COWBOYS IN CYBERSPACE

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 - March 2007

"NEW AND IMPROVED..."

...glossier and groovier!

The new TOYOTA COUNTRY CLUB website offers a variety of content for you to view and download. This includes free music downloads from each of the Starmaker grand finalists plus a track each from Melinda Schneider and Colin Buchanan's latest albums. There are a number of short videos to watch: Lee Kernaghan welcomes visitors to the Toyota Country Club, highlights from the 2007 Starmaker show and a segment titled Colin Buchanan's Family Concert which also contains highlights from several other shows staged at the TREC during the festival (Gina, Troy, Sara, Carter & Carter, Donna Boyd, Adam Brand). A tip: the videos are in Flash format so if you right-click on the centre of the picture you can choose 'Zoom In' for a larger sized image.

THE McCLYMONTS (pictured above) won two Golden Guitars at Tamworth and you can see how happy they were by checking out their website. You can also watch the video for Something That My Heart Does, sample their other tracks, and check out their photo gallery of live and television appearances. As their fan base broadens, you can also join in and leave messages on their forum and chat with other fans.

THE DAVIDSON BROTHERS (pictured above) took home two TIARA Awards before topping their swag off with a Victorian & National Country Music Award for Best Bluegrass & Traditional Country. At the Davidson Brothers' newly updated website you can read all about their success, travels and recordings plus enjoy their amusing virtual museum. Like most bluegrass players they are very proud of their instruments and your can view their gear gallery that includes links to their luthiers.

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

TONY JOE WHITE
LIVE FROM AUSTIN TX

TONY JOE WHITE - the Swamp Fox - returns to our shores once again this month to play both the East and the West Coast Blues and Roots Festivals and many major cities as well. Whether you think he is country, rock, blues or something else, it cannot be denied that since the late sixties he has defined the 'swamp' music genre while simultaneously stretching its boundaries. This classic Austin City Limits show was filmed in December 1980 at a time when disco was metamorphosing into 'dance music' and even Tony Joe White had received criticism for some of the grooves on his albums of the time. In retrospect this seems churlish as the live stripped down version of I Get Off On It shows here - a good song is a good song regardless of the beat. Ironically the opening line of Red-Neck Woman (She had 'disco sucks' on the front of her T-shirt) and other numbers like Disco Blues and Swamp Rap, which all come from his now rare album of that year The Real Thang, alternately embrace and vilify the era.

From his catalogue of classic compositions, the DVD also features Rainy Night in Georgia (a chart-topper for Brook Benton), the insightful social commentary of Willie and Laura Mae Jones, the heartfelt Billy and of course, his #1 hit Polk Salad Annie (forever closely identified with Elvis). Tasty stuff! Chomp, chomp!

New West NW8020 (via Shock in Australia)
63 Mins

If you want to share the location of an interesting site you've seen
or request a topic for discussion in future columns, why not E-mail me.

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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