Shane Howard will be back at the track in November.
By Kath Gannaway
WHEN former Goanna singer/songwriter Shane Howard stepped up to accept his award for Artist of the Year at the Port Fairy Folk Festival in 2005, he was hailed as a bridge-builder.
“Shane Howard bridges the land between poet and songwriter; between prophet and singer; even between white fellas and indigenous artists,” said festival director Jamie McKew.
Howard has performed at music festivals around Australia and overseas and on Sunday, 20 November, he will return to the stage at Music at the Healesville Track 2011.
He is part of an impressive line-up including Joe Camilleri and The Black Sorrows, John Schumann (ex-Redgum) and The Vagabond Crew, Mick Thomas and The Roving Commission, The Damian Howard Band, Greg Champion Band, Rebecca Barnard Trio, Monique Brumby and others.
It’s a line-up of some of Australia’s best storytellers.
“Storytelling is at the heart of being human,” he says of the observation. “People do it all the time … men tell stories down the pub, women over the fence … they mythologise everyday happenings.”
“From traditional Aboriginal songs, stories get sung over Andover and the song-lines go on thousands of years and sometimes over thousands of miles … so much of humanity comes from those traditions,” he says.
He’s a fan of folk and festivals. Folk in the broad sense … “Chuck Berry is folk … it’s music for people, so for me it could be rockabilly, rock or blues, it’s about people sharing stories in a less formal way to the classical tradition.”
Festivals are also about people music, but he says they can take three to five years to get off the ground.
“This festival has a beautiful setting, two stages, so you have non-stop music, a family atmosphere and a great line-up; I think it’s a festival that is really going to take off over time.”
The Music at the Healesville Track music festival is run by the Healesville Amateur Race Club, and sponsored by local businesses. Tickets are available from Yarra Junction Post Office, the Grind n’ Groove, the Gilded Lily and the Sanctuary Lotto Healesville Walk, or from www.musicatthehealesvilletrack.com.au
