Music:
Member Since: 8/9/2006
Band Members:
Gus Macmillan is also the banjo player and manager with Blue Grassy Knoll, who began in 1996 as regulars at the Punters Club, toured Australia over the next 5 years and went on to play in Europe, Asia and America, winning awards for their live Buster Keaton filmscores at the Edinburgh Festival and playing seasons in London, New York, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Capetown, Amsterdam, Dublin, Toronto as well as repeat seasons at the Sydney Opera House. His banjo playing style is borderline traditional, with enough flair and energy to invoke both the spirit of Earl Scruggs and John Hartford, as well as the gypsy swing of Django Rhinehart, and the ragged poignancy of Tom Waits. He is 2005 two-tune pick-off champion from the Guildford Banjo Jambouree and as founder of the School of Banjo he has many students under his tutelage. (www.myspace.com/bluegrassyknoll, www.myspace.com/gusmacmillan; www.myspace.com/schoolofbanjo)
Jamie Saxe was formerly the lead singer, guitarist and driving force behind independent rock band The Ergot Derivative, who had a strong cult following in the mid-90s, put out 3 CDs and shared the bill with bands such as The Cruel Sea, The Fauves, The Whitlams, Augie March and Things of Stone and Wood. He retired to the studio to write scores for films and television for the last 5 years and was nominated for a 2004 APRA award for his TV score to Fergus McPhail. (see http://www.myspace.com/jamiesaxe)
Kate Connor has been a violinist in various ensembles including contemporary
improvisational string quartets, a medieval celtic group, acoustic folk and rock
bands over the last fifteenyears. She was a foundiing member,
co-composer and manager of popular local band Adana -a seven piece band who
drew upon the rhythms and melodies of the European gypsy tradition,
contemporay classical music and free jazz to create their own richly
textured compositions and improvisations. As well as original material,
Adana played fiery interpretations of traditional Greek, Macedonian and
Klezmer music. Adana released two CDs and played at many prominent festivals
including The Port Fairy Folk Festival, The Adelaide Festival (Spiegel Tent)
and The Apollo Bay Festival.
Kate was also a member of Disaster Plan and the Yetnikov Trio and has been a guest musician on CD recordings and performances for many
Melbourne artists such as Kim Salmon, Charlie Marshall, the Dead Salesmen and Cam Butler. She has also performed music for a number of live theatre
productions as well as scoring her own music for several of these
productions. Her current projects include Nightbell ( acoustic folk) , Major Chord
(pop /folk),The Honky Tonk Angels (70' country) and the Oculus String Quartet.
Tamara Murphy graduated from VCA in 1998 after studying with bassists Ben Robertson, Geoff Kluke, Gary Costello, Andrew Moon and Mark Helias. She performs in and around Melbourne with many musicians and ensembles in addition to leading two groups taser and Murphys Law. In 2001, Tamara toured with the Cologne New Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra (Germany) throughout Australia and the UK and also travelled to Hong Kong to perform there with saxophonist Anton Delecca for several weeks. In 2003, on an Australian Arts Council grant, Tamara went to New York City to study improvisation and composition with bassist Mark Helias. In 2006 she paricipated in BAM in Canada, and performed with Keller, Murphy Brown.
(http://www.myspace.com/tamaramurphy )
Johnny Carr has recorded and gigged with an ever increasing number of artists and bands including The Mess Hall, Jed Kurzel (The Mess Hall), Laughing Outlaw artist Jenny Queen, ex Crow frontman Peter Fenton, Sydney singer songwriter Lior and country chanteuse Corrina Steel. He has just finished recording an album, “Quiet Music for Quiet Peopleâ€, with electronic songstress Inga Liljestrom (Elk). Over the years he has played keyboards in a surf band in Perth (Rick Woody and the Planks), played lead guitar in a truckin’ band in Sydney (Kenworth) and crooned Sinatra songs with the Harbourside Brasserie Big Band. His eclectic tastes even extended to studying musical theatre at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), cracking the boards and honing his singing voice in musicals such as Anything Goes, Oklahoma and Cabaret. John's musical talents have been showcased on ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live with Philip Adams and John Nutting’s Saturday Night Country. He has also performed live on numerous occasions on Sydney’s Fbi radio. He recently took part in a cultural exchange program in Sydney with the Alberta Foundation of the Arts. (http://www.johnnycarr.com.au/)
Influences: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, John Hartford, Bad Livers, Gypsy music, Johnny Cash, John Zorn, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bill Munroe, Stanley Brothers, Doc Watson, Blue Grassy Knoll,
Sounds Like: If ya mamma played banja n' ya dadda played the fiddle on a loud squeaky mattress.
Type of Label: None
