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And why shouldn't Australia take up the banner of happy-go-lucky 'country' rock? The Laughing Outlaw's roster is large enough, after all. Now we've got The Long Weekend to add to the list of wannabes. This group is really a duo - Andrew Tragardh on vocals and guitar and Jackie Moffatt on guitar, vocals and harmonium. Where they are different from groups like The Cash Brothers is that they inject more heart and passion into their arrangements. Witness second track in, So Clearly, which starts with delightful filigree guitar before building into a lovely, rocking track that really sparkles, or Holy Night, with its brooding harmonium and scraped guitar that takes Andrew and Jackie into folk territory. Indeed, much of their work reminds me of the kind of stuff that Island Records was producing in the late sixties/early seventies, a folk-rock melange for the 21st century. This definitely gets better the more you play it, revealing hidden depths. One depth is Jackie's voice; it is not used as a lead instrument, more it acts as a counterfoil to Andrew's more traditional vocalising.

John Stacey
CWAS #13 - Autumn 2003

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