Nancy Bates - Blood Red Moon - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-01-27

There is so much to say about this song.

I can hear the tambour behind them, only emerging as a solo instrument at the finish – a very folk instrument.

The instruments playing over that beat are light, disciplined and beautiful.

Then there are the voices of Mabel and Ivy, their tonality perfect, their harmony incomparable.

An American reviewer called their work “Chamber Folk” and that’s a wonderful description.

The song is about the ending of a relationship, “making a clean cut.”

“Strangers we’ve made now
The chains we have laid down”

And yet, a memory comes into the second verse of a better, a pacific time.

You can make a clean cut, you can live the future separately after the cut, past memories can contain a different cut.

Charm of Finches are currently touring Australia and New Zealand and will be down our way at the Port Fairy Folk Festival and Trentham’s Cosmopolitan Hotel, on 25 May. 

They will be performing songs from their latest album ‘Marlinchen In The Snow’ as well as exciting new material.

Charm Of Finches - Clean Cut - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-07-07

It is so good to hear some material from Nigel Wearne.

He used to come down this way quite often.

I have some of his CDs and you’ll hear them on Tempo.

His music and his playing are stellar.

The light guitar introduction sets the scene for ballad.

The guitar swells and recedes, as the song demands, fluid, making its own way through the song.

The crispness and clarity of the vocal is another trademark of Nigel’s.

His use of words is wonderful, phrases such as “I search the illicit hours.”

The language works in so well with the music.

This is excellent material, and a stunning performance. 

I hope this acoustic version appears on an album. It deserves to.


Nigel Wearne - Eventide - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-07-28

This is a very clever song. 

It piggybacks on to the Dry July alcohol free campaign to raise money for supporting people affected by cancer.

It seeks to remind us that there are people for whom Dry July means something beyond giving up drinking for a month.

As you can guess from the instrumentals, this is about the issues in rural Australia, where a dry July means something completely different.

It’s about the bleak reality of facing first hand the impact of drought on rural Australians.

It’s a perspective that only seems to get more than a headline when you watch Landline on the ABC.

Songs about the effect of drought have been a staple of the Australian folk scene, for example, Eric Bogle’s “Now I’m Easy” which emphasises that split between the city and the country.

“there’s no drought or starving stock on a sewered suburban block”

Big Delicious takes that to the next level, 

“I hope I see you next Dry July.”

Because, there’s no guarantee, is there? When there’s no rain, there’s no crops, no pasture, no stock.

Every time you see those headlines, remember there are people who see no future, for their farm, their family or themselves.



Big Delicious - Dry July - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-08-11

In this track Mia is showing, yet again, another side to her voice.

This is a light, almost ethereal voice taking us yet again on her musical journey.

Even so, her voice is well balanced against the instrumental background.

That background is light, but tight and supportive of the vocal line.

That light voice is not delivering a lightweight message though.

This is a polemic, but it’s also an invitation.

“No borders, no walls, just life – embrace all the light, it’s what we have to do, it’s what we are offering”

No one deserves to die from power and greed

Freedom, justice, love

This song is beautiful. The lyrics have a message you can’t argue with. 


Mia Lovelock - World Without Walls - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-08-18

This is a lovely, stripped back instrumental. What is needed and nothing more.

There is an infrequent vocal harmony backing Niksta, but, as with the instrumental line, they are the two hands which lift the vocal up so it can be heard.

Her notes describe her as having a “a quiet yet powerful presence” and this song shows that very precisely.

This song entices, it draws you in. The topic is the universal one, “searching for love.”

There’s a degree of imperative to this because “love takes time to grow.”

Is this the riskiest thing in a life? 

The singer feels stuck in this box, they have to assert I am worthy.

But with all of this she will keep searching for love in you.

Such deep words for a light melody. Extremely clever writing.


Niksta - Searching - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-08-18

This is a beautiful song about a terrible place to be, one we all dread.

