Adrian Kosky

Winter - Spring 2011

2011-09-23T20:51:00.000+10:00

Gigs over the winter have a great side benefit of getting you out into places that have great food and wine, warm fires, and all the fun that goes with visiting quirky country establishments that provide this for local and out-of-town visitors. Being based in the Central Highlands of Victoria, the cool climate, combined with rich volcanic soil, provides a rich growing environment for all sorts of tasty treats. It has somehow become home to many artists and musicians, who provide a unique ambiance when indulging at the various venues.

It is a tough job, and someone has to do it, but before you musicians from around the world move here and take all the cream jobs, I have to warn you that the average musician in Australia earns around 12-14 K per year, so you had better bring a picnic with you!

Speaking of music and pay, there are many parts of a musician's life that does not get rewarded, except for the good feelings. A couple of recent gigs at the local library did not have a paycheck, but they were well received; and I can't believe how much fun it is to actually be "allowed" to make so much noise in a library. Oughta be illegal, or fattening!

Also judged the two tune pick-off at the annual Guildford Banjo Jamboree, with a new pair of overalls and a silly hat. Please deliverance me into the good times! A great September happening just 15 minutes from home, which attracts all sorts of players, I imagine, from far flung hillbilly hideouts. The part I love best about the festival is playing on the street and letting the crowd grow or leave, a very natural way of keeping or losing an audience.

Hoping that the springtime will add some outdoor gigs again to the calendar. Come and join in the fun somewhere at one of the local venues here if you are visiting or living in the area and like to enjoy live music with your weekend.

Easter 2011

2011-04-20T21:23:00.006+10:00

Music

Played at Horvat's wine bar recently with my band, "Shotgun Shack."

Shotgun Shack plays gritty Mississippi style hypnotic blues over tribal, raw drum beats that come from human hands, not beat boxes. Phil's poetic spirals and surreal stories are at times punctuated by the bowed saw, or the cranked up blues harp. I get to play loud and raunchy, without a safety net or a set list.

This results in a very in-the-moment performance that relies as much on the feedback of the audience as it does from my guitar. The drum sounds resonate and inform the sound enveloping with the feeling of a cradle, both rocking me and coaxing me to rock harder.

There are lots of rules in the game of music, but Shotgun Shack is about hypnofying your mind and body to forget those rules and have fun. Dance your happy dance like tomorrow isn't a reality! Good time Saturday night music with occasional Sunday spirituals thrown in just because we know there will be no getting up Sunday morning for any spiritualizing.

Table Hill, an acoustic-based hillbilly outfit, plays old time and new time, last time and next time, with a heady mix of mountain dulcimer, strum stick, stomping, and story-telling. We get to play regularly at the Radio Springs Hotel in Lyonville, the Centre of the Universe. Table Hill also performs right at home on Table Hill, at Tasma House in Daylesford, where people who are staying at the guest house enjoy occasional music campfire performances or house concerts.

Performing locally has been high on the agenda over the last few years, partially because it makes sense, and partially because it's possible. Not enough to make a living at it, but to keep the creative and playing skills honed, whilst maintaining a mixed farm of income streams that don't get in the way of music making.

Building

Helped a family member with the process of putting a new exterior door into an existing building. This door is to be installed in a double brick wall, close to the street and neighbours and needed building permission from council, drawn plans, a hefty "fee" from council for attending an inspection of the works, and the ordering of a custom double glazed door that will both ventilate and provide alternative entry and exit from the newly made internally-subdivided space.

The job is at the planning office and is to go ahead in a few weeks. The property was my first owner built building, and twenty years later, it is having a new use modification. The original window and door manufacturer, Paarhammer, has grown a nationwide business since, and it was great to be able to use their wonderful products again.

I am also planning and consulting with a plumber from Trentham, Barry Hourigan, whom I have a long history with. Tasma House, my guest house, needs another bathroom around the barn, and it will have to be another access to the main sewer. This is not at all frightening, as I have done this before. What is frightening is the fact that after counting up the various jobs that Barry has been there for over the last 8 years around the region, I counted 26 toilets we have installed! I can't seem to just settle on only one! Must be my restless spirit.

Barry has been down to the main sewer, built me extensions to the main sewer, all the internal fitoffs, for water, gas, heating, bathrooms, etc., and done roof and gutter installs as well. I don't know any more now about plumbing than when I started owner building, but I do know what to anticipate, who to trust, what I can do myself in preparation for the job, and who to hire to get the job done amongst the other trades all needing their own access to the same place.

The timing and architecture of building is very similar in my opinion, to the building of a recording and the developing of an act. Bringing the whole show together is what the builder and the Band strive for.

Business

Managing Tasma House and Gardens over the last year has seen a remarkable change. I am writing my job description as I go along, because being in business for yourself demands it.

There are plenty of people out there telling you how to make your business successful, or that you must have a marketing plan or an advertising budget. I don't disagree with any of this, but knowing what to have, how much and when to get it, I have always struggled with.

