Pulse: Quality Tex time for Huon Blues and Roots Festival

SHAUN McMANUS: Tex Perkins is anxious to get back to his roots when he plays in the Huon Valley this weekend.

Tex Perkins can’t wait to perform in the Huon Valley this weekend. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

AUSTRALIAN musical workhorse Tex Perkins has been performing since the 1980s, but the satisfaction he gets from a good gig remains as strong as ever — as does the fear in the build-up.

Perkins, accompanied by The Fat Rubber Band, will be the headline act at the Huon Blues and Roots Festival on Sunday.

While fire crews have been battling bushfires in the Huon Valley, organisers yesterday confirmed the festival would be going ahead because there was currently no threat in the vicinity of the venue, Home Hill Winery at Ranelagh.

Organiser Nic Orme said he hoped the event would be a morale-booster for the local community.

“We feel that if the event was to be cancelled, it’s just adding more pessimism to what’s been going on,” Orme said.

“We think it can be a bit of a relief for people to go to this event and hear some great bands [and] be in a great environment.

“If safety becomes a concern, then obviously that’s something that we will act upon straight away.”

He said people would be able to donate money towards Huon Valley volunteer firefighters at the Huon Blues and Roots Festival. The festival will also donate.

Over the past four decades, Perkins has played everything from pub rock with The Cruel Sea and experimental punk with Thug, to his recent lilting, dark country with the Dark Horses, not to mention taking on the role of Johnny Cash in The Man in Black.

While he is a true veteran, the versatile performer told Pulse he still gets the same fear today as when he first started out in music.

Tex Perkins can’t wait to perform in the Huon Valley this weekend. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

“I love doing it, but because I’m sort of going from one thing to the other, I never feel truly prepared,” Perkins said.

“I probably am, but I just have this sort of anxiety of like ‘F---ing hell, am I going to remember all those bits?’”

“It’s worth it, though.

“There’s nothing, apart from the love of my children, that gives me more joy than doing a good gig and the satisfaction that I get from that — it’s precious to me.’’

Perkins performed in Hobart last month at the Taste of Tasmania’s New Year’s Eve 1920s-style Speakeasy Ball, and he is looking forward to returning to the state with The Fat Rubber Band.

He said fans could expect “some cranking, cracking swamp blues groove” this time around.

“[It’s] with Matt Walker, who is one of Australia’s true bluesmen,” Perkins said.

“I’ve known Matt for about 20 years, but I’ve only been fortunate enough to work with him over the last few years.”

The band members are currently working on an album.

‘It’s a collision of folk music with distorted fuzz guitar rock and roll, essentially those two elements,” Perkins said.

Tex Perkins and The Fat Rubber Band will be joined by Jeff Martin, Jeff Lang, the Pierce Brothers, Pete Cornelius and Monique Brumby at the Huon Blues and Roots Festival at Ranelagh on Sunday.

General admission tickets are $81.09, available from moshtix.com.au