The Orphanage Sessions return for 2011

Mar 22, 2011 • Nick Payne

In late 2007 Lyn and I conspired to run a series of shows called The Orphanage Sessions. The idea was to showcase great, original, country/roots music as well as giving ourselves a chance to get our instruments out.

As we considered how to make this work we realised a large key to its success would be the space that it happened in. For this reason we approached the coordinators of one of our favourite performance spaces in Sydney - Mars Hill Cafe. They enthusiastically agreed to the idea and happily fed us enough rope to hang ourselves.

Over the next two and a bit years we ran a total of 22 sessions and were blessed with the presence of artists such as The Wildes, Huckleberry Swedes, Karl Broadie, The Yearlings, Jessica Belle, Ange Takats, Sam Hawksley, The Harmonators, Caitlin Harnett, Lianna Rose, Benn Gunn, Jackie Dee and the list goes on. We had some incredible nights with full houses and energy bouncing from all the walls. We also had some heartbreaking nights where only a handful of the faithful showed. But always, the music was amazing.

Last year we lay low. Partly this was due to burn out - the effort required to organise and promote these gigs is enormous and draining! We were also managing the day to day of life including moving houses, changing jobs (more than once!). But we missed the atmosphere of these gigs as well as meeting and playing with other musicians and communing with believers.

So we’re really glad to announce the first of several Orphanage Sessions for 2011 on Saturday April 16 featuring Susanna Carman as our guest.

Susanna hails from New York and having emigrated to Australia in the 1990s now lives in the Byron Bay area. You can read more about her and listen to some of her music at:

www.facebook.com/susannacarman

We believe that playing music is ultimately a shared experience. As a musician it’s more fun to play with others than on your own and as a band it’s more fun to play for people than just jamming. For this reason we encourage everyone to consider joining us at this gig - that is, to allow us to engage with you and share this experience.

If most Saturday nights are spent in front of a large TV, if you haven’t been out to an event for years, then The Orphanage Sessions are the perfect re-introduction to the joys of music, company and life. We say this because we know the sorts of gigs we like to go to and so we’ve worked hard to create a gig that is “perfect” in our eyes.

Please share this post with others and RSVP via the Facebook event at:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=171901982859454

Full details of the gig are:

The Orphanage Sessions: Susanna Carman + Dear Orphans
8.30pm Saturday April 16
Mars Hill Cafe
331 Church Street Parramatta

Tickets on sale www.oztix.com.au and all OzTix outlets or at the door on the night.

Authentically yours,

Nick

P.S. Special thanks to the people who helped us out of fixes - Natasha David, Chrissie Pearce, Karen Anne Waters.