Page 7. Composing and recording since the COVID Years: Geoff McArthur, David Sullivan, The Hardies Hillbillies and the Greenshed Anthology.
COVID lockdowns from 2020-22 put a stop to a lot of band-related stuff. Gigs were off the table and even getting together for rehearsals. However, recording Jack’s originals and some of Geoff McArthur’s with Angie Browning’s Greenshed Boys has prompted several of my muso colleagues to write our own. Don, Oz and I wrote for the Avengers albums “50 Years On” and “Game Over”. Bruce Schmidt wrote some for the Surf Shadows “Living in a Surf Shadow”. Digital recording gave us the ability to send recordings of our parts in various outfits around to each other for mixing centrally, often at the Greenshed.
Geoff McArthur
I’ve mentioned Geoff’s songwriting and playing previously. Geoff and I collaborated to record some of his songs at the Greenshed before Geoff developed his own recording capacity. Geoff’s songs have been played by several bands and others. He has a rare talent as a songwriter and player.
David Sullivan
Bruce Schmidt introduced me to David Sullivan. David is a singer songwriter who has written several country songs, and who wanted to record them. Recording is new to David, and he’s a quick learner. Over the past 3 years, David has come to the Greenshed with a few new songs each year, and Bruce and I have helped him to get them down. Our process has been for David to send me through a demo, I’ll select a drum backing and he’ll record his guitar and vocal over it. Then we’ll decide what else could go on, eg Bruce adding an instrument or two, me adding a bass and maybe backing vocal. Recently David has brought his daughter, Felicity, and son, Stuart, along to sing harmonies. David is maybe looking to have enough songs for an album for friends and family-as at August 2024 we had 10 recorded. David’s very impressive album was produced in 2025, with photos and graphic design by his family members.
The Infusers
Linda, (remember Linda from Electric Fence, and, incidentally, she’s my wife) and Bruce Schmidt worked with a group of Uni people who decided to form a staff band to play at break ups and wherever. They called themselves “The T-Bag Recommendations”, but found out about the contemporary connotations of T-bags in modern culture and changed their name to The Infusers. Bruce (guitar and mandolin mainly) and Linda (vocal and percussion) were joined by Tanya Wiggins (vocal, guitar, ukulele and banjo), Anna Morton (vocal and percussion) and Rob Davis (bass). The Infusers rehearsed in the Greenshed and I recorded a few of their songs in 2017.
The Hardies Hillbillies
A group of people living out of Buninyong (one of the addresses being Hardies Hill Road) formed a bluegrass-style group and asked me to record them with a view to having a demo disc to help with getting gigs. Tanya and Bruce, from the aforementioned Infusers, are joined by Martin Scuffins (fiddle, banjo, vocal), Geoff McArthur (who has been also mentioned before) and Talia Barrett (double bass). The recordings were live in the Greenshed. I could listen to Tanya’s strong country/bluegrass vocal any time, and the Hillbillies are very good musicians. Tanya and Talia provide very good close harmonies.
The Greenshed Anthology–composing and recording
I guess I had an interest in writing my own songs since the 1960’s, but didn’t do much about it. The first song I wrote was “Why’d It Have To Be Me”, circa 1964. It didn’t get any further than the family lounge room. The current Avengers recorded it in 2023. You can find it in my “Mildura Collection” as part of the Greenshed Anthology. I wrote a few songs for the Avengers albums, and, with COVID lockdown and isolation, saw the opportunity to take my songwriting further. This resulted in several recordings where I would write the song, put together a drum and maybe keyboard accompaniment, add my bass and vocals then invite others (eg Oz, Don, Bruce Schmidt, John Ducardus, Geoff McArthur, Fran Silvester and James Cox) to record their parts remotely and send them to me for mixing. This resulted in collections called “Isolation Project 2020 Part 1″, “Isolation Project Part 2” and “Lockdown Music 2021 and 2022”.
In 2023 I began writing more and more for different instruments, eg orchestral instruments such as strings, brass and woodwind. This was prompted by reading how Paul McCartney and George Martin wrote the cello backing for “Eleanor Rigby”. My process would often be to start with a bass line, develop a chord sequence to go with it (I use EzyKeys to try the chords out and add a keyboard line if I want it, and add drums or percussion using EzyDrummer). The chord sequence would often suggest a melody that I would score using Steinberg Dorico. As I’ve grown more confident writing scores, I’ve been able to use the score to export MIDI files into Cubase where I can use Halion or Spitfire LABS to play them as selected instruments. I’ll then add vocals and a final bass (either playing live or by writing a score) and whatever background effects.
Greenshed Music 