Country music icon and 2008 presidential hopeful Tina C looks at the Australian obsession with country music, the relationship with the indigenous owners of the land and their disdain for the USA, whilst aping every facet of the American way of life. Glorious political satire from award-winning comedian Christopher Green.
Tina's come a long way since her early life growing up with her 17 brothers and sisters in Open Throat Holler, Tennessee. After adverse criticism of her first ever album release It Ain't Easy Being Easy, Tina C drew inspiration from early feminist role-model Tammy Wynette and went on to record her anthemic single Course I Want You For Your Body (I Got A Mind Of My Own). Tina is now hailed as a role-model for ballsy women everywhere: "We ladies in Nashville today only wear short skirts and sing songs about being mistreated by men because we want to."
Tina C has visited big, glamorous cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Perth many times and played gigs at the fanciest theatres - like Sydney Opry House - so this time she took her music to the little people of the vast continent which is damn big and kinda empty.
Australian Country legend Slim Dusty (A Pub With No Beer was the first Aussie song to top the UK charts in 1959), spent his life travelling the small towns of Australia.
Tina’s slim, and the road’s dusty, so she’s following in his footsteps:
October 8: The Aborogynal Monologues: Alice Springs
Tina starts her trip in the heart of the continent and she’s just fascinated with the original inhabitants of Oz. Yep she’s "going bush" and that’s nothing to do with George W. She learns a little about traditional indigenous culture from local Kooris and compares it to the treatment of the Native Americans in her country. Tina learns about the invasion of Western settlers and the stolen generation. Then a wise woman of the local mob tells Tina about the concept of Songlines: about how the traditional inhabitants navigated their way around the land by singing complicated songs. Tina immediately pens her own, which describes the journey between two of her mansions - Nashville and Knoxville.
October 15: The Aborogynal Monologues: The Gold Coast
Tina’s entourage rolls into Brisbane. Most usually called Bris-Vegas, this city is on the edge of the huge Gold Coast resort where developers have famously built so many skyscraper hotels that the beach is in shade for most of the day. Tina explores the tackiest, white-trashiest example in modern Australia. She sings her version of Waltzing Matilda - Yes why did Billy Have to Boil? - live on a local breakfast TV show. She parties at a redneck bar and sings her new single He’s My Methadone (But You’re My Drug).
October 22: The Aborogynal Monologues: Canberra
Tina performs for the State Opening of Parliament in the capital. There is some tension when she finds out seconds before the gig that Waltzing Matilda is not the national anthem. Inspired by the map room of the Parliament Building, Tina writes a song called Lake Disappointment, which takes in some of the more bizarre place names in Australia. She ends her trip by singing, with the protestors for land rights at the Aboriginal Embassy on the lawns of Parliament, a country flavoured version of Kate Bush’s The Dreaming mixed up with Yothu Yindi’s land rights anthem Treaty.
October 29: The Aborogynal Monologues: Tamworth
Tina’s trip around Australia culminates in Tamworth, which hosts the biggest Country music festival outside Nashville. She looks up Auriel Andrew , famous for her number Truck Driving Woman (she really was the first and only Aboriginal star to top the Australian charts). Together they sing a medley of classic Aboriginal Country classics, which talk of love of the land, loss, powerlessness, and ultimately a sense of hope.
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