“Good evening, everybody."
“Give a round of applause for the bar staff”
These
could be expressions you might hear from any musician in any bar
around the world....but there was only one musician in the world
who'd utter these AND the following....
“Let's hear it for Shane
O' Fucking Mara, everybody”
That musician is Chris Wilson.
Welcome to episode 143 of Love That Album podcast.
Chris was a hometown hero in Melbourne....he deserved to be revered around the world. He brought operatic majesty to the blues. A great harp player, a singer, a songwriter, and a blues historian. Every gig he performed was an event.....I can't describe why, you just needed to be there.
In 1994, he released a live album, “Live At The Continental”. The Conti was a favourite haunt in Prahran in Melbourne for local and international bands, usually in the roots world. After an absence from live performing, Chris was joined by guitarist Shane O'Mara and pianist Jex Saarelaht to do a combination of Chris' originals and some blues covers at what became a beloved venue for him. The resulting album became a huge favourite amongst Chris' fans and earned him many new ones. In 2021, a second new edition of the CD has been released with a whole raft of songs absent from the first edition. It's also been released on record for the first time ever.
Chris sadly passed away in 2019 from cancer. The Australian music scene is far poorer for his loss.
Sarah Carroll is a singer, songwriter, and multi instrumentalist who has produced some brilliant music of her own with country outfits like The Junes, The Cartridge Family and Git. Back in 2017, under the moniker of Sarah Carroll and The Left Wing she released a collection of short stories set to music (my definition) called “Star Parade” and in 2020 she collaborated with guitarist Shannon Bourne to release the EP “Medicine” with songs of joy and heartache.
Sarah, as Chris' wife has had much pain to endure at his loss, but she wanted to make sure that his legacy was still felt. She oversaw the re-release of Live At The Continental. She joined me for a great discussion about this landmark album as well as her own work. I hope this show means as much to you as it does to me.
You can get a copy of Live At The Continental from https://www.cheersquad.com.au/releases/live-at-the-continental/ or Sarah's recordings from https://sarahcarroll.bandcamp.com/
Sarah has curated a Spotify play list of music from herself, Chris and their two musically talented sons, Fenn and George at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1znUA33Bkry0kDJTSdQEic?si=Th8Q352sSQaOrVBehmLiKA&utm_source=copy-link&nd=1
Download this episode of LTA from Spotify, Stitcher or iTunes (search for “Love That Album podcast”).
Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to http://pantheonpodcasts.com to check out all their great shows.
You can send me feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum
If you’d consider writing an iTunes review I’d be immensely grateful. However, it’d be even better if you told a friend about the podcast and Pantheon – at a (socially distanced) barbecue, over coffee (on Skype), on social media….whatever way you choose, consider me grateful.
Download episode 143 from here.
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