Description
Demons & Dreamers
by Stuart Coupe
TN170 May 25
Songs can come from anywhere.
From adventures, from history, from matters of the heart.
Most of the songs on Keeping North’s debut album, ‘Demons & Dreamers’, come from the imagination of songwriter, Steve Tyson.
Little pieces of fiction or other peoples’ made-up stories, but perhaps inspired by the real world and lives well-lived.
Tyson has long been regarded as an important songwriter in the Australian landscape, critically acclaimed for his solo work.
Said respected critic Noel Mengel (former chief music writer for the Courier Mail), ‘these are songs that are built to last, powerful, passionate songcraft that is worthy of your time.’
Ian Dearden, in this very magazine Trad & Now, said this of Tyson’s last solo album: ‘another masterpiece from a master songwriter’.
The songs on his four solo records were largely personal, following a lifetime of traveling the globe collecting stories, touring Europe six times with his band Rough Red, and reflecting on family history.
Following a period of touring his last solo album ‘Banjo’s Last Ride’ with his band the Train Rex, Steve had plenty of downtime and found himself listening to The Delines, the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss collaboration, Alison Russell’s duo Birds of Chicago, and delving back to hear the great country duets, like Tammy Wynette and George Jones.
Also on high rotation on his car’s CD player was early Joe Tex, and Albert King.
Said Steve, “I’m a huge fan of Willy Vlautin, both as an author, and as a songwriter in The Delines.
“His songs are just wonderful dark stories, fictional snapshots of American life.
“I had also been rediscovering some things I played and listened to when I first started playing in bands, the soul stuff put out by Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, and Joe Tex.
“I really loved ‘Show Me’, Joe Tex’s big hit.
“But then I discovered all this other stuff Joe wrote and produced, and it was country music.
“He wrote and produced a whole album for the Australian singer Diana Trask way back.
“That crossover thing, that country soul thing really interested me.
“You get that from Ray Charles of course, one of the greatest R&B performers singing country songs.
“Going through my early guitar player phase, listening to Clapton and Hendrix, I rediscovered the guys that influenced them, like Albert King and Freddie King.
“So, all this music was playing in the background after the Train Rex tour, all these records were on rotation in my car, where I do a lot of my listening, as these new songs started to emerge.”
Together with guitarist Ian Shawsmith and drummer Stu Hoffman, Tyson grew up in Brisbane at the time of the notorious Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption, playing gigs in clubs run by petty gangsters and bent cops.
The characters that frequented those venues provided plenty of lyrical fodder for these songs written many years later.
“We would play gigs in Fortitude Valley and head out for a drink after the show.
“One of the places we would go to was called Louie’s in Wickham Street, and it was an illegal casino.
“Everyone in Brisbane knew where it was, but apparently the police and politicians had no idea it existed.
“Funny about that.
“There is a classic story, and I honestly don’t know if it is true or if it is an urban myth, but people swear that there was a police barricade in place in Wickham Street at around 3 o’clock in the morning as a crane was lifting a massive roulette table up into the first floor of the building where Louie’s was!”
Those events and those characters inspired the songs ‘Gary Sets the Meter’, ‘Wickham Street’, and ‘The Nash’ on the album.
Tyson’s songs came together based on the trials and tribulations of troubled characters.
Two strung out junkies on opposite sides of the world trying to get together in the song ‘Singapore’.
Domestic violence rearing its ugly head in ‘Baby I’m Your Man’.
A bored, neglected young man growing up in a faded outback town in ‘Save Me’.
Tarnished, desperate working girls from Kings Cross in ‘Broken’.
An Irish girl fleeing The Troubles and taking refuge in Melbourne in ‘Dear Belfast’.
Star crossed lovers travelling through late night Europe in ‘Lightning Strike’.
The current single from the album, ‘Swimming in Deep Time’, was inspired by the Tim Winton documentary series, ‘Ningaloo’.
In that show, Tim coined the phrase which became the song title.
Steve continues, “I heard that line and just grabbed a pen and wrote it down, thinking it was just an amazing line to use somehow.
“When I wrote the song, I was imagining characters that might exist in a Tim Winton novel.
“I actually sent the song to Tim via his agent, and had a lovely response.
“He thanked me for using the line and for thinking of him.”
There are a couple of songs that are inspired by true stories or events.
‘Jessie’ is based on the life of the Australian female bushranger, Jessie Hickman.
One of the most powerful songs on the album is ‘Water’.
Steve explains, “Sometimes you find songs just from looking in your own backyard.
“I have friends in Lismore who got smashed yet again in the floods of 2022.
“I was helping friends in Mullumbimby clean up after that devastation.
“At the same time, a couple of my old school friends were going through yet another year of drought on their properties in western Queensland.
“How do you balance all that?
“How do you cope?
“I can write a song about it, I know it won’t help those folks, but I guess it’s just my way of saying I understand your pain.”
Musically, Tyson had some pretty firm ideas about how he wanted things to sound.
He brought his longtime guitarist Ian ‘Sal’ Shawsmith on board, as well as bassist and singer, Jodi Murtha, who had been a member of Steve’s Train Rex touring band.
“I had a very clear vision for these songs, and I knew we just had to have pedal steel incorporated into them.
“Jeff Spencer heard the stories and wanted in.
“He just got it straight away”.
Drummer Stu Hoffman is Tyson’s oldest friend.
They first played in a band together when they were 12 years old.
“It’s just incredible that we have come full circle and we are playing together again.”
Why Keeping North, why a new band, not just another solo project?
Steve explains, “Because these are different songs, it’s a different approach.
“They aren’t my personal songs, they are songs about other people, and they just wouldn’t work as well if they were on a solo album.
“Plus, I love being in a band.
“I was in Rough Red for twenty five years, and they were great years, great times.
“I love the camaraderie of a band.
“I don’t call the shots.
“The other guys all have input into the songs, and that’s just how I like it to be.
“I’m based back in Queensland now, and the rest of the band is all in the South-East region, so getting together to rehearse and arrange stuff is a lot easier.”
The end result is a set of alt.country tunes.
Americana is the preferred terminology these days, laced with the blues, tinged with soul, and informed by folk music.
The band is in the middle of an album launch tour through South-East Queensland and northern New South Wales, before heading south later in the year, and playing some festivals.
Ed: Steve Tyson has four albums available for sale on the Trad&Now website as well as this new one when it arrives.
Three of those albums have been uploaded to Trad&NowLive! and can be heard there from time to time.
He is also a member of Rough Red who have seven albums available for sale from the Trad&Now website, four of which have been uploaded to Trad&NowLive! and can also be heard there from time to time.
