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Bruce Hearn Woody Guthrie Tribute w/ Margret RoadKnight, etc.

Mick Pacholli
Mick Pachollihttps://www.tagg.com.au
Mick created TAGG - The Alternative Gig Guide in 1979 with Helmut Katterl, the world's first real Street Magazine. He had been involved with his fathers publishing business, Toorak Times and associated publications since 1972.  Mick was also involved in Melbourne's music scene for a number of years opening venues, discovering and managing bands and providing information and support for the industry. Mick has also created a number of local festivals and is involved in not for profit and supporting local charities.        

Hey people, a significant celebration not only of the great folk icon Woody Guthrie but of Australia’s own folk tradition, Bruce’s live album is out today. Also today, a live-stream album launch was announced, featuring some of the performers on the album – the truly iconic Margret RoadKnight, founder of the legendary Bushwackers Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky and the wonderful Kerri Simpson – as guests. it will take place at the beautiful Memo Music Hall in St Kilda and stream from 7:00PM AEST, FRIDAY 11DECEMBER.

MEMO Live Streams are a proud partnership between MEMO Music Hall and Renegade Films (RocKwiz).

Bruce is up for interviews and happy to talk about kidnapping Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser in his student activist days  so let me know if you want a chat with him around the release or the launch. 

MEMO LIVE STREAMS PRESENTS
A TRIBUTE TO WOODY GUTHRIE – BRUCE HEARN & THE MACHINISTS WITH SPECIAL GUESTS MARGRET ROADKNIGHT, KERRI SIMPSON AND (BUSHWACKERS FOUNDER) JAN ‘YARN’ WOSITZKY,  FRIDAY 11 DECEMBER 7:00PM AEST 

BRUCE HEARN, OF PIONEERING AND POLITICALLY CHARGED MELBOURNE BAND STRANGE TENANTS, LEADS ALL-STAR AUSTRALIAN FOLK CELEBRATION OF THE AMERICAN FOLK ICON TO LAUNCH NEW LIVE ALBUM.

“LIVE AT THE ATHENAEUM: A TRIBUTE TO WOODY GUTHRIE” BY BRUCE HEARN & THE MACHINISTS IS A CELEBRATION OF THE AMERICAN FOLK ICON AND THE “MOST REAL 

Bruce Hearn & The Machinists celebrate their new album “LIVE AT THE ATHENAEUM: A TRIBUTE TO WOODY GUTHRIE”, which tips their hats to the “the most real songwriter of the 20th Century”, with a live-streamed album launch from St Kilda’s Memo Music Hall, Friday 11 December at 7:00PM AEST.   

The live stream show features special guests MARGRET ROADKNIGHT, KERRI SIMPSON and JAN ‘YARN’ WOSITZKY ( founder of the legendary Bushwackers).

The show and album are also a celebration of the Australian folk scene, and a return to the folk tradition for an unsung hero of Australian roots music, Bruce Hearn, of pioneering and politically charged Melbourne ska band Strange Tenants.

Complete details and tickets, which are available now, from

https://memolivestreams.com/WoodyGuthrieTributeTix

MEMO Live Streams are a proud partnership between MEMO Music Hall and Renegade Films (RocKwiz). 
 
“Bruce and his fellow travellers evoke the spirit of Woody Guthrie with love, passion and purpose. ” – Anna Kokkinos, Film director (Head On, Book of Revelation, The Hunting)

Singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, labour activist and one-time ‘kidnapper’ of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, Bruce Hearn returns to his first musical love, folk music, with “Live at the Athenaeum: A Tribute To Woody Guthrie” released as a 2LP set, a 2CD and digitally on October 2. 

With special guests Margret RoadKnight, Eric Bogle, Mic Conway (of the Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band), Kerri Simpson, Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky (Bushwackers) and the Victorian Trade Union Choir, the double album is also a celebration of the Australian folk scene, and a return to the folk tradition for an unsung hero of Australian roots music, Bruce Hearn, of pioneering and politically charged Melbourne ska band Strange Tenants. 

