The Malachi puts some "country" into the country

September 12, 2024

Saturday, September 7, saw another great concert at the Malachi Gilmore Hall, this time to celebrate the release of Chloe Swannell's first EP record.

The opening act was Oak & Oranje, who have this to say about themselves:

Oak & Oranje are a country and folk duo hailing from the Central West of New South Wales in Australia. Forming in 2023, Jack Portegies and Phil Grueter met at an open mic at a local pub, the pair instantly bonded over a beer or 3 and have been performing covers and their original music together since. Both Jack and Phil were finalists in the 2023 Regional Song Writing Competition hosted by the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, where Jack won the People's Choice Award for his song Mary Flynn. The duo has travelled around the state to country pubs, playing a collection of country and folk originals that are crafted through both genuine life experiences and far out fiction.

Oak & Oranje in action on the night.

They were an excellent warm-up for the main event of the night, and almost certainly will be seen at many more musical events around the region in the future.

Ridin' in the Rain. Recorded in Phil's shed.

Oak & Oranje can be found on Instagram, YouTube and LinkTree. Try to catch them when they are playing near your place.

The main act was Oberon's own Chloe Swannell, and here's a bit of history about her:

Country singer-songwriter Chloe Swannell is a multi-instrumentalist born and bred in Oberon in the Central West of NSW. Her debut single, "Strange Love", released Sept 2023, debuted at #5 on AMRAP Regional Charts and #6 on the iTunes Country Charts. It was featured on "Grass Roots" on ABC Country and was added to the "Aussie Country" Playlist on Apple Music.

Chloe’s latest single, "Unchained" hit the iTunes Country Charts at #11, #10 on the AIR charts and #16 on Country Radio Charts. Being featured on ABC's Saturday Night Country with Beccy Cole, it was also added to the "Lil Bit Country", "Aussie Country" and "Country Risers" playlist on Apple Music.

Chloe's passion for music extends beyond her own career as the founder of a well-known music studio in the Central West. No stranger to the stage she has shared the spotlight with artists such as Beccy Cole, Amber Lawrence and Hayley Jensen, as well as performing at the Australian War Memorial, Government House, and The Sydney Opera House.

Chloe made her debut appearance at the Tamworth Country Music Festival 2024, performing on the Fanzone Stage, as a special guest of Hayley Jensen's at Moonshiners

Chloe belts it out on stage.

The performance was everything that anyone could have wanted and featured Chloe's song writing ability as well as her talents with voice and guitar. Chloe is a regular performer at local musical events, and even teaches music at Oberon High School. If you see she's on the bill, make sure you are there to watch and listen.

The reason for the night.

Chloe's EP "Livin' in the Country" includes five songs - the title track, "On the Road", "Strange Love", "Town I Can't Name" and "Unchained" (mentioned above). If you like country music (and who doesn't?) you can probably get a copy from Chloe's web site or download the songs from the usual streaming services.

"Strange Love". Just a sample of Chloe's work.

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A note about the videos - the original plan was to include short recordings of the performances (about one to two minutes) to let people know what the acts sounded like. To do this, a recording microphone was set up on a table near the back of the hall. It was switched on when Oak & Oranje took the stage.

Almost immediately, a group of people decided that the table would be the perfect place to hold their drinks and personal effects and proceeded to move some chairs to around the table and have a party while they watched the show and talked throughout the performances. As the objective was to record people singing, not party chitchat, the recordings were not very useful. It would have been a waste of time to go through two hours of recordings to find five minutes when only the acts on stage could be heard.

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