What do you do when you find a friend that’s so far gone they can’t get back on their own? Not “you” in that general sense, it’s you, the involved, on the spot, now responsible person.

How on earth do you put that into a listenable song?

Canisha shows how, and it’s amazing and amazingly effective.

The song starts slowly, with a simple voice and piano introduction.

We hear some backing vocals.

Some more instruments, some bass, some drums, but the temptation to take it hard is resisted.

It’s not an anthem, it’s not about the world, it remains understated, it remains about you.

It’s not letting you drift off into the melody, there’s the occasional flattened note, an accidental, to keep you focused on the message.

The lyrics are delivered unusually evenly, is this the first time it’s happened?

The lyrics are simple, no flamboyant effects, and they are more powerful for that.

You said you were OK – it don’t feel alright

Not going to be the day you go down the drain
I will fight for you
I’m here to save you from yourself

This is a powerful song, with a haunting and powerful delivery.

It’s brilliant on every level.


Canisha - Save You From Yourself - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-08-18

Listening, I found myself tapping my feet while listening – not a good thing to be doing in the studio while recording a review, but irresistible.

The song lyrics themselves are intriguing. There are a couple of short verses, but the clear majority of the song is the phrase “fallin’ for you.”

That’s three words, what can you do with that?

Well, the answer is, quite a lot actually!

I can see the Fleetwood Mac and Rolling Stones influences, but instead of an instrumental lead, we have the vocal coming over the to with many variations of the melody and arrangement of those three words.

You can only get away with this if you have a strong and interesting voice.

Morgan’s definitely has such a voice. It’s clear, strong over her range and very expressive.

This is definitely an unusual approach, but it has worked well.


Morgan Joanel - Fallin' - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-08-18

This is a wonderfully clear and clean musical style. It’s not pretentious, but it’s not plain either.

That is a really difficult thing to achieve.

The less you have, the greater the demands to get a viable and vibrant musical outcome.

Run this back and have another listen. You can hear each instrument clearly, they are distinct and at the same time come together with that rare musical synergy.

That really is an achievement.

It’s interesting that this is a song about being in a place you left, and reminiscing, but it’s not about yearning. 

There is no such feeling coming through. It’s describing and appreciating that life, stating where you came from.

I love the line “But “Running On Empty” already been done.”

That was also a song looking back at life.

Very clever and very listenable.


Nathan May - Darwin Son - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-08-25

This song demonstrates exactly why being hemmed in by genre categories is so limiting.

I know people who would run screaming at the suggestion of a Hip Hop track, they don’t know what they’re missing.

So here’s what they are missing …

First up some very interesting and well played and produced music.

I admit I was surprised by the song opening with such a reggae beat, with a tuneful melody sung across that.

Stinga T’s verse is tight to that rhythm, with the occasional drag across two beats, but never losing sight of the rhythm.

The lyrics are cleverly written, using some well-chosen assonances to tie the rhyme to the rhythm.

The message in the song is direct, it’s about Australia, the things we can all value, and what yet needs to be done.

Australia beating the poms pure satisfaction
Spring into action come together don't forget the past
Let’s forgive close the gap brand new start

If that’s going to happen then there is a whole new attitude needed.

I’m from Australia down under that’s the land we claim
We them First Nations people that still remains
So if you don't understand well then you need to listen
You need to take in the answer and stop asking questions

This is an important message, packaged into great music. 


Tha Deadly Boyz - From The Island - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-08-25

Is there any one of us who can’t think of an incident that we really regret, and probably regretted it as it happened?

… and the rest of you are looking away.

In a review, I usually focus on the instrumentation and melody, and then bring it together , but I don’t think you can with this – it’s a package.

This is such a well written piece, and the music supports it, and the lyrics give meaning to the music, it all just comes together.

Emily has a wonderfully strong voice, she covers the whole range with apparent ease.

The production of this song has placed the voice exactly where it should be, not dominating, but sufficiently in front of the instrumental to be clear and understandable.

