Hi,
I just imported the old Luker and Southern site over here wholesale. That site is pretty much closed. Future gigs with Emma Luker of the one-off variery may occur but it’s not going to be soon…
Archive for the 'Luker and Southern news' Category
16
Jan
12
Luker Southern import
12
Feb
11
Weaver’s Ghost Demo
Another Luker and Southern demo for ya. This one is a slow tune for Emma to do some more of her WALL OF VIOLIN work with multiple distorted violin parts.
The beginning has a verse straight away in this version, but if we do a full version, I’d like an Irish whistle solo before the singing starts.
Vox on the demo still a bit dodgy but other than that I kinda like the boomy sound and would want to do something similar on a proper version.
The Weaver’s Ghost mp3 to download
Incidentally, the chords / melody at the end of each verse are from an English trad tune called the Weaver and the Factory Maid. I love this song immensely, probably my favourite Maddy Prior tune. It was important to me at around the time my Dad died so I think that is why the lyrics to my version have ended up being about that.
Steeleye Span – The Weaver and the Factory Maid mp3 to download
Cheers,
GSS.
These are some Luker and Southern demos I’m putting up so Emma and Jeremy Phillips can have a listen and play along.
They aren’t real hot quality wise, but the songs will get there in time.
Barlinne Reel is about a nutter in jail. It is based on the Glenville Reel I blogged about a few months ago. Harmony in the chorus.
Long Gone Running in Old Barlinnie
Nobody Knows If I’m Lower or Higher
Been Locked Up for Twenty Mississippi
Play Me a Reel and I’ll Set You On Fire
Fisher’s Hornpipe (Didn’t Catch a Thing) is kind of about how fishing can be lame because it gives people too much time to talk to each other. It’s to a well known Turlough O’Carolan tune.
21
Nov
10
Two Shows in December
LandS have two shows in December.
Friday December 3rd at the OLD QUEENS ARMS @ 10.30 after Little Hefty and Thom Lion, 88 Wright Street.
Saturday December 4th at the CELTICA FESTIVAL, PORT ADELAIDE, Mundy St Wharf, Acoustic stage, 4pm.
The latter show is free and kid friendly.
Steve.
Actually it has been for some time now.
Mp3s are available at the Luker and Southern site.
Go there to find out more, including album art, gig dates and so on.
Yo Emma,
What are the defining features of a demo version?
- Instruments out of tune
- Hastily played
- Singer has a cold
- Pieced together out of stray bits of audio
- Lyrics still subject to change
Ahem. Without further ado may I present the demo version of a new Luker and Southern number pending your veto:
Tony’s Tune / The Love in Your Heart (Luker / McKenzie).
Plenty of room for you to practice violiny bits and an intended reprise of the tune at the end.
Have fun.
S.
10
Oct
10
The Folk Centre
Our CD (self titled) was launched on October 9th 2010, at the Folk Centre, which is on George Street in Thebarton.
You know that funny old-looking place on the corner of South Road and George St, just north of the Henley Beach Road junction, that you always drive past and wonder what it is? Well, that’s not the Folk Centre. That’s actually some church building. The Folk Centre is the building next door that looks like an old RSL hall.
Basically playing there goes like this:
You arrive at sunset, and park in the spot reserved for the Rector, and then you go in the hall and the sound guy is already there setting up, and you say hello to him and he seems nice.
Then you muck around for a while with hard plastic chairs and old style trestle tables and you try to estimate how many people are going to show up, and you notice how big the place actually is, and you try not to imagine it full of line dancers.
Then you talk to the lady on the door who has one of those old fashioned cash register boxes with numbers on dials, and a grey plastic “ka ching” handle, and a float of two shillings sixpence in case a lot of people come.
Then you stand around for a bit looking at all the names of the past presidents of the SA Folk Federation, random banners from lots of community organizations, posters of famous people from Ireland who have also played here, etc, and those little pennants that tell you who came third in the local darts tournament in 1967.
Then, a couple of old people show up and ask you when the Bingo game starts and you have to tell them that it isn’t a Bingo night, it’s a folk concert. They seem not to mind.
Then more people show up, and you play. The stage is large and the sound is good and people sit quietly drinking wine and listening to you.
Then, they all leave, and you are left to pack up all the trestle tables again.
That’s how it goes.
(OK some of that isn’t true. Especially the part about packing up the trestle tables. The staff did that.)
We sold some CDs but there’s a few left. Check out the CD sample page.
28
Aug
10
The Bodhran
I got myself a Walton’s bodharn a while back and Emma recently pained it. It’s going to form the basis of our new album cover.
Here’s some shots, gallery style.
In other news – giggled last night, went well.
28
Aug
10
The Wine Incident
Wheatsheaf Hotel, August 27, and our first major gig. We were pretty good, I think. I love the Wheatty too. All fireplaces and tasty beer and polished floors and they know how to look after you right.
So, we’re in the middle of a slow number with me supporting Em with quiet plinking on the banjo and there’s this weird “splash” noise in front of us, and we both think that somehow the ceiling has sprung a leak and water is gushing down onto the floor.
The noise stopped so we kept playing, and wondered what the hell just happened (because we couldn’t really see).
Later, friends told us the following account:
One of the families that were there to see the other band (The Heggarties) were sitting right up front and talking, which can be a little rude, but isn’t out of keeping with what happens at that venue pretty often. They were approached by a couple of women who wanted them to shut up because they liked our playing, and the family said no, because they weren’t the only ones talking.
The next think anyone knows one of the women has grabbed the family’s bottle of wine, poured it all over the floor in a giant cascade and then stormed out, leaving the family, also, wondering what the hell just happened.
This is the kind of passion we inspire in people. 
21
Jun
10
The recording process
Recording for the debut CD occurred between about December 2009 and June 2010. We had about six sessions all up, all of them at my house. The standard day went something like this:
Emma gets to my house at about 10 after driving all the way from Salisbury and we immediately nip out the back to smoke her rolling tobbacco, drink tea, gossip, and talk about all the things we aren’t doing yet. Then we set up and select tunes to work on. Arrangement conversations go like this: “What about we do the whole thing twice and then stop?” “No, how about we do that twiddly bit twice and them come straight into the loud bit?” “You mean the A-part?” “I don’t know, why don’t you just nod at me?” “OK.”
The song thus arranged, we write song charts down on bits of paper that look like this: A A B CH & !! and we nod wisely.
I have subsequently found these sheets of paper in my bedroom studio, and now have no idea what they mean.
Then, we do several version, and either the first or the last will be the the best. We smoke more tobacco, repeat the process on another tune, and Emma leaves for the day.
Mixing occurred mostly in June and that session basically went like this. “I like it all, except that bit I don’t like,” “I think that vocal harmony would sound better if you couldn’t actually hear it”, “That sounds good turn it up louder,” etc.
After this rigorous process was complete, I spent about a day normalizing and standardizing the EQ profiles, and we were away.
Check out the CD page for more information:
Everyone's been awful nice...