SUNDAY MUSICIANS:
Sunday May 4, 4pm JACK DAVIES & THE BUSH CHOOKS (WA)
Sunday May 11, 2.30pm - 5.30pm THE JAMES STREET PREACHERS
Sunday May 11, 4pm BRAD COX (SOLO)
MAY 4. JACK DAVIES & THE BUSH CHOOKS
Jack Davies is a celebrated West Australian songwriter, well known for his slick finger picking and rambling poetics. Performing both solo and with his alt folk outfit "The Bush Chooks", the young folk singer has built a dedicated national audience; releasing three records, taking home WA's best folk/songwriter act four years running, and touring to sold out rooms across the country.
From singing about Bunnings to mumbling poems of sorrow, Jack's songs like to laugh, poke and longingly stare at the world. Be sure not to miss this unique blend of spoken word, folk picking, sad singing and indi acoustic weirdery."
4pm kick off!
MAY 7 . NOT QUITE FOLK (OPEN MIC NIGHT)
Join us for the iconic, long running (coming up to 15 years!) NOT QUITE FOLK open mic night here at the pub hosted by Phil Levy.
All welcome, (just no Wonderwall or Under the Bridge covers and you’re good with us). Come in and ask for Phil at the side of stage to register. 6.30pm kick off!
Happening the first Wednesday of each month.
MAY 14. OFF-SITE w/ POKEY LA FARGE
Our favourite riverboat chic rock-n-roller Pokey LaFarge is back in Australia this May, this time with his band and ready to share his latest offering, Rhumba Country, serving up flavours of mambo, Tropicália, rocksteady, and mid-century American rock-and-roll.
It’s been six years since the Illinois-born singer songwriter embraced our southern shores, when he toured the country in 2019 with a then unknown, Sierra Ferrell.
After crisscrossing and rambling around the USA looking for a home, Pokey LaFarge found himself in Mid-Coast Maine ready to pursue a major life change. Pokey’s time of working 12-hour days on a local farm catalysed an extraordinary burst of creativity and redefined his sense of purpose as an artist. And now he has recorded and birthed his boldest album yet, ready to share with Australian fans.
Rhumba Country (2024, New West Records) was initially shaped from material that emerged while LaFarge was deep in work on the farm. “I’d be pushing a plow or scattering seeds, and the songs would just come to me,” he recalls. “It was tremendously inspirational and made me realize that apart from singing, farming is perhaps the oldest human art form.”
The result is a kaleidoscopic sound informed by LaFarge’s love of music from far-ranging eras and corners of the globe, celebrating life and love.
“The songs that naturally come to me are upbeat and make you wanna dance or at least bop your head—they’re all very colorful,” says LaFarge. “I used to think of my music in dark blue, but now I see it in technicolour.”
You’ve heard his music, you’ve seen him on the screen and stage, now it’s time to experience Pokey LaFarge and his band live with his rocksteady rhythms, country croon and soulful sounds gracing the stage at Bangalow's iconic A&I Hall, co presented with the Eltham Hotel team creating another memorable off-site event.
MAY 14. MONTHLY IRISH FOLK JAM
Guinness lives here all year and so do our beaut’ Irish folk friends. For around 18 months now, on the second Wednesday of each month, a bunch of local musicians gather round a few tables near the fire place for an evening of traditional folk music. Naturally the pints flow and the pubs abuzz with the sound of Ireland!
All welcome, as audience or to join the jigs. 5-8pm, every 2nd Wednesday of the month.
MAY 15. MARINA ALLEN (USA)
Known for her vivid songwriting, Los Angeles-based musician Marina Allen has ripened a rare harvest with her third studio album. Taking fragments and stories from Allenʼs past, Eight Pointed Star is an arrival home. She'll be bringing these dreamlike musings, each conjuring a world of their own, on tour across Australia this May!
