Ian Moss and Troy Cassar-Daley open up about 2022’s Together Alone tour
Australian guitar masters Troy Cassar-Daley and Ian Moss speak to Review about their mutual respect and their extensive national tour in 2022.
On a Wednesday afternoon at an inner-city music venue in the Queensland capital, two Australian guitar heroes are sitting and strumming side-by-side on stage inside an empty room that usually accommodates 800 people.
Ian Moss and Troy Cassar-Daley are in the middle of a production rehearsal, checking their gear and running through a few songs ahead of an extensive national tour titled Together Alone, which will see the pair play 31 dates across eight months next year.
Cassar-Daley is one of the most esteemed and awarded singer-songwriters in Australian country music history, with 37 Golden Guitars to his name. While he’s much more than just another open-chord country strummer, his guitar talents aren’t quite as well known as the man sitting next to him.
Moss’s six-string heroics are much more established, first with his scorching lead guitar playing and occasional lead vocals with Cold Chisel, then with his solo career, which began in 1989 with his chart-topping debut album Matchbox.
It’s mid-July, and while Cassar-Daley is only a few kilometres away from his home on the southern side of the Brisbane River, Moss presently finds himself marooned in the Sunshine State, cut off from his family in Sydney, as Covid cases spike across NSW.
That outbreak will soon precipitate a 15-week lockdown that will force the duo’s tour plans to be rescheduled into the new year, like so many of their peers.
A few days prior, though, both musicians had performed for about 3000 people at a far-flung and unlikely concert locale: the showgrounds in Dirranbandi, a small town near the NSW border in southwest Queensland.
Although they didn’t play together on that show – a mini festival headlined by Paul Kelly and his band as a fundraiser for agricultural studies students at the local high school – Cassar-Daley watched and listened keenly from side of stage as Moss performed a towering solo acoustic set, where he skilfully mixed his own material with crowd favourites from Cold Chisel’s much-loved catalogue.
Although they’ve co-written songs together – most recently a track named South for Cassar-Daley’s ARIA Award-winning album The World Today, released earlier this year – their upcoming tour will contain several firsts for two men who’ve both been in the public eye for much of their lives.
“It’s the dream ticket, isn’t it?” says Cold Chisel songwriter and pianist Don Walker, who has worked closely with both musicians.
“They’re two guys who’ve got the same skill set; they are each great singers, great guitar players and great songwriters. They’ll have a lot of fun, and people watching them will have even more fun.
“I’m sure they’ll be doing a lot of guitar-playing showing off,” says Walker with a smirk. “But the thing with these two guys, they’re not just guitar-slingers; I would say the main thing about them is that they’re two of the best singers in the country.”
During a break in their rehearsals in July, Review sat down with the two musicians for a chat in The Triffid’s beer garden.
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CASSAR-DALEY: I’ve never played with another acoustic player and singer like this, so it’s been pretty interesting to meet in the middle on it, hey?
MOSS: Neither have I.
REVIEW: I’m a little surprised to hear that from you, Troy. Even in the country scene, you’ve never had a duo set up?
C-D: Well, I started in cover bands, like a lot of us do. And then the only time acoustic guitar gigs came along was when you were opening up for other artists on your way through the early parts of your career. That’s all you can afford, because you got paid your 200 or 250 bucks per performance to do an opening for Gina Jeffreys or someone in your own genre. It was a necessity to play it by yourself, otherwise you were going to be broke when you got home.
So it was learning to accompany yourself, which we all had to learn, early in the piece. It became a good tool, but then later on in life, it’s good to break from the band every now and then to give yourself a chance to express yourself by how you play on acoustic. I love watching Ian’s gigs for that alone; when we were in Dirranbandi the other night … I mean, if you can hold a crowd on acoustic guitar and singing, that’s the goal. That definitely is the goal, and it’s definitely not easy.
MOSS: It’s one of those things you slowly and slowly get more and more comfortable with. I remember the first time I went solo, it was actually on electric (guitar), and standing. It was just one of those stupid things: you knew you were solo, but you’re f..kin’ nervous as all f..k. And then you start playing and you think, “F..k, where’s the band?” You’re just so under the microscope. You’re completely exposed. There’s no noise to hide behind, no other musicians. I’m still learning.
C-D: We’re all still learning, I reckon. I am. But Ian’s world is electric guitar – that’s where he’s come from. But then to stand there by yourself with an electric guitar? Oh, Jesus, I’d find that so intimidating. (Hoots with laughter)
MOSS: Yeah, you can’t really get any percussion thing going. With acoustic, even if you don’t have a stompbox, there’s still a fair bit in the heel of your hand on the guitar.
C-D: Even by himself, Ian – when he was hitting his guitar the other day, he had this heel-finger pattern going that sounded like a drum kit. That’s just craft. It takes a while to work up the confidence to actually play like that, especially getting your co-ordination when you’ve got to foot-stomp, too. But I think it’s great the way it’s graduated from what he’s done with the band thing, and then going into the acoustic world. That’s a big step, I reckon. But to be able to hold the crowd like the other night? That’s the challenge. Everyone sets their challenges. I get as nervous as shit at any one-hour acoustic gigs. Always have.
REV: What’s the genesis of this idea, where you’re on stage together for about two hours?
MOSS: It probably would have been instigated from the songwriting. I’m always looking for people to write with, so you’re looking around for the great songwriters, and you’ve got one of the greatest in this country right here. (Gestures at Cassar-Daley) Then as we were putting the demos down, we thought, “Shit, we actually sound pretty good together.”
