By Nick Hartgerink, honorary publicity officer for the Illawarra Folk Festival
Acclaimed folk duo We Mavericks don’t call Corrimal home these days, but in a nod to their time in the region they will be launching their new album at the Illawarra Folk Festival at Bulli Showground on January 17-19.
Victoria Vigenser (guitar and vocals) and Lindsay Martin (violin, mandolin and vocals) have enchanted audiences all over Australia and internationally since their first shows together in 2018.
They were one of the most popular acts at the 2024 Illawarra Folk Festival and are returning for the 2025 festival to showcase their latest songs with an album launch show.
The festival program involving 85 acts has now been finalised and We Mavericks will be playing on Sunday afternoon. They will be performing songs from new album Heart of Silver as a quartet with friends and musical collaborators, cello maestros Rachel Johnston and Trent Arkleysmith from Two If By Sea, who played on most of the songs on the album.
And while as performers of original music it is a safe bet that Victoria and Lindsay won’t include the John Denver classic Leaving On A Jet Plane on the set list at Bulli, they’ll actually be doing just that – heading straight from the festival to Sydney Airport to catch a plane to Germany for the start of a hectic 19-show tour through Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. Their first show is on January 23 in Munich, and on tour they’ll be playing a variety of venues including small theatres, arts centres and house concerts.
Victoria and Lindsay recently returned from a successful six-and-a-half week tour of England and Scotland, and are excited to be taking their music back to Europe so soon after that trip.
“We were very fortunate to be approached by an agent who was in Australia scouting for acts. He asked us if we were interested in touring internationally, and it was as simple as that …
“We played at lots of beautiful folk clubs and festivals across England and Scotland. It gave us a chance to road-test our new songs to new audiences, and we were very pleasantly surprised by how they were received. There is a lot of support for original material amongst UK folkies, and the audiences couldn’t have been lovelier,” Victoria said.
“It gave us a lot of confidence for the album.”
Victoria and Lindsay recently moved back to Lindsay’s home town of Tumut, but still feel that the Illawarra Folk Festival at Bulli is like a “home” gig after living just down the road in Corrimal for several years.
“It felt like a home crowd when we performed at Bulli last January, and we are really looking forward to getting back there and performing songs from the new album,” Victoria said.
“And we’re excited to be bringing Rachel and Trent with us for this show. When we were recording the songs for Heart of Silver, we thought they might work well with some double cello added, so we sent some tracks to Rachel and Trent to see what they could do with them – and they came back beautiful. Adding the cello really solidified the foundations we had laid down for each song.
“Rachel and Trent are both extraordinary cellists, and they have really beefed out our sound.”
Drummer and bass player Julia Day also contributed to the album, although she won’t be performing with We Mavericks at the Illawarra Folk Festival.
Victoria hails from New Zealand, where she met Lindsay when they were both performing at a folk festival. At the time Victoria’s mother was living in Australia. “Lindsay suggested that next time I come over to see my mum I could use his studio to put some songs down.”
And the rest, as they say, is history. “We started working together, and at the end of 2018 we started playing live shows together and having fun,” Victoria said. “We started falling in love, and next thing we were doing life together …”
Fortunately for their growing fan base, they are continuing to make beautiful music together too.
Tickets and full festival program at the Folk Festival website with Early Bird discounts available until December 22.
