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Adrian Kosky's full length independent album, Frozen With Intent, marks the accomplished culmination of a musical journey, the touchstones for which were mail-order LPs, a cappuccino machine and the film 'Deliverance'.

Frozen With Intent comprises nine original songs, which combine gently expressive vocals with the fine-tuned sounds of acoustic guitar, dobro, dulcimer and blues harp. It's a strong document, the product of singer-songwriter's vision which began in the 1970s when, at the age of 13, he received his first set of mail-order albums from the Australian Record Club.

"There were six records," he recalls, "including Ry Cooder, Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and the Rolling Stones. For me they were amazing discoveries. I still play them today."

Around the same time the Mt Waverley youngster began to explore the booming coffee shop scene. He remembers being blown away by Australian blues legend Dutch Tilders. "I asked him how I could play blues well," he laughs. "Dutch told me to go away and practise for 20 years, and I guess that's what I've done."

Later on, inspired by these early experiences, Adrian opened his own performance venue, the popular Fat Bob's Cafe in Caulfield. He preferred to leave the limelight to other musicians, but was often invited to accompany them - which he did standing behind the counter, blowing on his harp, and banging out percussive rhythms on the coffee machine.

A period of travel followed, notably to Tennessee and North Carolina, where 'Deliverance' was filmed. "I discovered that there was much more to North Carolina mountain music than albino kids with banjos," he recalls. "I found my musical lodestone."

He also discovered one of the fundamental dichotomies in folk music. "There's the swamps, and there are the mountains. I guess I play mountain music. The city represents the swamp for me. I live now in the Central Highlands, in Daylesford.

"We're in the mountains here, and mountains are about clarity, isolation, loneliness - they prompt a kind of expressive melancholia which I find very appealing. If you like, it's a positive melancholia."

Frozen With Intent was recorded at Adrian's home studio. It was engineered by Robbie Adams, mixed at Metropolis Audio, and mastered at Edensound. The result is a finely polished collection, in which the crisp melancholy of the playing is matched by the optimism and wry humour of the lyrics.

Frozen With Intent is an expression of talent and modesty, a considered album from a man for whom music has always been about joy rather than business. It's been many years and a long road since Adrian Kosky unwrapped his first Muddy Waters album, but, as you'll agree when his music washes over you late at night or on a lazy Sunday morning, it's been well worth the wait.

Frozen With Intent reviews

Trad and Now
May 2003 edition

Reviewed by Bernard Williams

The trouble with having listened to parodies of blues songs [like Cliché Blues by Mic Conway's band National Junk Band] is that it can be hard to take some blues-oriented offerings seriously and not to perceive them as unintentional parodies. But then, perhaps the answer is to not take them too seriously anyway and to happily treat some of them as parodies, intentional or not?!

Adrian Kosky's offering has its share of the above ["Mercedes Benz Blues", "Big Brained Woman" and, to a lesser extent, "I Got a Loss Here Lord"] and they point to a musician who can certainly play and sing the blues, But this CD also so much more.

Whether it is the three blues pieces, the gentle introspection of "Waking Up Older" and If You Don't Want To Love Me Now", the warm country blues feel of "That Thing", the almost anthemic simplicity of "Frozen With Intent" or the all too short happy instrumental "Big Room Boogie", these original compositions are delightfully varied and downright entertaining. One of my favourite tracks is the sparsely arranged "In My Barn", which speaks to me about blokes and sheds- at one level.

Kosky's singing and playing [guitar, dobro, bass drum, percussion, blues harp, cabassa, mountain dulcimer harmonica and foot stomp] are variously supplemented, complemented and complimented by backing vocals, percussion, bass and piano. The end product is a musical collection that has been more than competently arranged, performed and engineered.

Curled up near the fire, with a warm and/or warming drink on a grey Sunday afternoon, listening to Adrian Kosky left me anything but frozen.

Bernard Williams.


Frozen With Intent review 2
Folk Australia
Adrian Kosky:

reviewed by Jim Low
Adrian Kosky is a singer-songwriter living in Daylesford, Victoria. He is an accomplished acoustic musician, playing guitar, dobro and harmonica. In the concluding track Kosky treats us to some mountain dulcimer. On four of the songs Kosky is capably assisted with extra instrumentation and vocals.

The CD begins in a solid, confident fashion with the blues and gospel sounding I Got A Loss Here Lord. Kosky has a very comfortable feel for the blues both in his playing and vocal delivery.

The songs are interesting in their variety of musical approaches. There is, for example, the reflective Waking Up Older with its haunting, repetitious melody. Then there is the fuller sounding, catchy song of dissatisfaction That Thing. The spirited Mercedes Benz Blues carries a warning that things are not always what they seem. The concluding Big Room Boogie is a brief and breezy instrumental.

The melancholy, confessional In My Barn demonstrates the effectiveness of a good melody. The title track Frozen With Intent, a song of procrastination, is enhanced by a very attractive piano and viola accompaniment.

The CD has an overall reflective, earthy feel. As Kosky says in his song In My Barn:
The songs of wood and steel
Wrap me in a country feel.

The attractively designed CD booklet and casing help reinforce this feeling.

Jim Low

Check out the artist's website:
http://www.adriankosky.com

Track List:
1. I Got a Loss Here Lord
2. Waking up Older
3. If You Don't Want to Love Me Now
4. That Thing
5. In My Barn
6. Mercedes Benz Blues
7. Frozen With Intent
8. Big Brained Woman
9. Big Room Boogie

Other Genres:

• BLUES: Acoustic Blues
• COUNTRY: Country Blues
• MOOD: BROODING