Melbourne Roots: Mick Cameron All Star Tribute Gig - Sun 14th March @ the Lomond Hotel

Sunday night was the much anticipated tribute gig for Melbourne songwriter & musician Mick Cameron who sadly and unexpectedly passed away in March of 2008. The event was a great success, one that brought Mick's famous songs out into the warm, social air of a Melbourne autumn evening and had us all beaming, emptying our glasses, tapping feet on worn carpet & singing along to the well-loved tunes. And of-course by the end, in true pub fashion, there was the deafening clamour of a hundred people clapping and wolf-whistling and yelling out for Mooore! and Tanya dancing barefoot in front of the stage, her toes painted red, her face aglow with memories of Mick. And Horse is doing push-ups on the floor (?!) and there are six people clambering over me to get to the dance floor.

The song of the evening that stole my heart was 'Very Slow Train' sung by Barb Waters, Aubrey Maher on guitar, Craig Woodward on Banjo, Jono Wilson on fiddle and Tony Hargreaves on accordian. This beck and call, duet style song was like slow sex in the morning, voices subdued, sweet and just a little gravelly. Barb Waters was stunning. There were, of-course, many more songs and line-ups that were beautiful and fun and a joy to watch. Cat Moser playing banjo in her grey cow-girl boots and pony-tail; Clint Dylan O'Grady on guitar & Peter Holmes on banjo; Andy Reid on washboard, Craig Woodward and Warren Rough, Tom Mangan and Jesse Lawrance of the Goodtime Medicine Band, Pete Fiddler, Katie Reid, Karina, Corinn and Nicola Strating, and quite possibly others who I may have forgotten (apologies). I have posted a video (not great quality I'm afraid - just a cheap digital camera record) of 'Old Car Died', eleven musicians on stage and the crowd mad with dance and singing. I loved this moment of the night and I'm so thrilled it will be available on-line.

On remembering Mick:

Mick has been a well-liked and respected figure on the roots music scene since he arrived from Adelaide in the late 1980s, performing in the Cajun Aces, Headbelly Buzzard, the Acme String Band and his own, uniquely Australian, Sandilands, a trio comprised of himself, Craig Woodward (of Headbelly Buzzard) and Tony Hargreaves of Melbourne's folk scene. Sandilands produced three records: 'Waterhole' (2003), 'Cookin' Crabs' (2005), and 'No Time to get High' (2007) all of which are still avaliable online from http://www.acrosstheborders.com.au/

Mick died a week or so after my daughter was born and we took her, two weeks old - a porcelain doll in muslin cloth, full of sleep and life, to Mick's memorial at the Railway Hotel. What a bitter-sweet offering it was- this strange irony of life - that birth can sit so innocently beside the death of a friend. Although I did not know Mick especially well, he always had a shy smile for me in that laconic and quietly intense way of his and I would always find myself beaming back at him as if he had lit me up like a lantern with his thoughts. He was attune to things, I guess; a song-writer.

I can still picture him in his dark shirt and thick black hair, hunched over his dobro on stage at the Lomond, singing these laconic, drawling melodies with a twinkle in his eye. I remember Ron in the audience, arms crossed over his chest, spectacles gleaming under the baseball cap pulled too low over his forehead, heckling Mick in that booming voice of his: 'You're a terrible singer, Mick.' Then, eyes bright, with a proud tilt to his chin: 'I'm a Taurean. We're good singers, us Taureans.' And Mick had that half-smile on his lips. And so did half the pub it seemed, but I don't know, maybe that was just the swell of twenty voices singing full-bellied along with 'Old car died, middle of the road; old car died, I couldn't get home,' faces beaming in the dim pub-light. Two years have since passed and my daughter is about to turn two; she is still porcelain skinned though she shed the muslin cloth when she ceased to be a baby, and time has moved on.

There are many of you out there who knew Mick and Mick's work and contribution to Melbourne roots music a lot better than I did (or do). Please feel welcome (and encouraged) to comment on this page and share your own stories, memories or tributes to his life and music and keep the history of Sandilands alive for the future.

Cheers,

Lyrics quoted from:

'Very Slow Train'

"I wish I was on a very slow train, rolling real slow across a barren plain. Rolling real slow down a mountain track; rolling real slow till I get back.

I don't want no fast train. I don't care about your manly pride. I don't want no fast train. I just want to enjoy the ride ..."