The Yearlings
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The Yearlings

South Australian folk duo The Yearlings have just released their fifth album, a stunning release from the first track. The duo is set to tour around the country in support over the next month taking in shows in all major and regional centres of Australia. One half of the band, Chris Parkinson, sat down with Forte ahead of the tour to chat about the recording and release of the album, as well as what it’s like to hang out with Steve Earle. “We head straight up to Brissy and we have four or five gigs a week and travel for about a month, ending up in Adelaide. It’s going to be great fun,” Parkinson said.
All the Wandering, the latest release for the band, was quite a hectic time and although it started out as a relatively low-key duo record, it quickly developed into a full band record and employed the services of some great friends to lend a hand. “Robyn and I started the initial recordings in winter last year and laid down the whole record at our home studio My Sweet Mule. We started hearing all this extra instrumentation though and it quickly snowballed from there. They were no longer just quaint little folk tunes. We decided to do it again with Mick Wordley, our producer friend, and are really happy with the end result. We never thought that we would record the album twice though.”
Although Parkinson was happy with both of the recordings, the ability and opportunity to re-record the material has allowed for a punchier sounding record and understanding about the arrangements. “Having a whole heap of our friends come and play on the record is really great. They just seemed to get really into playing the songs and I think you can hear the emotion throughout.”
With a home studio operation, there is always the ability to lay down new ideas for tracks. My Sweet Mule, however, has also played host to the Soft Gold record, ‘Ukulele Queen of the Bellarine’ Sarah Carroll’s new project. Playing a few shows in South Australia, Carroll and Borrack stopped off to catch up with Parkinson and Chalklen and after a chance meeting the initial recordings were booked in. “Sarah and Marcel to start out with just sing so beautifully together. They were practising in our sunroom and I said to Robyn how great it would be to just record those songs. It was a natural process and you can hear the beauty in all of the arrangements. Definitely worth checking out Soft Gold if you haven’t already.”
Having recorded an album in New York and played at the New York Guitar Festival, the Yearlings have been able to hone and develop their show over each tour. I was sad to be informed, however, that Pete Townshend windmills would not be on show at the upcoming dates. “Oh man! I wish I was that cool, that would be just awesome. We could take some muesli and a NutriBullet with us and just see what happens I guess.
“It will be great to get out and play these songs to our fans. The Harvester Moon show is a good little gig and it will be great to get up on stage with Sarah Carroll again. Come on down and hear the beauty in these songs for yourself.”
When&Where: Main Bar, Ballarat – July 25 & Harvester Moon, Bellarine – July 26
Written by Tex Miller