The Waifs

I thought I'd count to see how many songs I have on Putfile. I have ninety-eight. Being the way that I am, I have to round this up to one hundred. This gives me a chance to write about The Waifs, who have been my favorite band since I saw them at the Stan Rogers Festival in 2001.

The Waifs are from Australia and consist of sisters, Vickie and Donna Simpson and Josh Cunningham. They now have a bass player and drummer but for years were a trio. The sisters have incredible harmony, having grown up singing together and Josh is an incredible guitar player. They all write but Donna is my favorite writer of the three, writing many women-centered songs like The Haircut, which I uploaded recently. Josh and Vickie were a couple but are not any longer. The band is on a break right now as the girls had babies on the same week in October.

They were Bob Dylan's opener for two of his US tours a couple of years back. If Bob thinks they're great.....what more can I say. They've also won many Australian awards equal to Grammy's or Junos here in North America.

I saw them live at Stanfest then in Australia and they have an energy that is unsurpassed. They were the big hit at Stanfest that year and do the same at festivals everywhere they play. I have all of their albums but uploaded them in a different file format than I should have. I do have one disc of last year's double, live album, A Brief History, uploaded correctly so I am uploading two songs from that to make my one hundred.

I've put up Lies and Gillian, both sung by Vickie Waif. Gillian would have been a good choice for Mother's Day with it's line, "Gillian, if you weren't my mother, I'd make you my wife." I love this live version because the audience really gets into singing the chorus without Vickie and love themselves for it.

I could go on and on about the band but someone told me my blog entries are too long so I'm trying to shorten them. Anyway, check out the band's website and if you ever see one of their albums, buy it. You'll not be disappointed.

Heck, as I sit here listening to the album, I have to put up number one hundred and one. Josh's song, A Brief History, tells the story and is a great cut.

Just checked out the website myself and they are finishing up the maternity leave and are playing the Edmonton Folk Fest on the 12th of August.

Cuidado, out!