***

A former student activist (see Fraser ‘kidnapping’ details below!) and union rep, and now a Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations, Bruce came to prominence as a musician in the ’80s as a singer/song writer for pioneering and politically charged Melbourne ska band, Strange Tenants, who were hugely popular live and on record, and who toured with the likes of U2, UB40 and Jamaican reggae legend Jimmy Cliff. 
 
A fan of folk music since his parents took him to see Pete Seeger play in 1968, and more recently the leader of Australian Blues Music Awards-nominated finalist for best album and band, Hurricane Hearn, Bruce cut his musical teeth on the Melbourne folk scene of the early ’70s, performing at coffee houses and protests. Bruce is an unsung roots renaissance man whose musical palate had always looked beyond the ska sounds of early ’60s Jamaica and early ’80s London. 
 
Bruce Hearn & The Machinists’ “Live at the Athenaeum: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie” features guest appearances from a host of local folk and roots greats including Eric Bogle (“And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”), Margret RoadKnight (“Girls in our Town”), Mic Conway (frontman of the legendary Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band),  Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky (of The Bushwakers), ARIA Award-winner Kavisha Mazzella and ARIA Award-nominee Kerri Simpson, as well as the thirty-strong Victorian Trade Union Choir. The double-vinyl and double-CD set will be released October 2, and will be followed in the new year by Bruce’s first solo studio album “The Word Is The Music The People Are The Song”. Both will be released on Bruce’s own new label ISKRA Records; ISKRA means ‘spark’ and was the name of the Bolshevik newspaper which launched the Russian revolution in 1917!
 
“This is just a reminder of how authentic and real his songs were. The music and the lyrics – the poetry. And the stuff he sung about – about ordinary people, against war, against fascism, against racism and bigotry. All these things are so important again today, and I thought it was about time we celebrated him again. And introduced him to those who don’t know. The great Woody Guthrie. Because he was the most real songwriter of the 20th Century.” – Bruce Hearn 
 
“What a triumph your Woody show was! Fan-fucking-tastic!’ – Peter Foley, the Caravan Club

TRACKLIST:
 
Record 1
 SIDE A

1. Song to Woody
2. Oklahoma Hills
3. I Ain’t Got No Home
4. Jesus Christ
5. Pastures of Plenty (feat. Kavisha Mazzella)
6.Will You Miss Me
SIDE B
1. Deportee (feat. Kavisha Mazzella)
2. Ramblin ‘Round (feat. Kerri Simpson)
3. Hobo’s Lullaby (feat. Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky)
4. Sacco & Vancetti (Two Good Men)

Record 2
SIDE A
1. Worried Man Blues
2. The Rape of Ruth Farnsworth (feat. Margret RoadKnight)
3. Vigilante Man (feat. Eric Bogle)
4. Hard Aint It Hard (feat. Eric Bogle)
5. What did The Deep Sea Say (feat. Mic Conway)
6. Union Maid (feat. Trade Union Choir)
SIDE B
1. Lonesome Valley
2. This Train ( feat. everyone!)
3. All You Fascists
4. This Land is Your Land (feat. everyone!)

Recorded live at the Athenaeum Theatre October 3 2019.

Bruce Hearn: Vocals, guitar, banjo, harmonica

Kavisha Mazzella: Vocals, guitar, mandolin

Peter Beulke: Backing vocals, double bass

Chris Pascoe: Backing vocals, accordion

Craig Woodward: Backing vocals, mandolin, fiddle

Special guests:

Eric Bogle (with Peter Tichner)

Mic Conway

Margret RoadKnight

Kerri Simpson

Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky

***

Born in the once-working class Melbourne inner city suburb of Collingwood, Bruce Hearn first hit Australian media outlets in 1976, when, as one of a small group of student radicals at Monash University, he was party to the “kidnapping” of then-Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser during a demonstration. (Wonderfully, Bruce and his comrades were invited to dine with Fraser in 2010, after the former LNP Prime Minister had disowned the party he once lead – https://www.smh.com.au/education/once-were-campus-warriors-20120903-25a4f.html). At the time his musical career amounted to playing the beloved folk songs of his youth in folk clubs and at protests (often in duo with older guitarist/songwriter Greg Heehan, formerly of now-legendary 1966 garage band The Elois), but in 1981 he was corralled by younger brother Ian to help form Strange Tenants, who followed the lead of UK acts like The Selector, The Specials and Madness – and of course originals like Desmond Dekker and Prince Buster – and pioneered the ska revival in Australia. 
 
