Mantra Oasis in Desert
The sun was high in the spring sky when I headed west to the Mantra Bar in Yarraville for the launch of Patsy & Dave’s ninth CD The Willow.
Williamstown singing lawyer Patsy Toop OAM and Yarraville singer-signwriter Dave Baird released their first eight albums as The Long & Short Of It
when they performed under that name.
The launch was an oasis in the desert of the Victorian capital city that was besieged for a week by protestors attacking police and buskers and throwing missiles including bottles and horse manure at the police and their surrealistic steeds.
I avoided the strife saturated city by driving over the West Gate Bridge and heading to the melodious Mantra Bar in Yarraville.
The bar is directly opposite the Bros outlaw motorcycle gang clubhouse but there was no revving and rampant riding in the cool evening air.
This was a venue where guests were made welcome by smiling staff bearing drinks and other delicacies for early arrivals.
Among the guests was my former Juke Magazine colleague Greg Phillips who now writes for Australian Musician Magazine and calls the bliss of Kangaroo Ground his home.
We wrote for the pioneer music magazine under late editor Ed Nimmervoll who picked up the reins in 1975 when sixties music Go Set magazine expired in 1974.
Tonight’s guest artist Russell Morris regaled patrons with anecdotes of the Go Set era with tales of its star Ian Molly Meldrum.
Molly still dines out on his production of Morris’s initial huge hit The Real Thing – written by Johnny Young for Ronnie Burns – in 1969.
Meldrum hired The Groop as backing band with vocal contributions from Danny Robinson of the Wild Cherries, The Chiffons, Maureen Elkner, Sue Brady and Judy Condon, guitarist Roger Hicks from Zoot Billy Green (known as Wil Greenstreet) on electric lead guitar and sitar.
This also rings a bell or two for this reviewer as Robinson was also a member of the Virgil Brothers with fellow Melbourne Grammar boarding school mate Rob Lovett.
In 1970 Danny recorded a cover of Cat Stevens song Wild World released under the name Fourth House that hit local charts.
The singing bassist later fronted the Hit & Run country band in Melbourne in the seventies and eighties.
Danny wrote their song Smack, Smoke & Whiskey which he sent to former convict and outlaw country star David Allan Coe at my suggestion.
That was long after Danny and this reviewer grew up in Warrnambool and were sent off to boarding school at the age of eight, Danny’s dad was a dentist and mine was a fourth-generation dairy farmer.
Robinson, who is three months older than me, now practises as a luthier in Anglesea with many musicians playing his guitars.
Enough trivia – back to Patsy & Dave who are much younger.
Patsy & Dave Earn This Rave
We moved from the front bar to the stage room where Patsy & Dave were joined on stage by Russell Morris and their band who included guests at the recent wake of Nu Country TV Vice President Rod Browne.
Rod was also a luthier, guitarist, drummer and DJ on Nu Country FM radio station with his son Callan.
The band started with two tunes from The Willow – Just One Moon and Tear Stained Eye. “I first heard Tear Stained Eye performed by Kevin Bennett and The Flood,” Baird told the audience.
“Son Volt were the writers.”
Patsy mastered the keyboards as Dave played guitar and sang
"walking down Main Street getting to know the concrete
looking for a purpose from a neon sign
I would meet you anywhere, western sun meets the air
we'll hit the road, never looking behind.”
Then it was time for Russell Morris to enter main stage after his trip from Queensland.
“It’s a great pleasure to be playing with this band but I have the memory of a goldfish in the rehearsals,” Morris quipped as he took the lead on the album title track he wrote with Patsy & Dave.
The Willow was inspired by Dave’s memory of a Willow tree he played in at his grandparents’ home.
“The willow tree was surrounded by the beauty and lives on,” Dave revealed after the song finished. “Thank you very much.”
Dave then introduced their second collaboration with Russell – Rumblin’ Train.
“This is an uptempo bluesy country song.”
The audience responded but the intimacy of the room precluded line dancing – maybe a waltz was more apt.
“This is my favourite song, it’s got to be a worldwide hit,” Dave said as he introduced Cowboy Lonesome from a previous album Midnight Choir as the Long & Short Of It.
It may have seemed like a short set but the crowd begged for an encore.
“That was our encore,” Patsy and Dave quipped before closing the show with the Leonard Cohen classic Hallelujah.
This was an evocative version of the song featured in the 2021 documentary that explored the life of Canadian singer-songwriter Cohen who died aged 82 on November 7, 2016.
There was no sign of death in the air as Dave declared “we can now all get drunk” as the band and audience headed back to the bar to enjoy more delicacies.
It was a memorable launch with band bassist Jack Morrish, guitarist Robert Broach, drummer Ron Mahoney who also works with Leslie Avril and The Cartwheels and sound mixer Maurice Boyd ensuring great audio.
Review by David Dawson
Photos by Haili Luxa Idak of All Events Video Productions
September 11, 2024
