Music and the food of love

The splashback in the kitchen of Jimmy and Jane Barnes’ home in the NSW Southern Highlands tells the tale of the legendary rock couple’s shared life and loves. It’s pieced into the wall behind their bold blue AGA cooker are more than 30 Delft tiles Jane has collected on trips to Holland during the 40-plus years she and Jimmy have toured and travelled together.

There’s a duck, for the fowl that nest on the banks on the Wingecarribee River their home overlooks, and a bird to represent the more than 100 species that fly past their property. Plus, there’s a swan, as a nod to Jimmy’s birth as James Dixon Swan in Glasgow in 1956, six years before he moved with his family to South Australia. There are flowers and a honey bee, reflecting the magic that happens in the hives in the garden, and a chicken, representing the ones that roam in the backyard and Jane’s nickname, “Kookai”, which is the word for chicken or hen in her native Thai.

Of course, there’s also a musician, playing a violin rather than the bagpipes Jimmy finally mastered during the enforced downtime of the COVID-19 lockdowns. In fact, the Barnes family used their rare window of time at home to great advantage. One of the reasons they’re sharing these details about their personal lives is because they have recently produced a cookbook. Called Where the River Bends, it’s a collection of 70 recipes and recollections of the times the Barnes family and friends spend in the kitchen and