Tamworth Country music Festival isn’t all Keith Urban and other big name stars.
Home Grown Bands night at Tamworth Park is a chance for Tamworth’s best locals to cut loose in front of some of the most passionate country fans in the country. A chance for the homegrown muso to prove to everyone, or more importantly, themselves, that they belong.
But there is a truth not often enough acknowledged that without the local music scene, Tamworth wouldn’t be Tamworth. Not only do the local musos belong, they are the lifeblood of our region’s biggest event.
The local night had a slight change to the advertised billing last Friday, which brought a piece of Tamworth born and bred talent to the stage.
The air was thick with the scent of food trucks and the chatter of festival-goers, but backstage, James Craswell—better known as Jimmy Craz—waited in silence, clutching a cold beer while he prepared for the night’s challenge – filling in for local rockers The Redneck Gentlemen at short notice.
Sporting his flaming red beard and a grin, Craswell doesn’t betray a hint of nerves whatsoever. The local guitarist is something of a fixture on the local music scene having first gigged at the Services Club at fourteen under the eye of his late father, Dave Craswell, and has been a regular contributor to TCMF for two decades.
Craswell is one of dozens of local musicians that are essential to making TCMF a festival, rather than a couple of gigs and an awards night. They are the session musicians, the warm up acts, the buskers, and the reliable backbone to the annual festivities. And when they get the call to perform or fill in at a gig, even in front of the massive TCMF crowds, it’s just another night on the tools.
For Craswell, that passion began long before he ever stepped on stage. As bands began to arrive and cool the nerves, Craswell reflected on his own musical journey:
“I’ve been in the festival on and off for about twenty years,” he said.
“I started playing as a hobby when I was a kid. My Dad was a musician as well, Dave Craz and there were always guitars around the house.”
“We were always having band practices. I started getting formal lessons when I was about nine.”
The noise of the swelling crowd spikes considerably as musicians begin line checks on stage; kids can be heard shouting and hooting beyond the fence:
“I think there’s just no substitute for learning lots and lots of songs, because I learned a lot of songs for fun, that led to me doing gigs with dad, which then led to more songs.”
For Craswell, playing live has a magnetic quality, and it all starts with that first guitar. As well as picking up side shows he now plays with local acts Savage Groove, and his magnum opus, the Jimmy Craz Band which formed ten years ago, he is also regularly spotted at the Conservatorium of Music where he teaches guitar lessons.
“I’m a guitar teacher as well these days. You see all the levels you know from the beginning, that instant joy moment when you get your first song right, and you just play the hell out of that.”
“It’s just so fun getting to the point where you are playing songs spontaneously in front of crowds, and people are dancing and laughing and carrying on.”
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