Over the years the PBGB Shed has been blessed with visits from many of the fine musicians who underpin the Bega Valley's well earned reputation as a microcosm of creative musical excellence.
Now we are thrilled to welcome Colleen Spillane and Chris Komorowski to the PBGB fold.
Given Colleen's impressive record of live performances alongside PBGB Family Members Ken Vatcher, Steve Clark, Mark Bolsius, Mandy Siegel, Stacey Mills, Andy O'Donnell, Dave Crowden and John Drews, it is something of a wonder Colleen hadn't found her way into The Shed sooner.
As it happens, not so long ago, we chatted about the possibility of recording Colleen in The Shed. Colleen was keen, and said she'd keep an eye out for the right opportunity.
Well that opportunity arose when Colleen told us that her close friend Chris Komorowski was coming to town for a series of gigs with the Dorian Mode Hammond Organ Trio, which happened to feature Ken Vatcher on drums, and that she and Chris would love to come over to The Shed and record a tune or two.
Well that lit us up big time !!
Here's why.................
Colleen studied singing at The Australian Institute of Music in Sydney, and the University of Western Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Music (Honours). Since moving to Pambula, Colleen has dazzled audiences, singing with top local and touring musicians at events including the Merimbula Jazz Festival, and the Down South Jazz Club.
Colleen first came to our notice when she became a regular feature artist with the brilliant Steve Clark Trio. Steve's trio cohorts were Ken Vatcher and Mark Bolsius.
Colleen went on to team up with PBGB Family Members Mandy Siegel and Stacey Mills in the all gal 'Queen Tide' combo.
More recently, Colleen has knocked audiences dead with her contributions to The Figmentz ( Andy O'Donnell, Ken Vatcher, Dave Crowden, John Drews ) 'Celebration of Joe Cocker' and 'Soul Shakedown' spectaculars, both of which have wowed audiences and startled unsuspecting punters with their professionalism.
On top of that Colleen and Stacey now make very welcome regular guest appearances at Figz gigs.
If you Google Colleen Spillane you will come across numerous references, including a video of her brilliant performance at the 'Farewell to Mark Bolsius' show shortly before Mark, much to our dismay, moved on from Merimbula.
And as for Chris....................
Well we feel absolutely blessed to have a musician of Chris' calibre join the PBGB Family.
Chris lives in Sydney, but performs fairly regularly on the far South Coast, due to his friendships with so many top musos from around these here parts. Chris has been playing guitar since he was a little tacker. Epiphanous musical moments included being awe-struck by The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Martin Taylor and Australia's own Tommy Emmanuel. Such musicians inspired Chris to, as he says "get serious" about his music. Fascinated by harmonies and intrigued by the boundless possibilities of jazz, Chris knuckled down and went on to graduate from the Sydney Conservatorium with a Masters In Jazz Performance degree.
If you Google up Chris, you'll see that he is very comfortable playing across a range of musical genres.............jazz, blues, pop, and country. You'll note that Chris has gigged with some of Australia's finest talents, including Lloyd Swanton, Col Nolan, Laurie Bennett, Pugsley Buzzard, Sandy Evans and Nichaud Fitzgibbon.
Chris has featured at the Tamworth Festival, the Gympie Country Music Festival, and the Merimbula Jazz Festival, amongst many other prestigious gigs.
Chris released his debut cd "As I Hear It" in 2010, and is now working on a cd of his own compositions, forever burrowing deeper into the limitless joy that is music.
Chris has his own website, which includes a video in which Chris appears with Steve Clark at Sydney's premier jazz haunt, The Basement.
So...............are we stoked to welcome Colleen and Chris to the PBGB fold ?? You bet we are !!
Chris and Colleen recorded five songs in an afternoon in The Shed. Given they were able to reel off stonking versions of these songs in short order, we decided we would create a Special PBGB Project to house all five songs. Click on The Colleen Spillane and Chris Komorowski Special Project on the right hand side of this page to listen to their musical brilliance, and read a bit about each of the songs they performed.
Our heartfelt thanks go out to Chris and Colleen for coming on down to The Shed and sharing their brilliant musical chops with us. It was a fun afternoon, an absolute privilege to sit there and listen to these brilliant musicians perform at such a high standard. Their contributions to the PBGB oeuvre surely rank amongst the classiest recordings we have made.
Welcome to The PBGB Family Colleen and Chris! We hope you enjoyed your visit as much as we did, and that we can all look forward to seeing you in The Shed again.
