THE DANCE AT MITCHELL’S ISLAND HALL

 

In 1990 John Meredith and I recorded the Murray Brothers, Bert and Bob, at Burrell Creek NSW along with their sister, Kit Taylor. All were well known musicians in the area. 
Early the next year (1991) Ollie and I along with our kids had an amazing musical session at Taree with them and local fiddle and concertina player, Ernie Wells. I videoed segments of this session and it is now in our NLA collection.
We also recorded Kit’s son Peter and his wife, Dorothy doing some local variations of dances.
The people we record are not just numbers on a Library catalogue, they often become friends and this was the case with Peter and Dorothy Taylor. 
About five years ago Peter lamented that the old (unique) local dances were being forgotten and suggested that he gather a few of his dancing friends, teach them the dances and we could video them. Of course, the answer was YES. Covid and a few health issues intervened but Peter contacted me again earlier this year and the result was the dance we recorded at Mitchell’s Island Hall in August 2022.
You certainly don’t see a dance programme like this very often these days.
There’s always a story and this one is a bit long to tell here so the resulting video and complete story are up on our Verandah Music YouTube site, here
Many thanks to Peter and Dorothy for facilitating the dance, Ollie Willis and John and Maree Harpley for helping us record it for posterity.

Rob Willis

NORFOLK WHALERS

 

The Last Wooden Whaleship, Mystic Port

A new book on the fascinating history of Norfolk Island offshore whaling has just been released. It is the product of years of in-depth research in Australia and the USA by Sue and Don Brian. As well as being well researched and illustrated, the book is FREE! If you’d like a copy of the digital edition of Offshore Whalers at Norfolk Island in the Days of Sail, just email donandsuebrian@gmail.com

REVIEW - MARTIN DOHERTY AND LEIGH BIRKETT 'BISCUITS ON BROADWAY'

Martin Doherty’s adopted grandson, Camillo, just loves to bake, especially biscuits. He takes them down to Sydney’s Broadway and distributes them to the homeless people who gather there. This story is told in the title track of the latest double album by Martin Doherty and Leigh Birkett, Biscuits on Broadway.

 

Here is Tony Smith’s review of the album. You can stream through Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, etc.

 

This double CD of 26 tracks provides fresh relief from the stasis of recent Covid lockdowns. The songs essentially fall into three categories: the need for understanding the plight of people who are less prosperous, Martin Doherty’s nostalgia for his homeland of Ireland and stories of historical interest. Some songs fit multiple categories. 

 

The title track concerns the hard city streets where ‘a little humanity goes a long, long way’. Indeed this is the album’s theme. ‘Man of the Earth’ by Bernie Parry tells of someone who worked hard for decades then has nothing but an ‘allotment’ in retirement. ‘Ordinary Man’ by Peter Hames concerns another battler, a factory worker laid off to become human waste. ‘Cry Like a Man’ by Jonnie Barnett, Dan Penn and Carson Whitsett and ‘Try a Little Kindness’ by Curt Sapaugh and Bobby Austin augment this theme as do some of Martin’s originals - ‘Never Be Forgotten’ and ‘Heart Reaching Out’. 

 

Some tracks are either written by someone in Ireland or else covered by an Irish singer. As Martin explains, some are lesser-known Irish tunes and songs and others give his own thoughts on his homeland. He penned both lyrics and music on ‘Dublin Today’, ‘Spike Island’ and ‘The Road to Doolin’. A feature of these tracks is the flute and whistle backing by nephew Alan Doherty, one of Ireland’s finest. 

 

Among lesser-known Irish songs, the lyrics to the traditional ‘Dark Island’ were learned from Martin’s great friend, the late Tom Minogue. ‘Sail On Jimmy’ by Albert Niland is a.k.a. ‘Irish Pagan Ritual’. The lively ‘Man from the Daily Mall’ satirises how the British press in 1920 saw rebels everywhere. This song by Peadar Mac Ghiolla Chearra is set to tune of ‘Girl from Clare’ by Percy French. Other covers include ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’ by Paul Simon and Canadian Glen Reid’s ‘My Green Valleys’ with fine strings backing. 

