The Americana Express



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The Toff In Town

Level 2, Curtain House, 252 Swanston St, Melbourne, Australia

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The Toff In Town is a two-level entertainment venue located in Melbourne’s CBD. It's housed in Curtain House, a 1930s-era building, and features vibrant art deco-style décor. Inside, you'll find a variety of spaces for events, including two music venues, a restaurant, a rooftop and garden bar, and a late night lounge. The Toff In Town offers an extensive range of drinks and live music to suit all tastes, with regular local acts as well as international acts gracing the stage. The venue also hosts a range of entertainment such as comedy nights, trivia nights and special events. Whether you're after drinks and music or a full night out, The Toff In Town has something for everyone.

Event details

THE AMERICANA EXPRESS featuring Matt Joe Gow, The Weeping Willows, Gretta Ziller and Lachlan Bryan. Straight from the studio recording their upcoming albums, Matt Joe Gow and Lachlan Bryan return to the Toff In Town on Friday 9 March 2018 for the inaugural Americana Express. Along for the ride are two of this country’s finest Americana acts, The Weeping Willows and Gretta Ziller. Together they will collaborate on selections from each other’s catalogues: expect everything from foot stomping rock n’ roll to ballads stripped raw. Hosted by Myles O’Neil-Shaw (of PBS FM’s 5 Feet High and Rising) and backed by a mix of members of their respective bands, the Americana Express will cross that wide musical landscape of folk, blues, alt-country, and southern rock n’ roll we call Americana. A journey not to be missed! MATT JOE GOW: Very few artists wield so much charisma that they can sell you just about anything before you’ve realised what’s happened. Matt Joe Gow has the charisma to be one of those artists – but he isn’t. Having performed around Australia from The Sydney Opera House to The Queenscliff Festival’s Blues Train, toured with Justin Townes Earle, The Jayhawks and Chris Isaak, Matt prefers to concentrate on the conviction. You don’t have to listen to more than thirty seconds of his latest album ‘Seven Years’ to appreciate that. An album redolent with the crackle and cackle of honky tonks as well as the lonesome echo of a stray dog lost down a well. A diverse collection of songs, ranging from foot stomping rock ’n roll, Americana belters, through to raw and sparse ballads, the album showcases seven years of Matt’s finest work and was recently nominated for an Age Victoria Music Award. And that voice. Rich, resonant. A baritone cloak of many shades and shadows. A songwriter whose swagger has taken him from the dusty influences of Townes Van Zandt and Ryan Adams to the swirling urban chime of electric, ambient pop . . . and now, back again with a new album due out later this year. THE WEEPING WILLOWS: The Weeping Willows, Laura Coates and Andrew Wrigglesworth, are a couple of old souls, steeped in Bluegrass tradition and draped in Gothic Americana imagery. They regale their audiences with stories of sunshine and romance, God and The Devil, murder and decay. That kind of description might make them sound like some carefully contrived concept-act but there’s something truly different about The Weeping Willows: they really mean it… 2015-2017 has seen The Weeping Willows nominated for 4 x CMAA ‘Golden Guitar’ awards, Country Music Channel (CMC) New Oz Artist Of The Year, supporting Iris DeMent (USA), Kinky Friedman (USA), Hayes Carll (USA), Eilen Jewell (USA), Shane Nicholson, Bill Chambers and Lachlan Bryan and completing a national tour in support of their sophomore album, Before Darkness Comes A-Callin’, which received four star reviews in Rolling Stone, The Australian and The Music. A Weeping Willows performance, whether live on location or caught on tape will always delight. LACHLAN BRYAN: Lachlan Bryan and The Wildes have built their reputation on storytelling. Over the past eight years they have released four records, toured Europe and the USA multiple times, shared stages with Americana and country heavyweights and picked up a string of awards, including the Golden Guitar for ‘alt country album of the year’ with their landmark release Black Coffee. But they’ve never told stories like the ones on new record ‘Some Girls (Quite) Like Country Music’. By far the band’s most ‘adult’ work, ‘Some Girls’ is a country record, but draws as heavily upon the influence of Leonard Cohen and Billy Bragg as it does Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt. “We really enjoyed leaving the dirt on” says Lachlan, “we didn’t want to round off the edges too much and we always chose the most meaningful take, which is almost never the most musically perfect”. But it seems Lachlan and The Wildes have achieved a different sort of musical perfection – the kind that puts the listener in an emotional space from the first to the last bar. ‘Some Girls (Quite) Like Country Music’ is a ragged, poetic, alt-country gem. GRETTA ZILLER: First impressions aren’t always right. If you’ve been foolish enough to nail down the sound of acclaimed songwriter Gretta Ziller, then prepare to have the rug pulled out from under you. Queen of Boomtown, her stunning debut record, defies categorisation and demands repeated listens. Ziller’s sound may bear the hallmarks of classic Americana music but its essence is far more diverse. The Melbourne songstress’ roots span jazz, blues, rock, pop and classical, and that eclectic musical upbringing is reflected in the varied tracks on this new collection. “I didn’t want to make an album that sounded like anything in the Americana scene right now,” says Ziller. “I wanted my album to reflect the soundtrack of my childhood, yet sonically and lyrically sound like who I am now. I really wanted to push the boundaries of what country music, or Americana, alt-country – whatever you want to call it – can sound like. I didn’t want to fit neat and tidy into the country music box.” While the album title might appear to be big-noting, one listen to title track ‘Queen of Boomtown’ and its self-deprecating context becomes apparent. Ziller’s radiant tune paints a picture of isolation, standing tall in a metaphorically abandoned town. “Picking this song as the title was tough for me because at first glance it may come across as me thinking I’m the ‘top of the pile’,” Ziller explains. “But, in fact, the song is the opposite. I guess that’s what I wanted my album to sound like … people may think it’s going to be like my EP – maybe more country – but it’s not. First impressions aren’t always right.”