Frencham Smith nights at taste Canowindra
Liz Frencham has now appeared 4 times at
taste. First in October 2007 with acclaimed live folk act
Jigzag and most recently at Womindra 2010 in a collaboration
with songwriter Fred Smith.
It was a truly wonderful show and we all
understood why these two performers get such a
wonderful Press.
Quotes:
“This is a CD of Fred Smith’s songs, sung mostly by Liz
Frencham. Smith has found an ideal outlet for his songwriting, for
this collection of songs, even writing from a woman’s
perspective.
Frencham is a superb singer as well as a solid & melodic
bass player. She has a rich distinctive voice that carries as much
emotion as the song requires.
The CD firmly establishes Smith in the top rank of
songwriters. He is a literate, inventive lyricist, who cleverly
skates around clichés while writing about the obvious. He also has
an ear for a melodic hook and I’ve been humming the title song for
the past couple of weeks.” Graham Mc Donald, Canberra
Times, 15th Sept 2003
“Not Just bonza, double bonza, 10 out of 10 with a
koala stamp….go and see Frencham Smith or I’ll slash your
tyres.” Philip Adams, Late
Night Live, Radio National
“Smith, from Canberra, is the sardonic &
laconic side of the equation: Frencham, from Sydney, is the
sensuous, jazz-inflected other side…The pair spark off each other
and imbue the songs with an enthusiasm that bubbles along on the
surface of the melodies” Warwick McFadyen, the
Age
FRENCHAM SMITH - "Love thongs"
This album, the amusingly titled “lovethongs” (to be said with
just a hint of a lisp) is about as good as contemporary
singer/songwriter folk music gets in Australia. Smith is a superb
songwriter with a wry sense of humour and a wonderful eye for the
idiosyncrasies of modern life (the delightful light and simple
“Have You Got A Heart” is a tour de force about that eternal
subject of all musicians love on the road) and Frencham has a
voice with all the appeal, emotional honesty and clarity of someone
like Shawn Colvin or Mary Chapin Carpenter. Yes, really, she is
that good. The power of the album lies in Smith's ability to write
genuinely catchy melodies and lyrics which, like those of Loudon
Wainwright III, are characterised by simple, self-deprecatory wit.
There is no other folk duo in Australia which even comes close to
this magical combination.”
Bruce Elder
Sydney Morning Herald – Spectrum Features Section,
17th Nov 2007
Saturday January 23rd. 7pm Frencham Smith
“Not Just bonza, double bonza, 10 out of 10 with a koala
stamp... go and see Frencham Smith or I’ll slash your tyres.”
Philip Adams, Late Night Live, Radio National
“Liz Frencham and Fred Smith have come together to produce one of
my ‘new’ favourite albums.
“This CD firmly establishes Fred Smith in the top rank of
songwriters... Frencham is a superb singer and a solid and melodic
bass player”.
Graham McDonald, Canberra Times
“The pair spark off each other and imbue the songs with an
enthusiasm that bubbles along on the surface of the melodies”
Warwick McFadyen, the Age.
The taste Canowindra concerts lived up to all of these
accolades, but the last bracket was truly amazing Fred's pick up
battery went flat and in the confusion the new one was put in
upside down so the last bracket was totally accoustic (you could
have heard a pin drop in the audience). What a blast!!
The Frencham Smith collaboration first began at the National
Folk Festival in April 2002. At the time Liz Frencham was growing
in her role as bass player with the Sydney Celtic trio Jigzag, and
was looking to spread her wings as a vocalist. Fred Smith had
written an album’s worth of ballads for women’s vocals and was
looking for the right gal. He found her.
Since then they recorded the acclaimed album Into My Room and have
become a major force on the Australian Folk circuit, both as a duo
and individually: In 2005 Liz released her first solo album
“Jericho”. In that year the documentary film Bougainville Sky was
released about Fred’s work in the Pacific and he moved to the
United States where he has become a respected songwriter on the
 competitive
US Scene. Fred returned to Australia to tour with Liz behind their
second album Lovethongs which was released in April 2007.
Lovethongs — love on a dry continent — is a collection of love
songs with an Australian flavour. Lovethongs was a new direction
for songwriter Fred Smith. The award winning Bagarap Empires CD
(pronounced Buggerup) won the ScreenSound Australia award for Best
New Release of 2002 and caused the Age critic Warwick McFadyen to
write: “Once in a blue moon, a drift of music so unlike any other
enfolds your sensibilities and reaffirms the power of song”.
Liz Frencham is best known through her work on bass and vocals with
the Sydney trio Jigzag. She does most of the vocal duties for
Frencham-Smith delivering songs with sensitivity and lion-hearted
courage. Embracing her double bass like a lover, Liz invites you
along a journey through a luminous emotional landscape, reassuring
you with a warm, generous voice and a smile which has become her
trademark.
 Liz studied jazz bass
at the Sydney Conservatorium, but her career and tastes have since
taken her into the heart of the folk world. Her latest release “You
& Me, Vol.1” an album of live duets with many well known
performers (including the likes of Doug DeVries, Mic Conway, Carl
Pannuzzo & Shannon Barnett) has been well received earning a
rave review from QLD writer & ABC radio personality Sandy Mc
Cutcheon:
“From the opening notes of Liz Frencham’s CD you & me Vol. 1
you know you are in for a rare treat. At times the music floats as
gently as a breeze from a moth’s wings at others Liz soars like a
butterfly on steroids – but always with great sensitivity and
beauty..” August 2008
Most of the duos material comes from the pen of Fred Smith. The
songs are sophisticated but they’re accessible, strong on emotion
and full of wry observation. They’re catchy too. Songs that run the
gamut from comic ditties to very personal ballads.
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