G'Day folks...

Well we completed our tour with Dianne and Peter after Tamworth, Bungendore down through the Gippsland to Tassy through the terrible bushfires. The tour was great except for the sadness of the fires. Our sympathy goes out to all of those people who suffered and lost loved ones. I don't think anybody could write in words what those people experienced.
Our tour continued through South Australia and New South Wales included One Tree Plain at One Tree Pub with Sally Smith a great lady. We finished our tour at Narrabri with Peter and Dianne two great country music artists, then out to Takarra Bush Resort Carnarvon Gorge then back to Beaudesert for a birthday bash for Debbie Snow. The following day up to Warwick to do a show with my cousin Margie Hobbs and hubby Sam home from working on cruise ships in America, a great show.
We then saddled up for a road trip and a few shows to Katherine Muster NT with Reg Poole and Rachel Richards winging her way to Katherine, but said her bed was hard. We all had a great time. Thanks to all the committee for a great muster. Jeff and Lyn Brown and the boys were coming with us but Jeff stayed back with his brother Graham, who was very sick, sadly passed away. Our sympathy goes out to Jeff, Col and Eileen and all the Brown family and thanks to Pooley from Brownie and our selves. Thanks mate.

The Bouldy Bush Ballad Bash Success!
We are re excited about the great response to the Bouldy Bush Ballad Bash. This is the first time the event has been held and will become an annual event. We would would like to thank the Bouldercome Progress Association Committee, Caretakers, also all the Walkup artists and Poets that supported the event, also Tony and Carmel Newton from Tanby Sea foods Kepell Brand, Ted Thompson,Allan Luscombe, John and Margaret Staunton also Jim and Marion and Rod and Doreen Crome Artists Reg Poole, Jeff Brown,
Gary Fogarty, Bec Hance,Daly Stephenson,Slim Jones,Col Black, Nell Carter, Nedd Dodd and Sharon Heaslip, but most of all the local people and the people that travelled hundreds of kilometers to support our show, a big thank you to all the radio and print media. The Bouldy Bush Ballad Bash will be held 21, 22 and 23rd May 2010.

SHOWS COMING UP....
We will have a show with Pooley, Brownie at Pittsworth town hall 6th June. Thanks to Don Maher Rainbow FM for your help for show at Tannymore 7th June with Pooley and Ted Thompson. What a great little spot for a show, close to my mums home town of Yangan.

We will then set off to meet Terry and Jenny Bennetts, a great country music duo, and the folk who recorded our latest cd Rhythm N Rhyme. We will meet them at Nhill in Victoria in early June then to Murrayville to Pt Pirie, Moonta, James Town, Hindmarsh Valley Hall, Millicent Warrnambool, Moe, Bairnsdale. Looking forward to some great shows.
We will be at Goulburn 4th July Railway Bowls Club 8pm, Hexam Bowls 5th July 7pm, RSl Club Wauchope, 8th July at 8pm. please check Tour Dates for further shows. We will be travelling through, NSW, and Qld to Mt Isa, then Terry and Jenny go to Katherine and across the top end and Kimberly and home.
Hope to catch up to you all at our shows.

THE GIDGEE COAL BUSH BALLAD AWARDS
Pittsworth Town Hall November 21st/22nd 2009
Guest Artists, Trevor Day, Jeff Brown, Ricky Shipp, Alisha Smith, Allan Luscombe, Ted Thompson, Keith Jamieson, Dean Perrett, Gary Fogarty
Open To All Australian Independent Bush Ballad Artists and Writers
With 500 copies or more released for sale between 31st August 2007 & 31st August 2009.
Walkup Artists at showgrounds prior to awards. Camping at showgrounds available.
Bookings for camping with John and Margaret Staunton phone 0427091644 home 0746951162
Accommodation also at Pittsworth Motels and Hotels Bush Poets Breakfast at Tatts Hotel with Gary Fogarty And Friends. Info Ph 0749340950 Or 0427731088
more information bl27406@bigpond.net.au
ENTRY CLOSES 15th October 2009 Get your nominations in early to Gidgee Coal Awards, 52586 Burnett hwy Bouldercombe, 4702 Q
Download GIDGEE COAL BUSH BALLAD AWARDS ENTRY FORM (PDF)

Yours with an Aussie song
Keith Jamieson/Alisha Smith
and Caitlyn Jane

PS: Thanks to all the radio presenters who support our shows and our music and thanks to all ABBA staff.