Strange Tenants went on to record 8 studio albums and one double live album. They toured with the likes of U2, The Style Council, UB40 and even with reggae legend Jimmy Cliff on a tour of the UK in 2014 ; a tour which also saw them perform at the famed Jamaican-themed Notting Hill Festival.  Their album Take One Step, released in 1983, featured the hit single “Grey Skies Over Collingwood” (later covered by Weddings Parties Anything) and sold around twenty thousand copies – at the time the most ever sold by an unsigned independent band. In between 1981 and 1986 they performed over twelve hundred gigs, making them one of the most prolific and successful live bands of the ’80s. Their legion of loyal fans, known as the Tenants Army, continue to flock to their occasional performances to this day, and their legacy has recently been acknowledged with the release of a 2018 book ‘Strange Tenants: The Godfathers of Australian Ska’ and a 2019 documentary film ‘Strange Tenants: Ska’d For Life’, which has been receiving terrific reviews at film festivals around the world.  
 
Strange Tenants were noted for their commitment to social justice messages through their songs, and after the band initially ended Bruce decided to put that commitment into practice.  Having previously been a union organiser with the Building Workers Industrial Union (now the CFMEU), Bruce undertook further studies, and with degrees in economics, politics, law, and industrial relations, he earned his PhD and became Dr. Bruce Hearn Mackinnon, Senior lecturer, author and  recognised expert on employer de-unionisation strategies. He has published widely, particularly in the Journal of Industrial Relations. Bruce also has an interest in Indigenous affairs, and has written an important book on his experiences working with Aboriginal footballers from the Warlpiri community of Yuendumu.
 
In recent years, in addition to his University work and writing, Bruce has also performed and recorded as Hurricane Hearn, playing a mix of original and classic blues, seeing him support Louisiana Excello Records legend Lazy Lester in Barcelona in 2010, and more recently US blues legends Canned Heat in Australia.
 
Despite years of performing with bands, Bruce is at heart a singer/songwriter, as well as an accomplished guitarist, banjo and harmonica player, and 2017 saw him step back in to folk music by organising and leading a series of sell-out ‘Songs of Freedom: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie’ concerts.  It is from one of these concerts that “Live at the Athenaeum: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie” is drawn. With twenty tracks in total, the album, which was recorded at Melbourne’s historic Athenaeum Theatre, has Bruce joined by folk legends Eric Bogle, Margret RoadKnight, Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky, Kavisha Mazzella, Mic Conway, Kerri Simpson and others, as well as the thirty-strong Victorian Trade Union Choir. It is an historic record of Australian musicians commemorating the humanity and musical genius of (arguably) the 20th Century’s greatest folk balladeer, Woody Guthrie.
 
Bruce will follow up the Woody album with his own first solo album proper – another double album –  “The Word Is The Music The People Are The Song” in the early months of 2021. 

 BRUCE HEARN & THE MACHINISTS “LIVE AT THE ATHENAEUM: A TRIBUTE TO WOODY GUTHRIE” (with Special Guests Eric Bogle, Mic Conway, Margret RoadKnight, Kerri Simpson, Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky and the Union Choir)  – out now on Double LP, Double CD and digitally. On ISKRA Records through MGM and brucehearn.bandcamp.com

MEMO LIVE STREAM PRESENTS: A TRIBUTE TO WOODY GUTHRIE – BRUCE HEARN & THE MACHINISTS WITH SPECIAL GUESTS MARGRET ROADKNIGHT, KERRI SIMPSON AND JAN ‘YARN’ WOSITZKY (BUSHWACKERS FOUNDER)  

  https://memolivestreams.com/WoodyGuthrieTributeTix 

brucehearn.com.au
brucehearn.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/bruce.hearn.10

 

MEM

 

 

 

For Immediate Release
 

Bruce Hearn & The Machinists celebrate their new album “LIVE AT THE ATHENAEUM: A TRIBUTE TO WOODY GUTHRIE”, which tips their hats to the “the most real songwriter of the 20th Century”, with a live-streamed album launch from St Kilda’s Memo Music Hall, Friday 11 December at 7:00PM AEST.   

