What sort of “country band” – genuinely from the country, could not fill a night with C&W classics, rockabilly, Cash and co? At the least, couldn’t they try adding a little Cold Chisel, or even AccaDacca to win over the leery punters? Remember, this was before anyone had heard of alt-country. But here they were, these wide-eyed boys from the Murray River outposts of Robinvale and Euston, churning out song after song of uniquely Australian themes, defying the calls for Khe San and filling dance floors with their saw dust stomp, straight-ahead guitars and unromantic sentiment torn from flannel.
What became clear was that the original T-Bones - songwriting collaborators and life-long mates Andrew "Pip" Pupillo and Charlie Wilde - grew up writing songs, not covering them. Sure, they tipped their hats to the greats, but they didn’t bother copying them.
Before ABC-TV discovered the slide guitar as the motif for stories about the bush, the T-Bones had already defined an aural image of drought, shimmering horizons and cooked engine blocks.
Over time, the T-Bones created their own unique anthems that would become cult classics in their adopted town of Melbourne, and which helped spawn a new breed of uniquely Melbourne roots music that married rockabilly, country and blues, and embraced the themes of Australiana that were once reviled as kitsch and decidedly uncool.
Listen back to Acid Country with David Heard, 3-5pm for a live set from T-Birds.
