DOORS OPEN 6PM // SUPPORTS TBC // MUSIC STARTS 8:30PM

Well-known Australian musician, Andy Baylor, is proud to announce the release of a new album of cool original blues, funky instrumentals and ballads - an album about changes all around us, Blues From the Irene Building.This is the first new release in sometime for Andy, (his last release was 2012’s Reel of Joy) and is a musical testament to his dedication and long-time love of the blues in all its forms.

As the face of Melbourne continues to change and evolve at what seems an ever-rapidly pace, the old warehouses and factories are being replaced with a new high rise apartment skyline. One of the last of the factory/warehouse spaces is The Irene Building. Once a family-run lingerie factory, it has been operating as a multi-purpose community-run arts space. 

Andy – always on the lookout for a recording space that’s real, lowdown and funky, discovered the recording studio and holed-up one long hot summer with his long –time collaborators, Pete Beulke on bass and Sharkey Ramos on drums. Together they cooked up a collection of songs and instrumentals – off the-cuff, no frills, raw emotional riffs and heartfelt playing, with Andy  furiously writing ‘ stream of consciousness’ poems and lyrics on scraps of paper.   Now, several summers later Blues from the Irene Building is the result.

The album opens with High Risin’ Apartment Blues, a hypnotic minor blues with Andy rolling out subdued but intense guitar licks over a funky groove. The album moves into swing number Some Love, a chocolate box list of assorted states of love and switches gear into a powerful riff–based lost love blues ballad The Look In Your Eyes.

A centrepiece of the album is Restless Spirit Blues– a “manifesto song” dealing with the fact that so many things in our life are beyond our control – it’s perhaps the pivotal song in the collection...a declaration of strengths and weakness. “If you can understand this song you can understand my whole musical journey” says Andy.

Good Good Good Rockin’ Guitar is an old style jump blues song that gives a nod to Andy’s long-time love of roots style R’n’B and Melbourne’s bar-room culture. Blues is Real is a funky soul–type number while Money Talks is a heavy dropped tuning riff with a gospel message.

There are several instrumental tracks featured on the album which not only highlight Andy’s skill as a composer but also display his diverse guitar talents - from swing-driven jazz, funky Southern–style and finger-pickin’ High- Life.   The album was engineered by Steve Fraser and mixed and mastered by Sharkey Ramos.