Internationally renowned folk group Cloudstreet return to Maleny on Sunday February 19 for their fifth appearance as guests of The Goodwills (Bob & Laurel Wilson).
Original members John Thompson and Nicole Murray, now teamed up with fiddle player and singer Emma Nixon, performed six times at Woodford Festival 2016. Their latest CD, Clouded House, the 8th Cloudstreet album since John and Nicole began performing together in 1999, was launched in late 2015. Clouded House includes a bizarre song about a colony of beavers relocated to a new home – by parachute! Here’s a more serious trad song from the same album – The Catalpa – performed in two time signatures.
Cloudstreet perform New Australian folk music, a combination of Anglo-Celtic and Australian traditional songs and tunes, coupled with trad-styled original songs. Their music is arranged for an array of instruments including guitar, concertina, flute, whistle and fiddle and now includes the fiddle playing brilliance and vocals of Emma Nixon.
Nicole and Emma have also performed at a Goodwills’ house concert as The Wish List. The duo performed at the Illawarra Folk Festival last month and taught fiddle at the festival school.
Host Bob & Laurel Wilson (The Goodwills) will present a preview of their latest project, a collection of essays written by Bob, each based on the topic of a song. Bob is aiming to publish the book with an accompanying CD, “Goodwills by Request” before Christmas 2017.
This is the 20th year The Goodwills have held concerts in their home, first at Fairfield, Brisbane, then for the past 14 years in Maleny, mostly to full houses so it pays to book ahead.
The Cloudstreet concert starts at 3pm. Tickets are $15/$12 and afternoon tea will be available. Bookings are essential. Email Laurel [goodwills at ozemail.com.au] or use the contact page.
Goodwills house concerts are sponsored by the Queensland Folk Federation (QFF).
