Whew, what a whirlwind couple of weeks. We need a holiday to get over the holiday.

First off, we have recorded 14 songs for a CD with Micheal Young. We’ll probably drop two, so it’ll be a nice 12 song album. With any luck it will be ready before Redlands Bluegrass Festival in August.

Micheal Young with some of his recording gear

Once again, we had an AMAZING time at the Great Alpine Pick in Harrietville, Victoria, Australia. It is such a wonderful thing to be immersed in that musical community. It’s all about the pickin’ there.

We had the whole whanau with us this time, which made it extra special. Nat and I brought our kids. Dee, Nat’s mum and Barry’s wife, came with, as did Garry’s wife Sue. And Barry’s brother Les came with his partner Lyn, Barry’s sister Kaye was there with her husband Chris, and Barry’s youngest brother Jeff came along as well. It was a real Torkington Invasion there in Harrietville.

I’ll put some photos up on … I don’t know, somewhere. Flickr, or the photos page on here. In the meantime, here’s one of us playing in the Saturday afternoon concert.

Pipi Pickers in the Harrietville Hotel at the Great Alpine Pick

There was a bit of worry at the beginning of the weekend. I’d lost my voice post recording, after singing pretty much for 6 hours straight a day for four days. Then I woke up on the Friday in Harrietville feeling mighty poorly. Some sort of inner ear disturbance made it difficult for me to stand up straight, let alone play a double bass. Felt like I was sea-sick. I spent most of the day in bed while we all had flashbacks to WellyFest 2009, and wondered if Angus Golding could learn our set in a hurry. But Saturday morning came and I was right as rain. Voice was strong, head was more or less non-spinny, and we enjoyed performing all weekend long. Phew!

We owe a big debt of gratitude to the Mountain Pickers Association and the Community of Yinnar, for organising post-festival shows for us. What great fun they both were! I’ll post some photos from those as well when I get a chance.

But for now, it’s time to get back to real life a little bit, at least until the next gig (which is tomorrow morning, aie!)

Jenine