Originally from Victoria, Teresa Dixon lived and played music around Melbourne and Phillip Island before moving to the Huon Valley four years ago. A qualified teacher, she has worked here as a youth worker and part-time musician. Teresa met her partner Marcus at Willie Smith’s Mid-Winter Festival, where her band The Stragglers were performing. ‘I’ve…

Claire Anne grew up in Milabena, a rural locality near Wynyard on the edge of the Tarkine region in north-west Tasmania. Her home was a beautiful barn-style home on a 50-acre property with rainforest as the backyard. Along with her five creative and imaginative siblings, Claire Anne was always encouraged to follow her musical passions.…

River Bigby’s first musical experience was as a 14-year-old in a hardcore metal group with his mates in southwest Queensland. River recalls that the band would jam together with guitar, drums and a microphone connected to a small 10-watt amp. ‘One day I just jumped up, grabbed the mic and started screaming,’ he says. ‘It…

Rose Wilson runs choir classes in the Huon Valley and is passionate about encouraging people to sign up. ‘I think many people carry around cultural baggage about singing,’ she says. ‘They’ve been told that they can’t sing. As young children, we sing and skip along quite joyfully, but that idea can soon be knocked out…

Born in a small village in Japan, Montz Matsumoto started to learn bluegrass banjo from the age of 15. ‘When I was young I romanticised about American culture and that’s where the fascination for the banjo came from,’ Montz says. He also explains that the banjo is similar to the shamisen, a Japanese three-stringed plucked…

Rasa Jangala caused a sensation at the recent Cygnet Folk Festival when the seven-year-old took to the stage and performed his original pieces Good as Green and The Lego Song. ‘I wrote Good as Green because I care about saving the environment,’ Rasa says. Creating music and poetry brings him joy and simply makes him…