This timeless collection of songs is a clear-eyed modern classic of alternative folk and Americana that holds a curiosity as open to you as you are to them. Itʼs an album about discovery, searching with the eight points of a compass; about hope, gazing at the emanations within the eight points of a North Star; and about ancestry, being comforted by the eight-pointed stitching patterns used in quilt-making. Full of little, radical acts, coming from a place of truth, Eight Pointed Star favors a type of soul-searching that doesnʼt dwell in complications, and is open to answers. Trust is the centrifuge around which themes of love, family and folklore unfurl across the album. Dust is kicked up from the red-scarred earth, and with it, an inexplicable calm settles over these nine songs.
MAY 18. BRAD COX (SOLO)
Brad Cox is back on the road for a short run of intimate, pop-up shows — solo, acoustic, and up close. This stripped-back set will see Brad road-testing brand new songs from his upcoming album, alongside the Coxy classics fans know and love.
No band, no big lights — just Brad, a guitar, and the stories behind the songs. Raw, honest, and straight from the heart.
These shows are strictly limited capacity — don’t miss out.
MAY 22. MONTHLY BLUEGRASS JAM
Bring your gee-tar, fiddle, or song singin’ voice, grab a pint and join Bobby and the gang for our new monthly bluegrass jam. All welcome!
June 8. JB PATERSON ALBUM LAUNCH
JB Paterson and his brilliant band of comrades finally return to The Eltham Hotel, celebrating the release of his new record, The Whole World’s Gone Mad, and So Have I - available exclusively on vinyl for now.
With several albums under his belt but only a dozen live shows with the band, JB now ventures into new territory with narrative-driven folk tunes that sound like they could’ve come from another time.
Supported by Beefheart and McQuinn.
JUNE 27. DIDIRRI & ROWENA WISE
Didirri and Rowena Wise are proud to announce their Australian "No Cure For Love" tour, presented by Beloved / Remote Control.
Celebrated for their individual artistry in the indie-folk scene, these two remarkable songwriters have come together to create something truly special. Didirri, known for his masterful storytelling and dynamic live performances, joins forces with Rowena Wise, whose crystalline vocals and delicate songs have earned her a devoted following across the country.
Their new collaborative single, "No Cure For Love", showcases the magical synergy between these two artists, weaving together Didirri's raw emotional depth with Rowena's ethereal melodies. This national tour sees them performing as a combined ensemble, presenting songs from their acclaimed debut records alongside solo works and collaborative pieces in a special extended set.
JULY 11. RUBY GILL
Award-winning songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ruby Gill returned with her long-awaited sophomore album, Some Kind of Control, on March 28, 2025. An anthemic, choir-laced, poetic epic featuring Angie McMahon, Annie-Rose Maloney, Hannah McKittrick and more, the album is, in Gill’s words, “looser, gayer, and even more raw.” To celebrate, she’s bringing its ten body-focused, politically rich, and deeply intimate songs on a national tour across Australia in 2025, performing in the country’s finest venues alongside some of our most exciting artists.
The Joburg-born, Naarm-based artist's first tour leg was a total sellout, lighting up packed rooms all along the East Coast. Now, she’s back with the second leg, hitting northern NSW and QLD—don’t miss your chance to catch her live.
Widely adored for her ability to stun a room into hear-a-pin-drop silence with unforgettably honest - and wryly humorous - offerings that can bring even the most cynical to tears, Ruby Gill has been turning heads and ears with 2018 single ‘Your Mum' (2018) which garnered millions of streams and a full add to triple j in its first week, and 'you should do this for a living' (2021) which earned Gill the title of triple j Unearthed Feature Artist, Internationally acclaimed debut album 'I'm gonna die with this frown on my face' (2022) was nominated for an Australian Music Prize and Best Folk Work at the Music Victoria Awards, and the Sunday Times' coveted 'Breaking Act.'
Now, the highly-anticipated Some Kind Of Control has landed with a resounding welcome, debuting on the ARIA charts at #26 in Australian Albums and #5 in Australian Country (Ruby thinks this is a bit random, but she'll take it), and garnering Double J's Feature Album, FAR OUT's Album of the Week, Rolling Stone's Best New Australian Music and charting radio support across the US, UK and Australia.
Over the next few months, Ruby Gill is ready to take her boldest work yet to the stage. Don’t miss her live in 2025.