BROTHER is watching you

and another year runs it's course.
more shows than last year
and more again coming in 2011.
i still marvel that BROTHER is now a 3 piece.
i never would have imagined.
but here we are and it feels damn good.
we captured the new sound on a live album.
happy with that but ready to be in the studio again.
a good few shows with the 2 piece in 2010 too.
tribal trance experimentation.
and with drew on his way west soon,
many more angdrew shows to come ...

interesting times we're in.
i was thinking of reading 1984 again.
but it seems i don't need to.
it seems we're living it.
being a dad, this is on my mind.
where are we heading?
was it ben franklin that said
he who forsakes freedom for safety deserves neither?
but fear not. BROTHER is watching you too ...


getting on the floor and laughing with my son.
walking in the snow with him
as he watches it fall for the first time.
imagining him being a big brother.
these things are real,
in a world that feels quite unreal sometimes ...
but i feel a powerful year coming.
it will be what we want it to be.
and we want it to be happy, do we not?

angus

chimney smoke

despite the challenges of these times i give thanks for an amazing year.
lots of good people along the way.
some we've known a long time, some we've just met,
and many we knew long ago who have somehow found us again.
the feedback has been wonderfully uplifting,
one of the things that keeps me on this path.
being a part of the ever evolving animal that is BROTHER is a trip in itself.
i've enjoyed the continuing focusing of the sound and show with the fellas.
we are 3 different and quirky individuals but we like each others' company.
and the vision is shared.
here's to our last show for this year!
back at the coach house for the 'out from under' release party.
and back on stage with brother jack. another quirky individual.
i give thanks for being able to make some music with him again too.
and i give thanks too for my amazing little family, soon to be a little larger.
the best paradigm shift ever.
and thanks to you all for a great year.
long may your chimney smoke ...

angus

blown again

misty cold weather here in southern oregon.

warms the cockles of my celtic heart.

good to be home again, tho only for a couple more days.

far flung florida next. sun to spare there.

we played dunedin with brother hamish years ago.

the memories are good. of the people and the place ...

every time i return home asa is more a person.

bigger stronger faster. cheekier and funnier.

and i am always more enthralled.

by him. by the process.

and now he is to be a big brother.

he doesn't really get it yet

but we certainly do.

i know it will be similar

and yet different in so many ways too.

and so the world will turn.

and our minds will be quietly(or not so quietly) blown again ...

anxious to have that rascal drewski living here.

somehow we've managed to keep the BROTHER beast breathing,

across the years, across continents, across seas.

but it is always easier to move quickly when we're closer.

seems he will drive across the country early in the new year.

here's to a safe journey mate.

angus

in a church

our first neighborhood concert this past weekend.

BROTHER in a church. a near capacity audience.

my son in the front row imitating dalbo,

or dancing with the other small ones,

or watching me, hand to his head in the sign for 'dada'.

people there from the days of yore.

one bloke who was at our LA show with colin hay 14 years ago.

and the flyer to prove it.

kids, teachers and parents from the school shows we did last week.

a community gathering.

felt good to be so welcomed our first time out ...

we had to move a couple of months back.

a pain the in proverbial but the first place we looked at suited us perfectly.

a mountain view that takes me back to the farm.

and lichen grew up here, so it feels like home for us both.

big back yard, deer proof veggie garden,

fruit trees and an old chicken coop.

maybe next year we'll have chooks. that'll really take me back.

nothing quite like collecting your own eggs.

a goat perhaps? no, just kidding.

one day ...

sonora this weekend with andrew and david.

gold country. they found it there, and the grasses are.

gold that is.

for now, time to soak in the view. and a brew.

angus

flying

at the airport last night.

arrived to find i hadn't checked in online, so i was on standby.

and somehow my id had important pieces of info missing,

or kind of flashing in and out, so it wasn't usable at all.

and of course, i had somewhere to be,

a show to play, bread to win ...

then i realized i was dreaming,

and i was indeed already on the way to somewhere,

telling dalbo about the dream.

the stress of flying nowadays,

now that we're all terrorists not tourists,

not like the good old days,

when i loved to fly ...

then i really woke up, at home,

to the sound of asa talking to himself in his crib.

the cheeky, tough little dynamo that is my son,

engages me in this life more and more every day.

he loves tractors, drumming, blackberries straight off the vine,

jumping, dressing up in hats and the moon.

he brings me close to the ground,

(where any good taurus should be, eating the flowers)

when flying these days, even in my dreams, is so often a drag.

pleasanton last weekend. 6 shows in 2 days.

like so many of those celtic festivals,

lots of hard playing, lots of sweating.

and lots of good people, old and new,

reminding me why i still go out and do this.

jamming with the lass and lads of albannach on our final tune.

a mighty way to end the day.

and we will do it again next week in new hampshire.

in the meantime, the boy sleeps again after a long and busy day.

sweet dreams little matey.

and lang mae yer lum reek.

angus

that's a bummer man

mmm, that's a bummer man.


a week later ...

2 weeks later ...

hamish for the senate

may you live in interesting times.

my brother hamish,

man of the earth,

has announced he is running for the oz senate.

a sustainable future is his goal.

indpendent, naturally.

i wrote, played and performed music with him for a long time.

shared many a hotel room and compared notes on our passing lives,

and on the state of the world.

he lives his truths.

since taking leave of BROTHER

he has become a protector of his home community.

and an advocate of music and arts.

his is a voice that people want to hear.

he is a man of his word.

and his words, tho often few, are well chosen and ring true.

if i could choose a voice to represent me in my homeland,

it would be his.

it's time for a paradigm shift in politics and those of you who know hamish

know he is a very different kind of human,

with the ability to inspire.

if you can, vote.

he will deliver.

may you live in interesting times indeed,

angus

visit hamish here ... http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hamish-Richardson-for-the-Senate/143971698955042