Long time no speak, Friend!
This is my first mailing list in many many moons. I’m so grateful to all who put their names down- Please do sign up if you fancy news from Mandyland not driven by algorithm.
Coming up over winter and beyond I have some exciting, including a very special evening with We Mavericks at the Newstead Community Center, presented by Newstead Folk Festival!
TRIO SHOWS
JUNE
SUN JUN 14 12noon to 7pm - FUZZY SUNDAY (w the Trio)
SUN JUN 28 BRUNSWICK GREEN with Dan Musil (naarm) (w the Trio)
JULY
SAT JUL 11 NEWSTEAD COMMUNITY CENTRE- With WE MAVERICKS (w the Trio)
AUG
SAT AUG 8 - BENDIGO BLUES TRAM- TRIO SHOW
IN THE ROUND w RICH DAVIES AND JOYCE PRESCHER
SAT AUG 22- Feather and Drum - Yackandandah
SUN AUG 23- Bluetongue Berries @ Hacienda- Seymour
OCT
SAT 10 OCT - Odessa’s at Leavers - Creswick
TEE SHIRTS!- I MADE TEESHIRTS!
They are all from Op Shops in good clean condition but no new manufacturing was required. Screen printed with Tex Turkey from Big Tree Tee Apparel and Josh from Oni Streetwear in Castlemaine. I printed them with a squeegee and a carousel and ever’thin’! That means there are all sorts of cuts, fabrics and colours. Makes it hard to order online I know, but chat to me if you’re keen.
You can message me… I have made a few available on Bandcamp with a Digital Download of a song from the upcoming record The Girl Who Fell Off The Wall.
RECAP OF 2026 TO DATE
I rang in the year sharing stories and food with my favourite fella and his folky family, who I’ve known for more than two decades. It’s been a delight to know them better! Straight from a Barrels By Candlelight Christmas gig with the Badcock Brothers in Melbourne, we headed up the Hume to the NSW Coast and revived my love of those rolling hills. If you have suggestions for NSW gigs, I’m in. I already know about the Tathra pub and it’s high time I went back to Sydney…
January was spent reading a lot about the Australian folk scene and feeling VERY jealous/fomo about Cygnet Folk and Illawarra Folk Festivals which I suddenly miss very much. Instead, I was preparing for an exciting Newstead Folk Festival and gigs with Liz Frencham which were sadly (but wisely) postponed because of the Victorian fires. I live close to Harcourt, and while I wasn’t able to perform at the fundraisers I did cancel a few shows in order to avoid competing with them. Turbulent times of climate change and politics. The fires had a devastating impact on us. We still had an excellent gig at the Newstead Pub- featuring Whiskey Dram, Emmy Ryan, Anita George, and more. The Newstead Pub is now running music events!
The Shedshaker Taproom ran a glorious Dolly Parton Tribute which I shared with Freya Josephine Hollick, Pickles - kickarse singer songwriter … and Christy Gordon Smith, so it was an especially beautiful night full of just the most brilliant harmonies.
February
Feb kicked off at Port Fairy Jazz Festival singing BVS with Girl Friday and the Sepia Tones, some more great harmonies & a LOT of driving. Most of 2025 I was able to take trains for longer trips which I really enjoyed, but in this case having the car was a blessing because I had to run an ill mate back to Melbourne.
I saw Daniel Champagne’s excellent show in Castlemaine and performed for the wonderful National Folk Festival crew at their launch event hosted by Bent Spoke Brewery in Canberra. My first real rock and roll one day interstate trip! Click for a video of that performance.
March
..involved a lot of FOMO - I was very sad not to be at Cobargo, Fiddlers or Port Fairy. Instead, I was able to go bushwalking and kayaking in some incredible NSW and VIC national parks. I can’t remember the last time I felt so free and had my phone turned off for so long.
For the very first time, I performed with my friend of nearly thirty years, Tony McManus at Yackandandah Folk Festival. Lucky enough was I to sing with Tony at Yack, the National and at Cresfest and it was such an honour to sing The Dimming of the Day (Richard Thompson) and I Wonder What Is Keeping My True Love This Night (as per Tomas Lynch and June Tabor).
March is the busiest time of year - I managed to see a little bit of the fabulous Castlemaine State Festival- a two week program in my home town- and a gig by Matthew Colin and Jeffrey Martin - if you haven’t heard Matthew yet I can’t recommend him enough. Matthew’s a Castlemaine local with a great podcast (check out his website) and a great writing style. There’s a few around this town, including Phil Smith, recently moved here from Tassie and a songwriter with a burning passion and a buzzing brain full of passion and words. Phil’s just released a new record 1,2,3,4 and I’m on it! He brought me in to the stunning Sound Recordings analog studio just outside of town, to record some BV’s with the beautiful Alex at the desk.
The month was spent feeling very nervous about bringing my Trio to the National Folk Festival (NFF) at in April, which we’d been working towards for a long time. A setback in admin meant that I was unable to release a record I made in 2018 in time for the National and I was really disappointed about that, I’d been really hoping to have the record available by then, but not all was lost. We have been rehearsing those songs, some of which have never had much of an airing- and as a result this lineup is sounding really fabulous. It’s the most fun I’ve had since the Stray Hens. The Trio is myself, Trev Dwyer on Dobro and Banjo, and long time bandmate Craig Kelly on Double Bass, and the guys have really got an absolutely smashing handle on the songs - they’re responsive players who have my back and are able to follow me through the set arrangements and roll with me when I miss a step.
