Two years after getting together to make music for fun, Alannah Williams and Justin Boschetti were on the cusp of making a real living from their talents.
At the start of this year, their mix of acoustic pop with their own twist had earned them a full calendar of bookings for weddings, birthdays, parties and venues from northern Victoria to the border clubs.
“We were getting really good bookings - Hanging Rock Races, the Tatura Cup, Corowa and Mulwala. Now we haven't done a wedding since February, " Justin said.
Since COVID-19 lockdowns began in early March, musical life for the mother-of-three and the guitar teacher from Numurkah, both 28, has been reduced to a livestream studio in their Shepparton lounge room.
Every Saturday night from 7 pm, their silky harmonies and sparkling guitar create new versions of familiar songs which stream out to the big world from their tiny one in the Covid Couch Sessions.
They have more than 200 songs in their repertoire from Billy Eilish to Kasey Chambers, Ingrid Andress, Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen and everything in between.
Now, they are adding their own originals.
Alannah has been learning the ukulele and dabbling on piano to come up with new tunes.
“Creatively, iso has been very good. It's opened up new platforms and new ideas - it's made us think about what we really want to do,” Justin said.
But their income has been reduced to Alannah's single parent allowance and whatever Justin makes teaching guitar.
He said before COVID-19 arrived, their schedule was so busy they were starting to question their chosen career path.
“We were doing six gigs in seven days. We even did three gigs in one day. We started asking ‘why are we doing this?’,” Justin said.
The duo is now taking bookings into next year, but Alannah and Justin are determined to build some balance into their lives.
“We're going to make sure we take time off. We always wanted time to ourselves - but we didn't expect this,” Justin said.
JB&Me streams live every Saturday from 7 pm at Facebook.com/jbandmeoriginal
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