The primary element that draws me to all sorts of music, both as a player and a listener, is when the musicians interact with each other to produce something that is greater than its constituent parts. This charming little festival produced three wonderful examples of this mysterious essence, that is often so difficult to capture. In a way its musos duelling and yet its co-operating to an extraordinary extent, reacting to sounds produced by the others and with such tight timing it all seems to be one whole, and yet the separate parts of the individual parties involved shine through.

The first is that wonderful example of Anglo Australian co-operation, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan. Nancy comes armed with two fiddles, one in standard tuning, one in something a bit more unusual, and a viola, and from all of them she extracts such wonderful tone and feeling. Did I remember to say she also plays excellent guitar. James joins the fray with that wonderful Australian made guitar bodied bouzouki, with which I believe he generally uses the "Andy Irving" tuning of G,D,A,D and he produces some wonderful sounds. And of course, then there are the voices, which blend and compliment each other so well. The combination of the instruments and the voices really holds the attention, and the whole audience was clamouring for the encore. They are both excellent musicians, but together they produce something much more than two individual musicians, much more.

Then there was Karen Tweed and Ian Carr. Well known in the UK and elsewhere, this was a duo I had not seen before and I had not really been expecting too much from an entirely instrumental duo, but wow, did they hold my attention. After two sets, I still wanted to here more. Whoever was taking the lead, the other one provided superb support. Karen's highly ornamented style on the (piano) accordian is absolute faultless, and you would go a long way to find a guitarist with such command over the instrument and so much flair. But it was the way they played together that really made it. There were times when you could almost read the question in Karen's face "what is he going to do now ?", perhaps setting up an extended rift repeating two or three notes on one or two strings, or an extended chord sequence using the full length of the fingerboard from the nut to above the twelth fret, and making it look so effortless and so natural. And they played so much together, one reacting to the subtle phrasing of the other, and over such a wide variety of music that the whole of it all felt so fresh.

And the third, though not in quite the same league as the previous two, was 'Rag Foundation', a local trio from South Wales, with a guitarist providing a real solid foundation and backing vocals, a vocalist who would fit well in an early punk band with his stage persona, and a fiddle player weaving extremely clever lines though the songs and also adding vocals. If thats the way the lead vocalist feels more comfortable with performing, it may not fit the traditional mode, but it was great music. What was more important to me, was the way they were tightly bound together by the music, and the overall effect being more than the sum of the parts.

Now, if you also consider that the festival line up also included 'Brass Monkey' and 'Blowzabella' and a first opportunity for us to see the excellent 'Bill Jones', who on only her second year on the festival circuit seems to be getting quite a following, plus local artists and workshops, it becomes clear it was quite an event. If you also consider it is held in a heritage centre, based around a water driven corn mill, with intact millrace and working water wheel, and only 20 mins walk from one of the beautiful Gower beaches you can see what an attractive little festival it is.

Taplas has just issued its hundreth edition, and for the first time has included a cover CD. The CD itself is well worth the cover price several times over, and has a good range of local and national artists. The magazine covers Wales and the Borders, (that's the border between England and Wales for the geographically challenged), with a great mixture of articles and is extremely well produced. We have added the information to our contacts section, if you want to investigate further. Contact information

A highlight from the Australian National Festival was a surprize concert given in honour of John Warner. He was not aware of the event until just before it happened, when many artists came together to put together a concert entirely of his songs and poems. The programme had advertised it as a mystery tribute concert.

Each piece was performed by well respected artists, bringing their own interpretation to his inspriring material. Lyndan blackman has written a great piece in the Cornstalk gazette descibing the event, and in her words, "the reason for the concert was to acknowledge the vast contribution that John has made the present day folk tradition". The Shiny Bum Singers even did a parody of Devlin's General Store. Its a sure sign that your songs have made it into the Australian tradition when the parodies start appearing.

Touchwood

Winding Gear

Keith McKenry

Too Roo Dun

Nic Maguire-Rosier

LLewellyn Walking

Jennifer Lees

Fires of '98

Miguel Heatwole

Wind in a Million Leaves

Robin Connaughton

To Women

James Fagan & Nancy Kerr

Anderson's Coast

Martin Pearson

William Conquest Turland

Lyn Mathieson

Cann River Pig Drive

Duncan Chalmers

Gippsland Mining Man

Evan Mathieson

Drunks' Express

Margaret Walters

Newell Highway

Evan M. J Thomson, M Pearson

Devlin's General Store

Sydney Trade Union Choir

Bring out the Banners

Shiny Bum Singers

Station Ary Store

Jane Thomson & James Rigby

Landpulse

Margaret and Bob Fagan

Dear Diary

John Warner

Murrumbidgee Water