The Crossroads

Hi, and welcome back to the blog. I’m aiming to post more or less weekly this year.

After my big tour with Ryan Morrison last year I needed some time off from music. So I did some other work for a change. On moving back to being a singer-songwriter, I found myself at a crossroads, wondering where to go next. It took me a while, but I was very drawn to the brightly painted sign marked “Record A Kids Album”. So I’m off in that direction this year, with a bunch of helium balloons in hand, and a unicorn and a T-Rex trotting along beside me. It's a lot of fun, and they don't eat much, being imaginary and all.

I find “being at a crossroads” fruitful, but frustrating. Many myths surround this experience, and understandably so, as it's so ambiguous. Exciting, bewildering, unpleasant. Somehow one is in-between, not here, not there. It’s the moment in-between past and future, where different realities stretch out ahead, and sometimes it's hard to leave for a new destination. At the crossroads you are equipped to make your choice with the knowledge you have earned, advice from your loved ones, and a dash of luck. (OK, and maybe Wikipedia, if you happen to have an iPhone on you.)

In my mind, this place is in the middle of a desert. Plain bitumen roads cross the sand, beneath an infinite blue dome of sky. It seems empty, but I remind myself that the desert is never empty, if you know what to look for. I guess the trick is just not to stay too long.

After the Tour

If I ever write my memoir, it will start like this (read it in a Bogart accent):

"It was a dark, moonlit night at Nanga Festival. I was huddled behind a bushland concert venue. The eucalypts were still and eerie in the half-light.

Inside the building I heard deep male voices, performing a strange, troubling and oddly thrilling version of The Teddy Bear's Picnic.

It was time.

As I zipped up my golden, furry bearsuit, and prepared to storm the stage (to be later tempted off with a cookie), I reflected on how different life had become, since I first met the Spooky Men."

I'm in WA with Ryan, and have been doing some gigs supporting the Spooky Men of the West ... gigs with unexpected fringe benefits. Doing a gig is already pretty good. But doing a gig AND I get to wear a bear suit? Priceless.

There were many great adventures over on the UK Spooky Tour, which everyone is almost now back from. The blokes were amazing, and very well-received in England, Scotland and Wales. My gigs went well too. Fave moments included singing Brocklevoons with the Spooky Men and having a whole hall of 150 people jumping up and down, and also seeing the marvellous countryside in Wales. Also loved getting the news that Brocklevoons won a Grand Prize in Session 1 of the Children's Section of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.

It was all awesome over there, but I'm happy to be back in Australia, writing again and staying in one place for a while. How happy? This happy:



cheers and cookies
Kate

Lancaster

Have arrived in Lancaster to an unexpected problem. The 436 steaks bought for dinner have been inexplicably devoured. Meat crumbs litter the luggage compartment. It's a total mystery.

Banchory

There was no sign of the Loch Ness monster, and so we piled back into the Spooky Van and headed to Banchory.

Aside from some strange rumblings and banging noises coming from the luggage compartment, the trip was pleasant and uneventful, and we had a terrific gig.

Now we're heading south.

Loch Ness

no sign of the monster so far.

UK tour

Awesome UK trip so far ...

• we stayed in a castle at Kinnersley
• sang in a giant yurt in the gardens of said castle ... Kate's first UK gig, yay!
• camped in tents in a London backyard
• ate a giant silver cake shaped like a tool that a host had baked in honour of the Spooky Men
• have met buckets of interesting people, including a lady who once shared a taxi with Kurosawa, and a former deep sea diver
• held divining rods at Avebury Circle and found something (maybe moles)
• had very merry times in the Spooky bus
• and are currently trying to see the asteroid shower through a blanket of clouds in Cornwall.

Ryan says he thinks he saw a shooting star this evening, but it may have been a moth. Further info will be supplied as the drama unfolds.

The Spooky Men are doing awesomely, and have had brilliant and enthusiastic receptions all over the UK. We are all currently on tour break, and my next gig is in a week or so.

Still alive!

It's an interesting fact that if you have a tour blog, and do not update it, people will email you to ask if you are still alive. Oops!

We are definitely alive, and happy. Glad to have had such a great tour, and excited about the next bit: the UK. Ryan is already there, with the Spooky Men's Chorale, and I'm about to join him to do support for the Spooky Men on the second half of their tour.

Here are some highlights of things I learned on tour:

1. If you wait until your fear goes away to try something new, you'll be waiting forever. Feel the fear and do it anyway, as Susan Jeffers would say. It gets easier.

2. The Nullabor is very beautiful, it clears your mind and calms your soul.

3. Anyone who tells you that the Eyre Highway is dangerous, and that you'll need to take a gun, probably travelled it in the 70s.

4. Love and friendship are everything. There is no greater meaning to life. Except music, in third place. And, all right, a good coffee in the morning, in fourth. Which reminds me:

5. There is no good coffee on the Nullabor. If you screw up your eyes and bravely face it, you can pretend you're somewhere exotic and you're drinking some kind of local specialty.

6. Stock up on Mi Goreng noodles before a tour.

7. Don't jump and sing at the same time if you want to make it through a set.

8. Avoid bedbugs at all costs.

9. When spirits are low, try this:
POACHED PEARS
Peel pears, core them, cut them in half and put the halves face down in an ovenproof dish.
Cover them completely with generous amounts of sour cream and brown sugar
Bake in a moderate oven for 45 minutes or until pears are soft and topping has caramelised.
Great with ice cream!

10. And finally, when you buy a secondhand van, for goodness sake get someone to check the radiator!