Description
(The Long Hot Somervilles are a side project of the Burning Bridges. )
The Long Hot Somervilles star up and coming young fiddler Tom Somerville, who is fast gaining a reputation in Melbourne as a fine American Old Time fiddler.
He leads sessions in town and is teaching fiddle at festivals next year.
He first starting playing guitar as 7 years old and was soon performing with the family band The Burning Bridges. He took up mandolin a couple of years later and then started learning violin at 12. He took lessons from Kat Mear as well as classical lessons at school. In 2024 he received a scholarship to attend Old Time Music week at Swannanoa North Carolina and learnt old time tunes from some of the finest.
His father on banjo and guitar is Peter Somerville, a long time banjo player in Melbourne and has toured and recorded with Paul Kelly, Renee Geyer, Greg Champion and many others, and has toured nationally as well as USA, Japan, China, Singapore. He has also been teaching banjo in Melbourne for many years.
Craig Woodward is a renowned multi instrumentalist and exponent of old time music and shares guitar and banjo duties with Peter on this album.
Maxine Sutcliffe is an in demand bass player in Melbourne and plays in the Humbuckin Pickups and Front Porch Bluegrass band.
Tom’s mum and member of The Burning Bridges wrote the only song on the album ‘’Weary Bird” and sings lead vocal.
The album has 15 lesser known traditional tunes, 3 originals by Tom, one by Peter and Fran sings her composition.
The Long Hot Somervilles – Fine Times at Our House
CD review by Tony Smith
TN2591-41
TN174 Dec 25
This 2025 CD of old timey/ Americana/ bluegrass music is a splendid addition to the Melbourne and Australian scene.
Performers include Tom Somerville (fiddle), his father, Peter Somerville (banjo, guitar and harmony vocals), Craig Woodward (banjo and guitar), Maxine Sutcliffe (double bass) and Fran Martin (lead vocal on ‘Weary Bird’).
The leader of this group, Tom Somerville, grew up in a musical household.
He had lessons with Kat Mear and Chloe Sanger and won a scholarship to attend the old time week at Swannanoa in North Carolina, USA.
While not yet 20 years of age, Tom is in demand to run workshops at festivals.
A few tracks are band originals: ‘Weary Bird’ written by Fran, ‘Fool’s Gold’, ‘Spider on the Windowsill’ and ‘Silky Oak’ by Tom and ‘The Muse’ by Peter.
The remainder are traditional tunes: ‘Big Hoedown’, ‘Josie-o’, ‘Hickory Jack’, ‘Fine Times at Our House’, ‘Hell and Scissors’, ‘Let’s Hunt the Horses’, ‘Wild Hog in the Red Brush’, ‘Betty Baker’,
‘Lost Girl’, ‘Bonaparte’s Retreat’ and ‘Railroad Through the Rocky Mountains’.
‘Sail Away Ladies’, described as traditional from Tommy Jarrell has an appealing treatment and one of the most interesting tunes here is ‘Camp Chase’.
This track is listed as ‘traditional from French Carpenter via Rhys Jones’.
Because it is arranged virtually for solo fiddle, it provides some much needed variety to the album.
‘Streak o’ Lean’ from Seven Foot Dilly via Kat Mear is another with immediate appeal.
For me, the band kept the best track till the end.
‘Wounded Hoosier’ is a slower tune which seems to almost speak words and hints at more general folk styles.
Tom Somerville and Fran Martin were responsible for the cover design and artwork.
The album was recorded at Beat Tank, Melbourne and the band thank a number of musicians including those attending the Merri Creek sessions and Double Dole string sessions.
Famed fiddler Greg O’Leary gets special thanks for ‘many life lessons’.
The album probably tends more towards the faster rhythms of bluegrass than ‘old timey’.
Most tracks would certainly have the dancers in the audience anxious to be up and clog and swing away.
The original compositions complement and honour the traditional tunes very well.
While the casual listener might long for a little more variety – even contrast – in the tunes, the album delivers 51 minutes of riches for fans of fast virtuosic fiddle playing.