The live stream show features special guests MARGRET ROADKNIGHT, KERRI SIMPSON and JAN ‘YARN’ WOSITZKY ( founder of the legendary Bushwackers).

 

The show and album are also a celebration of the Australian folk scene, and a return to the folk tradition for an unsung hero of Australian roots music, Bruce Hearn, of pioneering and politically charged Melbourne ska band Strange Tenants.

 

Complete details and tickets, which are available now, from

https://memolivestreams.com/WoodyGuthrieTributeTix

MEMO Live Streams are a proud partnership between MEMO Music Hall and Renegade Films (RocKwiz). 
 
Bruce and his fellow travellers evoke the spirit of Woody Guthrie with love, passion and purpose. ” – Anna Kokkinos, Film director (Head On, Book of Revelation, The Hunting)

 

 

 


Singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, labour activist and one-time ‘kidnapper’ of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, Bruce Hearn returns to his first musical love, folk music, with “Live at the Athenaeum: A Tribute To Woody Guthrie” released as a 2LP set, a 2CD and digitally on October 2.  

With special guests Margret RoadKnight, Eric Bogle, Mic Conway (of the Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band), Kerri Simpson, Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky (Bushwackers) and the Victorian Trade Union Choir, the double album is also a celebration of the Australian folk scene, and a return to the folk tradition for an unsung hero of Australian roots music, Bruce Hearn, of pioneering and politically charged Melbourne ska band Strange Tenants.  

*** 

A former student activist (see Fraser ‘kidnapping’ details below!) and union rep, and now a Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations, Bruce came to prominence as a musician in the ’80s as a singer/song writer for pioneering and politically charged Melbourne ska band, Strange Tenants, who were hugely popular live and on record, and who toured with the likes of U2, UB40 and Jamaican reggae legend Jimmy Cliff. 
 
A fan of folk music since his parents took him to see Pete Seeger play in 1968, and more recently the leader of Australian Blues Music Awards-nominated finalist for best album and band, Hurricane Hearn, Bruce cut his musical teeth on the Melbourne folk scene of the early ’70s, performing at coffee houses and protests. Bruce is an unsung roots renaissance man whose musical palate had always looked beyond the ska sounds of early ’60s Jamaica and early ’80s London. 
 
Bruce Hearn & The Machinists’ “Live at the Athenaeum: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie” features guest appearances from a host of local folk and roots greats including Eric Bogle (“And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”), Margret RoadKnight (“Girls in our Town”), Mic Conway (frontman of the legendary Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band),  Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky (of The Bushwakers), ARIA Award-winner Kavisha Mazzella and ARIA Award-nominee Kerri Simpson, as well as the thirty-strong Victorian Trade Union Choir. The double-vinyl and double-CD set will be released October 2, and will be followed in the new year by Bruce’s first solo studio album “The Word Is The Music The People Are The Song”. Both will be released on Bruce’s own new label ISKRA Records; ISKRA means ‘spark’ and was the name of the Bolshevik newspaper which launched the Russian revolution in 1917!
 

“This is just a reminder of how authentic and real his songs were. The music and the lyrics – the poetry. And the stuff he sung about – about ordinary people, against war, against fascism, against racism and bigotry. All these things are so important again today, and I thought it was about time we celebrated him again. And introduced him to those who don’t know. The great Woody Guthrie. Because he was the most real songwriter of the 20th Century.” – Bruce Hearn 
 
“What a triumph your Woody show was! Fan-fucking-tastic!’ – Peter Foley, the Caravan Club
 

TRACKLIST:
 
Record 1
 SIDE A

1. Song to Woody
2. Oklahoma Hills
3. I Ain’t Got No Home
4. Jesus Christ
5. Pastures of Plenty (feat. Kavisha Mazzella)
6.Will You Miss Me
SIDE B
1. Deportee (feat. Kavisha Mazzella)
2. Ramblin ‘Round (feat. Kerri Simpson)
3. Hobo’s Lullaby (feat. Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky)
4. Sacco & Vancetti (Two Good Men)

