the outback

My third day is Australia couldn’t have been more different than the first two. I arrived in Melbourne and met Chris at the airport. We were picked up by a wonderful guy named Peter and driven to the gig about an hour outside the city in the town of Lancefield. It was remarkable how quickly the landscape moved from city to suburb to beautiful and sparsely populated hill country. It reminded me very much of the hill country outside of Austin, TX. After a stretch on a long dirt road we arrived to Burke & Willis winery and were greeted by our amazing hosts Andrew & Heather, who’ve created one of the most unique music venues that I’ve ever enjoyed. The winery was not what I had pictured at all. It was just a smallish house, several outbuildings and lots of farm equipment lying about. What made the place special was the spectacular and unspoiled 360-degree view. The show was held in a large tent behind the house where a crowd of 150 or so was enjoying the opening acts, a three-course meal and the delicious wine. It was a perfect sunny day and it just couldn’t have been lovelier. Chris went on about 5pm and played a very long and much appreciated set. Afterwards it seemed every member of the audience bought CD’s and had their picture taken with him. What I found most amazing is that no one left after the show. Heather insisted that we meet her prized Clydesdale horse Mr. Clumplers and brought him over to the stage area where he grazed the rest of the evening. Most of the audience stayed for hours wandering about visiting and enjoying more wine. Along about 9pm our hosts brought out more food for the 30 people or so who were still there and we had another meal followed by a jam session with Josh White Jr. who had arrived to perform the next day. I crashed in a guest room at 11 or so with the party still in full force.