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If David Byrne is one of the geniuses of modern times, then Start Making Sense is a tribute to genius. The musicians in this 7-10 piece Talking Heads Tribute take pride in faithfully recreating the music of Talking Heads entire career. Together they bring much of the Heads unique live show to the stage, with front man Jon Braun as a spot-on David Byrne, giving you a "once in a lifetime" experience. Prepare yourself for a rockin', funkin', danceable celebration of the new-wave art punk you loved from the 80's !!!

These words are particularly apt when applied to The Weeping Willows’ second album, Before Darkness Comes A-Callin’. Recorded in Los Angeles with multiple Grammy winner, Ryan Freeland and a small cast of players hand-picked to leave all the right gaps and spaces, this record should be received as a mature, melancholic sequel to their debut. But listen a little harder and you’ll hear that the record is filled with that all of that wonder, magic and joy of which Nick Cave speaks.

That’s hardly surprising because, in a way, every song penned by The Weeping Willows is a love song. They’d deny that, of course. These tracks, they’d claim, are works of imagination – tales of cruelty, tragedy, murder and betrayal, all populated by gamblers, sinners, infidels and travelling salesmen (read: wandering musicians). Ask Andy or Laura to define their work and they’d probably hit you with phrases like “cautionary tales”, “murder ballads” or simply “folk songs”, but in truth these are love songs – each and every one of them.

How are they love songs, you ask? Because The Weeping Willows are lovers – they are devoted to each other and to the life of the artist in seemingly equal measure. Have you seen them perform together? Have you seen the knowing glances they exchange as they harmonise their eerie, at times surreal lyrics over Andy’s patient, timeless ¾ strum? Think back to those performances, those moments of chemistry in its purist form, then try to convince yourself that The Weeping Willows were not singing a love song. Every note plucked or sung by Andy and Laura is a work of love. Every dark hour spent huddled together refining their sound in the dimly-lit backroom of their home on the Southern outskirts of Melbourne is a labour of love.

Even when Andy and Laura are warning of the Valley Of Darkness (where your soul will be skinned alive!!), the mysterious The Pale Rider (who’s unearthly eyes are, of course, looking for them), or the treacherous Devil’s Road (which a dark crow watches over ominously from the old smoke stack), there is love (and a wry sense of humour) in abundance. In Travellin’ Man, a song co-written with Lachlan Bryan, the love addressed more directly, but tempered by the realities of life as an itinerant musician (realities that, fortunately for them, Andy and Laura manage to eschew in real life).

So what does this all mean for we the listeners and the viewers (or perhaps the voyeurs is more apt in this case)? The answer is integrity – there’s an inherent truthfulness, perhaps even a righteousness, in every recording and performance by The Weeping Willows. They themselves can’t help it – for when music is born of love it is unflinchingly honest – even if the words are entirely fictional. This integrity is the reason The Willows can play almost every week of the year, often three or four times, winning over new fans and loyal friends wherever they go. It’s the reason they turn up on more festival bills than just about any other local act, and it’s the reason they end up opening for the likes of Bill Chambers, Shane Nicholson and even songwriting legend Iris Dement.

Darkness may be at the heart of The Weeping Willows’ new record, but there is love at the core – and with that love comes a sincerity and artfulness that listeners will cherish for a long time to come.

CMAT, who had aspirations to become a professional musician from a young age, relocated to Manchester, England, to pursue a career in music with her then boyfriend, performing together as Bad Sea. She has since described their relationship as toxic and isolating, and she stopped pursuing a music career, living a partying lifestyle. She attended an in-person listening session at a London studio with the English electropop singer Charli XCX, who advised CMAT to reimagine her approach.

Breaking up with her boyfriend and returning to Ireland, she began self-releasing her music online to considerable attention and received radio play from RTÉ Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6 Music. Her debut studio album If My Wife New I'd Be Dead was released in February 2022. Metacritic, which aggregates review scores, gives the album a score of 85 based on 9 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Hot Press magazine wrote that the album was "undoubtedly one of the most thrilling Irish pop debuts of the century".[16] In a four-star review, DIY wrote, "If My Wife New... feels like a more well-rounded, modern proposition than one solely indebted to the oldest style going could suggest." The album entered the Irish Albums Chart at number one. In June 2022, she released a single called "Peter Bogdanovich", which came with a music video which featured CMAT dressing as the late director. On 19 August 2022, "Peter Bogdanovich" charted at number 20 on the Irish Homegrown Top 20. In March 2023, If My Wife New I'd Be Dead won the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year.

In June 2023, CMAT announced her next studio album, Crazymad, for Me, which was released in October 2023. Like her previous album, this album debuted at number one on the Irish Albums Chart. Her album was later nominated for the Best Album Ivor Novello Award on Thursday 23 May 2024.

CMAT has been noted for her large fanbase among Irish LGBTQ+ people, once telling an NME interviewer "I'm making music for the girls and the gays, and that's it."

In May 2024, the BBC were forced to disable comments on a video on its Instagram page of CMAT's performance at the Radio 1 Big Weekend festival, following a spate of comments labelled "fat-shaming." Later that month, CMAT pulled out of a performance at that summer's Latitude Festival due to the festival's sponsorship by Barclays, and the company's financial involvement in the Israel-Hamas war.

(born 1952) is an Australian guitarist-songwriter. From 1977 to 1981 was a member of The Sports and from 1986 to 1988 he joined Slaughtermen. He has undertaken other projects and issued four solo albums. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1993, Pendlebury's solo work, Don't Hold Back That Feeling, won the ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album. From 2003 he has been a member of The Mercurials.