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For more information please email me on melaniehorsnell@gmail.com and the subject VEVEY HOUSE CONCERT
Not all troubadours are men. In the 12th and 13th centuries in Southern France, across Languedoc, Provence and the rest of what was then known as Occitania, there emerged a tradition of female songwriters known as Trobairitz. It is a word and a tradition that Melanie Horsnell loves, to the extent that she named her most recent album after it. It captures something about her intrepid worldwide musical peregrinations, and her dedication to her songwriting craft.
Mel has toured Europe twice this year already and now, she is coming to Cowra to play for us. Mel’s solo tour in January and February took in Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Italy and she has just returned from Poland as part of a cultural exchange between Poland and Indigenous Australians based on geologist Edmund Strzelecki, who named Australia’s highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko, (on Monero-Ngarigo country), after the Polish democratic leader, Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
Mel first came to prominence in the early 2000s with a five-year residency at the Excelsior Hotel in Glebe where she led an acoustic renaissance (it could’ve been an electric renaissance but you know, neighbours…) and her residency became a hub for songwriters of the “New Folk” scene. Among those who joined Mel at the Excelsior before establishing themselves more broadly, were the likes of Paul Greene, Bertie Blackman and Lior.
In 2020 Mel teamed up with fellow Candelo residents Robyn Martin and Kate Burke to form the New Graces. They recorded an extraordinary debut album “Seasons” which rocketed to number one on the ARIA Australian Country charts but, the second COVID lockdown intervened to derail the extensive tour they had booked to promote it. Life as a musical “lifer” is never easy but that was just cruel.
Bruised but undaunted, Mel continues the life of single Mum and Trobairitz. Please come along to the Cowra Railway Station on Saturday the 19th of August to celebrate her resilience and prodigious musical talents.
Joining us to open the show will be Cowra's own folk favourites, The Wildflowers (Lucy Lehmann and Andy Baylor) who launched their album at the Cowra Railway Station recently. It was such a great night and the room so cozy that we're returning for another show. The Wildflowers will be without the Waugoola Ramblers this time, operating in duo mode but, they will perfectly set the scene for Mel. It's a perfect bill, I reckon, a charming, gentle evening of acoustic folk music so, gather your friends and families and we'll see you there!
Don't worry about the weather, we're not stuck out on the platform, we're inside the station in the cozy Cowra Antique Vehicle Club Rooms. Entry is $30 (free for Under 15s) For this show Lachlan Valley Music will be providing our usual delicious two-course dinner for just $25.
WORLD CLASS MUSIC! FUN! FOOD! COMMUNITY! IN COWRA!
