By Luke Voogt
The didgeridoo began as a healing process for Ken Smith that would reignite his long-abandoned childhood love for music.
“I played it for relatives that had days or weeks to live,” he said.
“They’d just settle into their chair or bed.”
Ken recalled his drumming days in his school band in the ’60s, after the first heat of the Geelong’s Best Busker competition Tuesday.
“Once I left school that sort of faded into the background,” he said.
The 61-year-old spent three decades breeding squab pigeons for meat before rediscovering music.
“I never made any money off it, and it was really hard work.”
Ken taught himself to play the “didg (in 1994) when the kids were babies” lulling his son and his daughter to sleep.
“They’d just drop off in a minute or so,” he said.
As a former smoker, Ken worried he would never master the instrument.
“I could play for 20 seconds, and then I would start to go red in the face,” he said.
“It took a few years before the circular breathing came about.”
His involvement in community radio would see him join Indigenous gatherings, expanding his knowledge of the culture.
During his travels, he found a pile of wood about two kilometres outside Kakadu National Park.
“There were two pieces that were hollow and I thought I could actually do something with this. The didgeridoo rattled the windows – which gave me goosebumps.”
But it wasn’t until an acoustic session at a Ballan pub in 2014 that he met Leon Conway and they connected through Australian folk music.
The two combined indigenous sounds and accordion to create their band The Drongo and The Crow.
Like Ken, Leon rediscovered his love of music later in life.
“I was classically trained,” the 52-year-old said. “I started piano when I was eight and went until I was 17.
The IT technician “kept in touch with the piano” but didn’t return to music seriously until watching a gig four years ago.
“I thought I could do that,” he said, “but that it would be hard to get a piano in there, so I thought I’d try the piano accordion.
Leon described music as “averting a midlife crisis”.
“We don’t have speedboats, motorbikes – it’s a lot cheaper.”
On Tuesday, the group was missing their double-bass player Mark Russel, who spent his childhood learning the French horn.
“He got a new job on Monday, so he thought it was a bit rude to take the Tuesday off,” Leon said.
“But we had fun and made our point. Hopefully, we were able to convey our enthusiasm for our style of music.”
Two other heats will take place on Friday and next Tuesday from noon to 4pm. The final will take place next Saturday at noon.
Geelong’s Best Busker will win a $500 voucher, and gigs on Pulse Radio and at the 2017 Aireys Inlet Open Mic Festival.