 

There are seven tracks with either words and music or just lyrics by Lyn Doherty: ‘Biscuits on Broadway’, ‘SacredGround’, ‘The Star of Taroon’, ‘The Birthing Tree’, ‘Mystic Mountain’, ‘The Cameliers’ and ‘Pelorus Jack’.  Lyn’s compassion for people of diverse backgrounds is plain from these songs, as is her profound respect for Australia’sIndigenous peoples. The four songs about Aboriginal relationships with the land are exceptional. ‘The Cameliers’ describes eight Afghan camel drivers who joined the Burke and Wills expedition with 26 camels. Spelling with an ‘i’ suggests they

are ‘cavaliers’. The song has a Middle Eastern sound at beginning. ‘Pelorus Jack’ is replete with nautical terminology. A pelorus is an instrument that keeps a ship on course. These tracks show something of the depth of Lyn Doherty’s research. Brass backing is suggestive of the seaman’s mission. 

 

Martin Doherty has an exceptionally clear voice and Leigh Birkett’s arrangements ensure that the instruments provide background but never overwhelm the lyrics. Vocal harmonies are subtle and supportive. Graham Seal’s ‘Tea and Sugar Train’ has very good guitar sounding like a train whistle while his ‘River Ran Like Murder’ has appropriate arrangement, including chorus and guitar interlude. The traditional ‘Ramble Away’ has beautiful mandolin backing. 

 

The musicians are Martin Doherty (lead vocal, guitar), Leigh Birkett (guitars, bouzouki, mandolins, bass, keyboard, orchestral arrangements, programming, backing vocals), Alan Doherty (flute, whistle), Rebecca Daniel (violin) and Ian MacKenzie (uilleann pipes). Nigel Davey and Kevin Shortall (accordions) and Tola Custy (violin and viola) join from Ireland. Gordon Hamilton is the whistler, Tara Gray and Lyn Doherty provide backing vocals. Five-year-old grandson Arthur with help from dad Matt sings ‘Black is the colour’. 

 

Production was at Brays Lane Studio and FolkLAB with additional recording in Dublin. Leigh oversaw the artwork.These songs are presented tastefully, provoke thought and compel further listening. Biscuits on Broadway is an exceptional album presented in true folk style.

© 2022 Tony Smith  

Concertinas Go Bush!

The Concertinas Go Bush series of videos has been released (live on Concertina Australia from Saturday 23rd July and then daily until the 31st July) most have two or three participants. The videos will remain permanently on the site. The response was very exciting with players taking their inspiration from collected tunes and from inspiration at various folk gatherings. The players explain their instrument and choice of tunes providing an additional layer to the videos. There’s some nice ‘bush-inspired’ original tunes too.  Here is the link to the series. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQXKpNeXGqx6fGZEd63hFjg?app=desktop   You can also view the previous Home-baked series on Concertina Australia. This project was produced by Warren Fahey and aimed at increasing awareness of Australia's bush traditional music.

 

 

 

 

 

AUSTRALIAN FOLKSONGS BY BURL IVES

The American entertainer, Burl Ives, visited Australia in the 1950’s singing folksongs from all over, including from here. He recorded a selection of these on his 1953 album, Australian Folksongs (frequently reissued) and Stephen Whiteside has been busy tracking down the often twisty histories of these songs. You can find his posts at:

 

https://stephenwhiteside.com.au/?s=the+old+bullock+dray

 

https://stephenwhiteside.com.au/?s=the+springtime

 

https://stephenwhiteside.com.au/?s=click+go+the+shears

 

https://stephenwhiteside.com.au/?s=wild+rover+no+more

 

https://stephenwhiteside.com.au/?s=the+stockman%27s+last+bed

FOLKSONG HISTORIES

Charlie Hammond (1870-1953) Sick Stockrider, 1905

 

One of the many fascinating aspects of engaging with folklore is researching the history of folksongs. The long and twisting paths through which songs have been passed down, sometimes form a long time ago, can take you into all sorts of surprising places.

