Tommy Tuddy and Mick

Warrnambool Standard April 10th 2014
Local trio takes out inaugural award
FIRST there was Tommy and Tuddy. Then there was Tommy, Tuddy and Mick. Now the trio have added the 2014 Koroit Irish Festival artist of the year award to their esteemed and lengthy musical careers. It is the first time the artist of the year has been awarded and it will be presented prior to the Australian Danny Boy Championship final on Saturday, April 26. The trio, already legends of the Koroit music scene, are thrilled to receive the honour. Tommy Brooks and Frank “Tuddy” Bowman have been playing music together for about 50 years while the youngster of the trio, Irishman Michael Morgan, joined them in 1997.Brooks, 72, said all three felt very surprised to receive the award but very proud to have been chosen. “Music expresses the better side of everybody when you are up singing. People can relate to what you are doing,” Brooks said.The trio rarely set time to rehearse but incorporate new songs after hearing them in a type of organic process. “We just perform,” Brooks said. He said the Koroit Irish Festival committee had done “a brilliant job” in lifting Koroit’s profile on the music festival calendar. “It’s a credit to the committee to get a little town like Koroit up and going.” Both Brooks and Bowman are born-and-bred locals and have never played in any other musical group. They specialise in Irish and Australian country music and are regular performers at Koroit hotels and clubs and some other south-west venues. Morgan was roped into the group about 1997 after the other two heard of his talents as a harmonica player and singer.