Record 2
SIDE A
1. Worried Man Blues
2. The Rape of Ruth Farnsworth (feat. Margret RoadKnight)
3. Vigilante Man (feat. Eric Bogle)
4. Hard Aint It Hard (feat. Eric Bogle)
5. What did The Deep Sea Say (feat. Mic Conway)
6. Union Maid (feat. Trade Union Choir)
SIDE B
1. Lonesome Valley
2. This Train ( feat. everyone!)
3. All You Fascists
4. This Land is Your Land (feat. everyone!)

 

Recorded live at the Athenaeum Theatre October 3 2019.

 

Bruce Hearn: Vocals, guitar, banjo, harmonica

Kavisha Mazzella: Vocals, guitar, mandolin

Peter Beulke: Backing vocals, double bass

Chris Pascoe: Backing vocals, accordion

Craig Woodward: Backing vocals, mandolin, fiddle

 

Special guests:

Eric Bogle (with Peter Tichner)

Mic Conway

Margret RoadKnight

Kerri Simpson

Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky

 

***

Born in the once-working class Melbourne inner city suburb of Collingwood, Bruce Hearn first hit Australian media outlets in 1976, when, as one of a small group of student radicals at Monash University, he was party to the “kidnapping” of then-Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser during a demonstration. (Wonderfully, Bruce and his comrades were invited to dine with Fraser in 2010, after the former LNP Prime Minister had disowned the party he once lead – https://www.smh.com.au/education/once-were-campus-warriors-20120903-25a4f.html). At the time his musical career amounted to playing the beloved folk songs of his youth in folk clubs and at protests (often in duo with older guitarist/songwriter Greg Heehan, formerly of now-legendary 1966 garage band The Elois), but in 1981 he was corralled by younger brother Ian to help form Strange Tenants, who followed the lead of UK acts like The Selector, The Specials and Madness – and of course originals like Desmond Dekker and Prince Buster – and pioneered the ska revival in Australia. 
 
Strange Tenants went on to record 8 studio albums and one double live album. They toured with the likes of U2, The Style Council, UB40 and even with reggae legend Jimmy Cliff on a tour of the UK in 2014 ; a tour which also saw them perform at the famed Jamaican-themed Notting Hill Festival.  Their album Take One Step, released in 1983, featured the hit single “Grey Skies Over Collingwood” (later covered by Weddings Parties Anything) and sold around twenty thousand copies – at the time the most ever sold by an unsigned independent band. In between 1981 and 1986 they performed over twelve hundred gigs, making them one of the most prolific and successful live bands of the ’80s. Their legion of loyal fans, known as the Tenants Army, continue to flock to their occasional performances to this day, and their legacy has recently been acknowledged with the release of a 2018 book ‘Strange Tenants: The Godfathers of Australian Ska’ and a 2019 documentary film ‘Strange Tenants: Ska’d For Life’, which has been receiving terrific reviews at film festivals around the world.  
 
Strange Tenants were noted for their commitment to social justice messages through their songs, and after the band initially ended Bruce decided to put that commitment into practice.  Having previously been a union organiser with the Building Workers Industrial Union (now the CFMEU), Bruce undertook further studies, and with degrees in economics, politics, law, and industrial relations, he earned his PhD and became Dr. Bruce Hearn Mackinnon, Senior lecturer, author and  recognised expert on employer de-unionisation strategies. He has published widely, particularly in the Journal of Industrial Relations. Bruce also has an interest in Indigenous affairs, and has written an important book on his experiences working with Aboriginal footballers from the Warlpiri community of Yuendumu.
 
In recent years, in addition to his University work and writing, Bruce has also performed and recorded as Hurricane Hearn, playing a mix of original and classic blues, seeing him support Louisiana Excello Records legend Lazy Lester in Barcelona in 2010, and more recently US blues legends Canned Heat in Australia.
 
