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SINGER WITH A MESSAGE
BUSSELTON MARGARET RIVER TIMES
SYDNEY performer Johnnie Mac plays guitar and didgeridoo and sings about a roaming lifestyle that has seen him travel throughout Europe and Asia.
Johnnie first performed in front of a big audience during an environmental festival in southern Siberia.
He was there as part of Biakl Cultural Express, a group of scientists and performers who were trying to raise awareness of Biakl Lake, which holds a fifth of the earth’s fresh water.
Johnnie said world environmental issues were not the only things he shared through his music.
His songs are stories about the characters he has lived with in times when he had no money.
The songs express how tragic events or failed relationships can be accepted as human experience and are peppered with humour instead of sombre tones.
Although his music is classed as folk and about people, Johnnie Mac is not the sedate Bob Dylan type folk singer.
His thrashy acoustic guitar and powerful vocals reflect the environment of Australia, its peoples and the social challenges they face.
His songs reflect his knowledge of Aboriginal culture through his work in collating information about bush medicines and his performance expresses the positive aspect of sharing and developing Australia’s many cultures.
The storyteller-singer will perform at the Dunsborough Tavern on Friday night, June 5 and Cafe Laguna on Sunday, June 7, from 1pm.
EVENING OF DIDGE, GUITAR AND VOICE
MARGARET RIVER MAIL
PLAYING didgeridoo is a feat in itself, but doing it while playing guitar and alternatively singing is even more impressive.
Musician, horticulturalist and bush foods expert Johnnie Mac will tour the Cape to Cape region this weekend in his first visit to the area for about 10 years.
He will play at Dunsborough Tavern this Friday, June 5; at Cafe Laguna at Yallingup at 1pm on Sunday, June 7 and on Sunday night at The Coconut Club restaurant at Bannamah near Dunsborough.
He did some gigs in Perth last year, but was last in Margaret River through seed collection work for the Sydney Botanical Gardens.
Wattleseed icecream is his favourite recipe - a dairy and sugar free blend of bananas, dates, wattle seeds and sultanas.
Johnnie performed solo for about eight years but has played in bands in Sydney and overseas since the late 1980s. He currently plays in Sydney band Lixivius - which produces diverse sounds from heavy rock to percussion and didgeridoo.
Johnnie said his solo performances were a chance to play the songs he writes about his life’s journey, which has included working with Aboriginal communities and overseas travels busking and surviving in eastern Europe in places such as Siberia, Mongolia and Transylvania.
“My songs are inspired by the life I have lived, Aboriginal communities, street life and drugs, indigenous people’s concerns both in Australia and overseas, our culture’s fears of people who are different and the need to resolve issues such as male dominance and male violence.
“I take an earthy approach to my songs, which can be personally revealing and embarrassing and even explicit and I can play quite aggressively sometimes.”
JOHNNIE MAC TAKES VIBES IN HIS STRIDE
SOUTH WEST TIMES
Johnnie Mac is the changing face of folk music in the 90’s.
The singer-songwriter has a steadfast pride in taking acoustic vibes to a new level after spinning around the world allowing a plethora of new experiences to shape his music.
And while Bunbury does not seem as mystical as some of the places he has been, the gig at the Prince Of Wales Hotel tonight will still remain part of the journey.
The trip so far has included places as vast as Siberia, The Gobi Desert, Transylvania, Hungary, Prague, Ireland and Spain and they have all had a story to tell.
But so has he.
Johnnie Mac is best described as an acoustic poet and a storyteller who has combined his tuneful life with a focus on environmental horticulture.
“The two have opened a lot of doors to places I would never have expected to go” Johnnie told Good Life. “It seemed that I was in the right places at the right times and also had the opportunity to be involved in some interesting environmental projects. It’s been great to be able to go into a lot of different places and combine both skills.”
Johnnie is hooked into a rock band in Sydney, but loves to get on the road acoustically to road test other styles and express his personal tastes further.
But he is far from a conventional acoustic musician and loves to thrash his guitar into a frenzy, which is most likely a product of his penchant for busking around the world.
“A lot of the stuff I do is folk related, but I tend to hammer my guitar more than most - it’s probably from playing out on the streets and trying to be heard,” he said.
“I take the piss a bit and things can get quite humorous at times. The music has more of an acoustic punk feel and its a bit more aggressive than most.”
Johnnie's not afraid to speak his mind and once found a strong reaction to that when he let rip in front of 5000 people at a cultural festival in Siberia. Free speech was not a regular value at the time, but he found the people rushing to join his spontaneous parade. Again it was simply another part of the journey.
Johnnie Mac hopes to get deeper into the recording side of his music with his band and solo in the near future as he believes he has a host of songs with plenty of potential.
* The unique Tracey Redhead - who supported Monique Brumby in Bunbury will also perform with Johnnie at the Prince of Wales gig.
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