Trans-Pacific Old Time from George, Andrew and Daniel

In my time Down Under, I spent a few days in Melbourne where I met up with Mustard Courage – one of the few straight-up bluegrass bands in Australia. The band’s virtuoso mandolinist, Paddy Montgomery, invited me out to a show he was playing at the Sporting Club Hotel in Brunswick (the early 2000s Williamsburg or current Bushwick of Melbourne) during the Sydney Road Street Party. There I met Daniel Watkins, the Newcastle-born and Melbourne-based guitarist, who played a phenomenal set of old time country tunes with Paddy and sang in an American accent – something that some Aussies find offensive.

Earlier this fall (or summer depending on the hemisphere), Watkins teamed up with Kiwi fiddler George Jackson and North Carolinian double-bassist Andrew Small to record a few old time tunes on a trip to Nashville. The trio, each from a different country touching the Pacific, is currently running a Pozible campaign to raise the funds they need to produce their first EP and bring Andrew half way around the world for a tour Down Under. The band has just a few more days to go in the campaign. They’ve even made gumbo to help woo your dollars.

See below for a taste of the trio, follow them here and throw them a few bones here.