Artist Line-up Announced for 2009 Grass Roots Music Festival 8 Ball Aitken, the organiser of the yearly Grass Roots Music Festival at Brisbane’s scenic Mount-Coot-tha Botanical Gardens, has announced the artist line-up for the fifth annual event. This year’s offering includes a strong alt.country influence, along with original blues, roots, and indigenous music. The free, family-friendly event offers regional residents the opportunity to frolic in the springtime sunshine, enjoying the beauty of the mountain-top botanical gardens at their best. Supported by the Brisbane City Council, the event has become a Queensland institution which celebrates the diverse offerings of original roots musicians in one of the region’s most picturesque settings. The music runs from 11 am to 5 pm on Sunday, November 8th.
“We have a truly eclectic line up of top singer-songwriters up on the mountain this year,” enthuses Aitken. “For 2009, we have featured quite a few very talented women – they are often under-represented in roots music, and we believe it’s time for some equal opportunity. Victoria Baillie, Claire Whiting, Katrina Burgoyne, Lou Bradley, and Marcelle Townsend-Cross (from Monkey and the Fish) will all be gracing our stage.”
He continues, “Some top blokes will also join us. Along with my own band, we’re presenting Brendan Leggatt and Hobo Instinct. Chris Fisher (the other half of Monkey and the Fish), and 21st century Aussie bluesman Mark Easton will be strutting their stuff as well. Every year, we try to put together a fresh offering of new sounds across a range of roots music genres. It’s very refreshing to be able to get out into the great outdoors and hear real acoustic music with your family and friends. Original music shouldn’t be limited to pubs and clubs. I think it should be out in the fresh air for people of all ages to enjoy.”
Queensland slide-guitarist 8 Ball Aitken has just returned to Australia after two big international tours in 2009, spanning seven months overseas. Within 24 hours of touching down in Oz, he kicked off an Australian national tour, with dates across WA, TAS, VIC, NSW and QLD. The Australian tour launched with the breaking news of 8 Ball’s 2009 Q Song Country Award for song Outback Booty Call from his current album ‘Rebel With A Cause’. Roots musician Aitken is no stranger to the Q Song Awards. This is his second win from four nominations since the awards began. He won the 2008 Q Song Blues & Roots Award for ‘Yellow Moon’. The music video for Outback Booty Call has received extensive airplay on music video TV across Australia, and his current album (produced by ex-Sherbet Garth Porter) has earned a string of awards and nominations including Golden Guitar and APRA awards. It has also produced two top ten Australian CT30 chart hits.
“I was honoured to accept the 2009 Q Song Award in the country category. It means a lot to me to win an award for my song writing in my home state”, says the red headed musician. “Outback Booty Call was a song that I wrote with the theme of regional romance in mind. To me it is like a documentary about dating in the bush, and it is meant to be light hearted.”
Having recently returned from three months playing across several countries in Northern Europe, Canada and USA, 8 Ball was unable to attend the Q Song Awards, because – ironically -- he was filming his new music video in the USA’s country music capital, Nashville, at the time. Some of the highlight gigs on the tour were playing on the big stage at a festival in Nova Scotia after Don MacLean to an audience of 10,000+ Canadians who were frolicking in the mud and pouring rain, and another festival in Denmark, where a ten gun salute with live ammunition was fired by local cowboys in full 1800’s costume to start and finish 8 Ball’s show with his band there. During his tour across Sweden and Norway, 8 Ball recalls a feast of smoked goat, reindeer, moose and cod high above the Arctic Circle, next to the world’s biggest whirlpool, shared with Viking and Sami friends after a gig, with the midnight sun still shining down brightly enough to give him a sunburn at three in the morning.
The genre-bending FNQ banana picker turned guitar picker, who presents a unique blend of original blues & roots, alt.country and indie rock, is excited about returning to Mount Coot-tha with the new crop of festival artists. “I am really looking forward to playing for the local roots, blues and country music fans, so I can play them some of my new songs – and I just love the songs we are going to hear from the other musicians at the festival”, Aitken concludes. “Queensland audiences genuinely listen to music deeply, and of course, throughout Australia, our Queensland fans are always the first ones out on the dance floor – so we hope to see some serious frolicking on the grass up on the mountain on November 8th!”
8 Ball Aitken is available for interviews call 0408 075 959 or email bird@phoenixmovement.com to arrange. Check out 8 Ball’s website: www.8ballaitken.com .
