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MP3 Act Naturally - Precious Morning
10 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Classic Rock, JAZZ: Jazz Vocals
Details:
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT HARRIS SMART AND ACT NATURALLY
I WISH
I wish he would devote more time to looking after me and the family rather than wasting his time on these crazy, wealth-consuming so-called ‘artistic projects’.
Please buy his CD so that we will not be destitute. Please think of our poor, poor babies. How will I feed and clothe the poor little things? He refuses to take a proper job. Harris’s wife
I REALLY FEEL
I really feel this music. Some of it makes me laugh, and some of it makes me cry. Some of it I can’t get out of my head. ‘Fortress of Solitude’ is a beautiful soulful song. But then there are funny ones like ‘Friends’.
And I like the blues and gospel blues of ‘You Sleep on the Bed’ and ‘Mercy’. And ‘Underside of Down’ is a great bluesy song. But then the jazz ballad styling of ‘Missing You’ is also good. Kass Crawford has such a great voice. And ‘Dark Streets’ is haunting.
And I could go on and on. Let’s just say I really like this CD. Esme Larue, freelance journalist (for a longer piece about the band by Esme, see below)
LOVED THE VARIETY
Loved the variety. Loved your voice. Loved the writing. Kass has a fabulous voice. Some of it is really funny. Some of it is really moving. Most of all loved all the different styles and genres. Margaret Redmond, country singer
ACT NATURALLY INCLUDES
In its ‘precious morning’ incarnation Act Naturally includes Harris Smart, lead vocals, guitar, piano and all songs (‘precious morning’ with Chris Wilson); Kass Crawford, lead and backing vocals; Chris Wilson, guitars, keyboards and various other instruments; Shelley Heath, violin; Steve Williams sax and harmonica; John Wilson, sax;
WHO IS HARRIS SMART?
Harris Smart is a kind of crazy old man. A real eccentric. Sometimes he believes he can do anything. At other times he is in total desapir. But he refuses to lie down and completely die. A sort of tramplike, tragi-comic. grotesque, godotesque, existential clown.
He is the old man in an overcoat you see fulminating about the prices in the supermarket. Or standing on a box in the city square inflicting his crazed political and religious views on innocent passers-by.
AN ANTI-POP STAR
He is a kind of anti-pop star. Anything that you can think of that a pop star should be, Harris does not have it; he is the opposite.
A pop star is someone who is 18 years old and has beautiful flowing golden locks and pearly white teeth. She sings very beautifully and is a multi instrumentalist. She can shake her booty. A real party girl.
Harrris on the other hand cannot really sing at all or play any instrument well. The few teeth he has left are hideously discoloured (that didn’t stop Shane McGowan) and what is left of his hair is grey. He is 64 years old. He cannot shake his booty. He hates going to parties and lives like a recluse, rarely going out of the house.
He has gone beyond grumpy into insanely aggravated and overexcited.
He is soon to star in his own bizarro/reality TV show ''Anti Australian Idol''.
He is very sensitive and easily hurt. Treat him with great tenderness should you ever come across him. He responds to love and kindness.
WHAT CAN WE SAY WITH ANY CERTAINTY ABOUT THIS BAND?
Esme Larue asks…
Act Naturally? What can we really say with any certainty about this mysterious band? Some say that it is actually rather like God in that there is a great deal of uncertainty, debate and confusion about whether it exists or not.
Some claim that there have been (Rare? Non-existent?) sightings over the years. Some claim to have actually basked in the presence of the band. But just as many, perhaps more, are inclined to question whether it is really there at all. Some say it just a figment of the imagination of Harris Smart, whoever he is.
Still others disparagingly reject it as merely a "virtual" band. Something which may be said to exist momentarily in cyber space but which has no real continuity or concrete existence in the physical universe.
And even if it did exist, some ask, what would it be like? What are its properties or characteristics? It seems to continually change its personnel, instrumentation, musical style and location. Now one thing, now anther, a real shapechanger. Restless, never settling down. Now in the city. Now in the country.
But No, others say, the band has been sighted playing “live” in various of its metamorphoses and there is even video evidence of its existence. Living, breathing, even bleeding bodies, it is said, have performed on actual musical instruments to produce the unique sound of Act Naturally.
And what are we to say about the so-called unique sound? It seems to incorporate just about every kind of sound that there has ever been. Some of their stuff kind of sounds like blues. Others like gospel. Still others carry a hint of soul. There is a sort of Latin sounding song. There are some country sounding songs - indeed there is a kind of whole Sub-Neo-Hillbilly period of the band’s existence when it was based in the mountains of far North New South Wales up near the Queensland border, around the mysterious town of uki.
And sometimes it sounds like pop.
And sometimes it sounds like
I do not know what.
So many different styles. They’ll have a go at anything. What does this mean? That it has no authentic roots at all? That it is utterly rootless? Or does this eclecticism mean that it is the perfect example of a postmodern band to which all forms of music which ever existed are accessible and available?
And what of the fact that it seems to have some songs addressed to God? And another addressed to a girl with stud in her tongue? What are we to make of that? Complete moral, spiritual and intellectual confusion? Or a truly inspiring display of tolerance and affection for all of God’s many, varied and amusing manifestations? Comical if they were nto so tragic.
It seems only one thing is known for sure...
“All you gotta do is Act Naturally”
Esme Larue, freelance journalist
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