TRACKING CROOKED MICK – THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A BUSH LEGEND

 

The occupational hero of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Australian shearers was the fabled 'Crooked Mick'. Mick was a superhuman character most often seen on the Speewah, an equally fabled sheep station where the board was so long it took all day to get from one end to the other - by horse.

We've published a short article that tracks the origins and development of the legend of Crooked Mick and the Speech on the blog at

 https://www.blogger.com/blog/page/edit/2138391645827947224/7470750486645019322

Read all about the over-sized superhero shearer who could shear three sheep with just two blows of his shears and needed eight ‘loppies’, or rousabouts, to carry the fleeces away - and even more lies!

IMMORTAL - A Video Commemoration and Celebration

Bruce Watson has released his outstanding commemoration to those whose legacy is the basis of the Australian folk scene. Below is Bruce's introduction to the video and you can view it at
 https://sites.google.com/view/immortalfolk
 

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After 15 months and hundreds of hours of work, I am proud to announce that the ‘Immortal’ video is now completed and available to view!

‘Immortal’ remembers and celebrates the extraordinarily talented people who have made a significant contribution to Australia’s folk scene over the decades – but who are no longer with us. People who have played a key role in expressing, and defining Australia’s changing cultural identity, and who have left a lasting legacy through their music, inspiration, knowledge and passion; performers, songwriters, collectors and inspirers.

Photos, video and audio capture their lives and their creative cultural contribution, providing an opportunity for remembering, and giving inspiration to the next generation.


Some early reactions:

• BRILLIANT! A cultural treasure of incalculable value.  I am moved almost beyond words.  (Phyl Lobl)

• Wow! What a wonderful video!   Brilliant photos, brought back some great memories.  (Martyn Wyndham-Read)

• An amazing project!  What an emotional journey! How lucky are the present generation to have this wonderful tribute.  (Kate Delaney)

Some of you may have seen earlier drafts of the video, which I have screened at three folk festivals in recent months, accompanied by a panel exploring issues of change and continuity within the folk scene and Australian culture, and by feedback which has been incorporated into the final version.
Thanks to the Troubadour Foundation for supporting this project with a grant.

I’d love you to have a look, click Like, and comment on the video. And please share it with anyone you know who might be interested in it.

To watch the video, go to this website: https://sites.google.com/view/immortalfolk

DANCING WITH A CONCERTINA (as well as a person)

 

Tony Smith as written a piece on music making as portrayed in Eve Langley's classic novel, The Pea-Pickers (1942). The focus is on the intriguing custom of playing a concertina while whirling your partner around the dance floor. What fun!

You can read Tony's article here https://verandahmusic.blogspot.com/p/articles.html

FOLKSONG BANNED 1949!

On 11 February 1949 Brisbane’s Courier-Mail newspaper reported that:

'The Foggy, Foggy, Dew' has been banned by the Australian Broadcasting Commission and the Federation of Commercial Broadcasting Stations. The song was featured in the film 'Smoky.' Brisbane radio stations have recordings which have been played on the air. They are by the American singer Burl Ives.

The A.B.C. director of variety (Mr. H. Pringle) said in Sydney that although the song was good technically, it had suggestive implications. The president of the Australian Federation of Commercial Broadcasting Stations (Mr. J. E. Ridley) said that although the song was melodious, the words were 'a bit over the fence.'

Burl Ives was in the early years of his long career in show business, with a special emphasis on ‘folk songs’. His ‘Foggy Dew’ was not the well-known setting of the Charles O’Neill chronicle of the 1916 Easter rising in Ireland, but the traditional song with faintly risqué lyrics in which a bachelor weaver ‘woos’ a young woman ‘in the wintertime and in the summer, too’. Going by Burl’s rendition on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1953 he was not averse to spruiking the song’s double meaning. So, although Australian broadcasters considered the song  'a bit over the fence’, it doesn’t seem to have bothered American audiences.

Sing Out magazine (source of the image above) has an article on Burl at https://singout.org/remembering-burl-ives-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-birth/

(See previous posts on Burl downunder)

AUSTRALIAN BUSH MUSIC RESOURCE

Shearing the Rams, Tom Roberts

Large collection of Sheet Music and Publications Information about Collectors and Informants of bush music at https://australianfolkmusic.com.au/home/about/

A RAMBLING IRISH SINGER DOWNUNDER

 

Patrick Tayleur in later life at the New York World's Fair in 1940, where he displayed his model sailing ships.

He walked from Brisbane to Perth – and further. It was just as the great depression was getting under way that rambling Irishman, Patrick Tayleur, washed up in Australia looking for a job. 

 

As well as this impressive feat of pedestrianism, Tayleur was a singer and, it seems, a composer of folk ballads. With several stints at sea in sailing ships he had a solid repertoire of shanties. But he is of particular Verandah Music interest because he also had a range of specifically Australian songs. We know most of this because the American collector, William Main Doerflinger, recorded Tayleur’s songs. 

 

You can read all about this remarkable man’s life, his songs, and even hear him singing a few at 

 

 https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2024/11/the-one-that-found-galore-patrick-tayluer-in-australia/

 

where folklorist Stephen Winick presents an impressive piece of research into Tayleur’s life and times for the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

(Thanks to Rob Willis)

BUSH BAND – OR BEACH BAND?

This photograph was taken in 1895 on Western Australia’s Rottnest Island (Wadjemup). 

Pat Baird on 5-string banjo was a lighthouse keeper on the island, the other three men were members of the pilot boat crew – Tommy Iglow on accordion, Teddy Jones on the bones and an unnamed tin whistler. The banjo and accordion look like quality instruments and the players look like they know what to do with them. 

The band probably played at dances and possibly other social events for the island’s population, which included a large number of First Nations prisoners, boys in a reformatory, administrators, tradesmen and a few farmers, many with resident families.

This band could be considered part of the ‘foo foo’ band tradition of improvised ensembles aboard ships, an island being a very similar environment. They are well-dressed in their work uniforms, so someone thought them worthwhile documenting, possibly for a postcard? Whatever the reason the photograph was taken, the band would have been capable of pumping out a fair bit of sound and rhythm and were probably in great demand. Or, maybe they only played to the quokkas!

Sounds Like Australia

 https://www.outbackmag.com.au/sounds-like-australia/

Article about the collecting odyssey of Rob and Ollie Willis in Outback magazine. We featured this work in a previous post at

 https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/2138391645827947224/2607229772787880325

And there is more information at

https://verandahmusic.blogspot.com/p/the-willis-collection-of-life-stories.html

HOW IRELAND THINKS ABOUT TRADITIONAL MUSIC

Interesting article by Toner Quinn on the distinctive communal nature of Irish traditional music, probably also applies to traditional musics of quite a few - though certainly not all - other cultures ...

Journal of Music

or paste this into your browser bar:

https://journalofmusic.com/opinion/how-ireland-thinks-about-music?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1MptX7G42p6Po5LvyVpYDRp22OdClsycGqImurG0zek6TTjvQIbiaO6v4_aem_ASoio_GeDhVdV_J28A0RUas0eqaMkiwiSQvMLeTzg-L0LBEHpZXIoDKIfYIq2_h00mSYk9MNLk2mMrORB2GCMbRF

Verandah Music at the 2024 National Folk Festival

 

Hairyman from Tasmania being interviewed by Rob Willis and Graham Seal in the Fitzroy. Hairyman talked about his life, philosophy, folk festivals and all manner of things - and sang a few of his powerful ballads. (Photo Ollie Willis).