GOLDEN GUITAR FINALISTS 2008!
INSTRUMENTAL
Alisha Smith & Charley Boyter - Tanami Track
Kross Cut Records
Full awards listing:
http://www.country.com.au/index.cfm
2008 TSA SONGWRITERS’ SALUTE AWARDS OF AUSTRALIA FINALISTS

BUSH BALLAD OF THE YEAR
Follow In The Footsteps – KEITH JAMIESON
COMEDY/NOVELTY SONG OF THE YEAR
Old Pete’s Yellowbelly – KEITH JAMIESON
Full listing of finalists www.tsaonline.com.au

Dinki Di Country Tour 2007- November

We have just finished our around Australia tour with Reg and Dot Poole and Graeme and Debbie Snow, we had a great tour except for doing a gearbox at Casino but with the help of the NRMA and The RACQ it pays to belong, we had the ute sent to Toowoomba, where a mate of ours Stan Bennett pulled the box out with a bit of help from me and Andrew who owns the workshop located a gearbox for me in Brisbane and the rest is history we got rolling again.

>> Keith, Alisha & Reg at Port Pirie
So if you are ever stuck and need a hand call on Andrew, Stan and the crew at Toowoomba Engine Centre. and thanks to Stan and Carrol Bennet for their hospitality from myself, Alisha and (Caitlyn who ransacked their house and fed the chooks.)
<< Caitlyn at  Port Pirie
>> Reg and Dot at Port Pirie

We we're honoured to have Reg with us as he added heaps to our shows and were all on the same wavelength and was great to travel with, Dot and Debbie were very efficient on the door and Graeme was a great help looking after Caitlyn as she wanted to be with Mum and Dad on stage some times.
To all the people that looked after us, the ones that supported our shows the radio stations and media on behalf of Reg and Dot, Graeme and Debbie, Alisha, Caitlyn and Myself we thank you sincerely and to the roadhouses that Ripped us off, next time I will be bringing a fuel tanker with me.
We finished or tour at Widgee Balladeers muster to a Great crowd and lots of caravans thanks to Lex K and the Committee and Tappin Teddy Thompson for your tappin’ Mate.
 
<< Farewell at end of Tour:
L-R: Graeme, Reg, Debbie, Keith, Caitlyn, Dot, & Alisha.

>> Keith and Caitlyn Mimbi Caves near Fitzroy Crossing WA.

Thanks to all at the Bulletin for their coverage of our tour, if you get a chance to tour make sure you have a look at our Beautiful Country first and we hope to see you all again soon, have a great Christmas and we will see you at Tamworth or Bungendore or at a show near you.
Yours With An Aussie Song
Keith Jamieson, Alisha Smith, Caitlyn Jane, Reg and Dot Poole
 

Pt. 2. Around Australia Tour 2005
We had a great tour. We were on the road for about 7 months of the year, first with Jeff Brown and Sharon Smith and then later in the year we went around Australia again with Rick & Cathy.  We spoke about some of our tour earlier on the site,  at the time we were about halfway through the tour and in WA.  After we left there we headed out across the Nullabor to perform several shows in SA at Lock, Pt Pirie, Wilmington, Nuriootpa, Moonta and Hindmarsh Valley.  We had some great support from the SA people and really enjoyed performing over there.  We then called in at the Mildura festival for a few days and caught up with some of our mates who were performing at the festival.  We did a guest spot on Warren Mahoney's show at Apex Park which is a great venue for bush ballads.

From there we performed at Robinvale where Wave Jackson was a special guest artist on his way home from Mildura.  We then did a show at Narrawong in Victoria and left our caravans with Alby and Joan Martin at Koroit before heading over to Tassie on the Spirit of Tasmania for two weeks.  We had a great time in Tassie once again with some great hospitality from Pam & Brian Lewis and Gaylene and Maurie Faulkner.  We had 7 good shows in Tassie with great support from the people at Lindisfarne, Huonville, Bruny Island, Tam O'Shanter, Launceston, Ulverstone and Deloraine.