 

Stephen Whiteside has been looking into some classic Australian songs, namely The Dying Stockman’, Botany Bay’ and The Station Cook’ (‘Fowler’s Bay’). You can read all about it on his blog:

https://stephenwhiteside.com.au/the-dying-stockman/

 

https://stephenwhiteside.com.au/botany-bay/

https://stephenwhiteside.com.au/the-station-cook/

VERANDAH MUSIC UKRAINIAN STYLE

 

Lessja Farrow and Lyudmyla Koziy, Tasmania 

 

Miklós Both, founder of the Polyphony Project, is on a mission: to collect folk music in Ukraine. In the last four years, the project has visited over 100 different villages and recorded 2000 songs sung by the women in each village. All these folk songs are then compiled into a digital archive, as a way to preserve the long-standing musical folklore tradition of each Ukrainian village. You can see and hear some of his work here.

 

Rob and Olya Willis have made many recordings of Ukrainian traditions throughout Australia, a couple of which are available online through the National Library of Australia:

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-962022982/listen

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-686884528/listen

 

In the current circumstances, these ‘intangible’ traditions, like much of Ukraine’s other rich cultural treasures are under threat. Tony Smith writes about this below … 

 

THE DESTRUCTION OF CULTURAL ARTEFACTS IN UKRAINE BORDERS ON GENOCIDE

 

Amid the destruction of life and infrastructure during the invasion of Iraq by Australia, the USA and the UK, one unnecessary consequence was the bomb damage and looting of cultural treasures in Baghdad and other centres. The barbaric invasion of Ukraine by Russia will likely target cultural treasures as the invasion is based on an ideological conviction that Ukraine has no right to exist.

The ‘looting’ of Baghdad’s National Museum of Iraq was one of history’s worst acts of cultural vandalism.  https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2018/04/10/iraq-museum-looting--15-years-on.html. The lost treasures belonged to the world’s heritage.

Ukraine’s cultural treasures include visual artworks, sculptures and important public buildings. Already in the military barbarity in Ukraine, some artworks by Maria Primochenko have been destroyed in the burning of Ivankiv’s Museum of Local History. The artist’s style is in the folk art form. 

Folklore societies in both England and the USA have condemned the potential vandalism and have planned co-operation with folklorists in Ukraine to rescue and archive electronic resources where possible. Rare and irreplaceable films for example, cross numerous genres. See for example https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/a-message-in-support-of-the-people-of-ukraine/

Archives in Ukraine are also under threat. These include repositories of the records of music, dance and folk arts and crafts. There is no way that the invading Russian military will show sufficient restraint to preserve cultural treasures. It is more likely to wilfully destroy these important bases of Ukrainian identity. In its efforts to spread disinformation about the war, Russia is proving that truth is an early casualty and that it will be ruthless in destroying the historical records of its victims. The only sure way to guarantee the safety of Ukrainian folk life is to stop the invasion now.

The UN Convention defines genocide as an ‘intentional effort to completely or partially destroy a group based on its nationality, ethnicity, race or religion’. https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide-convention.shtml It is difficult to interpret the Russian invasion as anything other than an attempt to obliterate Ukrainian identity, which is the basis for an independent state.

Several of the regular visitors to www.melodeon.net have produced renditions of the Ukrainian National Anthem https://forum.melodeon.net/index.php?topic=28031.0;topicseen while pondering what else they might be able to do. People in the folk music community always show compassion for people less fortunate than themselves. Ukraine is far distant from Australia and it is difficult to feel we are doing something either for the victims of the war or for ourselves. Perhaps taking an interest in Ukrainian culture and valuing it would be a way of showing solidarity. Sting has certainly done so. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW0Wq-t4kSQ.

 

Dr Tony Smith is a folk musician based in the Central West of New South Wales.

 

 

THE GUM TREE CANOE

We’re no longer ‘up a gum tree’ on the ‘Gum Tree Canoe’. Stephen Whiteside has given us permission to repost the surprising results of his research on the song, first published at his website at https://stephenwhiteside.com.au/gum-tree-canoe/?fbclid=IwAR0sG2-U-efBvvnFpiInki03fniwsnIQp2anqafIKHEeboOkENPByK5oD4M.

