That was called love for the workers in song

Another great Tintenbar Up Front, another great quote from Leonard Cohen. 
The word amateur comes from the Latin for "love". Amateur musicians, as well as professionals who have managed to retain the real reason for music making do it for the love of it. How appropriate for Valentines Day.
A large Valentines Day audience was treated to some "lovely" music, starting with Bernadette and Fiddlers on P plates who plucked and bowed their way  through some beautiful instrumental music and the combinations became greater than the sum of the individual parts. Please come back.
They were followed by Howie Hughes who got the audience singing along to some hilarious old favourites: verve aplenty. Paul Francis began with two new original songs sung with guitar and  ably backed by the piano stylings of Pat Breen. Paul's lyrics and tunes are always uniquely interesting. He finished with Pride and Joy by SRV. Greg Pimm created swirling  soundscapes with his 12 string guitar, voice and harmonica. All the songs were original, the standout being one about Torres Strait pigeons.  After the break, Bob Terrill warmly recreated some soulful Bob Dylan tunes and gave them his own colour: his tenor voice accompanied by ukulele and harmonica. Peter Lino did a couple of humorous songs: one about fracking, another about being a grumpy old man. Those two sandwiched a Mamas and Papas song: Dream A Little Dream Of Me, which the audience joined in on, even whistling the instrumental part. James Webb's delicate finger picking accompanied his voice for three songs  of love, loss and learning. The quote above was from Leonard Cohen's Chelsea Hotel which James sang with delicacy. Then Dirk Terrill had the audience enthralled  with his virtuosic guitar playing which included clever use of loop pedal to overlay parts. Other effect pedals gave variety to the sounds he created. Truly amazing. don't miss him next time. The evening ended with a singalong of "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight". 
$400 was raised for the Rural Fire Service. Thanks to them for their dedication to keeping our communities safe. Thanks to the audience for paying 
You can check out photos of the night, and the program for Friday March 14. Look forward to seeing you then.

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