The 20th anniversary Folk, Rhythm and Life Festival cranks up from 3pm(ish) Friday on five stages over the three-day festival.
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Among more than 120 performers on the bill are Australian singing-songwriting icon Archie Roach – who will be on the Creek stage on Friday evening – Yirrmal, who sings on Saturday, while Melbourne three-piece rockers Dallas Frasca close the festival on the Creek Stage on Sunday.
Sydney-based indie folk performer Jodi Martin will open the festival, after rescheduling her Diesel tour appearance on the Border, originally booked for August.
Martin was thrilled to be able to add the Eldorado gig to her trip to the region.
She wraps up her three month national tour at Albury's Albion Hotel on Saturday 3 after a van breakdown forced her to postpone her August gig.
“The engine lost all its power on the road to Albury, and we couldn't access a new fuel filter til the following morning,” she says.
“I'm very grateful to the Albion Hotel for moving the date for us.
“Considering how much of Australia we covered in my original tour van though, I think we got off pretty lightly for breakdowns.
“Apart from the fuel filter, we also busted some fan belts just north of Bega.
“We got away with our entire vehicle maintenance for the tour at the bargain basement price of $480.”
Martin says roadtrips, touring and writing songs was her life “in a nutshell”.
She has toured with her music mentor Arlo Guthrie across the US, originally opening for him while still a school student when he toured Australia two decades ago.
Their long association saw Guthrie collaborate on Martin’s latest album Saltwater while on a songwriting roadtrip from New Orleans to Florida to New York State.
“I asked him if he would like to collaborate, and never expected him to say yes, but within 15 minutes he emailed back from wherever he was in the States and said ‘yeah I’d love to’, Martin says.
“I spent the next three weeks getting over it. I was blown away. Arlo’s pretty much my hero as far as songwriters and storytellers go.”
Martin has been “making up songs” for as long as she can remember.
She sometimes pulls one of those childhood songs out of her memory bank “to have a laugh” – a perfect balance for her heartwarming songs.