Sensitive New-Age
Cowpersons
Didmarton Bluegrass Festival
1997
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THE UNDOUBTED STAR PERFORMERS at the recent Didmarton Festival of Bluegrass Music were the unlikely named ‘Sensitive New Age Cowpersons’. They were a band from Australia comprising Jim Fisher (guitar), John Reed (mandolin) Fred Kuhni (bass) and Ian Simpson (banjo). They appeared on stage briefly to complete their sound-check and left saying they would appear again as ‘stars’. After being introduced by the M.C., they re-appeared in stunning, brightly-coloured fringed jackets with Jim Fisher wearing an enormous beaded and decorated Mexican sombrero. They immediately announced that they would not be doing any requests, but they had written a song incorporating all the titles of all the tunes commonly requested. Stand By Your Man, Achy Breaky Heart and Duelling Banjos were all there. This set the tone for the rest of their act, and got the requests over with in one hit.
Don't mess with
... They expressed their admiration for the Bee Gees and demonstrated the harmonies by inserting protruding false teeth and singing vibrato by thumping their chests. The audience by this time were in stitches and thoroughly enjoying the performance. The music continued with a version of the Jimi Hendrix number Purple Haze - “Hendrix done as the lord intended:- bluegrass style - complete with tripping flashbacks!”, they announced. Songs by Elvis, The Supremes and AC/DC followed in quick succession. Particularly enjoyable was their Country Rap song performed by Texas-Tex (John Reed). The chorus went “Country Rap, C-Rap, We call it ‘CRAP’!”, with only Fred Kuhni chanting the last part. Country Rap, C-Rap, ...we call it CRAP ! There was talk of Swedish bluegrass which puzzled the audience. This turned out to be that well-known bluegrass band ABBA. Their version of For Nando (loosely recognisable as Fernando) was hilarious. About this time, Fred Kuhni showed us his base (an electric one) which though of traditional profile from the front view, nearly disappeared when turned sideways. He said it would sound alright once he’d added the back!
In a stunning display of entertaining musical virtuosty the band suddenly “dressed” as if on parade until they were tight up against each other then announced that they were going to play Foggy Mountain Breakdown. So what’s special in that? They each picked their own instrument and simultaneously fretted that of their neighbour and, after two, or three obviously intentional false starts, played a faultless, full-speed rendition of the tune! Truly amazing!!
Near the end of the act, when the audience were expectantly awaiting
an encore, one of the audience made the mistake of making a request. They
instantly called out “Security - remove that man - we don’t do
requests”, whereupon someone in the audience shouted “That man
is ‘security’!” The band laughed nervously... They finished
off their act with a version of Advance Australia Fair with mumbled words
for the less well known bits - rather like footballers at the cup final.
It culminated in a hot instrumental of what was obviously meant to be a bluegrass
tune all along. | Didmarton 1997: SNACs analysis | Write to the SNACs | SNACs web site | New URL ]
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