June 2008
FOCO NUEVO
Jumping Fences invites you to the next Foco Nuevo concert. We aim to provide an eclectic mix of musical styles while continuing the folk tradition of highlighting lyrics which reflect the breadth of contemporary life. This regular music event is held on the last Friday of each month and features a diversity of Brisbane singer-songwriters and musicians.
We will be playing as a five piece band, with Ross Gwyther (tenor sax and clarinet), James Harper (percussion) and Dan Simpson (drums).
Our guests artists for June are:
Wendy Murray and friends:
Wendy Murray, singer, songwriter and instrumentalist is currently the lead singer and driving force behind Latin Jazz band, Hot Mambo and jazz/funk/blues outfit THe Wendy Murray Quintet. Her voice is deep, rich and warm as honey. Wendy will be performing with Louise Denson (piano), Sacha Kloostra (drums), Jeremy O’Connor (bass) and Clint Allen (trumpet and flugelhorn); performing original music by herself, Louise and Jeremy.
Amanda Gilmour with Rose Broe: will be performing their songs of love, lost hearts, broken wings and a few bitterly-twisted reflections of life, blending folk, Irish, jazz and country flavours; with blissful vocal tones and sensitive musicianship.
Foco Nuevo is a reference to Brisbane’s FOCO Club, a lively and alternative performance space which ran on a weekly basis during the late 1960s.
Hope to see you there,
Lachlan and Sue
For photos of Foco Nuevo in June 2008 see http://www.flickr.com/photos/bushtelegraph/
I enjoyed all the acts but particularly liked Amanda Gilmour and Rose Broe for their beautiful voices and playing (my favourite was the piano accordion).
As Amanda said, ‘songs of love and breakups’. One lyric stands out, it went something like “he was on fire, but I was slow to burn” — this gave at least one person in the audience the giggles.
Sue and Lachlan aided by Maggie from AHIMSA have put together a very good regular venue, hope to see you there next time.
Ian Curr
June 2008
About 60 people saw another great night at the second foco nuevo in April 2008.
Jumping Fences gave another great rendition of “On the Chain” about the lives of meatworkers at Cannon Hill Abattoir in Brisbane which a bicycle rider sang on her way home from the foco nuevo:
The Honey Eaters had some good advice to the new federal government with “Spread that Money Around”. Take what you need and spread the rest around. Unusual timing though — they sang the blues about boom times on the eve of a recession. Lovely mandolin by Clytie and a natural folk song voice by Roo.
Ichabod’s Crane could certainly hold an audience even without an harmonica. Sang Lonesome Heart and secret Agents. Didn’t sing about the ‘secret Agents’ [Charity’s spelling] we used see on Queensland streets, but then charity carleton, who sang with lace sewn on her black chemise, would have been ‘newborn … in an imaginary state’ back then [lyrics from the song].
‘Move your mind softly hears the leaves shiver…’ may not be overtly political but haunting nonetheless.
I picked up some of the lyrics from “Lonesome Heart”:
I looked up Ichabod Crane’s website to find a song about driftwood and was reminded of a quote “he picked up all the driftwood of his days and broke them across his knee” – it was that kind of song [full title of song = driftwood horses].
Please Note:
Ichabod Crane is a fictional character in Washington Irving’s short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, first published in 1820. For other references see wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichabod_Crane.
Please note that for all the news and updates see ‘Foco Nuevo‘ Go directly to their site.