{"id":387,"date":"2015-08-20T19:44:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T19:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/?p=387"},"modified":"2024-03-24T19:46:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-24T19:46:08","slug":"together-in-song-aussie-folkies-reunite-for-first-album-and-u-s-tour-in-four-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/?p=387","title":{"rendered":"Together in song. Aussie folkies reunite for first album and U.S. tour in four years."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Waifs: (from left) Donna Simpson, Josh Cunningham and Vikki Thorn.
Photo Jarrad Seng. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Chico Performances presents The Waifs Tuesday, Aug. 25, 7:30 p.m., at Laxson Auditorium.
Tickets: $13-$29
Laxson Auditorium
Chico State
898-6333
www.chicoperformances.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chicoans had grown accustomed to<\/strong> indie-folk band The Waifs making a stop in town or at a nearby summer festival nearly every year, but the upcoming appearance as the opening act of the new Chico Performances season comes in the middle of the band\u2019s first North American tour in four years. Live shows, not to mention rehearsals and recording, have been few and far between as of late for the Australian-born band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDonna\u2019s living back in Australia, Josh is between California and Australia, and David lives in Eastern Canada in the bushes,\u201d explained vocalist\/guitarist Vikki Thorn about her bandmates as she answered questions from her current home in Utah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Waifs\u2019 core members\u2014Thorn, vocalist\/guitarist Josh Cunningham and vocalist\/guitarist (and Thorn\u2019s sister) Donna Simpson\u2014have been together for 23 years, and along with their regular rhythm section (drummer David Ross MacDonald and bassist Ben Fraz), they\u2019ve weathered a few peaks and valleys in activity over that time. But with homes and growing families spread across the globe, it\u2019s getting harder to bring everyone together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter finishing a tour in 2011, we felt a little tired. No phone calls were exchanged; we just stopped really. That was the third time I had not performed for that length of time with the band,\u201d said Thorn. \u201cHowever, it was a really important time for me to connect with my kids and become a mother and learn how to maintain a house and do all the things a mother does.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, in 2014, the band members reunited for an Australian tour and, finding themselves in the same country at the same time, decided to do a new recording. They ended up in the coastal town of Byron Bay with American producer Nick DiDia (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam) and recorded their first album since 2011\u2019s Temptation<\/em>, the just-released Beautiful You<\/em> (on the band\u2019s own Jarrah Records).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the new recording, the three songwriters\u2014who normally write separately, bringing individual songs to the group\u2014decided to get the creative juices flowing by trying something different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore we went into the studio \u2026 I asked the band, \u2018Why don\u2019t we write an album together (which we had never done before) and collaborate?\u2019 Eventually, we rented a little beach house in Australia and sat around the kitchen table and really didn\u2019t know what to do. It actually got a little tense since we hadn\u2019t seen each other in three years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the new collaborative approach not working out as planned, it took one member going off solo again to get them back on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt one point, Donna stormed out and wrote \u2018Beautiful You\u2019 and from there it took off. Sometimes in this group the motivation is little competition between songwriters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is an album that again features the three songwriters bringing their own tunes to the table, but this time with a more even disbursement of credits, with four from Simpson, three from Cunningham and five from Thorn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The album features many standout folk and Americana-tinged numbers, such as the title track and Simpson\u2019s harmonica-soaked ballad \u201cWhen a Man Gets Down,\u201d which showcases her phrasing and vocal skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, on the pretty and evocative \u201cBlack Dirt Track,\u201d one of the album\u2019s strongest numbers, Thorn reminisces about a special place from her childhood: \u201cBlack dirt track\/Bare brown feet\/Child\u2019s a girl\/with secrets to keep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was the summer camp where my grandfather and father grew up,\u201d Thorn explained about the song. \u201cThere\u2019s a black dirt track that goes into the fishing camp called Cozy Corner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the band tours America (and soon Australia) in support of Beautiful You<\/em>, Thorn remains enthusiastic about playing music on a more consistent basis and contributing even more songs to upcoming albums. \u201cIt feels like I only started writing a lot more songs in the last five years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll wait. We\u2019re used to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(CN&R)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chico Performances presents The Waifs Tuesday, Aug. 25, 7:30 p.m., at Laxson Auditorium.Tickets: $13-$29Laxson AuditoriumChico State898-6333www.chicoperformances.com Chicoans had grown accustomed to indie-folk band The Waifs making a stop in town or at a nearby summer festival nearly every year, but the upcoming appearance as the opening act of the new Chico Performances season comes in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}