 27th, 2004 - WSS Round 7 - Mt. Gambier Speedway
December 28th, 2004 - WSS Round 8 - Avalon Raceway
December 30th, 2004 - WSS Round 9 - Warrnambool - Premier Speedway
January 1st and 2nd, 2005 - WSS Round 10 and 11 - Brisbane - Brisbane
International Speedway
January 5th, 2005 - WSS Round 12 - Brisbane International Speedway
January 8th, 2005 - WSS Round 13 - Sydney - Parramatta City Speedway
January 12th to 15th, 2005 - Outlaws Downunder - Moama - Heartland Speedway
January 19th, 2005 - WSS Round 14 - Mildura - Timmis Speedway
January 21st, 2005 - WSS Round 15 - Adelaide - Speedway City
January 22nd, 2005 - WSS Final