During the recent lockdowns, Hooper returned to Violet Town to write her new album. In the process, she crafted an album that takes a more country-ish route, recalling at times the spirit of Kasey Chambers, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Musically, it’s also the furthest away from her pop days of old.
“It’s definitely where I feel happiest now, in a genre I’ve loved for ever,” she said.
“But at the end of the day, I do write in a variety of styles and there’s always stuff coming that doesn’t fit the current project, which I shelve for another day!
“At the moment, twang and classic singer-songwriter vibes feel like home.
“Killing Heidi is a fun time capsule, but Ella Hooper solo is me in current-day form.”
Hooper believes having achieved massive success while still a teenager taught her important life lessons.
“Success isn’t always what you think it will be, as it’s much more complicated than people imagine,” she said.
“Another lesson was to stand up for myself — I didn’t always back then and wish I had more.
“Also, the experience taught me how to work very hard and stay the course!”
Hooper will be hitting the road in support of the new album and hopes to return to Shepparton.
“Nothing is booked at the moment, but the year is still young,” she said.
“Our favourite last gig of 2022 was at Dookie Quarry for the Secret Garden Gigs, so we’ll have to get back there soon.”
Touring Oz
Sting will return to Australia next month for the first time in nearly seven years, as part of his critically acclaimed My Songs world tour.
Red Hot Chili Peppers and Grammy-winning hard rock band Halestorm will also be on tour nationally.
Locally, American bluesman Eric Bibb hits the Northern Republic in Euroa for a dinner show on Friday, February 3.
Vinyl resurgence
Is this a sign of the times and what’s to come? A recent report in the UK unveiled stunning figures that showed vinyl had outsold CDs for the first time in 35 years. The best-selling album on vinyl of 2022 was Taylor Swift's album Midnights. In Australia, Midnights had the biggest first week of vinyl sales ever, with over 10,000 copies sold.
Behind the song
Starting this week, I’m beginning a new section called ‘Behind the song’, where I will share stories about some of the classic songs from the past 50 years, featuring snippets from interviews I’ve conducted with the artists involved.
Today, I kick it off with an Australian classic, Howzat, by one of the most successful Australian groups of the 1970s, Sherbet. In 1976, this song, which was also the title track to the album of the same name, became Sherbet’s second Australian #1, and at the time ended Abba’s record-breaking 14 weeks at #1 with their hit Fernando. Sadly, Sherbet guitarist Harvey James passed away in 2011, but in the early 2000s, I got to interview Harvey, who shared with me the following insight into Howzat:
“Howzat was recorded at EMI Studio 301 in Sydney. The first thing I had to do in the studio was work on that song. I plugged my guitar in and asked the producer [Richard Lush] to give me a first pass at the song. And I was basically noodling around and then once the song had stopped, I said, ‘okay, I think I’ve got it, so I’m ready to record, so run it again’. But Richard said, ‘no, that’ll do’. So, it ended up being done in one take! The whole album itself took about four weeks to record overall.”
Fun fact
Did you know Rushworth-born country music artist Reg Poole was the support act to country music legends Marty Robbins and Jimmy Little at the third annual Mooroopna Country Music Festival in November 1975?
Readers can send feedback, suggestions, share their stories etc to: MusicalMusings@mmg.com.au
Until next time, rock on.
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