A Night at The Long Story Short Album Launch
Words: Faith Thurnwald
Artist: Jack Raymond
Jack Raymond. Raymondo. Jay Ray. Wreck it Ralph. He’s been known by many a name, but one thing always stays the same; his undeniable talent. I met Jack going on five years ago. He’d just moved from the cold mountains of Victoria. His guitar skills were minimal, and singing in bars was usually a result of just enough beers. A handful of years later and I’m attending his EP launch. He can definitely play the guitar now, and the beers are predominately in my hands.
I arrive early to see some great support acts, who I will now fail to name. I grab a seat next to some guys who later get pissy – sorry I didn’t realise you had the monopoly on chairs, and toxic masculinity. If you’re reading this boys, hey! To your credit at least one of you had a great moustache. It’s a very redeeming quality in a man. But I digress. I grab a seat and sip my beer. Jack’s launch is at Boiling Pot, and the afternoon is a rather blissful one. Sat under Paperbark trees, sunlight dribbling through the leaves, and beers so cold your coasters fucked; it’s a recipe for a great Friday and potentially a dangerous day to be a beer.
Jack Raymond’s music has previously been described in the virtual pages of Rant Mag as; ‘raw, bluesy and smokey vocals…alongside raspy cords’, but if you ask Jack he’d say it’s ‘roots driven Australiana’. Both are accurate. His music evokes emotions I never knew I had, and makes me want to live in a log Cabin and smoke cigarettes. It’s good stuff.
Jack plays most songs off his new EP, ‘The Long Story Short’, he also graces his attentive audience with some oldies. His older tracks like Satan’s Sister are reminiscent of the early inebriated days, singing along to songs I half know along with the whole bar. Jack has dealt with his fair share of bullshit from yours truely and I’m sure half of Noosa too: drunken pleads to play Rugged Man, or just one more song are a regular occurrence.
If the grit of the Australian bush could talk I’d hear it in Jack’s music. Like the bush Jack’s music is harsh and honest, making it all the more beautiful. There is beauty in the reality of his words, which – like me – might just break your heart. Although ‘The Long Story Short’ feels as though he’s turning over a new leaf, a more positive note, perhaps? This could be because I left town, no longer inebriated at his local, singing too terribly.
The seven songs on ‘The Long Story Short’ all explore different themes. Like his many names Jack has multitudes. Whether his lyrics are of a bittersweet heartbreak, a love letter to his hometown or vice vs virtue, no stone goes untouched.
Jack continues to serenade his eager audience and we sip away at our craft beers – or if your like me – my choice of spirits (yes, I’ve moved on to spirits) even though we’re at a brewery and I’m bloody broke. Jack concludes his set with applause and pleas for just one more song! I conclude my night with a smashed windscreen, no lighter for my cigarette and a $100 taxi ride. Long story short, a classic night back home.
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