RELATED COVERAGE:
- Candelo Village Festival 2015 a festival of colour
- Also playing at the Candelo Festival are; Frank Yamma, Sweet Jean.
“FOLK music is about giving people the keys so they can make the songs their own, we aren’t god like rock stars.”
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Accomplished Canadian wordsmith Scott Cook now has four albums strapped tightly under his belt as he tours Australia playing an array of festivals, lodges, cafes, bars and “house concerts”.
“I sing songs, tell stories and I talk funny,” he said over the phone while spending time camping and soaking up the local landscape ahead of the Candelo Village Festival this weekend.
The wide open space is nothing unfamiliar to the Alberta, Canada, native who grew up on the spacious prairies and fell in love with music at a young age.
“I grew up in church and there was always gospel music around,” he said.
“My parents used to play Simon and Garfunkel records which got me interested in music as well.
“I started playing in bands when I was 15 after I got an electric guitar and a distortion pedal, I was a paperboy back then which helped me pay for everything.
“We were playing punk rock at divey bars and even some girls would come along and sing the words,” Cook said.
“I was never much into sports.”
Cook has been toured globally as a full time musician since 2007 after a six year stint as a kindergarten teacher in Taiwan, playing to audiences on four continents so far.
He is a socially conscious songwriter who describes himself as a “hi-tech hobo” and calls a Dodge Grand Caravan named “Old Blue” home.
“I’ve always been interested in politics, it’s part of my musical inspiration,” he said.
“Alberta is probably the most conservative part of Canada but there are always musicians agitating there.
“I’ve learned a lot about Australian politics just by hanging out at folk festivals.”
He has won the Folk and Acoustic category of the 2013 UK Songwriting Contest with his track “Pass it along” and admits that his musings on life are often hard to digest by younger audiences.
“I’m pretty heavy on the lyrics side and older people seem to have the patience,” he said.
After getting to know Australian musicians in Candada, Cook has built an affinity for Australia and especially Candelo where he has many friends from past trips to the Far South Coast.
“I felt a lot of connections to the place before I came here,” he said.
“People seem to like me out here, I sell a lot of CDs.”
With his new record “Scott Cook and the Long Weekends Go Long” due out in June, he is looking to share honestly and openly a straight talking dose of humanity with the crowds of Candelo this weekend.
