Category: Goodwills News

As our songwriter friend Karen Law, co-host of two successful concerts on the Southern Downs in November said: “Let’s do it again sometime.”

The concerts at Eukey Hall on November 23 and St Mark’s Hall in Warwick on November 24 were well-attended and the audiences fulsome in their praise.  We even had to put out extra chairs.

Karen is already planning some concerts with us for next year.

Karen was launching her latest CD, Lifeline, accompanied on electric and acoustic guitar and vocals by her son Murray. Her sets were mostly drawn from this album but she also included Sweet in the Morning, my favourite song about her home town of Nambour.

We were joined yet again by fiddler and harmony singer Helen Rowe who also stepped up to play fiddle on one of Karen’s songs. Our only problem was, what to leave out. With a back catalogue of more than 100 published songs it’s a hard task preparing a set for a new audience. Yes, we should have done Underneath the Story Bridge. Next time.

If you missed our Southern Downs concerts, the best way to experience the music is to explore our respective pages at Bandcamp. This is an online shop for independent musicians. You can listen to songs at least three times before Bandcamp will ask you for money. There are singles and albums here. If you want to buy direct from the source, look up our websites. You know what to do. – Bob Wilson December 3, 2024

Karen Law Bandcamp

Karen Law Website

The Goodwills website

The Goodwills Bandcamp

 

 

 

Award-winning songwriter Karen Law and her son Murray Law join The Goodwills Trio for concerts in Stanthorpe and Warwick on November 23 and 24.

These concerts were inspired when the two duos travelled to Canberra at Easter for a special concert. Karen and Bob are both winners of the Alistair Hulett Songs for Social Justice award. Nine previous winners lined up for a tribute concert at the National Folk Festival (photo taken backstage)

In August Karen launched her latest CD, Lifeline, in her home town of Nambour. Her son Murray, a Conservatorium graduate, played guitar and sang on the album, which was produced by Michael Fix.

Lifeline is receiving airplay on regional community radio stations throughout Australia.  Karen’s songs have also been aired on Ian McNamara’s Sunday morning radio show.

The Goodwills (Bob and Laurel Wilson) are well known to listeners of Australia all Over with Bob’s original songs often played on the Sunday morning radio show. Expect to hear some old favourites (Big Country Town, Courting the Net) and some newer repertoire from Bob’s extensive catalogue. They are accompanied at both concerts by Brisbane-based fiddle player and harmony singer Helen Rowe.

The first concert is at Eukey Hall, near Stanthorpe, at 7pm on Saturday November 24. Tickets are $15 with children under 16 free. Sunday’s concert is at St Mark’s Anglican Church, Grafton Street Warwick at 2pm.

Tickets for both shows are available at trybooking.com or at the door.

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1302953 Eukey

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1302964 Warwick

We’re launching our 2024 series of Goodwills in the Garden videos with this tribute to Morris dancers, on this important day.

Our latest song is a fairly accurate description of contemporary life in Australia and its moral dilemmas. Bob was inspired to write this after finding an old black and white photo of his grandfather (a stonemason in Bob’s Scottish hometown). The Highland Clearances are mentioned here in the context of the plight of First Australians, homeless people and refugees.

We entered this in the 2024 Alistair Hulett Songs for Social Justice Award, the last time this award will be offered. Bob’s song, When Whitlam Took his Turn at the Wheel, was awarded the prize in 2022.

This year’s awardee is Paddy McHugh for an as-yet unreleased song about Lismore and its disastrous floods (A Hatchet in the Roof). Award coordinator Bob Fagan told the audience at a special National Folk Festival concert on March 30 that 200 songs for social justice had been written and offered to the judges in the 14 years the award has been held. After the concert (when eight of the awardees performed their songs), some audience members commented that some or all of these songs ought to be on a CD (or a download). We second that!

The 2024 concert in the Budawang included songs by Fred Smith, Penelope Swales, Snez, Miguele Heatmole, Tony Eardley, Tripple Effect, Karen Law and The Goodwills. There was also a rousing all-in version of Alistair’s famous song, “The Swaggies”, led by Murray Law and Fred Smith’s band.

To listen to and/or download, follow this link

At our age, you take the chances when they come and that is why we are heading, by invitation, to the National Folk Festival at Easter.

As one of the Alistair Hulett Songs for Social Justice awardees, we have been invited to perform Bob’s song When Whitlam Took His Turn At The Wheel at this year’s festival. The song took out the award in 2022, coinciding with the 50^th anniversary of the Whitlam government’s election.

A special concert is being presented at the National Folk festival as a tribute to the late Alistair Hulett, whose family set up the award. Sadly, it is now coming to an end, with the announcement of the 2024 awardee on Easter Monday.

The Singing for Social Justice Concert will be staged at the Budawang on Saturday March 30 from 10am to 11.20am. Concert organiser John Sutton has eight awardees lined up to perform their winning songs.

Previous winners of the Alistair Hulett songwriting award include Snez, Paddy McHugh, Karen Law, Penelope Swales and Fred Smith.

Alistair Hulett, who died in 2010 aged 58, was a Scottish-born singer-songwriter. He moved with his family to New Zealand and then subsequently to Australia, where he became known as the front man for the folk punk band Roaring Jack.

His best-known songs include He Fades Away (about an asbestos miner), Song of a Drinking Man’s Wife, and a powerful ballad known as The Swaggies. His songs have won awards and been recorded by  well-known folk performers including Roy Bailey, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, Andy Irvine and June Tabor.

We are quite likely to pop up at open mikes or sessions, so if you are at the National in Canberra this year, come and say g’day.

 

 

We launched this song on September 30 and Bob made a slideshow at the weekend. We think it’s an important issue so please, have a listen and a look and share. Bob and Laurel

I decided to write a song about the referendum and had the idea of asking the question: what if we’d had citizens’ referenda about really controversial issues like Iraq and Vietnam? Did we get asked? Eventually the song gets round to talking about Yes23, which ought to be a fait accompli but probably not. The link will take you to Should we say Yes, which is published on our Bandcamp page. You can listen to it a few times before it will ask you for money!

Bob Wilson