Whilst in Perth late 2006, Shane Howard, local singer-guitarist Nathan Gaunt and I opened for the legendary Carole King at the Sandalford Winery during Ms King's recent Australian tour .

Not only was this, as far as Coathanger was concerned, a great opportunity to put yours truly in front of 5,000 target audience members; but hell - Carole King! One of the people who invented popular music!

How cool is that?

It was also the day of the Swan River International Air Show Spectacular or something. I vaguely remembered hearing about it whilst I was wondering why there was a traffic jam on a Sunday in South Perth and why there were people everywhere. Maybe a truck had fallen over.

Fortunately I'd given myself a two hour buffer to handle such acts of craven navigation and with agent person, Les Hinton, comfortably arrived at Sandalford Winery on a hot, dry, WA afternoon.

Carole also had arrived. Warm, friendly. Posing for snaps. Chatting. Food. Wine. The stage dressed as a lounge room. Soundchecks ... in fact, my soundcheck lasted barely 5 minutes.

Don't get me wrong. Frankly, I could have ended it in about 15 seconds - the onstage sound was just perfect. But I riffed around as if I was, you know ... making sure I could hear myself perfectly no matter what angle I might conceivably stand at; and 'knowingly' discussing crossovers and woofers with the sound guys.

Don't ya just love it when it's right?

One highlight of the day was sitting backstage for a couple of hours chatting with Shane Howard. A really lovely guy. Our paths had crossed a couple of times in the past but we'd never actually spoken.

I don't know many singer-songwriters and the few I do know I rarely see; so it was great to have a rave with a kindred spirit. About great songs and muses and Bob (what is it about singer writers and Dylan?). Hooks, love/lust, motivation, depression, the biz. And how lucky we all are and how hard it can get. Yo Shane.