Despite years of performing with bands, Bruce is at heart a singer/songwriter, as well as an accomplished guitarist, banjo and harmonica player, and 2017 saw him step back in to folk music by organising and leading a series of sell-out ‘Songs of Freedom: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie’ concerts.  It is from one of these concerts that “Live at the Athenaeum: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie” is drawn. With twenty tracks in total, the album, which was recorded at Melbourne’s historic Athenaeum Theatre, has Bruce joined by folk legends Eric Bogle, Margret RoadKnight, Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky, Kavisha Mazzella, Mic Conway, Kerri Simpson and others, as well as the thirty-strong Victorian Trade Union Choir. It is an historic record of Australian musicians commemorating the humanity and musical genius of (arguably) the 20th Century’s greatest folk balladeer, Woody Guthrie.
 
Bruce will follow up the Woody album with his own first solo album proper – another double album –  “The Word Is The Music The People Are The Song” in the early months of 2021. 

 

 

 BRUCE HEARN & THE MACHINISTS “LIVE AT THE ATHENAEUM: A TRIBUTE TO WOODY GUTHRIE” (with Special Guests Eric Bogle, Mic Conway, Margret RoadKnight, Kerri Simpson, Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky and the Union Choir)  – out now on Double LP, Double CD and digitally. On ISKRA Records through MGM and brucehearn.bandcamp.comMEMO LIVE STREAM PRESENTS: A TRIBUTE TO WOODY GUTHRIE – BRUCE HEARN & THE MACHINISTS WITH SPECIAL GUESTS MARGRET ROADKNIGHT, KERRI SIMPSON AND JAN ‘YARN’ WOSITZKY (BUSHWACKERS FOUNDER)  

  https://memolivestreams.com/WoodyGuthrieTributeTix 

brucehearn.com.au
brucehearn.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/bruce.hearn.10

MEM

 

 

 

For Immediate Release
 

Bruce Hearn & The Machinists celebrate their new album “LIVE AT THE ATHENAEUM: A TRIBUTE TO WOODY GUTHRIE”, which tips their hats to the “the most real songwriter of the 20th Century”, with a live-streamed album launch from St Kilda’s Memo Music Hall, Friday 11 December at 7:00PM AEST.   

The live stream show features special guests MARGRET ROADKNIGHT, KERRI SIMPSON and JAN ‘YARN’ WOSITZKY ( founder of the legendary Bushwackers).

 

The show and album are also a celebration of the Australian folk scene, and a return to the folk tradition for an unsung hero of Australian roots music, Bruce Hearn, of pioneering and politically charged Melbourne ska band Strange Tenants.

 

Complete details and tickets, which are available now, from

https://memolivestreams.com/WoodyGuthrieTributeTix

MEMO Live Streams are a proud partnership between MEMO Music Hall and Renegade Films (RocKwiz). 
 
Bruce and his fellow travellers evoke the spirit of Woody Guthrie with love, passion and purpose. ” – Anna Kokkinos, Film director (Head On, Book of Revelation, The Hunting)

 

 

 


Singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, labour activist and one-time ‘kidnapper’ of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, Bruce Hearn returns to his first musical love, folk music, with “Live at the Athenaeum: A Tribute To Woody Guthrie” released as a 2LP set, a 2CD and digitally on October 2.  

With special guests Margret RoadKnight, Eric Bogle, Mic Conway (of the Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band), Kerri Simpson, Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky (Bushwackers) and the Victorian Trade Union Choir, the double album is also a celebration of the Australian folk scene, and a return to the folk tradition for an unsung hero of Australian roots music, Bruce Hearn, of pioneering and politically charged Melbourne ska band Strange Tenants.  

*** 

A former student activist (see Fraser ‘kidnapping’ details below!) and union rep, and now a Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations, Bruce came to prominence as a musician in the ’80s as a singer/song writer for pioneering and politically charged Melbourne ska band, Strange Tenants, who were hugely popular live and on record, and who toured with the likes of U2, UB40 and Jamaican reggae legend Jimmy Cliff. 
 
