Missy Higgins and Oz (Part 2)

This is the Part 2 I promised you all from this post I wrote a couple of weeks ago -

Missy Higgins and Oz (Part 1)
OK, where was I up to on the Oz album?
Oh, yeah.
The first of the two Paul Kelly covers Missy Higgins put on the Oz album is 'Everybody Wants To Touch Me'.

Which I guess is true in Paul's case because when I first met him in person at a book signing the first thing I did was to stick my hand out to shake hands with him.
It was like an instinct to do it, I never even thought about it when I did it and even though Paul didn't blink and shook my hand, I felt stupid when I caught my self extending my hand out to him, as I have never done that to any other author of a book I met.
"... And There's So Much Water So Close to Home" Paul Kelly

I guess those are the perils of fame, where people feel like they know you, but being the famous one, you don't know them.
The second Paul Kelly song Missy chose for her album was 'Before Too Long', sung with Amanda Palmer.

I must admit that I like this song and it never even occurred to me that it was a stalker song, as Missy sings it.
Creepy in hindsight, I guess, but I still like it, not that I'm a stalker, or plan to be in the future either.
By the way, that is Jherek Bischoff on the guitar in the above clip with Missy and Amanda and he was one of the support acts on the night I saw Missy play in Brisbane, and he had a big part to play in making Missy's Oz album, as well.

Jherek Bischoff album stream/shipping now

I saw Jherek walking around before the show by himself in the foyer and thought, well there is another guy here by himself to watch Missy's show, so I'm not the odd one out after all ... but I think I might have been ... not that I give one, as I quite enjoy stepping out by myself to see whatever show I want to see, without having someone in tow with me.
There is a real sense of freedom when I'm out at a show by myself.

That is a sample of Jherek's music above, off his latest album, to give you an idea of his work.

Curse On You - Missy Higgins

'Curse On You' is the tenth song on Missy's Oz album and was 
originally sung by The Blackeyed Susans.
You'll have to click on the big red link above to listen to Missy's version, as I can't find a clip on You Tube that will play.

The eleventh song on Missy's album is an 'Angels' cover called 'No Secrets'

It's funny that in Missy's book Oz, which came out the same time as the album, she says when she heard the lyrics to 'No Secrets' that she imagined Amanda as a sex worker.
Missy even refers to Kate Holden's memoir 'In My Skin', which Missy claims reading 10 years ago.

The funny part though was that Kate was at the Byron Bay Writers Festival the same day as Missy was announcing the launch of Oz, her book and album -

Missy Higgins Has a New Oz Album on the Way ... And That's Not All

Missy Higgins playing the uke at
 the Byron Bay Writers Festival.

Kate Holden and (Saint) Lucy
Missy also admitted to sometimes getting the lyrics wrong like when she sang, "She walks like a fellow..." instead of "She walks like a pharaoh..." on the 'No Secrets' track.

She also admitted to thinking the Crowed House song 'Weather With You' was about taking a BBQ with you (a Weber BBQ) as in 'Always take the Weber with you':-)

Song 13 on the album is a cover of the Warumpi Band's Blackfella/Whitefella, featuring Crystal Itjuwalyi Butcher on the track singing with Missy.

Blackfella/Whitefella Feat. Crystal Itjuwalyi Butcher - 

Missy Higgins

And on an ironic note with Blackfella/Whitefella being track 13 on the Oz album I couldn't help noticing the NRL Indigenous All Stars game, which is essentially a game between  Blackfella/Whitefella NRL players was played on Friday the 13th of February this year, which is also known as Black Friday.
The Blackfellas beat the Whitefellas 20-6, by the way.
The Indigenous All Stars have beaten the NRL Stars 20-6 at CBus Stadium

Track 14 is a Neil Murray cover of his song 'Calm And Crystal Clear'.

Calm And Crystal Clear - Missy Higgins

All in all I have to say Missy has done a brilliant job bringing all of these diverse Australian songs together and and putting her own spin on them.

She also puts on a great concert.

There was also a guy named Dustin Tebbutt who was another one of the support acts for Missy Higgins Brisbane concert.

His songs were very atmospheric and when I went down to the merchandise stall to get a copy of his CD Dustin was there to sign them and in front of me was a guy who claimed he was the producer of the locally made film called 'Unfinished Sky' and he was asking for Dustin's contact details, as he was interested in using his music for a soundtrack for an upcoming film he was working on.

 'Unfinished Sky' stars William McInnes who I recently wrote a post about -
Hello Birdy

'Unfinished Sky'also stars the late Bille Brown who I had also written about at this blog -

Bille Brown Dies On The Two Year Anniversary Of The Floods That Hit The Theatre Named After Him

I can't be sure, but I think the guy talking to Dustin about his music was Mark Overett.

 Dustin is a fine musician and I'm sure we will be hearing a lot more of his music in the future.

I say Oz is a great album and concept and I'm looking forward to another album like this in a few years time from Missy, maybe Oz II?
Hint, hint, Missy, if for some reason you stumble upon this blog post;-)