The message is instantly recognisable, and hits hard.


Emily Pritchard - Sorry Sam - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-01

What a track! I don’t want to review it, I just want to listen to it again!

This was produced by Syd Green, well known for his work with Casey Chambers and 19Twenty.

He’s really done justice to this track.

The sound is sparse, but majestic.

Acoustic and resonator guitar, with drums giving their best and the resonator, as only resonators can be.

It’s fantastic.

The story told by the song is tragic and enigmatic, ending with a feeling of loss.

The song is all about roots and relationships, indivisible and fundamental.

The question “What are you now to me?”

We know this is about a woman returning to country, feeling that she sees it as it was, but something has changed.

“Layers of memories floating round”

She sings, “It is my greatest fear that I lose the sense to see all you gave to me.”

Her cry is for them to “Heal the sense to see, all you gave to me.”

But she continues, “What would they say, if we had the time, just for a day, would they turn and sigh, disappointment in their eyes, shake their heads and cry, how would I be?”

Finishing with a terribly bleak question “did I ever belong here?”




Stiff Gins - Roots - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-01

Capaldi’s version of this was a piano plus vocal, the vocal contributed all the emotion, rather than instrumental swells and chords.

The instrumental in this re-interpretation is more complex.

During the verses, it is minimal, perhaps even less than Capaldi’s piano, and only steps up when the chorus comes.

This instrumental emphasis substitutes for Capaldi’s rougher chorus vocal.

In all the feel of the song is familiar, without it being a cover. A different approach keeps the feel of the original very effectively.

Enough of the comparisons …

The strength of this version is the instrumental. There’s what is almost a simple harmony, just a single tone where the chord changes would be.

This provides a subtle but strong level of support to the vocal, without ever intruding. It works exceptionally well.

The entry of a fuller instrumental adds a melodic harmonising to the chorus.

A complex simplicity that works because it is not a constant.

This is a new song, a re-interpretation, not a cover.


Benny Elder - Someone You Love - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-08

Wow!

I read the release notes for this, and it mentioned Jungaji singing with his son Dean Brady, credits for guitar, bass, keys, drums and so on and so forth.

What I did not expect was the amazing production which has gone into this song.

It’s really easy to push production too far, but this is superb. 

It’s a classically strong backing, I almost felt that I was in the middle of an operatic aria.

It has a strong presence with a massive impact.

The strength of this song matches the interpretation of kalkurr meaning the Milky Way with all its vastness.

The song says, and I apologise in advance for my pronunciation

Junjulkurr bordigular
Yinya gurrindah nyigu

There’s a big change
And it’s coming now

This song is a part of that change.


Jungaji - Kalkurr - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-08

Finger picking guitar, chrome sandwich, mandolin, and a strings section.

You could pitch that as a country band, but it’s not.

There’s hints maybe, but the essence of this song is the sound of the 1970s folk era.

I can definitely hear Bert Jansch.

The guitar is fast and accurate, the mouthorgan provides a melodic addition along with the violin. 

All in all this is a clearly expressed and well performed piece.

This song amounts to a protest against the Protestant work ethic. That won’t get any complaints from me.

They lyrics are clever and well structured and come through clearly, a well produced track.

The theme is a classic one in the Australian ethos – drop it all and hit the road outback. 

C J Dennis gave an alternate view of the benefits in his poem “The Swagman” contrasting the exuberance of a young boy with the resignation of an old swagman.

Which one is right? This song is a contribution to that debate.



Pete Hawkes - I've Changed My Mind - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-15

This track is wonderfully produced, self-producing is high risk, but this shows clear expertise.

The balance between the instrumental backing, the lead vocal, and the ghostly harmonies and counterpoints is perfect.

All this has created a track which is tuneful, and where the vocal is clear, as it must be in a song whose role is to deliver a message.

The message is quite a contradiction to the light sound of the song.

