Cherrywood
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Cherrywood

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“Rod’s from Ireland, Josh is from Geelong, Tim is from Tassie and I’m the only one from Melbourne,” Chris says, introducing their double bassist, mandolinist and guitarist respectively. “We all had pretty similar music tastes. We were coming from a punk background, which leads into country music quite a lot.”

Dusty, old-time country from the American heartland rank chiefly among Cherrywood’s influences but they’re undeniably True Blue.

“I hate that thing where Australian bands put on a fake American accent,” Chris chides.  “We hear people just imitating their favourite country acts all the time. It’s embarrassing, really. There’s a lot of Australian country that’s has its own character.”
With support growing for their authentic Aussie sound, Cherrywood laid down the foundations for their first album. The session for the upcoming Book of Matches LP took place two years ago. Chris recalls the band “smashed out sixteen songs in a day.” They weren’t on the clock or anything. They desperately needed to, for their fingers’ sake.

“We were in this freezing cold farmhouse and we played as fast as we could to keep warm, pretty much,” Chris laughs.

With songs in the can, they “started touring a lot.” The recordings sat for a year before the band tinkered with them.

“We finally did some overdubs,” Chris admits. “We got Erica from Harmony to sing on Pentridge and Josh Crawley from Graveyard Train to play some slide guitar. We sort of finished it up but didn’t mix it for ages. We finally got it mastered and finally, two years later, it’s going to be out!”

The Grand Canyon sized gap between recording and release didn’t gnaw at Cherrywood. Their jangled guitars and plinking mandolins embody their fun and freewheeling spirit.

In the prevailing two years, Chris and the band took to shooting memorable videos, including a knee-slapping Broken Heart for Christmas, a “ridiculous ode to being a drunk idiot and letting down important people.” It notably features the extended Cherrywood family necking whiskey, smoking cigarettes by the pack and dancing like utter madmen.

“We wanted to make a cheap video and we had a bar tab,” Chris recalls. “We bought heaps of slabs for everyone. The aim was for everyone to relax and have a big night. At first it was really awkward. Then everyone was just drinking and it turned into a big party.”

Parties rolled on as Cherrywood holed up in their van to hit small country towns around the nation. The sad reality is live venues in the city and suburbs are threatened with extinction. Rural pubs and clubs on the other hand “are screaming for it.”

“They’re really wanting it,” Chris cheerfully reports. “It’s great playing in those tiny towns. They love it. They get up and dance and they go mental! We’ve had some of our best shows in those tiny country towns.”

Are the rural towns more appreciative than their city folk when bands wind through?
“Absolutely,” Chris affirms. “It’s great in Melbourne because we have so much live music, but people can get blaze about it. In a country town, if there’s a band coming from anywhere, they get so excited. They’ll buy everything that you have, they’ll talk to you, they’ll drink with you, and it’s great!”

Thanks to their music, they’ve explored parts of Australia unknown to most city folk. Despite being city born, they’re taken to learning the country way.

“It’s a pain in the arse when you have to drive up and down the Hume Highway and play in a pub to thirty people,” Chris ponders. “Sometimes you think it’s not really worth it. Part of the fun is when you’re in the van and talking shit with your mates and you get to a new place. But we all see parts of Australia that we never normally would see. But it all pays off in the end.”

BY TOM VALCANIS