Dinny O'brien
30/11/1941- 15/12/2021

Worked on most stations in Australia from the age of 11...cattle drives before road trains...mustering, horse breaking, drover, farmhand, fencer, camp cook, powder monkey, buffalo wrangler... A razor sharp wit...a photographic memory...as tough as they come... childish, volatile, proud and solitary...a burner of bridges...the true gentleman with kids, dogs and horses...a short fuse, a perfect storm of anger... A wordsmith... his writings portrayed a kind and compassionate understanding of life and an unwavering relationship with his own truth and his maker... and a profound, almost defiant acceptance with his own destiny... ...He would say.."my word is as good as the people I give it to.....and there's a 50 per cent chance I'm telling the truth and they're pretty good odds".... ...And so a chance meeting decades ago...Christmas Wandiligong valley, Simon and Dinny drinking and playing swapping songs and stories...a meeting of opposites in harmony and an agreement that everything is negotiable always..... ....Dinny approved of Simons approach to his lyrics ...a difficult passage sometimes and seamless at others ...but the collaboration remained true to the story telling....at times years without speaking, at others, manic communication everyday proving the work to be real to both... ......after Dinny's death in december '21 there remained an unfinished business, to make an album of this collaboration, a musical landscape for the words of this man....."East of Lonely".... like a waltz through country...

Simon Curphey - Vocals/Guitars/Keyboards. Marcus Satchell - Bass/Saxophones/Hammond/Congas/Backing Vocals. Peter Heir ''Hairy'' - Drums/Percussion/Guitar.

Bruce ''Babs'' Clark - Percussion. Ivan Khatchoyan - Percussion. Ros Jones - Trombone. Declan Jones - Trumpet. Ben Grayson - Hammond. Paul McAuslan - Saxophone.

Lyrics: Simon Curphey - Tracks 1,3,4,5,7,11&12
Dinny O'Brien - Tracks 2,6,8,9&10

All music by Simon Curphey. Contact Simon if you would like a physical copy of this Album

The idea was to get a few great players together (Marcus Satchell – Bass, Scott Lambie -Drums, Sam Keevers – Keyboards) to join me for a recording session and just see what happens. We recorded mostly one-takers in a 4-hour period at Charlie Horse Studios (Phillip Island Australia). It quickly became obvious to me that this particular combination of musicians had a very special sensitivity when it came to interpreting these songs… the seeds had been sown.

Next, we flew in Kintsho Tshabalala from South Africa (percussion and bass) especially for the session. He immediately picked up on our vibe and began to weave his magic throughout the whole album. We were equally as blessed to have the opportunity to work with one of Australia’s most in-demand session singers, the brilliant and gorgeous Susie Ahern.

Through Kintsho we were introduced to Don Nadi. Don came in at a post-production stage and was responsible for programming extra percussion, keyboards, mixing, mastering, and co-producing the album. The great George Butrumlis (piano accordion) beautifully captured the loneliness in ‘Sailor’. Zenzile Tshabalala (Vocals) brought a piece of Africa to ‘More’ and Cosi (Paul McAuslan) brought along his cool self, his sax and his Jack Daniels.

This project wouldn’t have been possible without AgentKAOS (Jack Curphey, who not only executive produced the making of this album but was a constant and unrelenting force of nature in all matters, technical, musical, and spiritual. I added my bits, guitar, and vocals and this is what we came up with.

Simon Curphey, 2013

Words & Music by: Simon Curphey except 'Message' Lyrics: Simon Curphey & Dinny O'Brien (track 3)

Contact Simon if you would like a physical copy of this Album

Simon Curphey - Guitar/Keys/Vocals. Peter Cook - Bass. Frank Crescenzio - Drums. Marcus ''Eddy'' Satchell - Saxophone. Ree Liddell - B/Vocals. Maureen Alford - B/Vocals. Bruce ''Babs'' Clark - Percussion. Ros Jones - Horns. Declan Jones - Horns.

All Music by Simon Curphey. Lyrics by Simon Curphey - Tracks 1,3,4,5,7,8,10 Lyrics by Dinny O'Brien - Tracks 2,6,9

Contact Simon if you would like a physical copy of this Album

We were booked to play at a wedding at the Cape Surf Club at 8.30 pm. The reception must have been early cause by the time we got there, the D.J. was playing and the crowd had been drinking for hours and had hit the redline...Sam Keevers, the keyboard player was a friend of Scott Lambie, the drummer, who had just come down to see Scott for some downtime at the beach. I had never met Sam but he was the coolest player i'd ever seen, so cool he didn't even talk to me...after the first set he came up to me and called me a motherfucker. He was a big bastard so my plan was to go in low, get him on the ground and work him over, but Marcus Satchell, the bass player, told me that motherfucker was a good thing in jazzhead talk...the vibe was great and Billy Cleeland recorded the night... that motherfucker sure can play!