YOUR TOP TEN BUSHRANGER BALLADS ...?

William Strutt (English, 1825–1915) Bushrangers, Victoria, Australia, 1852, 1887

What are your favourites? Here’s my list:

Jack Donohoe

Wild Colonial Boy

The Death of Ben Hall

Bold Ben Hall

The Streets of Forbes

Dunn, Gilbert and Ben Hall

Frank Gardiner

Stringybark Creek

Ballad of the Kelly Gang

My Name is Edward Kelly

ë

But there are a whole lot more to pick from. Chloe and Jason Roweth  have a couple of hundred in their repertoire and there might even be a few more lurking out there in folklore.

Take the once-mysterious ‘Johnny Troy’, for instance. There were several incidental mentions of him and his deeds in historical documents and folklore. He featured briefly in a poem titled ‘The Convict’s Tour to Hell’, probably composed by ‘Frank the Poet’ (Francis McNamara), in or before 1839. 

But that was about all anyone knew of this Irish bushranger until the 1950s, when American folksong collectors began to hear a ‘Johnny Troy’ ballad – mainly among lumber jacks. It seems that while Johnny Troy’s vigorous song had faded away in Australia, it had been well received by the Americans, who often sang it together with a couple of other Australian bushranger ballads, ‘Jack Donohoe’ and ‘The Wild Colonial Boy’. It is likely that these songs reached America during the California gold rushes, which explains how they got there. But there was still no news of the lost bushranger in Australia. Until some solid research by the late Stephan Williams turned up the whole true history of Johnny Troy.

You can read the full story on my Gristly History blog. You can also read some very interesting articles about bushrangers, murder ballads and associated delights on English journalist and author Paul Slade’s excellent website at PlanetSlade 

The hunt for the Governor gang of bushrangers. A posse of mounted police, aboriginal trackers and district volunteers (SLNSW)

TIN SANDWICH FOLLOW-UP (The Harp Dude)

A while back I posted on the old Boomerang songsters and instruments, especially harmonicas (‘tin sandwich’, ‘mouth organ’, ‘harp’, ‘moothies’ in Scotland…). Imagine my delight to discover in the instrument makers’ stand at the National Folk Festival, ‘The Harp Dude’. With a table full of antique and reconditioned/improved tin sandwiches, Jamie told me about the wonderful things he does with old and new harps. It’s a labour of love and his website is definitely worth checking out.

PARODIES

A number of people at our parody session at this year's National Folk Festival asked for some samples to be put online. Here are a few of the countless many (scroll down to the second article titled ‘Pointed Parodies’). And, feel free to send in your own through the comments section of these posts.

AFTER THE FESTIVAL

Our various sessions were well attended and all went well. ‘Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It’s Flavour?’ was a hoot, with a dozen players crowding the Trocadero stage. 

Rob and I were back there the next day for a two-hander on the wonderfully subversive subject of folk parodies. As usual, the audience knew as many, if not more, than we did. That’s a folklorist’s lot. 

Thanks to all who took part as audiences and performers and to all those organisers, volunteers and kindly folk who make the National Folk Festival happen every year, now for more than fifty of them. 

It’s all so engrossing, busy and enjoyable that it’s easy to forget the scale and achievement of the folk movement. People interested in musical, dance and other traditions have been coming together since the 1950s to practice, perform, learn and celebrate these often-fragile arts, crafts, skills and customs, practicing them at festivals, folk clubs and get-togethers. It’s all happened because people want to preserve, but also evolve, what are seen as valuable forms of community heritage and expressive culture. 

The National is the oldest of the festivals still running (long may it do so), but there are others all around the country, large and small, all dedicated to some aspect of ‘folk’. These days, they might get a bit of official funding and support, but they remain primarily volunteer events that allow folkies and broader communities to come together in a positive celebration of human art and life, something that seems to be needed more and more. 

See you there next year.

WHAT THE "F" IS FOLKLORE?!

From The Folklore Society conference, Folklore and the Nation, 2019

After a few queries from various folk, I’ve put together a brief guide to what folklore is all about, with a focus on Australia’s diverse cultures.

There are some definitions, some examples, a ‘folklore FAQs’ section and a few reading references for anyone who really wants to get into it.

You’ll find it all here in the blog Articles section. 

 [Spoiler alert: there is no fixed or final definition].

MORE ON MURDER BALLADS

Some modern composed murder ballads in the discussion at Australian Folk and Roots Music Forum:

https://m.facebook.com/groups/1972175932921018?view=permalink&id=2173658006106142&src=email_notif

but I’m after the more traditional street ballads and the like, generated through the mysterious processes of oral tradition. No one seems to have come up with any of these yet, other than a possible on the Gatton murders, though this seems more like a poem recently set to music. We certainly come across poems on old murders, not always in ballad form, but still looking for Australian examples of the type of thing at http://www.planetslade.com/murder.html.

