CENTRE STAGE Rick Kane

Newport Folk Festival 2016

Rick Kane loves music. That’s what shines through his stories. He cherishes music, he savours music, he lives for music.But he is too good a writer to state the obvious. Rather, he tells stories in a matter-of-fact voice, as if he’s at a bar, beer in hand, leaning towards you to make sure his story can be heard amidst the nose and the clamour of the pub or the café or the crowd or life in general.

And he’s not afraid to talk about life’s larger issues.

His first story, performed in concert with The Stereo Stories Band several times, was about diversity, equality, revelation and generations. He’s watching Countdown with his dad and Culture Club are singing Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? I could barely comprehend how two people could experience the same moment so radically differently.

His most-widely read story, about Ben Lee’s Catch My Disease, confronted grief head-on. He is preparing a mix-tape for his mother’s wake, she having died of cancer. Someone asked, “Where’s the music?” This would be the cathartic moment. This would be where the pain flowed out as the love poured in.

Rick also has his lighter moments too, couching Sherbet’s Howzat in surprising terms. So there I was, at the WACA indoor nets with 100 flushed and excited teenage girls, ready to bowl to Daryl Braithwaite.

Songs by Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Jim McCann, Bill Callahan, and The Kinks have also been put under the Rick Kane microscope. Take a look.

The Stereo Stories of Rick Kane.