Silver Raven Festival is the latest addition to Australia’s bustling boutique festival scene. This exciting new event features a heavily tinged Americana lineup set to thrill crowds in the scenic surrounds of the Barossa Valley.
The lineup is topped by acclaimed singer-songwriter Jason Isbell, whose fifth album, Something More Than Free, was recently named in the top 10 of Rolling Stone magazine’s best albums of 2015 countdown.
Joining Isbell will be the “female Johnny Cash reincarnate” Eilen Jewell, blues crew Endless Boogie, homegrown favourites The Audreys performing their last ever show, local rock prospects Bad//Dreems, and many more.
“This lineup is all about quality over quantity: From arguably one of the finest songwriters of our generation, Jason Isbell, to the absolutely stunning songbird Eilen Jewell playing alongside some of Adelaide – and the world’s – great musicians,” said music programmer Dan Crannitch.
Just one of the many talents performing as part of Silver Raven Festival is singer songwriter Ollie English who recently released his stunning EP Cabin Thoughts we reckon you’ll be hearing a lot more of that name soon, so we had a chat to Ollie to get to know him a little better.
The Beginning
Some of my earliest memories were of playing guitar, both my folks always dabbled in it, one day I curiously asked my old man if I could learn how to play it. I played classical guitar for years as a youngster, it gave me a nice little grounding.
I really fell in love with guitar when i made the switch to an electric as a teenager and discovered blues through BB King. It’s sort of the good kind of domino effect, as soon as i found out BB, I discovered all these other incredible blues musicians and the passion for music grew till eventually I started writing my own tunes.
Writing The New EP
The writing process was pretty raw. I was going through a bit of rough relationship and I turned to songwriting to express my emotions rather then just endlessly doodling on the guitar.
Over the course of many many months, I put some ideas together. I was listening to a bit of everything from Soul Blues to Folk which definitely influenced the songwriting. With the help of my producer Craig James, I was able to flesh out some demos and structure them properly at his place.
I didn’t have much more then a looper and voice memos on my phone, being able to demo these songs in his mini-studio was a really important to get an idea of where I wanted to take the project.
Not to mention, Craig’s a crazy multi-instrumentalist. Being able to hear his added percussion, bass and my own guitar playing on the demo for the first time, really inspired me to write a heap of ideas. Eventually we had four or five songs to run to tape in the studio.
Recording The New EP
It’s been a learning experience to work in a proper studio, it’s a different world considering at the time, I was really new to recording music. Having those early demos allowed me to work with a blueprint. We worked in a studio belonging to Dean Edwards, a really great friend and talented sound engineer.
Over the course of a few months, on and off, we started to polish the songs together. Having Craig sort of watch over, critique and mentor my vocal and guitar takes helped, I was so fresh to the whole thing.
I didn’t really know what I was doing at times, so it was important to have that mentorship. I was lucky to gain access to his experience of recording records and playing music to help bring the best out of myself as a musician on this EP.
Gigging In Adelaide
I’ve been able to play more shows mostly thanks to my band I’ve recently put together with good friends Louis Donnarumma, Joe Caporaso and Lewis Brideson, these guys have allowed me to expand the sound live and jam in bigger venues. One of my favourite venues to play would be the Grace Emily.
Had my first blues jams at Billy Bob’s jam night with the amazing house band, now i’ve been able perform there with my own band which is pretty sweet. Another great venue, is the Jade Monkey.
I launched my EP there. It has an old school vibe, hidden behind the MusicSA creative centre. I’ve also played Jive a couple of times recently, that’s a pretty cool venue right in the heart of the city.
Playing Silver Raven Festival
I’m yet to have much festival experience, although i have two big festivals coming up in March including Porchland (6th) and Blenheim Camping Festival (25th). In terms of preparation, those two big shows beforehand will certainly help add some festival experience to bring to Silver Raven. The timing is sweet.
Seriously stoked to be playing alongside everyone on that line up, amazing bunch of acts. My biggest show yet. Really looking forward to watching Jason Isabell, he’s a machine. Amazing songwriter and guitarist with a great band backing him up. He also picked up a couple of Grammies last week, crazy. Endless Boogie will be nuts too, i’m a fan of Boogie guitarist Matt Sweeney and his youtube channel ‘Guitar Moves’, been following those videos for ages.
Major Influences
It’s sort of a mix between the older and newer sound of blues and other genres. I’m always interested to see how music is generally evolving in all aspects while studying the greats. Guys like BB King, Albert King, Stevie had a big influence on my writing and guitar playing but I’ve also always payed close attention to guys like Gary Clark Jr, Derek Trucks, John Mayer and Hozier, they write great tunes with that electric blues sensibility.
However, I’ve always been fond of Noah Gundersen, a folk writer from Seattle, America. He channels something deeply emotive and personal, the songs are open and exposed, they hold a certain heaviness. Currently, i’m listening to a lot of Soul and Funk, particularly Charles Bradley the ‘Screaming Eagle of Soul’, he’s still killing it.
Plans For The Rest of 2016
Keen to play some more shows and get back to recording soon. I’ve written a lot of music since we finished recording the last EP mid last year. Having a band now has changed my approach to songwriting.
It’s inspiring collaborating with other musicians regularly. A lot has happened both personally and musically lately, so i’m pretty concentrated on getting those ideas we’ve been working on down in the studio and put some more music out this year.
SILVER RAVEN FESTIVAL
Jason Isbell (USA)
Eilen Jewell (USA)
Endless Boogie (USA)
The Audreys (LAST EVER SHOW)
Bad//Dreems
Koral & The Goodbye Horses
Hana & Jessie Lee (The Sloe Ruin)
Ollie English
Saturday, 2nd April 2015
Turkey Flat Winery, Barossa Valley SA
Tickets: Oztix | Silver Raven Festival