A fan of folk music since his parents took him to see Pete Seeger play in 1968, and more recently the leader of Australian Blues Music Awards-nominated finalist for best album and band, Hurricane Hearn, Bruce cut his musical teeth on the Melbourne folk scene of the early ’70s, performing at coffee houses and protests. Bruce is an unsung roots renaissance man whose musical palate had always looked beyond the ska sounds of early ’60s Jamaica and early ’80s London. 
 
Bruce Hearn & The Machinists’ “Live at the Athenaeum: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie” features guest appearances from a host of local folk and roots greats including Eric Bogle (“And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”), Margret RoadKnight (“Girls in our Town”), Mic Conway (frontman of the legendary Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band),  Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky (of The Bushwakers), ARIA Award-winner Kavisha Mazzella and ARIA Award-nominee Kerri Simpson, as well as the thirty-strong Victorian Trade Union Choir. The double-vinyl and double-CD set will be released October 2, and will be followed in the new year by Bruce’s first solo studio album “The Word Is The Music The People Are The Song”. Both will be released on Bruce’s own new label ISKRA Records; ISKRA means ‘spark’ and was the name of the Bolshevik newspaper which launched the Russian revolution in 1917!
 

“This is just a reminder of how authentic and real his songs were. The music and the lyrics – the poetry. And the stuff he sung about – about ordinary people, against war, against fascism, against racism and bigotry. All these things are so important again today, and I thought it was about time we celebrated him again. And introduced him to those who don’t know. The great Woody Guthrie. Because he was the most real songwriter of the 20th Century.” – Bruce Hearn 
 
“What a triumph your Woody show was! Fan-fucking-tastic!’ – Peter Foley, the Caravan Club
 

TRACKLIST:
 
Record 1
 SIDE A

1. Song to Woody
2. Oklahoma Hills
3. I Ain’t Got No Home
4. Jesus Christ
5. Pastures of Plenty (feat. Kavisha Mazzella)
6.Will You Miss Me
SIDE B
1. Deportee (feat. Kavisha Mazzella)
2. Ramblin ‘Round (feat. Kerri Simpson)
3. Hobo’s Lullaby (feat. Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky)
4. Sacco & Vancetti (Two Good Men)

Record 2
SIDE A
1. Worried Man Blues
2. The Rape of Ruth Farnsworth (feat. Margret RoadKnight)
3. Vigilante Man (feat. Eric Bogle)
4. Hard Aint It Hard (feat. Eric Bogle)
5. What did The Deep Sea Say (feat. Mic Conway)
6. Union Maid (feat. Trade Union Choir)
SIDE B
1. Lonesome Valley
2. This Train ( feat. everyone!)
3. All You Fascists
4. This Land is Your Land (feat. everyone!)

 

Recorded live at the Athenaeum Theatre October 3 2019.

 

Bruce Hearn: Vocals, guitar, banjo, harmonica

Kavisha Mazzella: Vocals, guitar, mandolin

Peter Beulke: Backing vocals, double bass

Chris Pascoe: Backing vocals, accordion

Craig Woodward: Backing vocals, mandolin, fiddle

 

Special guests:

Eric Bogle (with Peter Tichner)

Mic Conway

Margret RoadKnight

Kerri Simpson

Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky

 

***

Born in the once-working class Melbourne inner city suburb of Collingwood, Bruce Hearn first hit Australian media outlets in 1976, when, as one of a small group of student radicals at Monash University, he was party to the “kidnapping” of then-Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser during a demonstration. (Wonderfully, Bruce and his comrades were invited to dine with Fraser in 2010, after the former LNP Prime Minister had disowned the party he once lead – https://www.smh.com.au/education/once-were-campus-warriors-20120903-25a4f.html). At the time his musical career amounted to playing the beloved folk songs of his youth in folk clubs and at protests (often in duo with older guitarist/songwriter Greg Heehan, formerly of now-legendary 1966 garage band The Elois), but in 1981 he was corralled by younger brother Ian to help form Strange Tenants, who followed the lead of UK acts like The Selector, The Specials and Madness – and of course originals like Desmond Dekker and Prince Buster – and pioneered the ska revival in Australia. 
 
