The River Cats: Dennis Aubrey - bass, mandolin, banjo, mandolin, ukelele. Veren Grigorov - violin, mandolin.
Tony Donohue - drums and percussion.
Kelly Staines - drums and percussion.
Ed Wright -harmonica
Paul Livingston - guitar.
Hugh Wayland - piano, organ, accordian.
Kerryn Stanton - piano.
Rev DJ Love - guitar.
And now an important message from Murrumbidgee Jones - "I HEREBY APOLOGISE TO VIOLINIST VEREN FOR NOT INCLUDING HIS NAME ON THE MUSICIAN CREDITS ON THE CD COVER. I'D LIKE TO THINK IT WASN'T MY FAULT BUT I'M SURE IT WAS AND I REALLY HAVE NO EXCUSES. ANYWAY I'VE OFFERED THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN COMPENSATION, SAID SORRY THREE HUNDRED TIMES AND BOUGHT HIM BEERS AND STUFF SO I THINK I MIGHT BE FORGIVEN EVENTUALLY."
Influences
Wake In Fright, Subterranean Homesick Blues, Albert Namatjira, Spike Milligan, Hoagy Carmichael, Westerns, Johnny Vane, Kitty Wells, Jim Thompson, Humphrey Bogart, Larry "The Black Flash" Corowa, Laurie Nichols, London '77, Junior Brown, Eddie Gilbert, Deadwood, Fred Williams, Bob Wills, Pee Wee Herman, Sleepy John Estes, Bonecrusher, Leichhardt Oval, 2CH, The Pigram Brothers, El Greco, The Fab Four, Norman Gunston, Robert Louis Stevenson, Doug Sahm, Bryan Brown, Red Matildas, Gordon Parsons, Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio, The Wages of Fear, Dimitri's Pizza, Wilfred Burchett, Hazel and Alice, Country Bob Purtell, Lillian Gish, Xavier Herbert, Chess Records, King Records, Jimmie Rodgers, Judy Davis, Archie Roach, Between The Buttons, Los Penguinos Del Norte, Patti Smith, Ed Harris, lamb shanks, Bernie Banton, Jack Thompson, Rosaleen Norton, Edward Hopper, The Letter, Charlie Chaplin, Roger Knox, The Handsome Family, The Road To Gundagai, James Lee Burke, Riley Puckett, Gun Street Girl, The Last Picture Show, (Updates as they come to mind)
Sounds Like
Hacksaws violins and straight six drums with an aftertaste of swing guitar, Mexican button accordian and dance hall piano. A hint of the past with not much future in mind.
Gladstone Hotel Feb 09
Honky tonk prankster, MURRUMBIDGEE JONES, is a Rogue City ratbag who wraps musical stories inside simple melodies and orchestrates uncomplicated arrangments with slow strummed guitars, hacksaw violins, shoebox drums, barbed wire banjos and other things that squeak and bark in the night.. His narratives are strong and always dipped in rich imagery that takes the listener on a magic ride to the wide open spaces and pokey rooms of this big brown land. Sometimes humorous and sometimes serious, the songs not only live within the traditional boundaries of folk, blues and country music, but also wander into the shadows of Australian gothic. They’re songs caught between liquid a dust, laconic ramblings about youthful imagination, adolescent longing and the foibles of adulthood. They explore life in general, mixing happy with sad, and playful with dour.
...His heroes are many and varied, and dead and alive, and funny and sad....... The past is his oil can, and with the future being impossible to avoid and the present being just a ship passing in the night, he tends a dream a lot. Those dreams are what you hear on his new album THE SAME JOKE TWICE which is available wherever good music is sold......
.........In her review of the album for British online magazine Americana UK, critic Lynne Pettinger described Murrumbidgee Jones’ music as deep gothic old-country. His vocals, she says, are rich and emotive, “and it is this that makes the record something to listen to….” Paul Smith of the Sydney Morning Herald agreed. “The lyrics are simple and witty everyday observations and his vocal delivery slow paced and deliberate…. This is music that just lets the world go by.”
Andy Carr of 21st Century Reviews was also impressed. “He sings in a likeable growl that matches perfectly the roughness of his tales and the rawness of his music….” Producer and Indie CDs critic Mike Raine was also impressed, “The musical treatment allows the vocals to command attention, because it's in the lyrics that the heart of this collection of thirteen tracks lies…” Fellow Tasmanian, John Andrewartha, in his Hobart Mercury critique, was straightforward in his praise. “An outstanding collection of songs,” he said. “Jones’ gravely voice and proficient delivery, coupled with an Australian undercurrent make The Same Joke Twice a must.”
Borg Warner in Skateboard Journal described the work as a wonderful pastiche of country folk songs, “all the while evoking some of the most beautiful and savage ghosts of Australian’s past. The music of Murrumbidgee Jones reminds me of those old restored Sydney ferries, a rhythmic blue collar rumbling from an era that seems all but gone.” Rootsville, a Belgium based e-zine was more succinct. “Brilliant,” it said. “Simple story telling that is musically surrounded by hacksaw fiddles, blacksmith banjos, shoe box drums and accordion that weeps angel's tears.”
All reviews can be read in full in Murrumbidgee Jones' blog section.
THE PAST
Prior to his current metamorphosis, Murrumbidgee Jones, was known about the place as Warwick Irwin, and his previous musical interludes included Sydney duo, Pop 1280, and band, The Scrubhornets........
In the long distant and forgotten past, he was also a writer/ performer with nationally acclaimed absurdist comedy troupe Funny Stories...... They were from way back in the olden days and are best known for their 1980’s work when they travelled the music circuit as added both chuckles and colour for both local and international touring bands..... During this period he also toured nationally as monologue artist, The Jet Black Cowboy, and it was after one of his shows that he met novelist Frank “Truthful Jones” Hardy..... Frank said he “kinda liked” the material but hated the name. “What’s this cowboy bullshit?" Conversation followed and it was determined, that because the Murrumbidgee River was a major backdrop to his youth and that his father nicknamed him Jones as a child that an amalgam might work..... The advice wasn’t taken up right away, but gradually it started to make sense and adoption eventually took place.
Subculture Weekend Friday 13 and Saturday 14 November at The Sandringham Hotel, Newtown, NSW. Flash, new! big upstairs room! Mother Truckers all set to rev the engine up on Black Friday 13 November. Hope to see you there!
