Cruel Alibis

Mustered Courage think the lead single from their forthcoming second album is one of their darkest tunes yet. A story about separation of friendship, written from the perspective of a couple losing their love, ‘Cruel Alibis’ is really about the things we say when the truth is too brutal; the art of carefully avoiding hurtful reasons but still managing to wound the target anyway.

Mustered Courage is Nick Keeling (Lead Vocals/Banjo), Julian Abrahams (Vocals/Guitar), Josh Bridges (Vocals/Bass), Paddy Montgomery (Mandolin).

Opening up like a beautifully rendered acoustic r’n’b torch song, Nick Keeling’s crystalline vocals intimate and warm, perfectly Cruel Alibis quickly amps up into a fully-fledged finger-picking showcase, deftly swamped in three-part harmonies. Extraordinary really, considering ex-pat Texan and banjo maestro Nick Keeling and Julian Abrahams [vocals/guitar] starting performing together in a hip hop band while studying jazz in Canberra. Julian claims to have had “no f**king idea” what a Texan would be doing studying jazz in Canberra, of all places, and ten years into their friendship is still none the wiser.

Nick admits to a liking for bluegrass in his earlier years – his uncle actually played banjo in a group called the Geezinslaw Brothers who played opened for Elvis and played on American bandstand and Jonny Carson in the 60s – but was distracted by soul, r‘n’b, metal, hip hop, funk, Steely Dan, country, and trombone along the way. It wasn’t until Nick and Julian both moved to Melbourne in 2009, and Julian came by a “piece of ****” mandolin, that their hip hop band gave way to the “random concept of starting a bluegrass band.” As Julian taught himself mandolin and Nick picked up a banjo, the idea took deeper root. They decided to write a record straight away, having done no shows and having no actual band.

The result surprised them so much they swiftly recruited two more players and started booking themselves gigs. A few months later, indie label Laughing Outlaw came knocking and together they released their debut album., in Sept 2011,

Now, Mustered Courage is a bonafide bluegrass quartet, Nick and Julian having hit the jackpot with ex-Woohoo Revue member Josh Bridges [vocals/bass] and “musical freak” Paddy Montgomery [who has relieved Julian of his pre-production mandolin duties]. Josh, like Nick, started out on trombone, before he switched to the much “cooler” bass guitar, playing rock, funk, jazz and Latin, and spending time in Brasil studying cavaquinho (Brazilian ukelele). Upon his return ex-flatmate Julian had started Mustered Courage and Josh was hooked. Paddy, they found, not surprisingly, at a pickers night at the much-loved Old Bar in Melbourne. Depending which band member you quiz, Paddy is either a “musical” genius” or a “musical freak” which no matter how you look at it is pretty good. Allegedly a scruffy, left-handed Adelaide boy, Paddy, despite being of Irish descent, inexplicably speaks fluent Greek and plays bazouki, guitar, Oud and more. Bit crazy.

There’s no doubting that Mustered Courage’s eponymous debut album [2011] got everyone talking bluegrass. The album debuted as ‘Album of the Week’ on ABC Radio Australia, received a 4-star review in The Herald Sun and 3.5 stars in both The Age and Sydney Morning Herald and garnered airplay on triple j, PBS, RRR and community radio around Australia.

2012 whipped by in a blur as Mustered Courage took their maiden voyage to the Tamworth Country Music Festival where the act played 30 gigs in ten days as well as gaining first place in the Coca Cola Battle of the Bands. Throughout the ten day festival they were without a doubt the buzz band of the festival, with the Queen of Country Melinda Schnieder saying, “If there is one act you have to see it’s Mustered Courage.” Evidently, it was an opinion shared: the band punctuated mid-2012 with picking up the Musicoz Award for Country Act of the