DAY 1

The Perisher Snowy Mountains Music Festival is in its second year running and features over 40 performers and 120 concerts spread over three days and twelve venues within the region. Situated in the Perisher Valley up in the Snowy Mountains, the festival already claims the fame for being one of Australia’s most unique festival locations. Drawing artists from all parts of Australia including international the festival specialises in the genres of World, Folk, Roots, Blues, Celtic and Traditional music.

I caught the bus from Sydney to Jindabyne with no idea of where the mountains actually were and whether or not I could walk to them from Jindabyne. After being laughed at by the female attendees at the tourist centre they suggested I hop on the soon-to-be departing school bus which would be dropping off the children up into Perisher and around the area. It was a unique welcome to an unknown territory, with kids under the age of ten crawling all over me, asking me ridiculous questions and telling me jokes and providing local advice. I finally arrived just in time for the first show of the festival, which was situated at the “The Man From Snowy River” hotel just opposite the bottom of the mountain and the community centre.

After experiencing the sight of snow for the first time in my life, I couldn’t help but be excited for the festival as a whole. The first band on stage was called “Rough Red” who are an internationally renowned story-telling folk act, they featured accordion along with the standard line up of guitar, bass and drums. The Australian heritage shun through the song writing with songs like “Harry’s Farm”, “Carousel” and “The Flying Dutchman”, all featuring strong poetic lyrics and picturesque descriptions of landscape and characters. Despite being of an older age (like the majority of the bands on the line up), the experience and years of playing had only been a complete advantage on the group and it was a great introduction for the festivities.

Following Rough Red were “Wongawilli” who are another internationally renowned band and have been around since 1987, they are described as “ambassadors” for Australian Folk Music and generally play at all the major folk festivals around the country. They even featured a 13 year-old violin player who was something of a virtuoso, which forced all of the other members to keep up despite their experience. Like Rough Red they sung songs about their heritages including one about Ned Kelly, they became even more patriotic when the lead singer brought out a bottle cap percussion instrument with caps of all the quintessential Australian beers stuck onto it. The songs were delivered by a white bearded man and at times it sounded more Irish than anything especially with the intricate whistle playing. The highlight may have been the mandolin solo towards the end, which also seemed to be plugged into a wah-wah pedal – an interesting twist at the end of a satisfying set.

Before heading over to the next venue, I probably saw my personal favourite thus far which was Wollongong based musician “Big Erle”. Lead by a deep baritone, which drew obvious influences from blues greats and Johnny Cash they ripped through songs like “The Sun Don’t Shine On Me” and “Solid Ground”. He was definitely one of the heaviest of the night and drew closer comparison to The Black Keys or a darker John Butler Trio rather than Lead belly or Robert Johnston side of blues.

I made my way out of “The Man From Snowy River” and down to the free shuttle bus, which took you to all the other venues in the region. The next place on the cards was “The Smiggins Hotel” about a kilometre down the road; the shuttle bus system was another good aspect to the festival because walking around in the snow in negative temperatures isn’t something you want to do for to long. The Smiggins Hotel had a much bigger capacity and a much larger stage, which made sense because some of the acts and their members needed the stage space. I walked into a set being played by “Hussy Hicks” who were lead by three females, with one of them being potentially one of the best guitarists I’d ever heard. They combined standard singer songwriter female folk with a whole variety of genres including gypsy, funk, blues, soul and flamingo. Guitarist Julz would often run off on remarkable tangents mid-way through songs. Towards the end of their set they invited 19 year-old Kim Churchill to play harmonica with them, he had played previously and after his brief cameo I was kicking myself that I regrettably missed him. Thankfully, this festival gives you a second or third chance as most of the artists play two or more sets within the three days. Hussy Hicks finished up with a hilarious rendition of “Darling nobodies uglier than you” which was as country sounding as the set got.

I got word from the locals that before headlining act Tex Perkins played last year a band called “A French Butler Called Smith” (pictured below) played and completely tore the house down. They may have looked like a bunch of crazed acidheads from Byron Bay with their novelty hats, dreadlocks and sunglasses but as soon as the first note was hit – the whole place was jumping. They played balls-to-the-wall authentic reggae, funk and dub and pulled it off amazingly accurate just as Lee “Scratch” Perry may have intended. They also featured a huge line-up of horns, saxophone, bongos and guitars. Despite being predominantly instrumental, towards the end of the set they included an alleged “single” off their latest album, which included some singing in the mix.

The final band for the night was Melbourne’s “Mista Savona”, if A French Butler Called Smith laid the foundations of funk for the night, then “Mista Savona” took it one step further over the edge. Claiming to be Australia’s leading exponents of root reggae, dancehall and dub-step, it was easy to see why the band was so deserving of this description. Their debut album “Warn The Nation” had recently been crowned the F.B.I Album of the week in Sydney, and after seeing this I went and bought it right away. The first night had been an overwhelming display of music ranging from all kinds of genre’s, the locals were friendly and the beers weren’t as expensive as I thought they might have been.

