Firstly let me congratulate the winners of the Snowy Hydro “Talent of the High Country” talent quest this Easter.

Proud to be Australian, Steve Carter just pipped the vivacious Laurie Carroll for first place and the supremely confident and beautiful young Morgan Whitbread came in a close third.

The contestants were accompanied by myself on keyboard and three members of Gone Fish’n’, a country rock band based in Merimbula. Gone Fish’n’, fronted by energetic and talented vocalist and guitarist, Jan Mussan, played the opening set of the Lake Jindabyne Flowing festival on Easter Saturday afternoon to an enthusiastic audience. The band wowed the crowd with their high-energy performance and on Sunday following the talent quest when the judges needed extra time to make some difficult decisions about the place getters Jan stepped up and surprised us all with some fabulously raunchy blues harmonica.

Jan Mussan heads up his band 'one Fish'n'

Frustrating sound problems on the day tested the composure of the contestants. Second place getter Laurie Carroll had to do a repeat performance because the judges were simply unable to hear and assess her first performance… and lucky she did too, otherwise her full potential may have been overlooked.

Well done to all the contestants for an overall excellent performance. The many hours of preparation certainly paid off.

It is heart warming indeed to see local talent being given the opportunity to develop. Despite the trials and tribulations of dealing with buzzing speaker leads and the like, the atmosphere was one of enthusiasm and excitement for both the contestants and their supporters in the audience.

Well done all.

The following weekend I found myself in the lovely coastal town of Malacoota with music of a different kind. It was the debutante ball. The young ladies, having spent much time on their beautiful gowns (it was rumoured that one of them cost $1000), hair and make-up, looked

stunning as they were presented for entry to adult society. Call me old-fashioned possum but it was just lovely. They gracefully swanned around the dance floor with their dashing young partners doing old-time ballroom dances that I thought were out of date when I was a kid back in the sixties. The Valeta, Gipsy Tap and Carousel have done the full circle. It was a case of everything old is new again.

While in the south coast area, I was told of the Down South Jazz Club in Merimbula and a great jazz concert featuring a visiting Melbourne group. A hot nonet called The Michael McQuaid’s Red Hot Rhythmakers. A nonet, for the uninitiated is a nine-piece ensemble. This nonet comprised basically three saxes, two trumpets, one trombone, double bass, drums and guitar. The leader Michael McQuaid cruised effortlessly between sax, clarinet and trumpet, the bass player just happened to also play the tuba and the guitarist for much of the time, had a banjo around his neck.

Sandra Talty delivered some very smooth vocals, whilst simultaneously keeping the band in time from the drum kit. I suppose the age of the players ranged from 18 to 25 years. The standard was extremely high in true Melbournian tradition and the crowd responded with standing ovations, vigorous applause and whoops of joy. The most surprising thing to me was the musical repertoire. They played original arrangements from the very early days of jazz. Jazz originators such as Bix Beiderbecke and the like were featured exclusively. It would seem once again that everything old is new again .

Maybe we are witnessing the beginnings of a revolt against the contrived computer generated music of today, which has been forced down the public’s throats purporting to be the real thing. Some of the piano scores I’ve seen lately would require a pianist with sixteen fingers because they were likely created by a non musician computer nerd’s random mouse clicks.

Anyway it was refreshing to see the effort and enthusiasm exuding from these young musicians which brings me back to our local talent of the high country and how important it is for them to be given the opportunity to develop their own real thing rather than opting for the soft option of karaoke. I’m sure that the contestants are grateful to Snowy Hydro for their continued support in sponsoring the quest. At times the going can be tough for young performers working live and dealing with the uncertainties and frustrations but as they say in the business, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. So what’s new?

Keep swinging, grooving or whatever you do and be happy.

Paul Dion