The Good Ship

One of the great things about sailing The Good Ship all over the country is the talented and attractive bands we get to share stages with. And play with, if we’re very lucky.

Then, when it comes time to record, we can remind these individuals about that night in the band room of the Great Northern in Newcastle… and suddenly we have a guest fiddle player on our album!

Last weekend, we welcomed the dashing Mr Michael Bridges to guest at our Joynt show. He totally rocked. Turns out, he’s not a bad tambo player either.  The crowd was wild – and all deserve a knighthood for enduring the tropical conditions.

The very next day, with no respect for excesses of the night before, we locked him in a stinking hot Queenslander to add glorious fiddly goodness to a few tracks. He also laid down a ghostly accompaniment to ‘No Good Deed’ on the saw.  The SAW! THEN we made him juggle for his supper. T’was a good day – and there’s video!

As folklore goes, it’s not a Queensland album unless there’s crickets doing backing vocals.  We’re pretty proud of Brisbane music, so we made sure to include plenty of the little tikes.

Viola and cello parts were added by our guest goth string section, Richard Grantham and Wayne Jennings, who proved that the little black dots actually mean something. Their mandatory dress code was complete with black fibreglass instruments.

We had no dirt on the ever-charming Mr Ben Franz, however he graced us with his pedal steel prowess regardless. Get that man a bottle o whiskey!

Next up – a family dinner to plan the next phase of proceedings. May the cider flow!

13 January 2012

We’re on a bout of shore leave, out of our natural watery environs and undertaking some high altitude training in the alpine village of Mt Nebo. We’ve left the sights and smells of the city far below us, not to mention abandoning all hope of getting phone reception.

Our host is the avuncular Neil Coombe, who welcomed the motley Shippers back to the White Room Studio with open arms. Neil has plenty of machines that go ping, and he’s helping mould our caterwaulings into the next Good Ship release.

You heard it here first people – album number two is go – this is not a drill!

You can’t really get a much better place to record – trees everywhere, a soundtrack of native birds and inquisitive lorikeets at every meal break. The catering was top notch, with a tri-daily masterchef keeping everyone with full bellies and smiling faces.

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15 January 2012

It wasn’t all smooth sailing – Jimmy’s computers decided to go on strike (to protest SOPA, presumably), but we pushed on well into the night cranking out the tunes. Curiously, we’ve all been afflicted with a collective auditory hallucination – a rhythmic clicking sound. The crew hasn’t slept in days*, and I fear we’ll run out of amber nectar by sundown, but spirits remain high.

After an epic weekend, the album is beginning to take shape. Neil worked his little heart out – and we owe him the world (and perhaps a pepper grinder). With smiling faces, everyone managed to descend the mountain safely in the dead of night.

We’ll keep you posted on our progress – next stop is welcoming the debonair Michael Bridges and Ben Franz back to Brisbane to add their fiddly/slidy goodness to the mix.

See you Saturday at the Joynt!

*Note to self – Must read up on Anti-Snoring Surgical Techniques.