After Tassie we headed back to Koroit via the Great Ocean Road to pick up the vans and perform at Warrnambool, which was organised for us by our friends Ron & Jan Morgan.  We then showed at Traralgon, then onto Bairnsdale Country Music Club where we had a great crowd and our special guest artists were Lindsay & Gail Hammond and Les Willams.  Then we were on the home run, as we started to make our way north, performing at Wagga Wagga, Yass, Canberra and Goulburn.  We had a few days off so we called in and stayed a couple of nights with Ted & Merelyn Olive at Maitland while Rick & Cathy spent some time on the coast at Woy Woy. 

Then we headed up the coast to perform at Wauchope with Ken "Chainsaw" Lindsay as our guest artist.  We were very privileged to have the legendary Shorty Ranger and his fiddle player Darrell Turnbull and young balladeer Amos Morris on our show at the Powerhouse Motel at Kempsey which was organised by Bob Campaign & Jillian.  It's a great little venue if any other balladeers are looking to perform in Kempsey. We had a great show once again in Kyogle the following night, thanks to Lyn Manning.  Matt Manning and Jeff Gibson performed on the show as well as "Tappin' Teddy Thompson".  We got to catch up with Jim Laffin & Marion Dargusch, also Frank & Kath Early who travelled down to Kyogle for the show.  We then travelled up to Wynnum in Brisbane where Julie Perandes was our guest artist for the afternoon, it's great to see Julie still performing bush ballads and thanks to Jean for organising the show. 

Photo:
L-R: Alisha Smith, Shorty Ranger, Darrell Turnball, Keith Jamieson and Cathy Deite.

Our last show for the tour was at Pittsworth near Toowoomba where we had a huge supportive crowd of about 250 people.  Jeff Brown, Sharon Smith & Ted Thompson all performed and the show was compered by a legend of radio and rodeo Mr Ted Hintz.  Thanks to Marion once again for looking after the door for us.  It was a great feeling to be finished the tour and on our way home again after four and a half months straight on the road and 28000 km's.  Thanks to everyone who supported the shows and helped organise the shows, a few people we haven't mentioned are Alan & Natalie Cunningham, Laurel & Niffy Robinson, Natalie & Barney Pearce, Merv Schapell, Glyn & Rosemary Squires, Lois Holland, Bill McIntyre, Molly Leary, David Shaw, Ray Bean, Nancy & Allan Evans, Peter & Meroli Wicks, John Goode, Wayne Brennan, Brian Annetts, Joy & Max Lewis, and big thankyou to Ros Scotney, Stan & Carol.  Also Chris Jensen, Dennis O'hara, Wayne Shearman, all the crew at 4DDB and many other community radio presenters and ABC early morning presenters around Australia.  Thanks to all involved with the ABBA for their support over the past year.

PT. 1. Around Australia Tour 2005.  We started our tour on the 24th June at Chinchilla QLD and continued on to Warwick, then Tent Hill Hotel where we had a great show and launched Keith's new album, "Songs From a Bush Ballad Pen" and his autobiography "Life's Highway".  "Songs From a Bush Ballad Pen" is an album of Joe Daly's poems which Keith put tunes to and features the last recorded lead guitar of the late Paul Lester.   We also launched Rick & Cathy's brilliant new album "Through Our Eyes", which was recorded at Regency Sound by Marc Lea.

From there we headed up the QLD coast playing at Maryborough, Bundaberg, Rockhampton and Mackay to some very appreciative audiences.  Then it was out west to Capella and Blackall, where we caught up with Bill Coleman, then Isisford where we stayed with Kevie and Dolly Woodlands, Winton, Mt Isa, then onto the Barkly Homestead where we played for a couple of nights.  We did a couple of shows in Katherine at the Katherine Country Club and Crossways Hotel and spent a bit of time with some of the committee of the Katherine Country Music Muster.  In Katherine we met up with John and Margaret Staunton from Millmerran who are travelling around Australia for 12 months.  John does a lot of the cooking for the Camp Oven Festival at Millmerran.  They travelled with us right across the Kimberley and down to Eighty Mile Beach.  We really appreciated their help at the shows where they did the door and looked after our CD's, they are great people and we'll miss them (and John's good cooking)  for the rest of our trip. Pic above: L-R: Margaret Staunton, Keith, Alisha, Rick & Cathy and John Staunton at Barn Hill Station WA