DAY 2 

I woke up pretty early on the second day to stock up on the complimentary breakfast been served downstairs from 8am to 9am in the morning. I couldn’t figure out what I hadn’t done the longest, woken up that early or cooked a breakfast like the one I just inhaled. Never the less, I was ready for another day of musical entertainment. The official opening for the festival was being held at the Jax Bar at the Perisher Centre, the band opening for the ceremony was quite fittingly a traditional aboriginal group called “Jarmbi’s Corrobboree” who opened the set with a message to the audience “A lot of traditional tribes of our people came over this land. Be weary of their footprints and the ground that you stand”, it gave an even more organic and cultural feel to the festival as a whole. The sound of the band presumably sung in their specific tribal tongue was absolutely haunting. Following the performance the festival organisers took the stage and welcomed everyone to the events and claimed that it was a “celebration of being Australian, the music and its culture”.

After the opening, I made my way up to possibly the most unique venue of the festival, which was situated at the mid-perisher centre half way up the mountain. Patrons could only get there via the chair lift that the snowboarders and skiers took to the top of the mountain. The ride up to the venue was one of the most remarkable experiences of the festival and gave you a bird’s eye view of the whole unique surroundings. When arriving a band called “Greshka” were playing, they’re an amazing five-piece band of young musicians that played an eclectic range of European styles and genres, they sort of sounded like a Russian busking band. It was Gypsy music at it’s finest and at times it sounded almost cinematic with clarinet, baritone sax, trumpet and effective use of a snare drum. 

Maybe the high altitudes and cold conditions were getting to me, but I found myself getting more into the artists and the range of genre’s after each concert I witnessed. After their set it was back down the mountain to witness the next concert in time. Festival attendee’s are required to go to the very top of the mountain in order to turn around and go back down, I just about lost my mind when I got to the very top. Again, this may have had something to do with the altitude, but I’m sure it would have been just as remarkable even if I had all the oxygen in the world.

Back at the Jax Bar in the Perisher Centre at the bottom of the hill “The Big Snore Hammers” were playing, I noticed that it featured some of the members from “Wongawilli” who I watched play the night before at “The Man From Snowy River Hotel”. It seemed to be somewhat of a party band, featuring all kinds of instruments like accordion, flute, saxophone, trombone and bagpipes. It was maybe even a bit of a family-affair as the woman playing a bouzouki had a baby attached to her waist with her the entire time.

In the same building I headed down to “Bazil’s Bar” to watch a three-piece band called “Grimick” they sounded like classic seventies folk song writing. With vocal ranges and effective chord uses which brought to mind the works of The Box Tops and Big Star, but after the performance I asked one of the members and he claimed that he hadn’t even heard of Alex Chilton before. They were definitely another one of the highlights for the festival, and their vocal harmonies and songs stuck with you well after they had finished.

Up next was something completely different from what I had seen thus far, and that was “Two Up Poetesses” which was two local poet/writers Carol Huechan and Lee Taylor-Friend. They read out some of their known and unknown poems and writings, which were odes to their surroundings and love letters to the Snowy Mountains. Carol Huechan was hilarious in her bush poetry performances as she told stories of sewage systems. Still, her very serious story about a WW1 jet fighter was probably the peak of the two-piece and was a nice contrast to her humours stories. Lee Taylor-Friend claimed that Huechan was a hard act to follow, but never the less she delivered stories from her latest collection “Tommy’s Girl”. This horse-trainer and stay at home mother had obviously been spending her free time wisely. She concluded her set with her famous 2006 poem about “Mother Snowy Live or Die”, which is a political outcry to the lack of care given to the famous Snowy Mountains River. She claimed the river is a “mother to the mountains and a daughter to the snow”.

Unfortunately, the last act “Vorn Doolette” was going to final performance I was going to see for the festival. Thankfully, it couldn’t have ended better with this amazing performance from a talented Australian songwriter and musician. A very eccentric and deadpan stage presence combined with incredible lyrics and minimalist arrangements could have cemented my opinion that this guy is an unappreciated national talent. The sublime songs about “German Interns” and a very Will Oldham-esque “Under The Waves”, the song “The End Of The World” was potentially genius. I was surprised I hadn’t even heard nor seen him play before, apparently based in Adelaide Vorn Doolette had taken out an award on triple J a few years back. He was also supported by an amazingly keyboardist who also provided raw/strained backing vocals.

This was a great conclusion to the festival, which still had a long way to go. I felt like I had seen a huge amount of talented acts, yet I hadn’t even made my way to some of the must-see’s like Mick Thomas, The Barons of Tang, Jeff Lang, and headliners Blue King Brown. I hope next year is an even bigger year for the Snowy Mountains Music Festival, it’s probably one of the most unique festivals this country has. Despite being probably one of the only attendee’s under the age of thirty who attended, I’m sure over the next few years it will draw a more diverse crowd to meet with the diverse selection of artists.

Photos by Graeme Morrison