Trev is a newish bandmate with an excellent ear for arrangement. He’s a joy to work with, interpreting the record produced by Tom Wright (which you’re yet to hear) into arrangements for the instruments we have live on stage. Trev and Craig’s voices lend themselves to thrilling three part harmony which transcends anything I could do alone…
April
National Folk Festival 2026- 60th Anniversary year.
- THANKYOU AND VALE MICHAEL SOLLIS -
…was huge. It Sold OUT. We kicked it off with a full set in the first slot at the Flute and Fiddle, with Joe Ferguson and Mischa Herman on sound. AND then two songs at the Budawang (The Really Big Stage With Screens) for the opening concert! No time to hang about, straight in. Friday morning we rehearsed outside the vollies kitchen and got so many smiles from everybody passing, we went back every time we needed rehearsal spots!
Joining us there for rehearsal was Charlotte Ekkel with Lucy Mckenzie McHarg on fiddle. We played as a five piece, performing my August Moon and her A Little Quiet.
I joined Sam’s Caravan to interview four artists over four days- Ruth Hazleton, Karen Lee Andrews, Charley Castle and Judy Small. Interviews were 20 minutes short- but Sam kindly filmed them for us! Judy also asked us to perform one of her songs for the Songs of Peace concert hosted by the wonderful Fred Smith, and we performed Sacred Ground as a trio on the Budawang stage again. At the end of our interview with Judy- who was saying that the NFF is possibly her last ever public appearance as a performer- The Solidarity Choir gave a flashmob performance of one of Judy’s songs and made us all proper cry.
There’s really no way to condense Judy Small, A.M.’s significance into a paragraph. I’m still digesting everything that happened. She’s an activist, legendary and prolific songwriter and retired Federal Circuit Court Judge. And a huge BRAIN/HEART/SOUL/FIRE.
The trio made a super sweet appearance at the Marquee, following the Windborne (!!!) and the Tuck Shop Ladies (!!!) performing Malvina Reynolds’ Little Boxes for the Infinite Song Contest. Trev and I were finalists with Rich Davies on bass in the 2025 contest with Ruby Tuesday (the Melanie / Gaughan version). In fact I think that’s the whole reason we got to come back in 2026. Thanks to Kate and Andy for organising the ISC! Tuck Shop ladies made me laugh and jiggle. Windborne made me cry and get radical. you really should check both of them out.
Huge. But No Big Deal Eh?
Bruce Watson screened a film he made called the Immortals, after which he held a panel discussion with Judy Small, Martyn Wyndham Read, Warren Fahey (Folk Aus Culture Academic Legend) and myself. Its essentially a poignant, impactful showreel of significant folkies who are no longer with us. Many of whom I knew personally.
And then I had to get up with living heroes and try to keep my shit together in front of an audience of wise folk geeks. You can watch The Immortals free online. But I recommend you do it in chunks. It’s a bit much if you’ve been on the folk scene for the past twenty or more years. It was an exciting discussion. I cried. My stepfather Hugh McEwan was among those featured as were many other influences.
I sang with Tony McManus, and also with my great friend Kris Mizzi who had a fab new violin player Lizzie!
RESTRUNG- Mickey and Michelle hosted me with a 36 piece orchestra on the big stage, right after Brittany Haas and before Irish Mythen, to perform my own song About Your Business. I don’t have the footage yet but trust me when I do I’ll share it.
No Big Deal.
Monday we finished the festival with a three hour show I curated, an old Mandy and Friends tradition at the Bohemia Stage on the site of the old Troubadour Wine Bar, where I got my first big break on a festival stage as a babby musician.
I had the honour of playing again with Richard Grace on bass, Leif Helland (viola), Leif’s brother Sven (fiddle), and guests Amy Lewincamp (designer of Apolline’s album cover) and Ziah Cooper from Homebru- who are amazing young folkies who seem to have known the Stray Hens material all their lives…. amazing. I’m old.
Trev, Craig and I closed the night out, but in the meantime, we featured Sarah Humphreys, Liz Frencham’s great lineup, Les Thomas, The Poet Adara Enthaler, Mickey and Michelle as a duo, an incredible trio I met on the way to the gig singing acapella in an eastern european language and really mesmerising everyone and whose name I will publish when I can find my notes (truly magic), and my friend who hasn’t played much in ages Tully Sumner (Castlemaine).
Tully was an inspiration in the Melbourne scene to me years ago when I first thought you had to play indie or pop or ska to play in Melbourne outside of folk clubs. Mandy and Freinds shows are a treat, always and we have had some EPIC nights. I think they were born partly out of the Alistair Hulett tribute concerts we held at the Bohemia stage in 2011/2013. Click on that link for one I played at but didn’t organise.
I saw Amaidi- Kate Burke AND Ruth Hazleton launched their new records. DYING. I saw so many great acts. I saw a strong youth and queer representation of our living tradition.
I want to tell you more but to be honest if you’re still with me here I reckon you’ve done well and deserve a break. I needed one after the Nash I can tell you.
But the next weekend myelf and half the NFF crew were at Cresfest in Vic, which was wonderful. Cresfest has also sold half it’s presales for 2027. Get one while you still can. The Good Behaviours, Andy Baylor, Above the Bit, the choirs…. Brittany and Natalie Haas again… and stayed with my friend from One Part Gin in Creswick. Thanks mate. And I sang one last time with Tony before we parted ways for this visit. I really have to go to Canada.
First I gotta get the record printed and out to you all in Oz. And the EP… oh yeah theres other new stuff coming too.
I guess I’ll cover May in the next one.
Thanks. It’s a pleasure to play for you and write for you.
Mandy