It’s a post-breakup song, a reflection on how things will linger, even after the breakup.

This is the “poison and wine.”

I wish you have a life I never hear about.
I wish people ask you how I am.
My room’s empty, and I hope yours is haunted.

It’s clear that this is not said so much in anger, but in pain.

“Poison and wine” is great as a metaphor, but not as a lifestyle.


Seetali - Poison and Wine - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-15

Before anything else in this song, I noticed the rhythm – it bounces, it’s jogging, just the thing for a pleasant ride.

The vocal is everything we expect from Tiff, strong over her range, but with a trademark lightness of spirit. It’s clear and unambiguous.

Her detailed observation and storytelling, its subject is something that generates an inner peace and complete relaxation.

Something that we all need and seek. For me, a book with music in the background. I hope you have found what works for you.

The instrumental is light and supportive, providing a harmony, not a competing melody. It’s simple, guitar and mandolin, but with a light break for the mandolin.

The production clearly emphasises Tiff’s vocal, as it should.

It’s a wonderful, evocative piece. Not a saga, but capturing an important place in her life.


Tiffany Eckhardt - Horse - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-15

The eternal conundrum of listening to identical twins … is only one taking the lead vocal, or are they swapping? How would I know? Does it matter?

Of course it doesn’t matter, but then I’m always curious.

Anyhow, back to the topic of Alanna and Alicia.

In a lot of ways this is very different to the previous track of theirs that we heard – Teetotal Lover. There is, however, a similarity in production, a full featured background instrumental, but one which is very much a background, and never intruding or competing for dominance over the vocals.

The vocals in this piece are light, moderately paced, and clear as a bell.

Here we have a relationship starting.

The first time we talked well past closing and got kicked out by the staff.

So many firsts in this song, there’s confidence, but they ask, “how do you make a first last.”

Regardless, this is an optimistic piece, with a chorus line I love.

If you press your ear on my chest to the left
You will surely hear the orchestra playing forte on my heartstrings
Life is a song, heart song listen

Truly beautiful.


Alanna & Alicia - Heart Song Listen - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-22

The first line of this song had me! And the following lines kept me listening.

The instrumental in this song is sensational.

It moves with Tracey’s vocals, but it’s moving on its own terms, or I should say, directions.

I’m sure I can hear at least three entwining themes working around the vocal melody.

Then, taking you by surprise is the total rhythmic shift just past 2 minutes into the track.

And what a vocal.

Tracey has a wonderful voice, she is strong over her range, and delivers her part effortlessly and perfectly.

The lyrics are glorious.

“She has seven curlers in her hair, her skin’s a crust” cleverly conjures such a detailed image.

She is everything I could need tonight.
Another broken Juliet, bringing out the Romeo in me.

“In that mansion over there lives a girl with perfect skin and golden hair, but I don’t care.”

I have to listen to the rest of this album.


Tracey Bunn - Another Broken Juliet - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-22

War songs tend to fall into two categories – anthems about heroic valour, or gut-wrenching odes tearing down jingoist attitudes to expose the emptiness of war.

“The firing line” originally meant the line of positions from which gunfire is directed at a target and is still in use in a military context.

Les has put together a dramatic piece, delivered at a stately tempo, lyrics without embellishment.

He asks, “Who wages wars?” 

We know who ends up on the firing line, it’s always the war to end wars, the great war, the great patriotic war, the great waste of people and resources, more like.

This is a worthy addition to the genre.

Wars never decide who is right, just who is left.


Les Thomas - The Firing Line - Tempo Review

Broadcast 20250929

The first thing that strikes me about this song, is the way it is paced.

There is something almost stately in this.

The instrumental relies on his piano lead, with others behind providing a support.

There’s an instrumental break featuring guitar, and the guitar remains for the rest of the song.

In front is Manduway’s voice.

His voice is clear and strong, it works across his full range, and has been mixed so that it is at the forefront and the lyrics are immediately accessible.

