Hello!

There was a Ukulele, a Banjo and a Guitar. The Guitar said 'But I'm a fancy lovely guitar, play me allll the time.' The Banjo said 'I'm fun, and fresh and new. Play me all the time.' And the Ukulele said 'I'm turquoise and covered in sparkles. I don't like staying in Ukulele tuning one little bit. In fact, I'll even go out of tune when you play a single note in Ukulele tuning. But you know what, I'd really like to be a banjo. Banjos are fun!'

Aside from being a chatty little fellow, the Ukulele sat dormant and was glared at for his penchant for staying out of tune. Until one day, his Ukelady tuned him as a banjo. After an initial eyes-closed-hold-ukulele-away-from-self-in-case-of-snapping, the Ukulele was oh so happy to be a UkeBanjo. And then, the Ukulele and his Ukelady became great friends.

As with the banjo, the Ukulady learned pub rock songs and Sufjan Stevens songs on the UkeBanjo, and the odd Kermit the Frog song. Then they began writing original songs again.

And they live happily ever after looking out the window at the green paddocks and the river and trying not to hear the logging truck traffic.

It's been a strange, wintery, introverted month down here. The cold has been so lovely, with wood fires and raisin toast and moo cows in the paddock next door. The fog envelopes my house in a big warm hug for most of the day and occassionally I see snow on the mountains WAY down south.

And then there was Amplified announcements, and flurries of emails. The kind folk @ Amplified chose 'Second Storey' to be featured on their 'Sounds of Tasmania 2009' CD industry sampler. And, if that wasn't fun enough, they chose a song by my lovely partner/producer/engineer's alter ago Silvereye. And if that wasn't too much fun at all, the line up is hot! (I want to say 's**thot' and be a bit rock and roll, but I try to keep this SFW. And, my mother reads this. No Mum, I do not swear. Ever.)

My friend Joe Nuttall is nominated for some awards, as is my book-friend Adam's band, All Fires the Fire. Go and check it all out at Amplified HQ.

The band and I will be playing a show with Enola Fall and Nathan Wheldon & the Two Timers at the Republic Bar on July 16th, 2009 as part of Amplified. We'd love to see you!

And also coming up soon, Abbey Doggett and I are playing a show @ Republic Bar on Tuesday, 23rd June. It's a Tuesday... come on out and enjoy some fun!

Also, I can't get various songs of Washington's out of my head - to the point where Andy will holler at me from the other room 'PLEASE find a new song!'... Go and check her out - hers are some of the loveliest songs I've heard in a really long time.

See you soon,

Amy