Henry Wagons marries his passions for food, music and stories in Old Fashioned Nights

If he's in Tasmania he's tucking into a scallop pie. A trip through country Australia isn't complete without a vanilla slice. In Vietnam Wagons will slurp a roadside pho and in Texas nothing beats slow-cooked brisket.

"It's about being open to the journey," Wagons says.

Next month Wagons' journey through food and music is hitching itself to the Newcastle Fringe Festival. The 130-show program features an eclectic mix of burlesque, comedy, dance, music, poetry and theatre across eight days and 10 venues from March 17 to 27.

Wagons' lunch edition of his Old Fashioned Nights show with fellow Melbourne alt-country musician Lachlan Bryan at Lizotte's promises to be an afternoon of culinary-themed songs and stories from the renown raconteur.

"I've had the idea for a while, because I'm always hungry," he says. "Trying food in different places, it's always one of the perks of the job."

The ramshackle nature of the music business means a traditional culinary staple generally ends up on Wagons' tour diet.

"It's usually about breakfasts for me a lot of the time," he says, when asked about his go-to tour food. "You've usually had a hazy evening and you need something to soak up the sin.

"I'm sure anyone that's seen me perform before might have heard me ask the locals, 'where's the best poached eggs or crispiest bacon'?

"I'm looking forward to hearing from the audience about where the best food in Newcastle is."

Wagons has spent the past two years of the pandemic touring sporadically with his self-named alt-country band - who released the EP Need A Ride? in 2020 - as well as hosting Double J radio show Tower Of Song, and performing his Warren Zevon tribute show Accidently Like A Martyr.

Bryan and Wagons have performed their Old Fashioned Nights show about 10 times and the show explores the relationship between the food and the music, which features a combination of covers from the likes of Leonard Cohen and Waylon Jennings, plus originals.

"If there's a gumbo on the menu I'll tell stories about the American south," he says. "If it's Yorkshire pudding with a Sunday roast I'll talk about all the pubs with violent names I've played in the UK.

"I usually try to sneak in an Elvis dessert and talk about Gracelands and Memphis."

Bryan and Wagons are long-time friends, who have increasingly collaborated in recent years on joint tours and the Warren Zevon tribute show.

Last year Lachlan Bryan & The Wildes released their acclaimed Americana album As Long As It's Not Us, but through Old Fashioned Nights, Bryan shows off his expressive piano playing.

"Lachlan being an incredible songwriter himself, he knows how to help me punctuate a song," Wagons says. "His piano playing is extraordinary and he can really help me deliver the narrative, which is really important.

"When the shows are so open, when there's just acoustic guitar and piano, the songs are just conduits for a story and Lachlan Bryan knows how to spin one."

The Newcastle Fringe Festival returned last year after being one of the first major COVID casualties in 2020.

Lizotte's will host two of the Fringe Festival's other main attractions in Newcastle's queen of country Catherine Britt (March 24) and Triple Treat Comedy (March 19), which features the talents of Darren Sanders, Tommy Dean and Peter Berner.

After a tumultuous couple of years for the entertainment and arts industries, Wagons says a healthy fringe festival has never been more important.

"I love playing fringe festivals because it's kind of an open invitation to be cheeky and a little bit naughty and just tread on the outskirts," he says. "It's gonna be really fun.

"We need to repopulate the fringes again.

"We've been stuck in the middle of our loungerooms for so long, so it's time to explore the dark corners."

Henry Wagons plays at Lizotte's on March 20.

Visit newcastlefringe.com.au for more show details.

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