BARRY McGLOIN

Barry McGloin ... "Hi Lyn, many thanks. Fascinating! Your site is an historical document and a treasure trove for those like me who grew up in this era. I spent a couple of hours delving and yes it took me back to the days of miracle and wonder when anything was possible".

Read Barry's 60s adventures in King's Cross

" .. Most of our family has been involved in music of varied genres over the years.

The term music is a loose one almost without exception. Well almost. Brother Anthony, known to all of us as Tony, is adept on guitar, mandolin and banjo and issued the CD, 'Nightflight' last year which received excellent reviews both here and overseas and is currently working on a second.

Check out http://www.anthonymcgloin.com/. Cousin Andrew had professional success accompanying and producing Scottish Australian folkie Eric Bogle (writer of "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" etc).

Check out http://ericbogle.net/bogleband/index.htm He recently (2007) collaborated with Ted Byrnes on the excellent 'Best Laid Plans'. The rest of us have just splashed about in a discordant pond, now and again .. Barry."



"We started as Marks and Spencer ........ but then got serious - Chris observed that yer average punter can't even pronounce McGloin, let alone spell it !!"

 "Myself and Chris @ Taverners 2 April 1970  22nd birthday"

"On safari at Major Creek near Braidwood 1970 looking for a bunyip"

Barry McGloin .. "In retrospect it was a hard time for us at first, kids up from the country living in Kings Cross with no money, starving but with eyes wide open to the new age, away from the old black and white days of regimented prescribed values to days of optimism, opportunity, light, colour and above all to music of our own; our own piper stood at the gates of dawn, playing our tunes. Ah yes, a couple of wines and it all starts looking rosy....!! But yeah your site has a lot of depth, the links, photos and e-mails lead to another memory, top stuff. It made me think I might add more to the music section of my webbo. 

Your music collection is similar to mine, certainly in the blues field. As you would have read in the webbo I lost all in the Canberra bushfires of Jan 2003, along with the house. The singles, EPS and LPs had been collected since the early sixties, these fuelled the fire well.... However I have greatly enjoyed reclaiming most (some I haven't bothered with) and listening again, in digital format and the remastered stuff usually has excellent sound. Also the reissues when done well eg Kinks, Who, Elvis Costello, Hendrix, Cream etc. with the accompanying booklet and added tracks are great value. Quality stuff like this is timeless but thankfully I find new material equally interesting and adventurous - I have been delving into world music over the past few years, in its various forms, through Songlines magazine and recently more jazz, although I did buy the 2 CD Deluxe edition of Tull's This Was through Amazon, and the Deluxe ed of Elvis Costello's 'This Years Model' - both fabulous.

Ed Kuepper the (ex Saints guitarist) enjoyed his hit "The Way I  Make you Feel".   
      

I also loved his versions of the Loved Ones' "Sad Dark Eyes" and Phil Jones' "If I had a Ticket". RL Burnside's CD 'A Bothered Mind' is very good, mixing the old with new but it works well. I think "Someday Baby" performed with the rapper Lyrics Born sounds great - even Triple J were playing it !!


I also enjoy classical music, which I got into after seeing Amadeus - so Mozart is a favorite, the piano concertos, the Requiem and Great Mass in C Major but there is so much to explore. I was buying that Great Composer series each week at the newsagent - it came with an LP and consequently I listened to nothing but classical for about a year in the mid eighties. It gets you in.

When I had the community radio gig a guy from the Central coast, Dirk Logemann, contacted me to say that he was thinking of doing a similar prog i.e. roots music. I sent him a heap of info and he now broadcasts on the Central Coast FM 963. He is on Monday night from 10 - midnight and you can access the prog which is streamed http://www.coastfm.org.au/portal/ I think he has a Dylan covers special for the next 2 weeks.

Keiran Kane, Kevin Welch and Fats Kaplin are playing here in Canberra at the Folkus Room on Feb 15. They were my top pick for Byron Bay Bluesfest 2007 - not to be missed for anyone remotely interested in roots music. Their self penned music spans blues and old style country, with textured instrumentation, wonderful harmonies and a willingness to let the song develop and see what happens. Must go. Have a good one. Barry"

Oz Touring info: http://www.myspace.com/kanewelchkaplin

' .. Strings snap, feet stomp. The sound is simultaneously sparse and towering, echoing the plaintive modal sound of traditional Appalachian balladry while rich with Kane and Welchs uniquely contemporary sense of poetry .. '

Sites for LPs that walked during the 60s/70s Bluestown and Crossroadsclub27

I just returned from the Leonard Cohen / Paul Kelly/ Triffids concert at Bowral. Superb. Some mighty fine shots of Leonard Cohen concert with Paul Kelly' http://picasaweb.google.com/barry.mcgloin

I recently bought the Clapton/Winwood double Cd Live From Madison Square Garden which might be interesting for anyone who enjoyed Blind Faith and Traffic, as I did. Blind Faith, with both Clapton and Winwood, was an under appreciated album and Winwood's Traffic put out some inventive expansion of the genre - the 2 cd retrospective ''Gold'' was a bargain.

Clappers and Steve are in very good form as they go through most of Blind Faith's material - barring two, Ginger Baker's excessive Do What You Like (which did have some good moments) and the best track on the album for me, Sea Of Joy - but I guess it was hard to replicate Rick Grech's evocative double tracked violin solo. However what they have done with the remainder is almost on a part with the originals, plus Sleeping On The Ground, the blues track later released on the Clapper's box set. Winwood was such a terrific talent from his days with the Spencer Davis Group in the 60s and onwards with his vocals, keyboards and guitar playing and he is still on form. He does a top version of Georgia On My Mind in fact I went back to the SDG version to compare and found that the latest, while not quite as supple vocally, is maybe more soulful - depends what you like, the SDG version was amazing. Still ya can't beat Uncle Ray, eh? Winwood and Clappers also reprise some early Traffic numbers which come up well, particularly the instrumental from John Barleycorn called Glad. Also, and surprisingly Them Changes, the Band of Gypsies track. Winwood turns this into a great soul tour de force, and it was apparently played over the phone to the dying author and original singer Buddy Miles, which cheered him up no end.

Eric does a solo acoustic Rambling On My Mind, the Robert Johnson song he first haltingly recorded on Bluesbreakers with Mayall. This time around (ok 50 years on...) it's a ripper! Also Double Trouble is played with passion and fire, and vocally it is powerful - it matches the intensity of Otis Rush's original Cobra recording, in fact it made me get out Clapton's excellent From The Cradle Cd from 1994 where he does a great version of Rush's Groanin The Blues. The cream of this crop is Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" on which a young Winwood originally played organ. Winwood now sings it and plays organ while Clapton's guitar reaches for the stratosphere - some great moments in the 16 minute track, but but...I had to get out Electric Ladyland - ya can't beat Jimi, all you can endeavor to do is come close, and they do. I'll give it four out of five - you can buy the double DVD for about the same price.You can post this review if you like Lynne. 

I have also been listening to Oumou Sangare's "Seya" - a fabulous five star album for me - I've posted a review on Amazon Cheers, Barry McGloin'