A ‘rainbird’ refers to a bird that ‘sings or predicts rain’ and coming from Tassie and its unpredictable weather it seems an appropriate name association for this singing Tasmanian son.
Brodie Rainbird of the country rock band Wolfe Brothers is still always eager to return home to Tasmania, (whatever the weather), after a trip overseas, or from the mainland because it is ‘where we grew up’ and he craves that ‘thick clean air’ that hits you in the face when you get off the plane. Brodie says Hobart is a nice place to live, it’s quiet and a haven from the traffic congestion of the mainland.
The story of the Wolfe brothers forming their band stretches back to school days when all the boys lived on the same rural road. They all caught the bus to school together, where they would talk about their dreams. An interesting bit of competition from the early days would be the boys racing to the back of the bus to get their choice of music into the player. In those days it was the heavy metal of ‘Guns and Roses’ and’ Metallica’ that was the music of choice. Brodie and Nick shared the same musical class at school and Tom and Casey were in another music class and performed in a heavy metal band.
Later, sitting in Nick’s lounge room the boys would watch a Jon Bon Jovi DVD and dared to dream they too could one day make such a DVD. Now, that dream doesn’t seem that far off, nor does winning a golden guitar with four nominations already under their belts.
The boys, once they were a band, did gigs all over including at rodeos. Nowadays the boys aren’t complaining about the necessary trips away from Tassie to tour with country legend Lee Kernaghan. Lee was looking to freshen up his band and couldn’t look past the boys from Tassie, with their new brand of country rock. The boys continue to tour with Lee as his official band and Brodie can see that going on for some time yet as Lee has become a ‘mate’ to them all. The boys have great respect for Lee, who they remember seeing on television shows such as ‘Hey, Hey It’s Saturday’ and impressed them with how he used his celebrity position, to help people.
The new album ‘Nothin’ but Trouble’ will have something for all musical tastes and the boys promise some surprises. The album features music which deals with issues such as making mistakes and takes some inspiration from Keith Urban’s ‘Golden Road’ which features ‘a different kind of country’.
See The Wolfe Brothers at Sorell Hall on September 20th.
The new album ‘Nothin’ but Trouble’ will be released on September 5.
Paula Xiberras
