“Are there any guitar nerds here tonight?”
This was one of the first lines out of Redd Volkaerts mouth at his show on Friday. With the houselights on, the three piece took the stage. This small but eager gathering was ensconced in the basement of the Newmarket Pub, in a room called Ziggy Pops.
This space may have seen better days, but it does have, shall we say, ‘character’.
It has also probably seen larger crowds. And for a good portion of the evening, you could see each and every person at their table, as those house lights remained up. It looked like an AA meeting with beers or a conference of some sort where the delegates were somewhere else.
Of course, this was no reflection on the music that was served up to us tonight. It was billed as a Guitar Gumbo Tour starring Redd and Ray and we were given some pretty slick guitar playing from both of these stalwarts of their respective scenes.
Redd Volkaert is known as one of the masters of the Telecaster. He has worked and toured with Merle Haggard and countless others. He also has done a fabulous tour or two with Bill Kirchen, Commander Cody and The Lost Planet Airmen alumnus, bringing you two titans of honky tonk. Volkaert and Kirchen will be catching up in March in Novato, California if you are in the wine region, go catch something very special.
Redd Can swing, he can rock and roll, can groove and cajole just about anything out of those 6 strings. The guitar nerds in attendance today were paying close attention. With a mention of Dean Martin when he played “Lil Old Wine Drinker Me” and Merle Haggard stories, you knew you were in the presence of a man who had paid his dues many times over as the years have rolled on.
Redd found himself contemplating retirement during Covid, as did many folks who had been on the road for years, but post-Covid has found him in demand and he is loving his little adventures. After the road, he returns to his homestead in Virginia and shakes off the city dust.
Ray Beadle has been around the Blues scene in Sydney and Australia for close to 20 years. Beadle is a soulful player who can get down and dirty with his licks or lay down some boogie-woogie. His recordings with The Foreday Riders are worth checking out at the least along with his other solo records. Watching and listening to Beadle you get the feeling the music is coming from his heart.
So the format for this tour was 3 short sets each night. Redd kicked off Friday night in the underground chamber of fun and he sounded great, but the crowd interaction was light. Throwing in a cover of a
Ray came out to do a fine set of blues and he got the room shaking a bit more. About ½ way through his set, the sound guy and the bartender worked out how to turn down the lights. Wow, it almost looked like we were in a nightclub now!
The rhythm section played with both of these six-string wizards and they did an admirable job. Ray and Redd came out and did a handful of songs to close it down. Unfortunately, during the first song of this final set Redd’s finger started to bleed so he had to go off in search of super glue while Ray took that number home.
Things were a bit loose as this was the 3rd gig of 10 and I don’t think the environment helped much. Beadle and Volkaert closed it down with a ramshackle version of “Jessica” by The Allman Brothers Band. They finally found a way out and the night was over with a quick adios from the stage.
An early Sunday evening found myself at The Brunswick Ballroom to catch a repeat of this show. Thankfully, there were a couple of hundred people in attendance and they were eager to hear these guys play.
Spoke to Ray briefly about the mess of the gig/venue on Friday night and he said, “I told the boys the best thing about that gig is that it is behind us!” Glad to hear that it was just not me thinking things were a bit amiss down in St. Kilda.
The format was the same and the setlist was similar. Redd did swing out a bit more on guitar and although he said “I am nervous up here because you all be judging me instead of dancing”, I do believe he was pleased to be playing for a larger audience.
The 3 sets were lapped up by the Brunswick Americana scene and in attendance were a number of other musicians who wanted to hear Redd do his stuff. Speaking to Redd on Friday, he mentioned he had been to Australia many times but had never played outside of Tamworth. So, this was the first chance for us urban residents to catch him bending his strings live, and hopefully not the last.
Redd had mentioned a possible project with Bill Kirchen, Lucky Oceans, and himself that might bring some honky tonk on a tour of Australia. This would give us some serious twang and a chance to rock that boogie.
The remaining shows are listed below so get down and have too much fun!
And let me know if they worked out an ending for “Jessica” yet!
Some YouTube Videos are Below….check them out!
THURSDAY 9th FEBRUARY – STAG & HUNTER – NEWCASTLE NSW
www.stagandhunter.com.au
Tickets: https://stagandhunter.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/510c627c-87a8-46e9-8dfe-dbec9a38993c
FRIDAY 10th FEBRUARY – BRASS MONKEY – CRONULLA NSW
www.brassmonkey.com.au
SATURDAY 11th FEBRUARY – THE GREAT CLUB – MARRICKVILLE NSW
www.thegreatclubsydney.com
SUNDAY 12th FEBRUARY – MILTON THEATRE – MILTON NSW
www.miltontheatre.com.au
Check out their websites below and purchase their music or at the very least stream it at your chosen provider:
https://reddvolkaert.com/
https://www.raybeadleband.com/
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