King Curly making an old style cylinder recording of ‘The Bumblebee Hs No Home ‘ in Memphis. CLICK TO PLAY

As a postmortem of our trip to the USA I will touch on the interesting fact that over there we were regarded as a ‘wild’ and ‘weiiiiiird’ musical act. Once it became clear that this was a good thing we basked in the glory of it while of course feeling it was ridiculous. So how could they have mistaken us for wild!?

I believe it was simply because relative to much of whats around, King Curly is kind of loose in its presentation of music  – mainly because it sounds better that way but also because it provides more excitement for us to not over-rehearse (or even to rehearse at all)

This is in contrast with a new musical movement I have been watching hatch with horror over recent years. And it has now slid from its monstrous spotted egg. Nowadays many performers in music and acting have been schooled in the art of what I can only describe as choreographed emotion. The intention no doubt is to exhibit an impossible spectrum of hyper-emotions within the limited stage time. In America I saw a musician REMOVE HIS GLASSES AND POCKET THEM AT THE SAME MOMENT MID-SONG IN THREE SEPERATE PERFORMANCES! Once I had gotten over my amazement that he could do that and play the guitar at the same time, it dawned on me that this was a planned device to show he looked good with them both on and off. I also saw many ‘jenuine’ tears of both sorrow and joy shed and it made me feel most uncomfortable – but to my relief the audience looked nonplussed,  reinforcing my conviction that the perfect forgery is yet to be made.

As usual we can probably blame it on tv, and shows like ‘Idol’. (which I often watch)  but it has now become a serious impediment for artists everywhere.  I read somewhere about Clint Eastwood lamenting the fact that fame had meant loosing touch with regular folks and having to rely on his fading memory of what normal life was like in order to create his characters. Many Hollywood actors nowadays learn their craft by watching old movies and tv and so like Chinese whispers, it soon

must become unclear what a primary emotion should look like. Actors like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise just cant go outside anymore and that’s why they don’t seem so great in movies anymore. THEYVE FORGOTTEN HOW TO ACT NORMAL. Most of the billboards in West Hollywood feature Australian actors. Hollywood producers have realised they must outsource if they want those old-time primitive emotions.

Hugh Jackman hosting the Oscars was like watching like a panther in a room full of pigeons.  He was terrifyingly, magnificently ‘wild’ as he turned it on for the petrified Hollywood elite. We were watching from our Super 8 Hotel in Memphis – swollen with pride and dirty Dominoes pizza.

We are going back to North America in the later part of this year to do something like a proper tour from Canada to Tennessee over 5 weeks.

KC