anita george
"The Australian songbird is a rare treat - a solo female vocalist who can sing beautifully, write moving songs, play guitar wonderfully well and exude warmth for the audience all at the same time."
Teresa Mallam, Free Press, Canada 2007
Powerful vocals tinged with soul. A wandering troubadour with a penchant for folk. Australia’s Anita George is a natural story-teller and evocative songwriter. Her tales of love, loss, travelling on trains with drunken men, hitchhiking through Mexico and Chile, and drug arrests of audience members midway through gigs are matched only by her trademark voice, carefully crafted slide & folk style guitar, occasional toots of the blues harmonica when requested, and charismatic onstage presence. Her tours of Australia, Canada, the United States, Mexico and South America have been met with universal acclaim. With an Indian Heritage, George blends and weaves extensive world-wide influences into her music with songs in English, French and Spanish.
George honed her craft over several years of touring festivals and venues across the Australia and Canada including NXNE Festival (Canada), Sunshine Music Festival (Vancouver), Falls Festival (Australia), Australian Music Week, the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Nannup Music Festival, Cygnet Folk Festival, Backdrop Festival, Ashcroft Opera House (Canada), The Railway Club (Canada), Manchester Lane, the Cornish Arms (Vic), Tongue and Groove (Qld), Das Kapital (ACT), the Republic Bar (Tas), (WA) and International Women’s Day Festivals (Vic, WA and Tas). She was a grand finalist in the Australian Busking Championships 2005. She was selected to showcase at the International NXNE festival (Canada) in 2007, and followed this with a tour of Canada, the States, Mexico and South America in 2007 and 2008. Along the way, she had lessons in harmonica by legendary World Harmonica Champion Carlos del Junco, slide guitar in Vancouver and Andean guitar in Bolivia.
Her second release ‘The River’ has gained national airplay on Triple J and community radio in Australia, and international airplay on the UK’s largest commercial radio station ‘TalkSport’. She has two releases behind her - the full length CD ‘Shooting for the Moon’ released in July 2005 and ‘The River’ released in October 2006 - and her song ‘Caught in the Middle’ has also been included in compilation ‘Amplified – Sounds of Tasmania’ released in November 2005.
Excerpt from interview with Australian Music Online, Nov 2005...
'I actually only decided to be a musician fairly late in the piece. I was in my second last year of Uni, and desperately needed a creative outlet. But my family is possibly one of the most non-musical families in the world, and we had this old guitar with two broken strings that no-one played because none of us knew how to change strings. We took it to a guitar store and asked them to ‘fix’ it – I’m pretty sure it’s the easiest money they ever made. After I learned three chords, I used to bring my guitar along to Uni and play songs I’d written for my fellow students but had to stop after one of my lecturers told me off for singing too loudly outside her room while she was trying to lecture...’
Labelled by the Sydney Morning Herald as ‘Hobart’s purveyor of sultry blues folk’, George has deservedly gathered a loyal following through her constant national and international touring schedule.
Excerpt from online music review of ‘The River’ by Fasterlouder: www.fasterlouder.com...
‘To say that the Australian music scene is bursting at the seams with solo singer-songwriters is an understatement of big proportions. While the quality of such artists can vary frustratingly, it makes coming across something special that extra bit satisfying. Enter Anita George and her latest EP, The River... On opening track, The Lost, George sings of the realisation of a love long lost in a suave and stylish manner... The next step in George’s journey is the stunningly beautiful Prodigal Son. It is a gorgeous track in both its sentiment and simplicity... Rounding out this impressive EP is the understated Soar, an inspiring track powered by George’s heavenly vocals’
