Country Music

Suicide among musicians is, sadly, far too common. Artistic temperaments, self-medication and substance abuse, depressive personalities and the ease with which musicians slip across to the dark side of life are all contributors.

That these people are often celebrities and write about these circumstances and tendencies – or have things written about them by others – draws greater attention to this cohort than is the case for many others who also suffer from the demons that can lead to self-loathing and harm.

On Christmas Day, 2009, the American singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt took his life after 26 years enduring the catastrophic consequences of a paralysing car accident (an event marked on this site). At the time news spread about Vic’s sad death, fellow singer-songwriter and friend Lucinda Williams (he wrote a song about her for his West of Rome album) was writing material for her latest record, Blessed.

Continue reading "Blessed by the presence of Lucinda Williams" »

Tex Perkins and his band made something special happen at the Darwin Amphitheatre on Sunday night, though for a while there I was worried. When Perkins turned up in a Darwin nightclub in 2008 with his band the Ladyboyz, doing covers of 70s songs – his filthy version of Jon English’s “Hollywood Seven” was the standout – some older folks were horrified by what they heard, and saw.

They had not done their research. They had imagined the purpose of the Perkins’ band was to leave untroubled the songs of Elton John, Captain and Tennille, Mondo Rock and Lionel Ritchie.

Perkins was loving the songs, but he was massacring them. Some people in the crowd were bewildered and revolted. How could he start wildly air humping to the gentle Dr Hook ballad, “A Little Bit More”?

Continue reading "Inspired tribute to a man who loved Jesus and cocaine" »