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Like fire and ice, moonlight and moonshine and Bonnie and Clyde, Melbourne’s Jen Cloher and Jordie Lane are teaming up for a hot-blooded double-bill tour that’ll give Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide a taste of homespun ballads and country-strung blues. Running throughout May, these nightly sojourns will be a rare opportunity to hear new material from two of this country’s most stirring songwriters before they head to the States.
“Being lyrically fearless has paid off in spades for Melbourne’s Jen Cloher on her triumphant second album, Hidden Hands, a superbly diverse collection of intelligent country-tinged pop. Album opener Mother’s Desk is one of the songs of the year…” Jo Roberts, The Age (4.5 stars)
Named as one of the top ten releases of 2009 by The Age, Hidden Hands, the second album from Jen Cloher, consolidates her reputation as one of Australia’s premier alt-country, acoustic folk singer songwriters. Following on from her ARIA nominated debut album Dead Wood Falls (2006) Hidden Hands was nominated for three Age EG Awards including best song and best album. Cloher has fast become a festival favourite, appearing at Woodford, Peats Ridge, Homebake, Queenscliff, East Coast Blues & Roots, Port Fairy & The Falls and has toured nationally in support of Neko Case (Canada), Laura Veirs (USA) and José González (Sweden).
“Jordie Lane’s debut album may well come to be regarded as one of the most assured ever by a local artist. Displaying the soulful tenderness of Ron Sexsmith and Ray LaMontagne…Sleeping Patterns is a rare treat” — Rod Yates, Rolling Stone (4 stars)
Featured in The Age (Melbourne magazine) as one of the ‘Top 100 influential people of 2009’, Jordie Lane is becoming recognised nationwide as one of our great song-writing talents. After releasing his highly acclaimed debut album Sleeping Patterns in June 2009, Jordie has gone on to sell out album launches across the country, appear on ABC TV’s Spicks and Specks, tour alongside artists such as Cat Power (USA), Charlie Parr (USA) and Old Crow Medicine Show (USA), and top the list of many critics’ ‘best of 2009’, including The Age, Rhythms and Inpress.