E.M. Vlatko

Prison Fellowship invited me back to Acacia Prison. Last Saturday morning I took my guitar along as I joined a PF Team, meeting with a group of believers who love Jesus and are following Him, showing plenty of courage in that environment. We sang some of their favourite worship songs together – no half-hearted mumbling from these guys – instead they raised some rousing praises to God – for a moment I thought the roof was going to lift off! These lads are determined to live out their faith every day on the inside. They are going to make a real impact on our society when they finish their stretches – but not in the ways people generally expect ex-prisoners to do so!

Brad and I were invited back again – perhaps our current press release is having an impact:

Two Trains are 2 experienced guys who play high-energy acoustic foot-stomping danceable gospel hillbilly blues, featuring harmonica, slide guitar, percussion and ukulele, with strong, passionate harmony vocals, storytelling, and genuine audience connection. From playing on the streets, to ministry in prisons, to opportunities at festivals and folk clubs, Two Trains are excited just to be there!

Attendance was really encouraging – I know it’s a prison, but the men actually have a choice to stay in their blocks or come to the concert. And yes, a significant section of the audience are followers of Jesus who made it clear to us that we are on the same wavelength – but a sizeable number of the guys were there because they are curious to see what we’re so excited about!

As usual I brought my trusty acoustic guitar and ukulele, while Brad brought his arsenal of harmonicas and we had a blast singing together. I also gave my dobro & slide a real workout, giving emphasis to the delta blues gospel sound we seek to deliver.

Thanks for having us, Guys!

Brad and I were invited by Lorraine from Prison Fellowship to come back and play to the guests at the Perth Immigration Detention Centre last Sunday…just as news had come through of another boat of asylum seekers which had sunk off Indonesia the day before – and on that boat were family members, friends and relatives of a number of the men at PIDC.
Brad and I were mentally prepared for the event to be cancelled under the circumstances, but none of the staff or guests even hinted that we should call it off! Once again, we had the wonderful privilege of being introduced to some of the bravest people we have ever met – and once again, these guys were ready to party. It’s an amazing sight to see tough, grown men from Africa to Iran, dancing their blues away to the rhythm of Gospel songs and Christmas Carols.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all the staff and guests at PIDC!

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Do you happen to have the Christmas Blues? Believe me, I understand…but I also heard something about the hard times old Joseph, his bride-to-be Mary and their baby boy Jesus went through that very first Christmas…

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Over the last couple of years I’ve really enjoyed collaborating with Trevor Thomas, a local songwriter/keyboard player/sound engineer. We’ve amassed quite a collection of our original recordings, waiting to be mixed, overdubbed, arranged…here’s an instrumental we co-wrote and began recording at Trev’s, that I just finished off in my little home studio. We hope it inspires images of something moving at a high velocity!

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Simple, I know – but I hope you like it!

Eliot

A colourful local identity, Anderson Dufty (builder, farmer and Christian musician) was invited by organizers to put a rockin’ Gospel band together to play at the Mount Barker Community Fair, which took place just last weekend. He contacted a couple of fellow Mt Barker locals in keyboard/vocal powerhouse Paul Ritchie and Oz Rock drumming legend Paul Hitchins. Later additions to the band (which became known as “Heaven Train Selection”) were myself on guitar/vocals, Ken Smith on bass/vocals and emerging talent Rob Biddle on lead vocals/blues harp. To complete the picture we were fortunate to have the dynamic sound duo of Chris Ovenden and his mentor Paul Ahearn join us for the road trip to one of the prettiest areas of WA. We played on the back of a truck, out in the open. Sounds like fun, but it wasn’t looking very promising 10 mins before we we scheduled to start with heavy rain pelting down! Paul A. had a brilliant suggestion: that we should pray – so we did – and God swung into action…the rain abruptly ceased, the band stepped up to play and people came to listen – Hallelujah! So exciting to see Rob Biddle nail it to the wall – he sung and blew that harp like some old Delta guy who had been at it for decades! As a band, we played much better at the actual gig than at our rehearsal up at Anderson’s farm the night before! And there was more to come…Steve Doherty from “Big Men Working” was next on to play and he needed a backing band on the spot – so he asked us – thankfully his repertoire was chock full of rockin’ guitar-driven standards and had charts for the less familiar tunes – so we made it through – what a hoot!

After the gig I went looking for Sandy and the boys – and discovered that Josh and Stevie had both scored rides in the inaugural Mt Barker Billy Cart Derby. The photo above shows Stevie ready for take-off with big brother Josh poised to send him on his way!

Huge thanks to the Hitchins and the Duftys for their expansively generous Southern hospitality!!!!

Craig, the Chief Organizer of MMC in WA, has asked me to lead the worship again – a real honour. So far, without fail, I’ve seen men’s lives (including mine) radically transformed by God’s power at every MMC I have had the privilege to be involved with. Do what you can to be available for the Friday March 23-Sunday March 25 – and bring your mates, sons, brothers, dads!

Well I certainly enjoyed myself – playing with one of the tightest rhythm sections around: Darren Webb and Tony Catley, and one of the best young jazz keyboard players in Australia: Josiah Pad (also a very handy guitarist!). And singing backup vocals for Allan Schintu, Karen Mihic and Tracey Howells is a harmonic delight! And it just dawned on me that our set list featured 3 of my originals: “Zimbabwe Sister”, “Faithful & True” and “Light of the World” – what a huge buzz that these guys are happy to play my songs – wow! And we marvelled again at the amazing combination of youth and talent that is Tripad – what a band! Many thanks to our superb crew of Chris Ovenden, Paul Ahearn, Mike D’Andrea, Peter Trenaman and Mitchell Taylor – fantastic setup, Guys!
And thanks to you punters who came and listened – hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as I did, folks. Would love to hear any feedback/reviews you may have…

The weather forecast is really encouraging, so come along, relax under the stars out in the open grassed area at Inglewood Civic Centre and listen to some smooth, tuneful, thoroughly enjoyable jazz sounds from Tripad and Sixth Avenue Jazz – show starts 7pm Saturday night!