There is nothing like a hurdle or two to make you want to give up and pack it in, with the self-doubting troll coming for visits to laugh at your audacity in thinking that something you made might work! So, I have found myself building a business, and over the last few months, I can safely say that it is working. The idea started 25 years ago, parts collected and assembled 12 years ago, put to sleep, almost forgotten, then brought out to play again. Many people have helped this idea into existence, physically and psychologically.

In the last year, the building of systems to make it viable, workable, and sustainable have been achieved, as much as any of us can predict what the future will bring. So, like my work in tending the already established property, I now find myself looking to develop ways of maintaining the business that, now built, can best serve its customers.

I think of this sort of work as wet day building. The creative challenge of the new project is always a thrill, but the slow cooking of long held dream finally bringing results has a different taste. As they say, the proof is in the pudding; and, even though I don't have a pudding business, it still tastes good...

@drian

Dirt Music Festival

2011-03-29T17:10:00.002+11:00

Last weekend, I played at a small festival in Wimmera, a part of regional Victoria, about 3 hours and another world away from Daylesford.

The town of Rupanyup was hosting its first "Dirt Music" festival, and Carla and I and our little pup Jelly Bean took to the open road for some adventure.

The stages were not in Marquees with lots of crowds. They were on people's verandahs, and in community halls, and the set up had an easy going relaxed feel, with very little between the performers and the people enjoying the shows.

Rupanyup, recently recovering from the January floods where the whole town lay underwater for 4 days, were a kind and hospitable bunch. We also stayed with a local farmer, and that made our stay so much more social and interactive with the area.

The organisers of the festival, also involved in farming, had recently been through flood, harvest, marriage, and shearing, all since January, and are to be commended for even thinking of something that may benefit the wider community. Talk about resilience!

The next day Carla and I were privileged to play a gig at the pre opening of the new community facility that has been built with a huge amount of community effort, in a building that was being used for the first time. Sharing a delicious BBQ with the community afterwards and chatting with local councillors and music lovers and the townsfolk in general was worth as much as the playing was fun.

Rupanyup is doing it tough after years of drought and now flood, but the spirit and stories that abound make you realise there is a lot there to be admired. The town has a Barley Dinner each year in the middle of a field that attracts 400 people, and the "Pudding Ladies" who have made and sold puddings that have gone all over the world, to raise funds for the running of the memorial hall, are but 2 examples.

I love music that has a bit of grit, and a couple of people from this town have shown they have some too. Let's hope this festival grows into a good one over the years without the need to clean it up too much......

Welcome to my online Home,

2011-03-05T19:13:00.007+11:00

I hope to keep up with the things I start, make up for the stuff I have forgotten, break bread with new friends, get a picture of what is going on in other lands, and link with other like minds.

For those that I have not introduced myself to personally, or to those whom I have met with one hat on and not the other, I would like to come clean and put it out there that I wear a bunch of hats.

I like to describe myself as having an “Art’s Bent” that permeates all my passions, projects and professions.

Music

I am a singer songwriter, with 4 cds to date. a member of two bands, and collaborator on others' musical projects. I am also a music facilitator, making music happen in my own and others' communities. Quirky instruments have a place in my heart, and I follow the Muse wherever it leads me.

Current Arts/Music Projects

At present, I am the owner/manager of Tasma House and Gardens, an exclusive group facility that accommodates people and events in a beautiful country town called Daylesford, a little over an hour north of Melbourne, Australia.

Apart from hosting and facilitating my own events here, Hirers of the facility have held events like Writing/Arts/Music/Song writing/Meditation retreats, as well as weddings, gatherings and significant birthdays. Every weekend brings together people from all over the world, for different reasons, to share in a beautiful landscape with a “ familiar, like home” environment. At times, I get to play in my own backyard for these events.

I am playing live locally in a Hypnotic Gritty Mississippi Blues Trio called “Shotgun Shack”, and in an Appalachian infused roots act called “Table Hill”.

I also very much enjoy playing and performing with other local Musicians, like Geoffrey Williams, Cyndi Boste, Richard and Michelle Pleasance, to make more than the sum of our parts.

Past Projects

In the past I have dabbled with combining building, business, arts, and food. Some of my more memorable projects are:

Fat Bob's Cafe, and Chubbie’s Restaurant and Music House in the 1980’s. Both were dedicated to having live music every night.

Wingspan Artworks in the 1990’s to 2000’s, was a craft based manufacturing/wholesaling business that made butterflies that were sold all over the world, but still all made by hand, employing a bunch of talented people.

The Town Hall Community Centre in Moonee Ponds, was the only “real” job I ever had, where I was employed for 6 years in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. I began as an activities coordinator, and developed the position as I went along to eventually manage training programs for retrenched workers, using the Arts as a medium for change in their lives.

Tasma House and Gardens of Daylesford restoration, renovation and reinvention 1998 - 2000, undertaken as the owner/builder.

Azidene House and Gardens of daylesford restoration, renovation and reinvention 2000-2002, undertaken as the owner/builder. [now sold]

Trentham historic bakery and Scotch oven restoration, renovation and reinvention 2003-2005, undertaken as the owner/builder. I still own the buildings, and the bakery is now leased to the Reid Brothers and known as "Redbeard."