I love the musical accents he uses, taking the higher registers occasionally away from the note, for emphasis.

Manduway’s lyrics might be musically accessible, but for me, my ignorance of First Nations language means that they are not accessible linguistically. 

The limitations of our education system have much to answer for.


Manduway - Jalay - Tempo

Broadcast 20250929

This instantly hypnotic number starts with a light melody then blows apart, capturing the sometimes abrasive ﬁght between form and learning and something much larger again.

I like the use of the hummingbird metaphor. 

Hummingbirds run their wings at a franticly high speed, but their body’s movements within that are precise, sometimes static almost regardless of the contrast with the movement of their wings.

Halfway through there’s drop into a brash, almost dissonant instrumental reworking of the hummingbird theme, before returning to the original feel of the song.

I think Rich has succeeded with his aim of balancing those two things, the charged bottle definitely exploded.

It’s a very clever track, synergistically presented, you have to experience it and feel it as a whole.


Rich Webb and the Liars - Hummingbird - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-06

This is a light ballad about a heavy subject.

Musically, it’s very simple, an acoustic guitar, with a solo vocal.

The instrumental provided by the guitar was simple and could almost be called neutral in this context.

But that’s not the case when you listen to the vocal, and I mean listen.

The vocal tone and stress is again neutral, but the lyrics are a world away from that.

It’s a classical tale of a breakup, initiated by the other, and the singer trying to work through what just happened.

It was “the final break as you walked out the door”

She sings, “I’m trying to figure you out” but “I can’t seem to write it down.”

There’s some history to this break though, something perceived as not right but which festered  “’cause you never really tried to fix it.”

It is definitely seen as final, because she concludes “I don’t know how to leave this mess, but I do”

A good instrumental, great lyrics and a great voice to go with it.

You’ve done the rising star performances, go for it!




Llaney Jade - But I Do - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-06

This song begins almost hesitantly, just one musical thread.

By the end, it’s a fully fledged swooping magpie of a song.

At the outset we have a set of beliefs. Announcing them puts the singer on solid ground.

“I believe in words”
“I believe that a heart can change”
“I believe in truth”

Most importantly, believing in “the power [words] wield for bad and good.”

The master of manipulation and propaganda, Joseph Goebbels said, “a lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.”

Then challenging the other, “would you call me delusional?”

And the impact of the word “delusional, that word is so cruel.”

She rejects any impact from being called “delusional, am I a fool, so be it.”

The final assertion – “I believe I’m through” – into a build before the musical climax.

Sometimes I found it hard to distinguish the vocal line in the climaxes.

There’s something ironic about the production coming close to swamping the vocal line being performed a singer who performed on The Voice.




Anna Weatherup - Delusional - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-13

For some absolutely incomprehensible reason the idea of a Welcome to Country ceremony is too much for some to handle.

It’s actually simple. Our First Nations people have been on this land for over 60,000 years, this has given them a connection to country unmatched in the rest of the world.

Colonists have been arriving during the past couple of hundred years, and despite the wars since those arrivals started, as Nancy says a Welcome to Country ceremony is about extending inclusivity and community to everyone.

They are the traditional custodians of the land, we acknowledge that, we take their welcome as it is offered.

It is so good to hear another song from Nancy Bates.

In this release, ‘I Belong’, the first thought I had was elegance through simplicity.

Simplicity is timeless, effortless and can be inspiring, as it is here in this song.

A guitar, moving between two notes, gradually including more of a melody, till Nancy’s voice joins in.

She talks of country and what it means to her.

“I belong, I belong, let the love of country make you strong.”
“I am free, I am free, part of everything that lives and breathes.”

Then the instrumental swells to a climax, with Nancy singing in language.

Nancy talks about the aim for this song as being to provide a centring and extending that inclusivity and community.

It does this brilliantly.


Nancy Bates - I Belong - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-13

This is a wonderfully put together piece, that begins and ends with the sound of rain.

