‘The intimacy crosses over: Adelaide duo Tin Town get down in the dirt for first LP
Partners in music and life Courtney Robb and Snooks La Vie have reinvented their long-running onstage collaboration as Tin Town, with a brand new album and tour in tow.
Courtney Robb and Snooks La Vie are both respected mainstays on the Adelaide music scene, Robb as a solo singer/songwriter of country/folk tunes, and La Vie as the soulful blues singer and harmonica player with bands such as Romaldo Groove, duo Nikko and Snooks and the now-defunct Hiptones.
While the husband-and-wife duo has performed live together as ‘Courtney and Snooks’ over recent years, they’ve now reinvented themselves in a new creative collaboration, recording together for the first time as Tin Town and releasing their debut album, Down in the Dirt.
The heartfelt and reflective tracks on the alternative country album have been penned by Robb, and are honest and authentic reflections of her personal experiences over recent years including ageing, family, love and connection.
“We’ve got a song called ‘Silver Strands’, which is about getting older as musicians, but also as a woman in the music industry,” Robb says. “It’s a very different experience, I would imagine, than a man in the music industry. The song kind of got spurred on from the idea that I’m not dying my hair anymore, I’m letting the greys grow through and how people perceive me, and especially on stage as a woman with grey hair.”
The singer songwriter also admits she has struggled with depression on and off over the years and the album’s title, Down in the Dirt, was inspired by that deeply personal experience.
“When you’re down, it feels like you’re down in the dirt, and it feels like you just do all the things that are not good for you,” she says.
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Down in the Dirt was recorded, engineered and produced by Ryan Martin John at Wizard Tone Studios in Hendon and Cactus Cactus Sound earlier this year. The album features a full band with Tom Kneebone on guitars, BJ Barker (drums), Lyndon Gray (bass), Graeme Hollis (hammond) and Lucky Oceans (pedal steel).
The couple financed the project themselves, boosted by funding from Port Adelaide Enfield Council, and say while the return on investment may be non-existent, the creative process and the final product is fulfilling in its own way.
“I want a reason to get out of bed more than just my day job,” say Robb, who is a graphic designer.
“I love making music, and you only get one life, so I just figure that you want to spend it doing something you love. A lot of people drop 30 grand on a European holiday, and then that’s gone. We will always have this, and we are incredibly proud of it.
The name Tin Town was inspired by the couple’s local neighbourhood near Port Adelaide.
“We were looking for a duo name, because Courtney and Snooks was far too long,” La Vie says. “We live are on the cusp of the Port Adelaide wool store precinct and to the locals, that’s known as ‘tin town’, because back in the early ’30s and ’40s, or even earlier, the wool stores would house their workers within these corrugated iron and timber-framed homes. There are still a few that exist today.”
Robb adds: “That’s where we first got the name from and then it just lined up with lots of other things like the harmonica being known as a ‘tin sandwich’, and the harmonica is such a huge part of the sound of Tin Town.
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“Also, I’m from Broken Hill which is a mining town and is sometimes referred to as Tin Town.”
The 11-track release, which Robb describes as “Americana country”, reflects influences of Kasey Chambers, Paul Kelly, Kathleen Edwards and Lucinda Williams. One of the first singles released, ‘Samson’, is a tender tale about the couple’s beloved dog Samson who became terminally ill as they were working on the album, passing away earlier this year.
“He was laying at my feet when I started to write that song,” Robb says. “It’s a little bit different to everything else on the album, a bit more stripped back and reflective.”
La Vie adds, “When we would play it back at home and listen to the early rough track Samson would sit by the speaker and go to sleep to this song. He loved the music, every time Courtney would get her guitar out he would be there.”
La Vie, a renowned Adelaide blues and soul singer and harmonica player, says the harmonica underpins all the songs on Down in the Dirt.
“You don’t often hear that. You hear harmonica in dribs and drabs, and you hear it when they’re doing solos,” he says.
“With Tin Town, it’s not just playing solos. In fact, there’s hardly any harmonica solos in it. It’s more like hooks and catches that are used to underpin the songs, to enhance them.
“I don’t know of many bands in Australia that do that. It’s very different to what I do in a blues set up with a band.”
Two other single releases are ‘I Got From You’ and ‘Before We Begin’.
Once the album is launched officially on October 10, Robb and La Vie will embark on a regional tour of South Australia as well as some promotional gigs in Victoria. They’ll perform with a full band at the Wheatsheaf Hotel on December 13 and the Murray Delta Duke Joint in Goolwa on December 21.
“The ultimate goal is to tour internationally in the near future,” Robb says. “Our music seems to resonate well with audiences in Europe and Canada… and with some early groundswell from the singles we have already released, we would be excited to spread our sound further afield and explore those opportunities.”
Down in the Dirt is out October 10, follow Tin Town for updates.