“We spoke to the director of the Deering Banjo Company in California and he mentioned a huge increase in banjo sales for them,” says Lachie. “He put it down to Mumford & Sons being one of the major contributors as to why banjo sales have increased, because they’ve had so much mainstream airplay and the instruments have been brought to the forefront.
“You’ve even got Keith Urban adding banjo loops. At least the use of the instrument is become more prominent.”
Learning to self-promote and book the right kind of gigs has been a steep learning curve after a small-town upbringing in Yinnar, Gippsland, but Lachie reckons the boys have finally turned the corner.
“A lot of our stuff is self-promoted,” he says. “We play bluegrass, we don’t promote concerts. It’s hard to cover all bases without spending a fortune… There’s a lot to compete with in the city. If you’re doing a gig in the country, you put a poster in the butcher shop or milk bar and the whole town knows about it. We’re slowly getting a handle on the competition in the city and what’s available on people’s plates.
“Before we didn’t know how it all worked, but now we’re getting text messages about gigs on a weekly basis and we can play in bars around town every single week of the year, if we want to.
“I feel like we’re on the correct path that we’ve been looking for now. That’s really what this album has done for us.”
Wanderlust, released in June last year and made with the help of an Arts Victoria grant was the start of the boys’ push to connect with the younger, more urban set, but still popular with the original fans. Tamworth gave it four finalist nominations in the 43rd Country Music Awards.
Now it’s time to get out there, play festivals and attract some new fans, without isolating the originals who continue to support the band, and it’s a challenge Lachie’s looking forward to.
“We grew up going to Tamworth for a long time and they’re all retirees,” he laughs.
“We’re pretty conscious of getting to play a younger crowd over the past two years, so it’ll be interesting to see how we go this year [at Port Fairy Folk Festival]. I remember at Port Fairy, particularly in the street and in some of the street stages, there was always a lot of young people around.
“It’s always great because the crowd is attentive and responsive. That’s something we’ve always loved – being in front of a crowd that loves music. It’s definitely an educated crowd.
There’s no doubt that for music lovers, the standout aspect of watching the Davidson Brothers live is the technical proficiency on display. Lachie’s mandolin is some of the best on these shores, sometimes his hands move so fast, you wonder if his strings are going to start smoking. Hamish on the banjo reminds you just how much joy the instrument can be, rather than just a marketing ploy to attract the bolo-tie wearing East Brunswick set. He also plays a mean fiddle.
Top it off with Jacob McGuffie on acoustic guitar and Louis Gill on upright bass and you got yourself a pretty dang hot bluegrass operation, with some hilarious stage banter, lampooning small-town living and mercilessly taking the piss out of each other on stage thrown in for good measure. But when there are some sensitive souls in attendance, the jokes do risk going a little bit awry.
“We got letters of complaint in Tamworth. Hamish usually writes back a nice response,” Lachie giggles.
“There was one woman who left my brother’s banjo workshop upset when he was referring to his banjo as a woman, she obviously didn’t appreciate that at all. Just cracked it and left.”
Anyone who’s headed to Port Fairy Folk or the Great Australian Beer Festival doesn’t have to panic though, that’s not changing any time soon.
“We grew up in a small country town where everyone’s making fun of each other and always having a good time,” Lachie says. “We grew up on the old entertainers that our parents would listen to, so it was a whole show in that before recorded music was around.
“That’s what it’s come back to for us and I guess that’s why we get booked on many things, because we make a show out of it. We don’t just play songs. We stir people up.”
BY ISABELLE ODERBERG
