Folkus

Rachael loves Kristina Olsen. She is an LA blues/folk/jazz musician who writes killer lyrics and has one of those compelling cynosural voices that makes you sit up and listen. So when she found out Kristina would be doing a gig in Canberra this month, Rachael just had to go.

Now, folk music is definitely a Rachael thing. Previously the closest James had been to Folk was overtaking a Combi on the road to Majors Creek. But in the week leading up to the gig Rachael's contagious enthusiasm was hard to ward off and by Tuesday night James was thoroughly infected. He was open to the idea of a new musical experience. What he wasn't so sure about was the environmental experience.

The Folkus Room is an event more than a physical place--its only corporeal trappings are the backboards erected temporarily to cordon off a section of the Serbian Club in Mawson (near Woden, south of the City) a few nights a week when a show is booked. The backboards serve a kind of Looking Glass cum Wardrobe role--on one side is pokies, a pool table, flickering fluoros and beer-sopped bar runners, and on the other is a mellifluous melange of round tables, curtains, sofas and, of course, folkies, all murmuring and clinking glasses to the faint strains of Parisian tango music. The 'doors' open here at 6, and the support acts don't start until 8, so the spirit of the evening is well and truly abroad by the time the lights dim down and the stage is occupied.

Of course, when we attended a week earlier to secure our tickets, there was no Parisian tango music, no clinking glasses, no atmosphere at all. Just 'blipblipblip' and 'dingdingDONG' and other pokie Sirensongs. And Bill.

We can say, having met Bill Arnett, James has now truly known Folk. This guy used to help run the Merry Muse, and is also known as the Big Fat Fairy. This man has enough character to power all the generators in a folk festival beer tent for a long weekend. He is so engaging that after meeting him at the beginning of the night Kristina was calling everyone else on stage 'Bill' for the rest of the show. We didn't just buy tickets when we met Bill--we were educated in the history of the Merry Muse, the predliections of Kristina and the similarities between Danny O'Keefe (also performing with Kristina) and another guy that once played somewhere, sometime, that Bill liked rather a lot.

We left eventually, clutching our tickets (and each other's hands), a little shellshocked. Hence why James was chary of the return visit--how could he possibly cope with 45 of these 'folkies', this new and peculiar and garrulous breed? Combined with the thought of 'Serbian' counter meals as sustenance for this session, he was leaning towards eating elsewhere beforehand and ducking in at the last minute.

As it happened, we did brave the bistro, and the folkies, with no obvious signs of injury. In fact, the food was exceptional. Good ingredients, well prepared and cheap to boot. The only problem was our unfinished plates were very industriously cleared away in the interval while we were off looking at merchandise. They run a tight ship at the Club, and the Folkus folk are shipshape too--the sound and lighting were great, there were no technical glitches, the acoustics were good and Bill as emcee was irreproachable. The whole experience was intimate and comfortable and engrossing. We liked it. James found new musical heroes in Danny O'Keefe and Peter Grayling, and Rachael got a CD signed by KO herself.

The verdict--yes, oh my yes. We loved it. Blues Narnia. Fairy and all.