That sound evokes feelings of relaxation and nostalgia, often creating a soothing atmosphere, as it does here.

In this piece we seem to have all three. A relaxing sound, nostalgia for what has been lost and music which provides a soothing atmosphere.

Rissa has a beautiful voice, it’s even over her entire range in this song, but as she’s the songwriter, I’d expect she would write for her range.

The production is high quality, with the vocals being clear throughout the song.

Having said all that, here’s the thing. The song fails to stir any emotional response from me.

The rhythm of the song comes over as unvarying, and while there’s a swell to the instrumental harmonies at one point I couldn’t connect with it.

I am left completely puzzled.



Rissa - Fall Out - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-13

This track is about the downside of the touring musician.

It even starts with the sound of car wheels passing across the stereo channels, then the lonesome harmonica introduction.

There’s also a rattle – but more of that later.

The notes say that Geoff Achison is playing tremolo electric guitar on it.

The two guitars work well to give a broader sound to the backing.

In front is Benji’s vocal, and Julie’s harmonica, taking the melody between them.

This is a lovely laid-back track, the style that I have a soft spot for.

Bands battling and being on the road is a frequent theme in song, from AC/DC’s “Long Way to the Top” to the Willie Nelson or Canned Heat songs both titled “On the Road Again.”

This is less an anthem than a reflection on the experience.

I get the feeling that betrayal rather than the action which hurts the most.

“It ain’t the speaking, it’s the way it’s spoke.”
“It’s the thief and not the steal, it’s only business, and the way it feels.”
“It ain’t so much the rifle it’s the shot in your mouth.”

Is it this emphasis that leads to
“All I ask is don’t fix me, though you think you can”

Remember the rattle at the beginning?

“Rattlesnake, rattlesnake, bit me twice, you took my last penny then you took my time.”

But the road is still there, and it’s the musicians’ fate to travel along it.

I really love how this all comes together to produce one of those laid back but impactful blues numbers.


Back Alley Sally - Rattlesnake - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-20

Any Australian guitar lover knows Tommy Emmanuel, his version of Mason Williams’ ‘Classical Gas’ is definitive.

The accolades he received in the US are richly deserved, and no surprise.

There’s a whole new generation doing YouTube reaction videos who are stunned by his playing, and it still stuns me.

How does he play like that?

So often he makes it sound like there are about three guitars playing at once.

The quality of his playing only gets better, and this track is yet another standard setter.

Once again there is complexity with clarity, melodic lead with a simultaneous backing, all from one set of frets.

Do I like it? I love it.

I’ll be looking forward to ‘Living in the Light.’


Tommy Emmanuel - Black And White To Colour - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-20

This certainly has that laid back, relaxed groove feeling.

The arrangement has that familiar sound, wending its way into a funk performance.

The backing is solid, harmonies are on the money, absolutely nothing to complain about there.

The melody works, and the vocals are not only sung well, but the production has them sufficiently above the backing that they are discernible – no misheard lyrics here.

All in all, this track has it nailed.

I’d like to hear more, to hear the breadth of his material.

Groove Dr B will be touring with his new material, perhaps we’ll see him down here.




Groove Dr B - Nothing Better To Do - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-27

Yes, this is the goods. 

The music and arrangement is excellent. 

It’s interesting how it sounds so light-hearted at the outset, but after the deep fuzz guitar enters, a darker feeling comes through in the instrumental, but not the vocal.

The production is also extremely well done. There is a feeling of a big sound, but KT’s voice comes easily over the top.

I love the topic of the song. I’m going to get a bit of a nudge on this, but …

Astrology is one of those strange concepts where you take some less than specific set of identifiers, then you come up with odd links that are supposed to show influences of one on another, and wrap it up in a description sufficiently general that anyone can say, “yes that’s me!”

So Cancer …

Emotional, intuitive, and practically psychic; ruled by the moon and characterized by the crab, Cancer has so much going on in its watery depths. Cancer signs may seem prickly and standoffish at first meeting, once they make the decision to become friends with someone, that person has a friend for life.

