Howard family in Tamworth 2013

Family harmony unites Howards

Warrnambool Standard Jan 17th, 2013- ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard  2013.  All rights reserved
 

THE Howard Family is bound for Tamworth again next week for the 41st Tamworth Country Music Festival. The band, which includes Marcia, Damian and Shane Howard, will appear together in one show only during the festival at The Family Hotel on Wednesday. Individually the siblings are well-established artists, with Marcia and Shane having performed at the festival as part of Goanna in the 1980s, while Damian’s band The Ploughboys will hold their own show at Tamworth next week. The musical family, originally from Dennington, has been playing together all their lives, Marcia said. “It’s great to get together and play together, it’s lovely,” she told Offbeat. “I’ve played with Shane in Goanna for years and on his  solo albums, and I’ve played with Damian for lots of years as the first keyboard player in the Ploughboys. “The harmonies are beautiful and we all write our own songs and play them too. “A lot of it has a family theme because we’re a family and we’ve all got our own families. “When we get together at Christmas we still have a good old singing session.” She said the family band performed at last year’s 40th anniversary festival at Tamworth, joined on stage by friends Troy Cassar-Daley, Sara Storer, Pete Denahy and Dobe Newton. “It was great,” Marcia said. “I hadn’t done Tamworth for years before that. “Shane and I had done it in the Goanna days in the ’80s but it has changed a lot since the early days. “It’s a pretty amazing festival. “It’s very different (from Port Fairy) because the folk festival employs acts and books them to come, but at Tamworth the venues are spread all over town and each artist does their own. “The mall in the main street has buskers everywhere, lots of people playing songs trying to get a break. You have to put on your own shows and create your own venues. “I know a lot of the musos up there and Damian has been going every year. “As a world country music festival it’s got a good reputation

Shane, Damian and Marcia Howard are headed back to Tamworth for a one-off performance.

South West TAFE music archive