A dedicated campaign of hassling has finally paid off, as this February Bluehouse finally return to the west coast to treat their loyal (though not above a little hassling) Perth fans with their soaring vocals, rocking riffs and killer humour. Last in Perth supporting Tommy Emmanuel in 2009, Bluehouse – Jacquie Walter and Bernadette Carroll – have been keeping themselves busy in the interim with the release of an album recorded in Nashville, the odd spot of touring around the globe, writing, performing and, it seems, day jobs in their spare time.
With her customary sense of humour, Bluehouses’ Jacqui Walter told OUTinPerth that coming up to the band’s twentieth anniversary, ‘there are fantastic stories of people who come to gigs and say “I met my girlfriend at your gig and we are still together ten years later”, or, “I met my girlfriend at your gig, we broke up at your gig and I met my new girlfriend at your gig”. For CD sales it’s been fantastic – we keep on encouraging people to meet and break up!
‘But the thing that we’ve found about that is that the core audience has had real stick-ability with us – they’ve been there right through the whole journey which has been really lovely.’
Jacqui attributes exceptional loyalty of Bluehouses’ audience to a real community spirit, reflecting that
‘There’s a sense of ownership and it’s motivated from a really nice place which is the support to see members of your own community doing well, or to relate to the content of the performance as well.
‘We haven’t thought about our show being particularly out or particularly gender specific – we don’t write songs that are gender specific but a lot of the content – especially because we talk a lot during the gigs – would be understood and appreciated by a female audience, by a lesbian audience so I think that they feel like there’s something for them in a lot of ways, which it is, no doubt about that.’
For fans who remember Bluehouse roaring onto stage courtesy of the Dykes on Bikes at Pride Fairday many years ago, Bluehouse aren’t exactly meek and mild. Yet As Jacqui explains, at least for her personally, her approach to performing is somewhat mellowed these days,
‘You become a little bit clearer about why you’re doing it which is for the joy of being able to share music and for joy of being able to write and perform and not necessarily for the accolade. And I think that the older you get you realise it’s less about the applause and more what you’re giving and just being in the moment really.
‘I’ve become probably a little less ego driven I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not maybe I need to stay driven but it’s a nice place to be in, to be comfortable with being a performer and not having any of that hang-on stuff going on anymore.’
With material from the new album produced with Sydney singer-songwriter Tania Bowra due for release in May, material from their most recent album One More Kiss and a few old favourites, Bluehouse promise fans at the Perth gig are in for a few pleasant surprises.
Bluehouse are supporting Horse at The Ellington Jazz Club on Thursday, February 9th. The band will also play two intimate Perth shows with Rose Parker, formerly of the Velvet Janes – catch them at X-wray Café on Friday February 10th and The Court Hotel on Saturday February 11th.
Zoe Carter