 

*

 

The Australian folk song, ‘Gum Tree Canoe’, would appear to have been adapted from an American song of the same name, written by Silas Sexton Steele in 1847. The American version has been recorded by several artists, the most prominent perhaps being the American musician John Hartford, who included it on his 1984 album of the same name.

Mindful that the Australian gum tree, the eucalypt, had not been introduced to the U.S. until the late 19th century, I turned to Quora, a Californian website for asking and answering questions. I received a prompt reply from Ben Waggoner who said that, while he was not familiar with the song, he suspected the tree referred to in the American song was the sweetgum tree, Liquidambar styraciflua. To quote Waggoner directly,

This is a native tree to the southeastern United States, and it does exude a sweet gummy sap when cut. My grandmother used to chew the sap instead of chewing gum. The leaves turn an attractive red in the autumn, and the dry spiky fruits are excellent for throwing at people if you are an obnoxious seven-year-old.

He posted an addendum that the song refers to the Tombigbee River, which is very close to where his mother grew up, in the town of Columbus, Mississippi.

I have uploaded onto YouTube a video I took of the Victorian Folk Music Club performing the Australian version of ‘Gum Tree Canoe’ in 2015 at the annual Wattle Day Festival held in Hurstbridge, Victoria. The musicians are wearing yellow and green, the colours of the Australian wattle. Here is the link:

A performance of the American version of ‘Gum Tree Canoe’ by John Hartford can be found here:

I must admit, I was amazed to discover there was an earlier version of the song that was not about eucalypts at all!

Stephen Whiteside

One Man’s Weeds – Another Man’s Flowers and Tie Wire by Chloë and Jason Roweth

Chloë and Jason Roweth are a multitalented couple of singers, instrumentalists, reciters and songwriters. They have been interpreting traditional music and creating new material live, on recordings and, of late, online for well over twenty busy years.

These outstanding performers have stayed true to their commitment since their early CD, recorded live at Wongawilli Hall, NSW, in 2001. Then performing as ‘Us Not Them’, this CD was titled One Man’s Weeds – Another Man’s Flowers. It contained contemporary songs, several poems set by Chloë and Jason, a couple of their own compositions, some tunes, a few traditional tracks (‘The Drover’, ‘Maiden’s Prayer’, Exile of Erin’), Tex Morton’s ‘Move Along, Baldy’ and three Mike O’Rourke compositions - ‘Sweet Necessity’, ‘Poison Train’ and the CD’s final track, ‘Sing Us a Song, Boys’. Jim McWhinnie helped out very effectively with bodhran on a couple of tracks.

Twenty years later, they have released another live CD, Tie Wire (and other grand plans). Like most performing artists, Chloë and Jason have used their enforced holiday from live gigs to work on recording projects, usually at home. With a similar balance of songs and tunes to their first CD, this one showcases the skills in early evidence, now honed to a confident and, at times, passionate delivery. Some bushranger ballads are featured, together with some contemporary numbers with a social and political message by masters including John Dengate, Alistair Hulett and Harry Robertson. There are a couple of sets of beautifully arranged mazurkas and reels, together with a sprinkling of great traditional ballads - ‘Dark Eyed Gypsies’ and ‘The Female Rambling Sailor’ in the version collected from Mrs Catherine Peatey of Brunswick in 1959 and living here once again.

Then, and now, Chloë and Jason interpret their material with a variety of musical styles and distinctive arrangements that enhance the music rather than getting in its way, always remaining true to the sources of the songs and their singers. With such a range of talents it’s no surprise that they have been a fixture at festivals, concerts and clubs around the country for many years and collected a few awards in the process. Along the way (including playing and recording with the band ‘Collector’) they have created a body of work that respects the tradition and keeps it alive with fresh interpretations and new creations in the same spirit.

You can keep up with them here

Review by Graham Seal