Hey there! We put the band back together Nov 2019!!
After 25 years of sooo many other adventures, Jenny Lester returned to re-live the crazy 3 years which saw
6 or 700 shows of this group together in Taiwan – Leofoo Adventure Park! http://jennylester.com
A bit of history here!! Joined by Wendy Jackson & Paul Wookey plus an armful of mainly Aussies for a while there!!
Jenny went on to appearing with Hungry Hill who also came to Australia. She also created a great contribution to tutoring at Bluegrass Festivals for vocal harmony and Fiddle at Mark O’Connor Camps let alone a remarkable horse raising/ training property outside of Smithers in the heart of BC, Canada. Jenny had met Andrew at Pt Fairy Folk Festival (jamming with Trev Warner at the time as well) which ended up captured by documentary makers ever so coincidentally from Taiwan and as if by magic became part of the Bluegrass – Made in Taiwan – adventure.
This was seeded by the extra coincidence that Jenny appeared at a very Bluegrassy party @ Beccy Coles place just as Daryl Melbourne received the call from Andrew (already in Taiwan) to seek players for this potentially long term contract in the mid 90s! Daryl saw Jenny there, made a rather fine bit of reasoning and grabbing Trev from Adelaide as well to follow on Andrew’s invite to continue the Bluegrass contract in Taiwan.
What followed in just 3 years and more than a dozen mainly Oz players was 3 to 4 shows a day. In fact Daryl (usually called Jack these days!) went on to perform close to 3000 shows through the ensuing decade! His time with The Fargone Beauties and before that with Tamworth’s BackBeat, let alone his brothers thoughout the Oz outback saw him hone his reason to be right there. He set up a publishing house, Theatre restaurants, Pubs, Pizza Bar (naturally call Banjos) plus realised the beginnings of his own family. He still helps secure musical instruments for a major museum there as well. He’s now includes Dobro into his instrumental prowess including his gift of the gab – not only highly entertaining on stage but regularly on show at the Beechworth foody sensation, Lemongrass Cafe.
A soon to become major friend to all involved was Aron Mclean, who was first spotted in a CanCan show in the Leofoo Adventure Park and eventually returned to Oz as Double Bass and extra voice to The Pigs! He had variously teamed up with Jack Melbourne across various projects in Taiwan. Now mostly seen with Peter Denahy and based in Beechworth, he is very excited to see the years vanish and re-live this fun yet powerful show with the chameleon multi-instrumentalist Andrew Clermont who was born to cut loose in Bluegrass.
Andrew has been constantly touring with The Apostle String Band (Mountaingrass kick-offs to Wirrina Bluegrass Fest)/ BluGuru (where world music ignites with Bluegrass)/ and 22 years of Andrew Clermont’s Supper Club orchestra across the planet!
All this will funnel back to the essence of four part harmonies and the many years of grace & musical family between them showing as one very seamless Bluegrass unit.
The Short Story . . . Bluegrass – Live in Taiwan
A feast of Bluegrass recorded live at “The Barn”,
Leofoo Village Adventure Park, Hsin Shu Country, Taiwan.
Only a typhoon or earthquake could stop the show
. . . and the weather came close . . .
The Tracks . . .
| 1. | Baton Rouge |
| 2. | Heart Of Gold |
| 3. | Y’all Come |
| 4. | Strong Enough To Bend |
| 5. | Country Roads |
| 6. | House Of The Rising Sun |
| 7. | Didgeridoo Blitz with Scotland |
| 8. | Sally Ann |
| 9. | Stay Young |