Port Fairy Reviewed, Scallop Pies, F1 Reluctantly Recommended, Festival Etiquette and Why Steve Poltz Might Save Your Soul

The latest episode of On The Record opens where any self-respecting Australian roots podcast should: the Port Fairy Folk Festival.

It then takes a characteristic detour into aging payment technology, Formula One, Mick Turner guitar lines and the comedic chops of Steve Poltz.

Port Fairy: big tops, bad sound and a perfect scallop pie

Weather report first, because Brian is a professional:

Friday: sunny and “pretty good”
Saturday: freezing
Sunday: cool with drizzle

But with everything in big circus tents these days (goodbye old dormer tents, hello enormous Shabeen big top), the elements aren’t the real problem. The sound is.

In the cavernous Shebeen – “imagine the biggest tent at Bluesfest” – early sets cop the worst of it.

Queenie and Hank (Henry Wagons and Queenie) and Mississippi gospel outfit Annie and the Caldwells both battle muddy sound that their energy just manages to bulldoze.

Then Kasey Chambers comes on, the mix suddenly snaps into focus, and the lads draw the obvious conclusion: either it took the crew that long to figure out the tent, or Kasey turned up with her own engineer.

From there, it’s a roll call of highlights:

Liz Stringer in the Shebeen

Shane O’Mara & Jack Tully Tonks –with their beautiful tribute to Bert Jansch.

Emma Donovan – Take Me to the River

Sons of the East – The band Brian was truly hanging out for.

As he cheerfully confesses, this band hits the same soft spot that allows him to say, out loud, that he loves the first three Eagles albums. Hear the full confession inside the podcast.

The Port Fairy food highlight? A $10 scallop pie that Brian declares the bargain of the festival – to Michael’s surprise, since he’d mentally filed scallop pies under “Tasmanian only.”

Then we get to what truly haunts Brian: festival etiquette, specifically in food and drink queues.

Drive to Survive: “Married at First Sight, but in a car”

From folk festivals, we slam straight into Formula One.

Michael, a man with no time for “rich people’s sport” like F1 or yacht racing, grudgingly admits he’s binge‑watching the new season of Drive to Survive on Brian’s recommendation.

He hates everyone in it and can’t stop watching.

Brian, who’s devoured previous seasons, flags what he sees as the real story arc: the terrifying relentlessness of Max Verstappen, who haunts the championship even when he doesn’t win it.

Michael, in turn, has finally learnt the difference between the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships and mildly resents the knowledge.

Mick Turner, Detectorists and hijacked Idris

Amid all this, there is still room for a proper Rhythms‑adjacent sermon. Michael devotes a section to Mick Turner, the quiet third of Dirty Three (not Warren Ellis, not Jim White), and more recently part of Mess Esque.

He praises Turner’s guitar as sounding perpetually on the edge of collapse before something unexpectedly sweet pulls it back from the brink. For Michael, one of the late‑discovered gems of Australian music.

Balance is also restored by news that The Detectorists – Mackenzie Crook’s earlier, much‑loved series – is now on Amazon Prime.

Having already bonded over Crook’s more recent Small Prophets, they describe The Detectorists as one of those great, gentle British comedies that make you laugh and well up in satisfying ratios.

The episode finishes on the restorative power of troubadours like Steve Poltz, whom Brian urges everyone to see while he’s still in the country.

Poltz, he reckons, is doing 200 shows a year, tells stories worthy of Arlo Guthrie without the heaviness of Loudon Wainwright III, and has a song about Jesus flogging Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedias because heaven has run out of storage space.

If that doesn’t help you forget the news for an hour, nothing will.