The first installment of James’ two-part interview was published in last Friday’s Mail on September 11.
Jade Jungwirth
James, Jane and their three daughters performed together for a few years after the trip around Australia in 2006, even travelling to perform in New Zealand and England.
“We called ourselves the Rainmakers because everywhere we went on that trip, it rained the whole way. Then we called ourselves the Rainmakers, and then it stopped raining!”
After returning from their trip around Australia, James did a back-of-the-envelope calculation which showed they were doing around 17,000 km between Maldon and Castlemaine each year.
“We found a house in Castlemaine that was a bit of a ruin. 18 years later, we’re approaching something that looks like a finished house,” he said.
Every year, James and Jane would travel to the Port Fairy Folk Festival. First as ticket holders and then as performers. As the festival grew, a group decided to set up a Turramurra Bush Music Camp.
“We all started going down there, to the Otways. I learnt guitar from a man who used to play in Bob Wills ‘ Texas swing band, and I learned fiddle from Dougie MacLean, and you learnt your instruments from some of the best musicians in the world and certainly Australia,” James said.
“That camp is where I learned almost everything I know from playing instrumental music and singing.”
“Faye White, who now lives in Castlemaine, was booked early on in Turramurra to be the singing tutor. She was evolving a method of teaching community singing, guiding people through singing using her hands and what looks like an effortless technique to learn a song learned orally.”
“Faye was very much a mentor for us, stepping up and deciding to become singing leaders.
“My children grew up in these camps. They started off showing no interest in the concerts, and then one year they’d say, ‘We’re going to do something,’ and it ended up being amazing! “There’s no performance anxiety at this camp. It’s just the safest place in the world to share a thing that you’ve learned to do,” James said.
All three girls are grown up now. The youngest is a doctor, and Maggie and Elsie are an accomplished duo called the Maes.
For many years, Jane worked side by side with James as musicians and community music leaders.
“Jane did all of the work, and I did all of the playing music and having a nice time,” he said.
“She has gone back to midwifery now. She is a very gifted musician and group leader, but she’s also a very passionate midwife and carer of mums with new babies.”
And the all-important questions:
What hobbies do you enjoy? For many years, our holidays were going to a folk festival and spending extra time camping. We love a road trip and walking up mountains. I used to be a surfer for a long time, so we used to go down the coast as often as we could. Castlemaine ticks many boxes for us, but it’s crappy for surfing.
What are you reading at the moment? I have just started Is the River Alive, by Robert Macfarlane, but I am a very poor reader. If I go to bed and start reading, I fall asleep within two paragraphs.
What are your philosophies? I don’t have a unified theory, but fairness and social justice are really important to me. I am a very privileged person. I don’t have a lot of money, but I have all the things that I will ever need. I am a very lucky person; I don’t have big projects that I want to achieve that I haven’t already. We pack a lot in. My children have taught me about diversity and inclusiveness. Values change. I really welcome change, and I love being challenged by my daughters when I get a presumption wrong about something; my daughters are really quick to pull me up on it. I’m very lucky to have that quality control.
Who are your three dream dinner guests? There’s an Irish musician, a fellow called Donal Lunny, who played in a band called Planxty. He’s a bouzouki player and producer who has played with every great Irish band. I would love to hear his stories about where all the music I grew up with came from. He’s still playing, active and still a genius.
This is going to be corny, but I’d always want to have these dream meals with Jane, because we still enjoy doing simple domestic things together. I’ve been to a festival a few times, and Jane’s had work and couldn’t go, and I sort of hated it because you don’t have that conversation and reference point there. She’s much better socially than I am. And someone like Nelson Mandela. We did a lot of South African music when we were starting off with our bands. Kwela music, which is this tin whistle jive, and there’s this fantastic style of jazz played in the 50s and 60s in South Africa – swinging jazz, played on the simplest instruments, made out of old bicycle parts and things like that that all came out of that era of protest music, which informs the songs we teach to our choirs here. We learnt from those guys about how to use music as a weapon to empower people to think kindly and with justice and care.
Finally, what do you love most about the place you call home? I feel like there is a balance here of amenity and access to Melbourne, and we can walk out the door and be in Kalimna Park in five minutes. Kalimna is an inexplicable miracle of wildflowers and orchards. It’s big enough that I can run a men’s choir and get 20-25 blokes to come along to the Yes Men every week and sing songs that want to sing about fairness. And I actually love the climate here. I love the cold and hot weather, the fact that we have these really big seasons and what that does in the landscape.