Leah Flanagan Trio plus Gleny Rae Virus and her Playboys
KATOOMBA RSL CLUB
86 Lurline St, Katoomba, Blue Mountains, Australia
Steam driven Hillbilly Swing and Indie, Roots, Multi-Instrumental Storytelling.
“Leah Flanagan writes beautiful songs and sings them in a voice you can sink into, cushiony comfort without a single rough edge – it makes you feel like you’ve come home.”
DEBORAH CONWAY
If you were to make a list of great Australian artists, the one constant is a tangible sense of restlessness, that idea of always being on the move creatively as much as physically. And it’s a tradition that is alive and well in Leah Flanagan. Over the past decade Leah’s pursuit of creating something truly special has not only taken her around the world, but across the genre map. From her strikingly simple and direct solo recordings, to her numerous festival appearances and performances with the world-renowned Indigenous performance group The Black Arm Band, the Darwin born artist has built a career on always looking ahead – taking that next creative leap to make something that inspires her as much as her audiences.
Darwin’s Leah Flanagan is a gifted songwriter with a warm voice and stage presence. She describes her music as combining elements of her heritage – ‘the story telling of Ireland, the passion of Italy and the love of country of Aboriginal Australia’.
Gleny Rae emerged from the Western Plains of NSW. Secondary education in Sydney and the subsequent discovery of FM radio opened up a thousand musical opportunities including several Associate diplomas on pianoforte and violin at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Gleny Rae followed her nomadic calling along the Highway of Roots Music. Troubadour status was achieved with the female country crossover duo, Toe Sucking Cowgirls, who tirelessly toured the recalcitrant corners of Australia, UK and Ireland, receiving TIARA award nominations, a variety of songwriting awards and national airplay. Armed with fiddle and squeezebox, Gleny Rae became a regular face at folk festivals, ute musters, outback events and a string of remote music-loving pubs.
In 2006, she formed specialist western swing band Gleny Rae Virus and her Tamworth Playboys with an aim to put the swing back in country music. The band’s first release Highrollin’ received national airplay and earned the band a top 5 finalist position in the Victorian Country Music Awards for Best Band.
The second full length release Beyond Horizontal sees the band stripped back to a trio featuring the delightful musicianship of Roy Payne (The Whiteliners, Don Walker) on guitar and lap steel, and Dougie Bull (The Lawnmowers, The Lairs) on double bass. The album toys with traditional forms of western swing, bluegrass, gypsy jazz and rockabilly, resulting in a collection of songs heavily influenced by the 40’s and 50’s Americana genres with a distinctly Australian narrative slant.
2011 also saw Gleny Rae Virus and her Tamworth Playboys accept an invitation to perform at the Americana Music Association Showcase in Nashville Tennessee.
The trio will return to the USA this October to continue their foray into the homelands of western swing and hillbilly music.
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Music from 8:30pm