Marisa's Tour Diary - Mount Beauty Music Muster
Friday Night - Cranky Charlie's
We couldn't believe our eyes as we rolled into the stunning valley which houses Mount Beauty. Framed by mountains on all sides and in the prime of Autumn, it looked like a watercolour painting. Three days here.... easy on the eye!! After a long road trip that day and no sooner out of the car, we turned up for a radio interview with Tad at Alpine 92.5FM. What a great guy he turned out to be, Tad and his lovely wife Julie made us most welcome over the weekend in their town and provided us with lots of local knowledge.

We drew the Midnight hour for our first show at the Muster. Andrew Pendlebury, Jules and I were both feeling a little tired after the drive, but as soon as we hit the first note, I don't know, something kicks in and you just come alive.. the crowd were great and really got into the songs and the spirit. We played through a great mix of tunes leading up to a blazing finale including songs like 'You haunt my dreams' and 'Vacant Sign'. We did an encore, before finishing in the early hours.

Saturday Morning - Mt Beauty Country Club
Musicians are well known for not being morning people, and I have to admit I'm no exception, so when we drew the red eye gig with a 10AM show at the Country Club, I thought no-one (a least no-one sane) would get up to come to a show at that time. Luckily not everyone is a slow starter like me - the room quickly filled!. I blew the cobwebs out of my voice, and Andrew and I went on to play a really fun show. 'Holy Water' was one of my favorites this morning along with our Dylan cover of 'I'll be your baby'. The crowd were in the mood to join in, singing along and stamping their feet. They were a really great audience this morning.

We had another show in the Country Club at 5pm, so after disgracing myself in our bar room pool challenge, I decided I would stick to what I do best... we hit the stage at 5pm after the most flattering of introductions from the Festival Director, Rollo Kiek. We were happy to see some familiar faces in the room, coming back to see another show. I played some songs that don't always get a guernsey in the show, and I kept Andrew guessing what I was going to throw at him next. He played fantastically.

Sunday Midday - Federation Stage
"Another Crappy Day in Paradise" was Andrew's first observation of the day, as we all stepped outside to see the sun beaming across the picture postcard view of the valley... we were off to play at an outdoor stage in the Main Street of Mount Beauty. By the time we got there and set up, it was downright HOT!! We were shaded slightly onstage, but the faithful audience sat stoically in the beating sun for over an hour while we played. I was ready to pass around the sunscreen! It was a great atmosphere with everyone gathered intently around the stage. I especially got a kick out of seeing a woman sitting front row - singing all the words to "Damned if you love me"... I played a solo song midset and by the end of the set we were getting so into things that I even broke a string (how Rock'n' Roll!!). A really fun show!!

Sunday Evening - Cranky Charlie's
Our last show at the muster was to a nicely chilled audience at Cranky Charlie's. Everyone was feeling mellow after such a full-on weekend of great shows! We played a really relaxed show which included a beautiful rendition of 'Lonely Puppet', and I let the audience chart the course of our final show. It was an intimate vibe and when last song was called, someone shouted "No, One more", to which was added "No, Two more", and so we gladly obliged playing well over our schedule.

Sunday night was a party for the artists, organisers and festival volunteers which went on 'til all hours. Overall we had a great time, we really enjoyed not just playing our shows and the Muster itself, but the people of the area who made it such an enjoyable weekend.