The Riv Talks

The Echuca-Moama Winter Blues Festival is on again this year, throughout the twin towns from July 23 to 26. 2023 Memphis International Blues Challenge winner Frank Sultana is among those returning to the festival.In this episode of The Riv talks …, and the fourth for 2026 about the Echuca Moama Winter Blues Festival, Frank talks about how he won the Memphis event, as well as what he has been up to. 

Cass Eager wants everyone to get off the couch and come on down to the 2026 Echuca-Moama Winter Blues Festival.In this episode of The Riv Talks … and the third talking about the winter blues festival, Cass talks about growing up always singing, her first band and playing for the troops.

In this episode of Riv Talks …, we chat to an Echuca-Moama Winter Blues Festival regular, internationally renowned blues-roots singer-songwriter Geoff Achison. Geoff talks about his long blues career, including the moment when blues music became his lifelong learning and his annual gig at the Echuca library during the Winter Blues Festival. 

In this episode of Riv Talks …, we step back to the 2025 Echuca Moama Winter Blues Festival and speak to 19-Twenty frontman Kane Dennelly and blues guitar legend Nathan Cavaleri. At the time, Nathan had released a new studio album and his first-ever live recording. Nathan talks about the magic of Echuca Moama Winter Blues, which has brought him back to the festival more than once. 19-Twenty have been stalwarts of the Echuca Moama Winter Blues Festival for over 10 years, with the band becoming a bigger focus in the Australian music scene with each visit. Before the 2025 festival, Kane spoke about how busy the band had been touring and why they came to Echuca-Moama again and again.

The 2026 Rochester Mural Festival starts on Saturday, March 21, and runs through the following weekend. You can watch 10 artists from across Australia complete live paintings in the town’s Mural Park.In this episode of The RIV talks… we speak to artists Marco Pennacchia and Kerry Nicholson about why they paint, what they paint and what keeps bringing them back to the mural festival each year. The mural festival is not the only upcoming event in Rochester, with the Sips and Sounds Festival, Creative Seeds Exhibition and Ripple Fest running from Sunday, March 22 to Saturday, March 28.More information can be found in this week’s papers and online. 

James Taylor's songs are bookmarks in many people’s lives, and Darren Coggan takes seriously his responsibility to recreate the songs as accurately as possible.The result is the show Fire and Rain - The James Taylor Songbook, which is playing at the Echuca Paramount Theatre on Saturday, March 28 at 7.30pm.I’m Riv journalist Jaci Hicken, and in this episode of The RIV talks … I spoke to Darren about his long Australian music career, his love for the songs of James Taylor and his show Fire and Rain - The James Taylor Songbook.