On the evidence to date - or its absence - I’m sticking with my original observation that we haven’t traditionally, at least, been much interested in such narrative songs.

WHERE ARE OUR MURDER BALLADS?

Why are there no murder ballads in Australian folksong? 

Is it because Australians seem to have killed each other much less frequently than many other nationalities, so there’s not much demand for heart-rending songs about it? We have bushranger ballads, convict ballads, disaster ballads and some about jockeys dying in racecourse mishaps, as well as other joyful ditties. But what about songs like ‘The Red Barn’, the British ballad on the murder of Maria Marten in 1827. What about something like those classic American ‘down in some lone valley’ numbers?

While some imported British and American murder ballads have been collected here (though not many), it seems we’d prefer to make light of criminal demises in local compositions. The notorious ‘Pyjama Girl’ murder of 1934 is commemorated in our tradition in a light-hearted parody of the accused murderer to the jolly tune of ‘Funiculi Funicula’.

There is also a parody of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ relating to the death of Azaria Chamberlain.

Can’t we do better than this? 

Or have we? 

Maybe you know of a great Aussie murder ballad that has missed the attention of folksong collectors. Send it in, we’d love to include it in our collections.

VERANDAH MUSIC AT THE NATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL UPDATE

Not many sleeps to go, so here’s an update on what we’re up to at the National Folk Festival this Easter:

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour

For this galah occasion, the band has expanded to 11 (Jac Bradley, Kevin Bradley, Bill Browne, Baz Cooper, Matt Nightingale, Chloe Roweth, Jason Roweth, Graham Seal, Rob Willis, Kris Willis). In a desperate attempt to conceal our guilt, we will take the temporary monicker of ‘P K Wrigley and the Skifflejuggers’, performing a heady brew of skiffle, jug, old timey, bush, primal rock & roll and anything else that comes to mind from 2 – 3pm on Sunday, April 21, in the Trocadero.

Pointed Parodies and Dreadful Ditties 

Parodies, squibs and satires from childhood to politics and everything in between. How did Wonder Woman lose her bosom? Who killed Santa Claus - and why? We reveal all.

We’ve collected archives of this stuff from around the country over the years and want to share some of it with you. Bring yours along as well, for an enjoyably subversive session of sharp-toothed humour. Join Rob and I on Monday April 22, in the Trocadero 12.30-1.30. A nice way to wind up your festival.

All our other events are as previously advertised:

Teri Young in concert and conversation with Rob Willis, Friday April 19, Trocadero 11.30-12.30. 

And don’t forget the National Folklore Conference at the National Library just prior to the festival on April 18, also including Rob’s 25th (yes, that’s a quarter of a century) curated concert at the Library. This year it’s Tassie singer-songwriter Teri Young. And it’s all free! But you must register at cknow@iinet.net.au

TIN SANDWICH, SONG-O- PHONE AND NOSE FLUTE - IN THE BOOMERANG SONGSTERS

Songsters – cheap collections of song lyrics – have a long history, in Australia and elsewhere. They are important sources for knowing what folks were singing in colonial times and remained popular well past the middle of the twentieth century. As well as lyric of popular, traditional and other songs, they often contained, jokes, riddles and advertisements. 

One of the most long-lasting songster series were those published by J Albert & Son, a venerable Australian company, still in business. Albert’s published mainly the ‘Boomerang’ songsters, an eclectic series of songs of every style and period. Numbers 40 and 42 (late 1930s?), for example, contained ‘Mademoiselle from Armentieres, ‘Stop Beatin’ ‘Round the Mulberry Bush’, ‘Over the rainbow’ and ‘Shabby Old Cabby’, among many other classics and obscurities to fill the 50-odd pages that made up a typical Boomerang songster. (They shrunk a lot during World War 2, presumably due to paper shortages)

Basically, the best-selling songsters were catalogues for Albert’s products. These included sheet music and instrument learning systems, including the ukulele and piano and the fascinating nose flute (marketed as ‘the Magic Flute’). 

They also sold musical instruments, some of which have featured in verandah music for generations. The advertised instruments included the popular free reed instruments of accordions and harmonicas (‘tin sandwich’), available in a bewildering variety of designs, sizes and shapes, all marketed under the ‘Boomerang’ brand. 

You could also buy a snappy brass ‘Boomerang Flute’ version of the humble tin whistle (in 5 keys) and something called a ‘Song-o-Phone’, a bell-shaped device of brassed metal that ‘gives perfect imitation of a dog, horse, cow, rooster, pig, frog, bugle call, etc’. I don’t think this sexed-up kazoo(?) caught on, though I desperately want one!

Here are a few quick snaps of some of the adverts in my own little collection of these musical time capsules:

Made for the New Zealand market