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)