Blue Mountains Blues and Roots Festival

[Robin Nahum]

March is a serious roots music month in Australia as there are two big festivals on - Port Fairy in Victoria and Womad in Adelaide. And when Easter falls early, there is also the Byron Bay and National Folk festivals.

As a result there are a lot of overseas players down under around this time, and this allows smaller festivals to coat-tail off the big ones.

Leah and I spent the weekend at the Blue Mountains Blues and Roots Festival - which is one such smaller one - ~3000 people. The Blue Mountains are a couple of hours drive west of Sydney and get their name because of how they appear from Sydney on a hot day due to the eucalyptus oil in the air I believe.

Richard Thompson was on - our first time seeing him and he didn't disappoint. Other favourites were:

. Mozaik - Andy Irvine's favourite player band with Donal Lunny, Nicola Parov, Rens van der Zalm and Bruce Molsky. Specially enjoyed Bruce's Sunday morning solo gig.

. Kristina Olsen - always great - what a fine writer and performer

. Truckstop Honeymoon - Mike West and Miss Kate from Norlins although now in Kansas. They were a real hoot - both songs and in between:

She: "That banjo sounds awful"
He: "That's how ya know it's doin' its job"

[Cat]

Good to hear that you enjoyed our fine piece of countryside :) My only compalint about the festival is that, in a bid to attract credibility to the festival, they tend to focus a little too much on international acts, when there are so many great blues acts in and around the blue mountains and of course the rest of australia. Thats not to say that they shouldnt aim for the stars regarding the headliners but they could perhaps try and raise the profile of a few local acts by giving them supports etc. That said the organisers of the blue mountains music festival do support local music and do put on other event throughout the year to provide a platform for local artists.

Good to hear you and your wife enjoyed yourselves.

Cat