Strange Tenants went on to record 8 studio albums and one double live album. They toured with the likes of U2, The Style Council, UB40 and even with reggae legend Jimmy Cliff on a tour of the UK in 2014 ; a tour which also saw them perform at the famed Jamaican-themed Notting Hill Festival.  Their album Take One Step, released in 1983, featured the hit single “Grey Skies Over Collingwood” (later covered by Weddings Parties Anything) and sold around twenty thousand copies – at the time the most ever sold by an unsigned independent band. In between 1981 and 1986 they performed over twelve hundred gigs, making them one of the most prolific and successful live bands of the ’80s. Their legion of loyal fans, known as the Tenants Army, continue to flock to their occasional performances to this day, and their legacy has recently been acknowledged with the release of a 2018 book ‘Strange Tenants: The Godfathers of Australian Ska’ and a 2019 documentary film ‘Strange Tenants: Ska’d For Life’, which has been receiving terrific reviews at film festivals around the world.  
 
Strange Tenants were noted for their commitment to social justice messages through their songs, and after the band initially ended Bruce decided to put that commitment into practice.  Having previously been a union organiser with the Building Workers Industrial Union (now the CFMEU), Bruce undertook further studies, and with degrees in economics, politics, law, and industrial relations, he earned his PhD and became Dr. Bruce Hearn Mackinnon, Senior lecturer, author and  recognised expert on employer de-unionisation strategies. He has published widely, particularly in the Journal of Industrial Relations. Bruce also has an interest in Indigenous affairs, and has written an important book on his experiences working with Aboriginal footballers from the Warlpiri community of Yuendumu.
 
In recent years, in addition to his University work and writing, Bruce has also performed and recorded as Hurricane Hearn, playing a mix of original and classic blues, seeing him support Louisiana Excello Records legend Lazy Lester in Barcelona in 2010, and more recently US blues legends Canned Heat in Australia.
 
Despite years of performing with bands, Bruce is at heart a singer/songwriter, as well as an accomplished guitarist, banjo and harmonica player, and 2017 saw him step back in to folk music by organising and leading a series of sell-out ‘Songs of Freedom: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie’ concerts.  It is from one of these concerts that “Live at the Athenaeum: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie” is drawn. With twenty tracks in total, the album, which was recorded at Melbourne’s historic Athenaeum Theatre, has Bruce joined by folk legends Eric Bogle, Margret RoadKnight, Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky, Kavisha Mazzella, Mic Conway, Kerri Simpson and others, as well as the thirty-strong Victorian Trade Union Choir. It is an historic record of Australian musicians commemorating the humanity and musical genius of (arguably) the 20th Century’s greatest folk balladeer, Woody Guthrie.
 
Bruce will follow up the Woody album with his own first solo album proper – another double album –  “The Word Is The Music The People Are The Song” in the early months of 2021. 

 

 

 BRUCE HEARN & THE MACHINISTS “LIVE AT THE ATHENAEUM: A TRIBUTE TO WOODY GUTHRIE” (with Special Guests Eric Bogle, Mic Conway, Margret RoadKnight, Kerri Simpson, Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky and the Union Choir)  – out now on Double LP, Double CD and digitally. On ISKRA Records through MGM and brucehearn.bandcamp.com 

MEMO LIVE STREAM PRESENTS: A TRIBUTE TO WOODY GUTHRIE – BRUCE HEARN & THE MACHINISTS WITH SPECIAL GUESTS MARGRET ROADKNIGHT, KERRI SIMPSON AND JAN ‘YARN’ WOSITZKY (BUSHWACKERS FOUNDER)   

  https://memolivestreams.com/WoodyGuthrieTributeTix  

brucehearn.com.au
brucehearn.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/bruce.hearn.10

 

For interviews  or further information, contact Dave Laing
– dnlaing65@gmail.com / 0466 721 849
 
 

 

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Mick Pacholli

Mick created TAGG - The Alternative Gig Guide in 1979 with Helmut Katterl, the world's first real Street Magazine. He had been involved with his fathers publishing business, Toorak Times and associated publications since 1972.  Mick was also involved in Melbourne's music scene for a number of years opening venues, discovering and managing bands and providing information and support for the industry. Mick has also created a number of local festivals and is involved in not for profit and supporting local charities.        

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