We then went across to Timber Creek where we had a great show and then to Wyndham where we played with Bruce Johnson and his boys at the hotel.  Bruce is a great lead guitarist who plays in the style of Barry Thornton.  From there we played at Warmun Community, then stopped for a night at the Mary Pool rest area between Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing where we decided to do a show using 2 generators to power the equipment. It was a beautiful setting right on the banks of the river under some beautiful big old gum trees.  We met some lovely people there who we kept running into right down to Eighty Mile Beach. We stayed a few nights at Fitzroy Crossing where we played at the Fitzroy River Lodge and also the caravan park.   We also performed at a few aboriginal communities around Fitzroy - Bayulu, Wantkatjunka, Noonkanbah and Yakanarra with the help of  Martin Smiler and family, also Ronnie and Andrew.  Andrew took us on a tour of Mimbi Caves (between Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing) which are absolutely beautiful. Pic Above Right: Rick, Cathy,Alisha, & Keith at Mary Pool Rest Area WA

We spent a week at Derby playing for the tourists at the Kimberley Entrance Caravan Park where Ian and Julie looked after us, then went onto the Broome Caravan Park and played there for four nights, thanks to Graham and Donna.  We caught up with our great mates Ginger and Marie Cox in Broome who were great friends of Barry Thornton.  Ginger is a great lead guitarist as well and plays in the same style as Barry.  He took us up to play at the Beagle Bay Community, north of Broome where we met some lovely people and got to see a beautiful old church which was built in 1917 and has all pearl shells inlaid into the walls and floor.

 From Broome we travelled about 130kms south to Barn Hill station, which has a caravan park which overlooks the ocean with beautiful cliff faces.  It's a beautiful spot and a lot of tourists from down south go up there for  a few months of the year to escape the cold weather.  We played there for 2 nights and had a great time, Keith loved it so much that he is writing a song about the place.  We spent a couple of nights playing at Eighty Mile Beach and then had to say goodbye to the Stauntons as we headed south through Port Hedland, playing at Carnarvon and Geraldton then down to Perth, where we played at Balga with the help of Ken Lindley.  We had a great show at the South Coast Country Music Club at Albany, which was organised by Dulcie & Trevor and all the crew. 
We also had the pleasure of catching up with Rick Carey at our Albany show where Keith sang a song he had just finished writing about him and his days as "Cousin Ratsack".  After that we performed at Narrogin, York and Northam with the help of some great people - Sandra O'Neill and Ken and Pauline Tillbrook.  We are now still in York for a few days and spending a bit of time with Ken & Pauline.
Pic Left: L-R: Keith Jamieson, Rick Carey,and Alisha Smith.

We will start heading east across the Nullabor and into SA where we will be performing at several venues for a couple of weeks including Lock, Wilmington, Pt Pirie, Nuriootpa and Victor Harbour, then to the Mildura Festival and down to the bottom of Victoria to Narrawong.  Then it's over to Tassie on the boat for two weeks where we will do six shows.  We are looking forward to that as we enjoyed our trip over there in February and Rick & Cathy haven't been there before. After Tassie we will perform at Warrnambool, Traralgon and Bairnsdale, then start heading north up through Wagga Wagga, Yass, Canberra and Goulburn then over to the coast where we will work our way up through Wauchope, Kempsey, Kyogle and Wynnum.  The tour will culminate in a big concert at Pittsworth Town Hall with special guests Jeff Brown and Sharon Smith, which will be compered by Ted Hintz, radio announcer from the early Hoedown days on 2TM.  This show is being organised by our good mate Ros Scotney and will be on Sunday afternoon 6th November.
Pic Right : L-R: Cathy, Rick Carey & Rick

 We would like to thank everyone who helped us organise our tour and supported the shows right around Australia, there are too many people to mention you all but we do appreciate all of your help.  We look forward to catching up with you all at the Frog and Toad in Tamworth 2006.

Yours With an Aussie Song,

Keith Jamieson, Alisha Smith, Rick & Cathy
Keith Jamieson

>> This is a photo of my great niece Lilly Crouch at our show at Wynum Hall WA with Alisha.
She has my hat on. This was taken on our round Australia tour in 2004. A real cutie!