“Shady Grove” – Spring Sessions

By slim dime | November 6, 2015

“Shady Grove” is a lovely Bluegrass standard, which many really great musicians have done versions of. One of our favourites would have to be Doc Watson’s.

Video still from "Shady Grove" — Video still from “Shady Grove”

Link to wikipedia entry on “Shady Grove“

We recently enlisted the help of our friend Chris to film us playing a few of our favourite cover songs/standards. All these clips were recorded with a Nikon D90 – the sound quality is pretty good considering we’re outside!

We don’t make a huge fuss about our guitars but we get asked a lot what we play. Jen plays a Martin LXM tenor guitar and Chris plays a Martin D00-18V acoustic guitar. Neither have pick ups – all acoustic!

So here’s a link to our version of “Shady Grove” – hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoy playing it!

“Take on me” – covering well known songs in a Slim Dime kinda way…………

By slim dime | October 14, 2015

We write our own music but we also enjoy doing covers of well known songs in a Slim Dime kinda way. Enormously successful in the 80’s, Euro synth pop hit, “Take On Me” – lyrics & music by Pal Waaktaar, Mags Furuholmen & Morten Harket is a great example. Although recognisable, without that synth tag it sounds totally different.

Video still - Take On Me — Video still – Take On Me

With the help of our friend Chris this was recorded September 2015 in a house more picturesque than ours on our trusty iPad so the image and sound quality isn’t excellent but it’s certainly good enough. God bless technology!

We decided to share this particular song because it isn’t something we’d ever put on an album but it is a song we put in the set along with country & bluegrass numbers. It has that lovely bittersweet quality that we love so. And it’s fun to surprise folk with something a little unexpected.

One of the memorable things about this song is singer Morten Harket’s incredible vocal range, we don’t do that either! It’s more fun to make a song your own than to mimic someone else.

Here’s a link to the original video, which has a happy albeit sweaty ending……

“Silver Tongue and Gold Plated Lies……..” – Spring Sessions

By slim dime | October 2, 2015

Despite having a really busy month, with the help of our friend Chris we recorded some wee home videos. She lives in a gorgeous house with a brilliant garden. The Spring blossoms were bloomin’ up a storm.

Sliver Tongue & Gold Plated Lies video still

Silver Tongue & Gold Plated Lies was written by K. T. Oslin – country stalwart songstress, although we learned it from Suzanne Thomas on the excellent album “O’ Sister – The Women’s Bluegrass Collection”.

We play it slow.

More like a blues song than a bluegrass number………

Lots of fantastic musicians play this excellent song – this is our version!

Everything we do, we do with a little help from our friends…….

thank you!

September – Spring has sprung and we’re playing all over the place – come along!

By slim dime | September 9, 2015

It’s September – Spring has sprung and we’ve got a huge month of gigs – get along to what you can – we’d love to see you!

Some regular spots – our monthly show at Oscar’s Alehouse the 13th Sept from 5pm & a show at The Drunken Poet‘s Women, Wine & Whiskey on the 16th Sept from 9:30pm.

Really looking forward to our debut at Berwick And District Folk Club, who are putting on a Bluegrass night with us & The Weathered Heads Friday 18th Sept. Doors open 7:30 – Music starts 8:00pm
Old Cheese Factory
34 Homestead Rd., Berwick, 3806
Entry
$12:00 Guests

Another new venue for us The gorgeous Cosmopolitan Hotel in Trentham – three sets from 1pm on Sunday 20th Sept.

And – I’m tired already! – a show at lovely French Restaurant The Little French Deli from 7 – 9:30pm on the 24th September.

Live to air on 3MDR – The Dotted Line – with David Miller

By slim dime | September 1, 2015

We’re heading up to lovely Emerald to play live-to-air and chat with David Miller on his show The Dotted Line on 3MDR tomorrow night – Wed Sept 2nd…

You can listen to the show at any time by clicking the link below and going to the show on Wednesday 2/9/15 9pm-11pm. Enjoy! we sure did

3MDR – The Dotted Line – with David Miller

We’ll play a few songs and chat about what we’re up to over the next month, so tune in!

Beautiful Beechworth – Kelly Country Pick 2015

By slim dime | August 25, 2015

We recently traveled to Beechworth Victoria for the 2015 Kelly Country Pick, whenever we go on a road trip I take photographs. I always put a few on Instagram & Facebook, it’s become part of the journey for me. The images feed into the songs we write, themes emerge. With Chris’ encouragement I thought I might begin to share what we see when we head off for gigs or Festivals.

I have always thought in pictures and struggle to think of words to describe…… stuff

Surgeon Dentist.......... — Surgeon Dentist……….

We weren’t booked to play at Kelly Country, which is just as well given how horrendously sick we both were but the guitars didn’t get dusty……………

“Lay Down My Ole Guitar” – new album on the brew

By slim dime | August 14, 2015

We’ve been writing songs for a new album and played one of them the other night at the Mountain Pickers Association. It’s a really lovely song we called “Lay Down My Ole Guitar”, one of those magic songs that feel as though they write themselves. We were so incredibly lucky that Angus Golding recorded it for us and that Emily Dittman took a great live photograph so we put the two together and made a wee video. I (Jen) was worried it’d be too boring with a static image but it’s kinda lovely to just focus on the music, we played pretty well and it’s a song we’re both really proud of. Now we’re really looking forward to recording again……….

Mountain Pickers Association – August

By slim dime | August 5, 2015

We joined the Mountain Pickers Association this year and have really enjoyed the monthly meets at Burrinja on the first Tuesday of the month. We’re meeting some lovely people and hearing some really great music, an absolute pleasure! It’s a real privilege to have a sit down audience who listen with interest and courtesy, it’s a wonderful space to get our music out there into the world.

The Prairie Kings at The Yarra Hotel

By slim dime | July 21, 2015

The mighty Kings of the Prairie played at The Yarra Hotel on Sundee & a kind punter took this photo for us.

ie Reuben’s Father in Law….. 🙂