Any place in the world where you find its streets and buildings are alive and buzzing with the sounds of music is a blessed thing, right?

Well blessed be any folks in Mullumbimby during four days once a year when this small and otherwise quiet town near coastal Byron Bay is filled with the sounds of music bought there by Mullum Music Festival. Those four days of musical blessings happened in Mullum last weekend.

The Sound of Music

…in Venues

Day or night at Mullum Music Festival you could’ve found your way to any number of the festival’s 12 town venues to hear as many of the live performances by 60+ Australian and international artists as you could.

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The Village Vanguard

My music tastes drew me most to the Village Vanguard, a ‘motley jazz club’ newly created at this year’s festival and curated by Harry Angus James.

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That’s Harry from The Cat Empire yes – whose artistic contributions to this year’s Mullum Music Festival as its Patron were invaluable.

We heard Harry James Angus on stage solo with a guitar singing and playing music of a very different kind to The Cat Empire.

We also got Harry leading the awesome nightly performances by the Harry James Angus Band and displaying the utmost humility and respect for all artists he shared the stage with. In their final festival show on Sunday night those guests included Nai Palm, Martin Martini, The Melotonins and Peter Hunt (Kooii).

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Finally for anyone like me with a magnetism to all sounds horns and a love of jazz, Harry James Angus was last weekend’s Patron Saint of Horns –  for bringing his and so many other horn players’ sounds and chops to the stages and streets of Mullumbimby.

Melbourne saxophonist Darcy McNulty was one of them – and every note he played during his many festival appearances was sublime.

Bullhorn (Brisbane)

Bullhorn was also amongst the horns-heavy groups at the Village Vanguard, delivering a fusion of funk, soul, hip hop and reggae music that simply had to be danced to.

Check out this mp3 (only) version of a track from Bullhorn’s 2012 self-titled album and imagine the goodness of hearing it live.

‘War’ – Bullhorn – BULLHORN (2012)

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Mojo Juju & T-Bone

The bluesy, soulful minimalistic music played skillfully by sibling duo Mojo Juju and T-Bone was another highlight act in the Village Vanguard.

All Venues

In whichever of the Mullum Music Festival venues I heard music, I felt better for it.

The Bombay Royale (Melbourne)

 Dustyesky Russian Choir (Mullumbimby)

 Marlon Williams (Aotearoa/New Zealand)                        Bustamento (Melbourne)

Martin Martini (Melbourne)                                             Gabriel & Cecelia (Northern NSW)

Bongeziwe Mabandla (South Africa)                                      C.R. Avery (Canada)

Wild Marmalade with Paul George (Mullumbimby)

Nai Palm (Melbourne)

Having recently seen Nai Palm (Hiatus Kaiyote) perform a solo show in Melbourne amongst a noisy crowd, it was an especially good thing to properly hear and appreciate her unique vocal and guitar styles amongst an attentive Mullumbimby crowd.

Check out these videos of Nai Palm performing ‘Malika’ from Hiatus Kaiyote’s debut album Tawk Tomahawk and ‘Molasses’ from the new EP By Fire out on 2nd December.

My one exception to musical happiness was The Church. Sound problems and four out of five musicians on stage playing guitars just wasn’t my thing.

I retreated to the Village Vanguard to hear the honey-sweet vocal harmonies of Brisbane’s three Melotonins (in between their extended banter).

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…in the Streets

It wasn’t just inside Mullum Music Festival venues where you heard the sounds of music.

If you walked between those venues you heard live music in the streets played by local buskers. No doubt everyone supported them (with $) in making their important contribution to the world of ensuring music is heard in public spaces as we go about our days.

Maybe you were lucky enough to time your walk so you got to dance it to the beats of the 80’s with local dance theatre troupes The Cassettes and Mixed Tape Crew.

If you opted to travel between venues on the most fun and sought-after of festival transport routes, you would’ve had the pleasure of getting your wig on and dancing in your Magic Bus or Disco Expresso seat to music of the super-funky kind.

And even if you took a break from the festival music to refuel in a Mullumbimby cafe, you probably heard the sounds of music spun by DJs.

Wherever you were in Mullumbimby central you heard the sounds of music, music and more music. During four festival days the town and people in it were alive, high and buzzing for it.

More Than Music

Of course it takes more than music to make any festival the best experience it can be. Mullum Music Festival 2014 had all those things going on too.

The music was heard, danced to and appreciated by an incredibly friendly and chilled-out (mostly local) festival crowd, happy and grateful to have the sounds of music in their own ‘hood.

If you didn’t already know those local folk or feel a part of their community, it wasn’t long before you did.

Like every year at Mullum Music Festival the 2014 program included the talents and colours of roaming theatre, comedy and circus performers plus more.

Joel Salom and Greg Sheehan (Mullumbimby)

Mario Queen of the Circus 

Musical Nourishment

Four days of being in Mullumbimby with it’s streets and buildings alive and buzzing from the sounds and colours of Mullum Music Festival, left me feeling high and nourished. I know I’m not the only one.

And of course we know that musical nourishment/happiness breeds more happiness. That’s a mighty good thing for the overall wellbeing of the world isn’t it. Music is indeed The Healer and Mullumbimby folks are indeed blessed that Mullum Music Festival saturates their town with it once a year.