Candelo Town Hall - Sat 27th March 2010

 A STORM WAS COMING BUT I DIDN’T FEEL NOTHING

Heath Cullen and The 45 will be launching their much anticipated debut album on Saturday the 27th March at a venue dear to their hearts, The Candelo Town Hall. “The Candelo Hall was where I played my first gig. It’s also where I would sit backstage as a boy and listen to great local bands like The Leap. And it’s where, as members of the Candelo Arts Society committee, we’ve been involved in organising countless events throughout the last ten or so years. So there was no question as to where this event should be held.”

The band, comprising Robyn Martin, Pete Wild, Jay McMahon, Jason Coman, and David Hibbert, have been recording material for the album since they first played together at the Candelo Village Festival in 2008. The last two years saw them in and out of several recording studios, including both Pirate Studios and Turingal Head Studios locally. Parts of the album were recorded at home in Candelo, and even some at the aforementioned hall. “I like the honesty of working at home or in unusual spaces” says Heath. “You end up with a kind of localised soundtrack, because no matter how hard you try, you can’t help but record the background sounds - the birds outside or the rain on the roof.”  

The resulting album, titled “a storm was coming but I didn’t feel nothing” is down to earth, yet spacious. Jay McMahon (drums) and Robyn Martin (bass) are the perfect rhythm section for Cullen’s songs, often conjuring up the spirit of The Band. McMahon’s touch is key on rollicking songs like “Break My Heart” and “The Kitchen Song”, but also provides the perfect ambience for the more plaintive tunes, such as opener “Woke With the Birds” (delivered as a mournful duet with the bass player) or the beautiful leaving song “Kathleen”. And Robyn’s ethereal vocals on the epic seven minute adventure that is “Your Love Is The Sea” are breathtaking. 

Pete Wild, who admits to being “..a piano man – I never played the organ..” before the formation of The 45, plays the keys with such mastery that he might’ve been born at the stool of a mighty B3. Pete’s driving organ and Beatles inspired keyboard parts are central to the band on tunes like “Tryin’ To Stay Afloat”, a rocky ride through a crumbling relationship where Cullen’s vocal is a last ditch “don’t say I didn’t warn you!” delivered as through a megaphone from a boat that is about to go under.

And let’s not forget the guitar playing. Jason Coman plays so sensitively that sometimes, like on track 3, “Fullerton’s Bridge”, his playing takes you on a kind of celestial voyage, described as “..a big old boiler machine from the 1800s, wound up and about ready to explode..”

Heath Cullen is well known throughout the land, primarily as a guitar player. He has worked for the past decade as a touring and recording accompanist to some of this country’s finest artists. Put him in the context of a band like this, opposite a lead guitarist like Dave Hibbert, and you end up with sparring guitar lines, often reminiscent of the classic duelling-guitar lineups: Neil Young and Stephen Stills at their best, or Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood. The pair have the most guitar-fun on songs like “Break My Heart” in which the singer states: “I know I’m gonna see you but I don’t know when/and the band is playin’ Wichita Lineman again”, one of a number of nods to the great songwriters.

The album closes with the lines “All you’ve got is your hat and your boots and your shirt/we are flesh and bone, here above the dirt/life goes quick and you won’t feel a thing/between the hangman’s kick and the end of the string” from the song “Here Above The Dirt”. If you listen closely you can hear an open fire crackling in the background. Some birds. And rain falling on the roof.

“a storm was coming but I didn’t feel nothing” will be released in April on Five By Nine Recordings, distributed nationally by Vitamin Records.

Heath Cullen And The 45 will play at The Candelo Town Hall on Saturday March 27th, with special guest Sal Kimber. Doors open at 7:30pm, Entry is $20 full/$15 concession. The new album will be available on the night.

www.myspace.com/heathcullenmusic