Australia’s premier female blues and soul vocalist is playing some rare shows at the moment, so we thought it time we feature her here on ILYOS. While having a look around we found some truly sensational early video footage of Renee Geyer, filmed for ABC-TV’s GTK in 1973.
The footage features Renee performing with the band she fronted at the time, Sydney’s Mother Earth. Mother Earth featured the cream of Sydney’s soul and funk players at the time, and they would also play on Renee’s self-titled debut album in 1973. Their guitarist was Mark Punch, who would later co-write Renee’s early signature tune “Heading In The Right Direction”, which we’ll revisit in another post.
These early videos feature a very young looking Renee singing her heart out on some classic American soul and blues material. She was already a seasoned performer, having already recorded one album with the progressive jazz-rock outfit that she co-founded called Sun, but she was still only 19 when the majority of these performances were filmed. The final video, also from GTK, and we believe from 1974, features a great version of “Uncloudy Day”, which Renee recorded for her second album It's a Man's Man's World. Sensational stuff.
Victorian readers can catch Renee live at the Hysteria Lounge Lilydale, July 14
Listen to the best of Renee on the below Spotify collection...
- Dave Laing
