The GRAIN store tune
How music is a time machine and teleportation system rolled into one
When we visit my parents on their farm in Picola, I feel like I’m plugged right back into knowing who I am and where my music comes from.
Not just the lineage of my family who made music, though I am always grateful for my grandparents on both sides of my family for valuing music even though they didn’t have heaps of money and had large families. Both had pianos in the house. Grandad was only able to have one year of piano lessons but made music his whole life and started the local town dance band with two of his mates who played the Town Hall for 50 years (which I remind myself when playing music *feels hard*.
Not just the landscape, skies that are impossibly wide and the hour where the sun lights the fields in a golden fire.
Not just the small town that while I didn’t feel like they always understood me growing up, knew me and supported me despite being a little weirdo who thought she knew better than anyone.
Going home for Christmas and in the holidays is one of the most special things that I never take for granted, especially during the Pandemic Years.
Lach likes to sit around the kitchen table and play banjo or guitar for hours on end while everyone else chain drinks cups of tea and catches up. He usually ends up creating something new, like this tune ‘The Grain Store’.
It’s named after the local G.R.A.I.N Store (Growing Rural Arts in Nathalia) who asked us to play at their 10 year anniversary gala. We are honoured to be some of the first musicians to play in their gallery/performance space and they have supported us throughout many different projects and collaborations over the years.
We shot a video of us playing the tune on Grandy’s verandah, which houses the piano that Grandad used to play on, that my aunty swears she heard playing in the house even after he died. It’s right across the paddock from my home.
You can watch it on our YouTube channel or watch below and count how many flies land on my face during the recording. You can also drink in the golden sun creating shadows on the old weatherboard walls.
We hope you enjoy the tune and that you are able to connect to your home and your people, wherever you are during these tricky times.
Erin and Lach
P.S. Save the Date! We have just booked our Single Launch (Some Velvet Morning 25th February) and put in the order for CD’s, Vinyl and T-Shirts. As a beloved mailing list subscriber you will get first dibs and special deals on all of this stuff. So stay tuned! Exciting things afoot!
