Tea and Music - The Wishlist

On the morning of Tuesday 4 June, and as part of the Live! Queensland Band Culture exhibition program, State Library presented a special Queensland Week event, as part of its regular Tea and Music series. The event featured the exceptional talents of multi-instrumentalist and folk singer Nicole Murray and renowned Scottish fiddler Emma Nixon, who together are the 'fiddlesingers' of The Wishlist. Through a program of stories and songs, Emma and Nicole presented 'The Secret history of Queensland' and welcomed a special musical collaborator - Rebecca Wright, well-known folk 'cellosinger' who with her husband Donald McKay form the traditional Scottish music duo Wright and Mackay.

Nicole, Emma and Rebecca are all Queenslanders with strong Scottish connections. Winner of three Golden Fiddle Awards and joint recipient of the National Folk Fellowship 2012, Emma is a Scottish fiddle music specialist, and founded the Brisbane Celtic Fiddle Club to share her love of traditional music. Nicole, who performs with singer John Thompson as the duo Cloudstreet,  is half-Scottish on both sides of her family, and Rebecca lived in Glasgow for four years and married her Scottish  husband Donald last year. All four of them play in a Scottish dance band The Ceilidh Clan. Using their family stories as starting points, they presented a wonderful Queensland program with a distinctly Scottish flavour. As a special surprise, Nicole, Emma and Rebecca were joined by Peter Hurwood, piper and member of the City of Brisbane Pipe Band for the final song, a novel rendition of The Bee Gees Spicks and Specks.

 
Robyn Hamilton - Queensland Music Coordinator, State Library of Queensland