SENSITIVE NEW AGE COWPERSONS

The Sensitive New Age Cowpersons was formed in 1994, out of an opportunity to play at the National Folk Festival in Canberra. The outcome was that a band was born, out of the storm created at that festival and a momentum developed that has not ceased since. The original line-up of Jim Fisher on guitar and mandolin, John Reed on cittern (a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance), Fred Kuhnl on double bass and Martin Randall on banjo, went on to be invited to every major Folk festival in Australia. Within two years they had also played at the major Country Music festivals as well as the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

1995 saw the production and release of their debut album 'This CD Will Change Your Life' and they continued to work extensively throughout Australia. In 1996 Martin Randall left the band and was replaced by pedal steel and banjo player Ian Simpson, another Fremantle musician, who had returned to Perth after working successfully in the east for a number of years. In the same year the band undertook its first international tour, playing at festivals in the United Kingdom with great success, leading them to be invited back the next year for more shows including the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

1997 saw the release of their much-acclaimed second album 'Strange On The Range' featuring the "New Australian National Anthem". The band continued to tour nationally and also perform internationally at festivals in both Hong Kong and Malaysia. The band worked through the beginning of 1998 until March when founding member Jim Fisher collapsed and was hospitalized. Jim had been working under great duress with declining health due to a blood borne liver disease he had acquired in the 1970’s. Jim underwent a successful liver transplant in December 1998, survived harrowing complications and re-emerged a year later with a new enthusiasm.

The band did some performing in 2000 – returning to the UK for a third tour, but soon after Jim said that he would stop playing indefinitely, having survived such a traumatic experience, he recognised that he needed more time to recuperate and to consolidate. Paradoxically, even in the band’s enforced rest and recuperation phase, they were still in demand and the remaining members were called on to perform their famous "New Australian National Anthem" at the closing concert of the People Scope event from Parliament House, Canberra.

As 2002 clicked over the band dusted themselves off and returned to the studio to record their third album, 'Fly Like A Chicken'. The SNACS were officially re-launched and played to a sell-out audience at the Fly By Night Club in Fremantle, before heading east to the Gympie Muster and later to the Woodford and Tamworth Festivals. March 2003 saw the farewell to long time member John Reed (aka Texas.T.Tex ) and the introduction of Adam Gare (aka Doc Adams) on mandolin, fiddle and vocals. Members of the band recorded with Paul Kelly for his second bluegrass influenced album as well as responding to interest for the band to perform overseas in Canada and the USA. As of 2007 they have released five albums.

Members

Jim Fisher, (guitar/vocals), John Reed, (cittern/vocals), Fred Kuhnl, (bass/vocals)

Martin Randall, (banjo/vocals), Ian Simpson (banjo/vocals), Adam Gare (mandolin/fiddle/vocals)

References

http://www.cowpersons.com/SNAC%20History.htm