Sparkling Country Rock for a Grey Friday – Barb Waters at Basement Discs

At lunchtime today on a grey and dingy Melbourne day, I had the pleasure of seeing a performance by Barb Waters, yet another talented local singer songwriter in which Melbourne abounds.

Barb leans more towards the country music end of the Americana spectrum, so it was refreshing to hear her sing her wonderful songs at Basement Discs today, to promote her new album Buffalo Mountain Girl. The CD is worth buying just for the first song, My Brother’s First Girlfriend, but you won’t be disappointed with the rest of the record either, it’s chock a block full of attractive and beautifully written songs.

Barb Waters is originally from the country town of Myrtleford up in north East Victoria close to Mount Buffalo and the songs on her new CD are a nostalgic look at the region.

There have been comparisons to Lucinda Williams when Barb Waters is mentioned. She does have an attractive powerful voice and is an accomplished guitarist. Today she had one member of her Mother of Pearls band in attendance – Chris Altmann who played peddle steel and electric guitar. He’s a member of the local band The Vandas. Mikey Madden the other half of The Vandas duo, works behind the counter at Basement Discs.

It has been quite a few years since I last saw Barb Waters perform live, so it was good to see her again and be reminded of just how entertaining and pleasant she is in person.

Check out this You Tube of her live at Studio 22 recorded in the early 2000's