As for the future, I predict two certainties – death and taxes.

It’s a great song, please ignore my cynicism and enjoy it.


KT Tunstall - Cancerian - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-27

I really can’t recall when I last heard this track.

Suzannah’s voice is instantly captivating, it draws you in and makes you focus on her lyrics.

Her accompaniment is a quiet guitar line supporting, not competing, as it should in this style of song.

The word that comes to my mind with this song is haven.

Two people, hurt and whole, taking refuge together, to the exclusion of others.

“No-one can touch us or break this spell”

“What happens between us is between you and I”

Providing a need.

“All I need is to be with you and all is well”

“Across a sea of lights, I’m yours tonight”

I love that chord shift to a more plaintive tone in the chorus.

It is fantastic that this will be available and getting a wider audience.

Suzannah and her band The Last Word will commemorate the release with a weekend of shows - Friday November 14 and Saturday November 15 at the Lomond Hotel, and Sunday Nov 16 at Archies Creek Hotel.


Suzannah Espie - Sea Of Lights - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-27

Grunge country. Don’t fret, I’m not going to go on about genres again.

This is great stuff, it has a hard beat, a good melody and a blockbuster vocal.

Nate is having none of this sharing the lead with an instrumental line. 

He is the line. His strong voice travels over the seriously strong backing, yes enjoy the music, but just focus on the vocal.

Odd storytelling though.

It’s more a snapshot in time than a story.

"Running again
Running to face my sorrow"

But what is the sorrow? We never find out.

Mind you, I love these lines:

"Please don’t believe these words, 
Most of them are borrowed,
Most of them are stolen"

That’s the English language in a nutshell. The English language not only borrows words from other languages, it chases them down dark lanes, beats them unconscious and goes through their pockets for new vocabulary!

But then

"Nothing to do today
Nothing to do tomorrow"

"Still I yearn"

What for? Nothing to do? 

It’s great music, but the song leaves me unsatisfied …


Nate Micheal - Grunge Country - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-27

It would seem that Melbourne’s No 96 tram is much like Geelong’s No 1 bus route. Everywhere north to south in  their hometown.

Road trip songs are a staple, and my favourite would have to be John Phillips “Holland Tunnel” which gives directions to get out of New York and head to Los Angeles.

But I digress.

It’s light and it’s fun. I like the lines

Where I end up who can say?
No 96 is taking us to the other side.

From the tram bell at the beginning and onwards, it is obvious that this is not a deep and meaningful philosophical number.

That’s a welcome change.

It follows a tradition of such songs – The Mixtures “Pushbike Song” comes to mind.

It also seems a very Melbourne thing to define yourself by public transport route you are on. During my three years in Melbourne I travelled on the “Heidelberg, Eltham and Hurstbridge” train, in the days of the red rattlers, and I knew every twist and station on the trip, but not that much away from the track.

I love the deepness of Pink Floyd and Leonard Cohen, but sometimes you have to have a laugh.

Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission will be at the Birregurra Hall on Friday Nov 14, and at the Eureka with The Ferriters on Saturday the 15th


Mick Thomas Roving Commission - A Mighty Ride Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-11-03

Listening to this, I thought that there was no way that this was finished in one day!

Well it wasn’t – sparked, not finished, my mistake.

It is sensational, though isn’t it. Who cares how many days it took.

And echoes of Penguin Café Orchestra, they found the organ in the hard rubbish??

What are people throwing out these days??

Anyhow, enough of the banter, listen to that sound.

I am a sucker for the sound of a full range of instruments like this, and surely after this, you must be too..

The melody is deceptively simple and easy to follow, and that makes huge opportunities for working with it, throwing it from one instrument to another, building big, solid, harmonies.

Insanely listenable, and played clear, crisp and tight!

