Combining blistering banjo, affecting melodies and a keen sense of humour, Mustered Courage's new album, White Lies and Melodies, is a fantastic example of modern Australian bluegrass.
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The album has been nominated for Best Country Album at the upcoming 2015 ARIA Awards.
"It's awesome to get such a big accolade in the national scene," guitarist Julian Abrahams, originally from Canberra, says. "We're really humbled with the nomination and it definitely feels like a nice piece of affirmation to be recognised with that award."
Recorded at Sing Sing studios in Melbourne with producer Forrester Savell, White Lies and Melodies demonstrates the depth and diversity of the contemporary bluegrass genre.
"The whole record is quite eclectic," Abraham says. "If you listen to a lot of bluegrass records you know that a lot of the songs tend to sound the same; similar chords, similar melodies.
"There's an old banjo joke: How do you tell one banjo song from the next? The title (laughs)."
Abrahams says his favourite track is the album opener, Leave This Life Behind. The track features a guest contribution from Grammy nominated bluegrass musician Jim VanCleve, considered one of the best fiddle players in the world. Mustered Courage has previously worked with VanCleve on their bluegrass cover of Circle of Life from the 2014 Disney tribute album, We Love Disney.
"I just threw out VanCleve's name" Abraham says. "You know, 'Let's just go for the best guy in the world! We just dropped him an email and he got back to us straight away and he said, I'd love to. We were like, 'Whoa!'
"It was simple and affordable and he's been super sweet about the whole thing. We're lucky he didn't charge us per note because there's a lot of notes on there. It'd be like two billion dollars (laughs)."
Born and bred in Canberra, Abrahams cut his teeth in the 90s playing in punk/ska band All Systems Go and hip-hop/soul band Casual Projects.
An avid jazz fan, he met future Mustered Courage frontman Nick Keeling (banjo – originally from Texas) while attending the Canberra School of Music.
After relocating to Melbourne, Abrahams and Keeling started Mustered Courage in 2010 as a way to indulge their love of American bluegrass and roots music.
From the relative quiet of Wanniassa to the world-stage, Abrahams' persistence is finally starting to pay off.
Mustered Courage completed their first U.S tour in 2014, playing 60 shows in 70 days across 43 states. "I think we drove 27,000 miles. We had three van break downs, four nervous breakdowns and were lucky we survived the whole thing," he says.
After completing another 10-week American tour earlier this year, including appearing at the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival, the band is finally starting to crack the U.S. market.
"The latest tour saw such a dramatic increase in numbers and the calibre of the shows. It was really easy to feel the trajectory was heading in the right direction and quite rapidly as well," Abrahams says.
"People really know this style of music over there, they know what traditional bluegrass sounds like. There are other bands that are doing similar things to what we're doing which is a twist on traditional bluegrass and delivering it in a more modern, potentially pop kind of way."
When: October 30, 8pm
Where: Transit Bar, Civic
Tickets: $15 plus BF from www.moshtix.com.au
