COWBOYS IN CYBERSPACE - February 2007

Each month guitar picker and Webmaster Bob Howe brings you the latest Country Music happenings on the Internet.
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Cowboys In Cyberspace - February 2007

"HELLO WORLD...THIS IS TAMWORTH CALLING"

...an explosion of festival web events!

In recent years the Tamworth Country Music Festival has enjoyed a growing presence on the Web, although webcasts have mostly been limited to the live webcams watching over Peel Street and the finals of the Telstra Road To Tamworth competition. This year there has been a lot more to watch and some of these items may be archived for future enjoyment as well.

A brand new site - TamworthCountryMusic.com.au - has pulled together a huge amount of material and links to help create a central source of information on the Festival, which is now so huge and diverse. This included podcasts of the Golden Guitar finalists, streaming of Radio 2TM and listings of over 1500 festival gigs.

At The Pub, one of the Bill Chambers Sessions featured the Trevor Warner Bluegrass show. Michael Vidale was not only slapping the bass, but also coordinating his team who beamed the show live to world, reporting viewers in West Virginia, Hawaii and Alaska, to name but a few. Trevor Warner and Michael Vidale are pictured above contemplating song requests from the on-line audience.

Beth Brown was a busy lady reporting at many events, with a live link to the Texas Broadcasting Network site that relayed shows such as the TIARAs, during which they reported 50,000 hits. It was the tenth year of the TIARAs who staged a magnificent anniversary awards presentation and a fantastic concert that featured previous winners such as Graeme Connors (pictured above), Wayne Horsburgh and Donna Boyd (pictured below).

Donna Boyd launching her new album at the TREC

Here at Cowboys In Cyberspace we created a 'spot the stars' video podcast with candid footage shot at Tamworth with cameos from Lee, Beccy, Carter & Carter and more and you can view that here...

Watch the
Cowboys In Cyberspace
video podcast from the
2007 Tamworth Country Music Festival
in Windows Media Player
(Dial-up connections should download
and then play from their hard drive)

Until next time, happy surfing!

DVD REVIEW

DVD cover

MARK KNOPFLER AND
EMMYLOU HARRIS -
REAL LIVE ROADRUNNING

The interview included on this DVD has MARK KNOPFLER and EMMYLOU HARRIS telling the story of how they met and recorded over several years, finally finishing the album All the Roadrunning. They talk about what fun it might be to take it 'on the road' which is exactly what they did in Europe and North America shortly after the album's release. The outstanding show on this DVD was filmed at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles on the 28th of June, 2006 which was the third last night of the tour. Before the main feature we get a lovely snippet from the pre-show 'meet and greet' with the band doubling as The Kamanawanalei'a Boys, providing Hawaiian music for the revellers.

The concert itself wonderfully captures the artistry of the performers and the intimacy of the night. They perform half the aforementioned album plus another ten songs from various parts of their career. The musical combinations include man/woman conversational duets, moments when Mark and Emmylou complement each other's songs and a couple of solo spots. While they don't rest on the laurels of their considerable back catalogues, fans will enjoy Romeo And Juliet from the Dire Straits days and a heart-stopping Boulder To Birmingham which Emmylou wrote as a tribute to Gram Parsons.

For two personal and detailed diaries about the tour, visit the websites of band members Richard Bennett and Guy Fletcher.

Mercury/ Universal Music Australia 1708212
158 Mins

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Don't forget to listen out for cyberBob each month on the radio waves with
Barbara Morison on 2SER (107.3 FM in Sydney and on the Web)
and listen for Big Bob from Bondi every Saturday night with
John Nutting on Saturday Night Country (your Local ABC Radio and the Web).

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