C-D: I hadn’t written with Ian either, but as he was coming across town, he left his guitar at the motel and called me to say he’ll have to go back and get it. I said, “Mate, there’s probably enough guitars at my place to last you a lifetime, so keep coming”. Instead of setting up on the acoustic guitars, I set up two little electric rigs. I chucked him on my favourite Strat (Fender Stratocaster), and put him through a little set of pedals.
It was just lovely to be able to sit and play for the first few minutes, and then it turned into an hour, of just running through some riff things. Ian sounds like Ian no matter what he’s plugged in to, which is great; it’s in the hands. Not having written together, too, you’ve got to start somewhere – but it’s better to start comfortably, where it sounds like it should.
A lot of people don’t realise that you can’t just jump on a couple of acoustics and look at each other and go, “What are we doing?” You’ve got to actually have some riffs and things started, to get you inspired enough to start playing.
I think that’s why this feels really natural. Ian’s got the taste, because he’s got stacks more experience than me when it comes to how songs go. That’s what complements people when they play together, you know? Knowing when to play and when not to play.
MOSS: When not to play: that’s the hardest part. Sometimes you think, “It’s all happening here, right now, so I don’t need to interfere with that”.
REV: I saw a bit of that interplay earlier, when Ian was playing through (the Cold Chisel song) Flame Trees, and Troy was sitting there a bit like, “Shit, what do I do here? It’s perfect as-is.”
C-D: When I first moved to Sydney and was playing in three-piece bands, I had an old bass player mate who said, “If in doubt, shut up”. (Laughs) It was the best bit of advice I ever got. The way Ian does Flame Trees is not the normal way; it’s Ian’s way. You don’t want to f..k with it.
When there’s a chord that you can set underneath it, that’ll give it a lift where it needs it, or a chorus line I can chuck a harmony on, I’ll step up and have a go. But that’s not until the song’s almost half over. That’s the trick. That’s where the specialness comes from: leaving things be! (Cackles) I don’t know about you, Ian, but there’s a lot of players I’ve played with who are very busy, and they don’t know when to stop. That’s a skill to lose real quick.
REV: What are you most looking forward to with these shows, where it’s just two voices and two guitars?
C-D: I think you’re able to explore lyrics a lot more when you hear this format. I appreciated (Ian’s song) Tucker’s Daughter more; I appreciated Out of the Fire more. I’ve always loved the songs, but when you hear them done with just a guitar and a vocal, it reminds you of the day they were written, and how they fall out innocently, without any backing track or rhythm section. It does open up the lyrics a lot more.
Even when I hear (the Cold Chisel song) Bow River: it’s got its own magic when it’s scooting through with the whole band, but it also has this incredible magic when it’s broken down. When I hear it done like this, I think it takes on another level of lyrical beauty. That’s what I think people will probably enjoy more about this show than anything.
MOSS:The acoustic thing became a trendy thing to do in about 2003 or 2005, to go “unplugged”, and then suddenly we were all doing acoustic shows. I was getting people coming up to me going, “Shit, I knew you could sing …”
C-D: But they’d probably never heard Bow River exposed like that, right?
MOSS: Yeah, it had always been buried in something, and there were other distractions. But that’s the beauty of when there’s no band, you think, “How am I going to play this shit?” It forces you to re-look at the lyrics, and find new meanings. That new way to express them might have been connecting with people, and got people to connect in different ways with the song properly, maybe for the first time ever, because there’s not all this other music going on.
It’s just a voice and guitar. All you’ve got in a folk song is the lyric, the story and the meaning, and your job is to really get that story across. Not just singing a bunch of words, but finding a way to convey it and get the meaning of the story.
C-D: Ian’s got this wonderful, deep catalogue of things that he can dig out at any given time. Your list is longer than a mother-in-law’s visit, isn’t it? (Laughs)
I looked at (his setlist) on the floor and I’m going, “Holy shit, he’s got some songs, this guy!” (Ian’s 2018 track) Broadway is a gorgeous song. It’s a masterpiece; just beautiful.
MOSS: Well, a few more of those would be good. He’s got a ton of ’em. (Gestures at Troy, then starts counting on his fingers.) I’ve got Bow River, Broadway … and Bow River. Oh no, I’ve said that. (Both laugh)
(Told of this comment, Don Walker says: “I think Ian’s his own harshest critic. I think he should believe in himself as much as other people do.”)
C-D: There’s a lot more! You’re being very hard on yourself.
MOSS: I’ve got a lot of help, haven’t I, being able to dig into the Chisel catalogue?
C-D: Yeah, but the good thing is you can just call them at will and take the listener on another little trip. They might go, “I remember singing this pissed when I was a kid, but I haven’t listened to how it is when you break it down”. You’ve got songs from that era, and then you’ve got the Matchbook era too. They’re big pop hits, and you break them down on an acoustic and they become something else. People will be surprised.
MOSS: Well, the adage is, if it sounds great on acoustic with one bloke singing it, it’s going to sound fantastic when you do it up in production. But if it’s not good there, and you think, “Oh, we’ll just take it in the studio, and we’ll put brass on …”
C-D: And polish it?
MOSS: Yeah, that turd’s always going to be a turd.
C-D: No matter how much reverb you put on it. (Both laugh)
The duo’s 31-date Together Alone national tour begins next year in Warragul, Victoria on March 3 and ends in Alice Springs, Northern Territory on October 8.
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