The lyrics are smooth, and slide around the instrumentals, providing a contrast to the clipped notes of the brass.

I was there in those golden 1970s, and this could slip in amongst the best without a problem.

Very cool!


CJ Commerford and the Supertones - Taste Of Your Love - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-11-03

It’s not hard to recognise a Dog Trumpet song.

The sound has a familiar feel, the performance has a trademark excellence.

That’s not a surprise, given the close and long-lasting relationship these two have had.

Altogether, that’s a high expectation to have of this musical collaboration, but they deliver every time.

The topic here is the Lismore floods. How do you compose something that talks of that, without making is completely mournful?

I’ve been too close for comfort to bushfires, but never a major flood. With a bushfire, there’s always a feeling that you can fight back, that there could be a shift of wind, something.

With floods though, there’s a certain inevitability. There’s water, it’s coming, you can’t stop it, all you can do is delay and divert.

To make this work, you first have to tell the story, they excel at lyrics.

First setting the scene …

“Down in sheets, it rained and it rained for weeks”
“Better take care, when bad luck drowns out your prayers.”

… and then watching the inevitable …

“.. the river keeps rising, watching your world disappear …”
“… it’s all out of order, it’s all under water …”

… as always the community response is heroic, in its classical sense of impressive in size or scope, where old scores are set aside. An echo of Lawson’s fire at Ross’s farm …

“… in the mud and the debris, you came out to help me, while your own house was under water …”

Packaging this into three and a half minutes is truly impressive, and I’ll always remember that line “… it’s all out of order, it’s all under water …”



Dog Trumpet - Under Water - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-11-03

Girl Friday is a frequent visitor to Tempo, and is it any wonder?

I love this song for a number of reasons.

The stately pace and sound of the instrumental is modern, yet classical, and provides a suitable background for Girl Friday’s vocal.

The definition of waltz is “to roll or revolve,” and the waltz is traditionally danced with the dancers holding each other so closely that their faces touched.

At one time this was considered shocking.

In The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë has the local vicar intervening when a waltz is called for, declaring "No, no, I don't allow that!”

I think this history lesson is appropriate because the lyrics are about two people coming back together, with some gained perspective from their time apart, and with attitudes which have moved on their breakup.

The lyrics put this feeling so well. I love them.

Girl Friday’s wonderful vocals themselves match the stateliness of the song’s pace, they are clear and beautiful.

Absolutely brilliant.


Girl Friday and the Sepia Tones - Least Of My Regrets - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-11-03

This track really threw me initially. I couldn’t grasp the rhythm. 

It felt more like a jazz track, but I think there’s a standard four four hidden there, which is fascinating.

The piano is definitely lead, and the other instruments emerge and then fall back to be replaced by others.

Just like her last track that I reviewed, there’s a distinctive feel to the percussion, and by that I mean there’s more than a drum kit.

Jhana’s vocals are impressive, strong, almost a ringing vocal, and well-modulated and playing with the musical time.

I love that, I could listen to this all day.

I feel this is about an unrequited love, putting yourself out there, talking to friends, and I think this is the first song that I have heard that mentions seeking counselling.

The agony of “trying to be with you is like trying to get to a fake paradise.”

The bitter warning from a friend that “so many others have fallen into black holes” doing this.

I find this song completely seductive. 


Jhana Allan - Fake Paradise - Tempo Review

Weekly uploads of reviews and interviews from the program, "Tempo". "Tempo" is a weekly radio program presented by John Lamp, highlighting a wide range of music and music reviews on 94.7 the Pulse in Geelong, Wadawurrung country. John has been involved in community radio since 1976, initially with a music program "Parcel of Rogues" on 7CAE-FM in Hobart, Tasmania. After moving to Geelong, he joined 94.7 the Pulse on the program "Folks Alive", which morphed into "~meanderings~." John then spent a decade on the station Boards of Management before returning to the air in 2022 with his new program "Tempo." Full programs can be accessed at the link below.

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