Berowra-based country musician Steve Passfield added to his swag of awards last night when he received the Maureen Wagner Memorial Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Country Music at the 10th Country Showcase in Windsor, near Sydney.

“It was a surprise – I had no idea. I’m very honoured,” said Steve, who performed at the event with a number of other top acts including fellow Golden Guitar winner Felicity Urquhart.

The awards were first presented in 2006 in memory of Maureen Wagner, wife of country music identity Don Wagner. Inaugural winners were the Chambers family, Feral Swing Katz and Charley Boyter.

As previously reported, Steve is working on an album of instrumentals called “Freshly Picked” due for release in the southern spring.  Below: one of our favourite Steve Passfield tracks.

That’s how Ben Johnson described his friend William Shakespeare, whose 450th anniversary falls tomorrow. We’ve done our bit to mark the occasion by composing a setting for the Bard’s famous Sonnet 18 and creating a video – which you can see here – of Matthew Henrick and The Cove Quartet performing it. Below, photographer Michele Mossop captures the spirit of the project with a combined image of Matthew and the famous engraving of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout, which appeared in the First Folio edition of Shakespeare’s plays, published in 1623.

Our music video featuring Matthew Henrick singing Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 – in celebration of the Bard’s 450th anniversary next week – is covered on page 11 of the latest edition of local paper, The Bush Telegraph Weekly. Thanks, guys: we’re proud to be part of this great little community. Click here to read the piece; video is below.

…us music folks, we respond to Darwinian natural selection in the same way as any other species. We evolve.

Excellent post by Gem McCormack of Sydney music media firm Digital Wagon on how musicians should respond to the challenges of streaming and other disruptive technological changes.

As flagged a week ago, our in-house project – Matthew Henrick and The Cove Quartet performing an original setting of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 – is now live on YouTube. Hope you enjoy. If you do, please like and share. Thanks!

Berowra resident and one of Australia’s favourite country musicians, Steve Passfield, is hard at work on a new album – and it promises to be a treat. Called “Freshly Picked”, the album will feature up to 16 instrumentals showcasing Steve’s flatpicking across a range of styles and instruments.

“It’s got Celtic medleys, fingerstyle jazz, swing, Latin and bluegrass tunes and I play acoustic, Maccaferri and electric guitars, papoose, mandolin, banjo and ukulele,” says Steve. ”I’ve wanted to do an instrumental album for a while: it’s a great challenge for my playing.”

Does the focus on instrumentals – one of which will be a new self-penned track – mean that Steve is aiming to repeat the success he had in 2008, when he won the Golden Guitar Award at the Tamworth Country Music Festival for the instrumental Stump Jumpin’ from his Goin’ It Alone album?

“I might get a nomination – if I’m lucky,” says Steve, modest as always.

Backing musicians on the album are the same as those that supported Steve to the delight of crowds at this year’s Tamworth festival – Rudy Miranda on drums and percussion (Mal Eastick, The McClymonts), Michael Kerin on fiddle (The Flying Emus, Travelling Country Band) and Ian Lees on bass (Moving Pictures, James Blundell, Lee Kernaghan).

“We’ve done lots of gigs together and have a great rapport happening, and that’s been really good for the album,” says Steve.

When will the album be ready?

“When I get it finished!” says Steve, laughing. “Hopefully by the spring – when things are best freshly picked!”

Until a year or two ago, one of the highlights of eating at Hornsby’s excellent Blu Water Grill was the opportunity to listen to waiter Matthew Henrick sing arias between serving courses. No “singing waiter” he, but a trained opera singer who – like many artists – works a normal job to supplement his income from doing what he loves (incidentally, he’s no slouch as a waiter, either, having won an award for his skills in that department).

Although he’s moved on from BWG and doesn’t sing at the Crow’s Nest restaurant that currently employs him, he still lives in the Hornsby area and, of course, is still passionate about singing. Matthew’s many local fans will soon be able to hear him again in magnificent form, singing an original musical setting for Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 composed by Berowra Heights resident and Universal Stranger agent provocateur Roger “Rody” Hogan.

The project – supported by local musicians The Cove Quartet, with string arrangement by Beecroft-based Dawn Nettheim – coincides with Shakespeare’s 450th anniversary on April 23. We’ll let you know when the video gets posted to YouTube.