It's a classic Queensland scorcher, making things a little uncomfortable for the diverse throng who flock to Woodford for the third day of proceedings, but ensuring that the mud generated courtesy of last night's showers is all but completely forgotten.
The Bazaar is packed out early-afternoon for some of Australia's best, somewhat unsung, blues talents; as Fiona Boyes, Ray Beadle, Dallas Frasca and Hat Fitz trade songs in something of a bluesy round robin.
It is a unique way to bring out the best in these great performers and shows the different strengths of the respective artists quite well. Ray Beadle blows minds with his rhythmic take on classic fingerstyle blues while Dallas Frasca is a little too radio rock for those of us here for a true fix of blues, though there's no denying the power of that voice. Fiona Boyes gets everyone involved in the final song and it's a real treat for blues lovers here as one of our country's finest exports shows she's just as great in collaboration as she is alone.
Canadian Dave Gunning plays a smooth set of downbeat tunes to a very appreciative crowd in the Duck Tent; it's perhaps a little too glum, but he manages to keep the crowd interested by spinning plenty of tales that complement his wonderful guitar playing and singing, glossing over the fact that his songs lean a little too close to the middle of the road.
Shane Howard has 11 musicians onstage to run through a slow and smooth rendition of Solid Rock first up. Howard spins a tale about hitchhiking as a 19-year-old before leading the band into Razor's Edge, into which he manages to drop in a sneaky Facebook reference. Let The Franklin Flow is an interesting historical piece 30 years on, though Howard pleads to young people that the fighting spirit must remain and that "Coal Seam Gas is your Franklin River".
The band is tasteful from start to finish, the backing vocals of Amy Saunders and Emma Donovan adding a particular sense of life to some of the songs. Also really great to see is the fact that the hearing-impaired need not miss out on Howard's classic Aussie songwriting as the songs (and banter) are all signed from one side of the stage.
A more traditional run through Solid Rock closes proceedings, giving us a better taste of that wonderfully iconic guitar riff. Howard leaves with a call for recognition of indigenous people in the constitution as well as a treaty, and you'd be surprised to see anyone here disagreeing.
Cathy Guthrie and Amy Nelson might not be the most famous musicians in their respective families, but today they show us that their Folk Uke project is the work of two very talented women. Stunning harmonies, endearingly not-quite-right musical timing and filthy lyrics make this one of the more unique folk acts that the festival will host, and undoubtedly one of the best. Snags like Shit Makes The Flowers Grow, Fences and He Needs Me seem to confound some people, though a cover of the Woody Guthrie/Wilco/Billy Bragg tune California Stars seems to win a few over. The weirdly sweet I Miss My Boyfriend is rather clever, though if you fail to see the funny side of it, the depictions of domestic violence would no doubt be utterly offensive. As if they hadn't offended enough already, the ladies run through Motherfucker Got Fucked Up which will not doubt have plenty of parents lecturing their kids about appropriate use of said language at the campsite this evening. That said, Folk Uke are a refreshingly fun folk band who don't completely stink of novelty.
In order to fully soak up what Woodford has to offer, this scrubs spends the next 45 minutes at a Macedonian dance workshop, swanning around the Dancehall as part of a circle of people learning a few new moves and a little about a culture that isn't exactly represented in popular Australian culture all that much.
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings waste no time in working Woodford into a funked-up dancing frenzy tonight, Jones hitting the stage after a short intro and launching into Tell Me. As per usual, they are in scintillating form, the band water-tight and Jones that ultimate frontwoman. Better Things and When I Go Home are great, before Jones takes us through a few tricks from her hefty bag of dance moves from throughout history, the band backing up the whole thing with an unrelenting groove before being called on to bust some moves themselves.
The rest of the set is a wide array of the group's finest tunes - Natural Born Lover, The Game Gets Old, She Ain't A Child No More - before the mammoth closer 100 Days, 100 Nights. It's at the end of this song that the true brilliance of this act shines through; two toddlers invade the stage unexpectedly, Jones stops the band on a dime and gets them to bust into a funky fast paced groove for the youngsters to boogie to and then closes the show as if it were planned all along. What a party.
Two-piece kiwi band Swamp Thing close the Bluestown stage tonight and have plenty of people Bumpin And Grindin on the dancefloor to their song of the same name. It's fairly standard funk-infused blues executed with exceptional musicianship, but they appear to have a pre-programmed bass track which makes it hard to take them completely seriously. [EDIT: Apparently a synthetic bass line is played live by drummer Michael Barker] No one else seems to care much, particularly when none other than John Butler (Barker was a member of his Trio for some time) appears onstage to help out on a tune. Honestly, it's underwhelming, but it's hard to be too cynical when so many people are having such a great time.
Parkway Drive Lead Second Artist Announcement For Bluesfest 2026
