Aurora Daniels June 07, 2012
Jed Rowe Band Photo: Supplied
What are you listening to on the road? Iron and Wine's The Shepherd's Dog, Liz Stringer's Warm In The Darkness, The Fleet Foxes' first album, Jeff Lang's Cedar Grove, and Gillian Welch's Revival.
What's your favourite instrument? Sarod springs to mind - it's an Indian stringed instrument with a metal neck and no frets. It sounds a little bit similar to the lap slide guitar.
What's your earliest musical moment? One of my earliest is of drifting off to sleep at night listening to Dad playing acoustic guitar and feeling completely at peace.
How do you prepare for a gig? Sometimes I might go for a walk, sometimes I do vocal warm-ups or stretching, other times I might sit at the bar and drink beer.
What's your favourite post-gig pastime? Our band is not very rock-and-roll I'm afraid. Sometimes we'll hang around at the venue talking and drinking, but more often than not we head back to our accommodation and crash out.
What's the greatest thing you have seen on stage? We've played a few times at a pub in Queensland where they have a topless barmaid who, as the venue owner explained to me when I booked the gig, ''helps to get the blokes in early''.The look on my band's faces when the barmaid arrived to start her shift. I'd forgotten to mention that there was a topless barmaid and their jaws just dropped.
What's your most treasured possession? I just got a Gibson J-45 acoustic guitar from Jeff Lang. It's a lovely old acoustic with a big warm sound and a weather-beaten look about it.
What's your best piece of touring advice? Get some sleep, try to find meals that don't consist solely of fried potatoes, get some exercise when you can and, of course, dental hygiene.
Who are your musical heroes? Jeff Lang, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, KD Lang, and Robert Johnson.
What's on your dream rider? In the middle of a long tour a dream rider is a good meal that comes with vegetables other than chips. Also maybe a coffee or a beer and I'm good to go!
Who would you most like to tour with? Jeff Lang or Ben Harper.
What was your musical epiphany? I've had a few - I remember listening to Ben Harper as a teenager, it would have been the first time I'd heard weissenborn (acoustic lap slide) guitar and I was transfixed. Also hearing Nick Drake's haunting, beautifully understated acoustic songs for the first time and thinking ''of course, it's OK to do that, you don't need to scream your lungs out all the time''.
Is there any music you don't listen to? I can't really get in to hip hop or metal.
What's your latest recording? Our new album The Ember and The Afterglow, which Jeff Lang produced.
Describe your sound? It's a pretty eclectic mix of roots-based styles - blues, folk, alt-country, rock and world music. In the band we've got acoustic, electric and slide guitar, harmonica, double bass and drums, though for our Canberra show on this tour we'll be doing a stripped back acoustic duo. The storytelling aspect of the lyrics is as important as the music.
WITH: Alice Cottee and No Hausfrau
WHEN: Thursday, June 28
WHERE: The Front Cafe and Gallery, Lyneham, Canberra
TICKETS: At the door on the night $10