JOHN MEREDITH AND SHIRLEY ANDREWS ON YOUTUBE

 

John Meredith playing Pop Craythorn's accordion

As a follow-up to our recent posts on John Meredith and folk dance, Phil Ashton has kindly given us permission to add his interviews with John Meredith and Shirley Andrews to the Verandah Music Youtube channel. Thanks Phil!

CELEBRATING THE LIFE AND WORK OF JOHN MEREDITH

John Meredith playing the original lagerphone

This year marks the centenary of the birth of Australian folklorist, John Meredith (1920-2001). He is justly celebrated for his pioneering collections of folksong, dance and verse, enshrined in the several volumes of Folksongs of Australia (the first in conjunction with the late Hugh Anderson and the second with Roger Covell and Patricia Brown). 

His collecting work led him into the performance of the traditions he and others were collecting, notably with the Sydney Bush Music Club and the original Bushwhackers bush band. His work in this area was twice recognized through awards in the order of Australia (OAM 1986 and AM 1992)

John Meredith was a man of many interests and also made notable contributions to the documentation and understanding of Australian culture, including folk speech and cultural history, His work, which also included plays and musicals, is preserved in the books and articles he wrote about many aspects of folklore, in film, photographs and in his collected field recordings held in the Oral History and Folklore Collection of the National Library of Australia. at https://www.amw.org.au/sites/default/files/memory_of_the_world/collecting-australias-folk-culture/john-meredith-folklore-collection-1953-1994.html. The collection is recognised in the UNESCO Memory of the World Program.

A biography by Keith McKenry, More Than a Life: John Meredith,was published in 2014 and a reasonably extensive article on his life and work is available on Wikipedia. There is a John Meredith Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/365849244352767/

Particularly in the later phases of his collecting, John Meredith worked with many other folklorists who were inspired by his example and have gone on to make significant contributions to the field. One of these was Rob Willis who penned the following reminiscence of his relationship with John Meredith for Trad & Now in 1992, slightly edited for Verandah Music:

John was born at Holbrook in 1920 and from an early age became interested in the songs, tunes and poetry of our country. John purchased a very bulky tape recorder and commenced recording the older performers in the 1950’s. As a result of this John published prolifically on folkloric and other topics, perhaps his best-known works were "Folk Songs of Australia" volumes 1 and 2. Meredith continued this work throughout the rest of his life John Meredith’s folkloric and photographic collection is housed in The National Library of Australia. This brief glimpse into the life of this man will hopefully encourage people to investigate his work further.

I was fortunate to be one of a small band of people who became involved with John, assisting with his collecting. My time on the track spanned the years 1984 until he retired in 1994. So what was it like spending a large amount of time travelling with a man who had become a legend in his own lifetime?

John was a very forthright man and yet during all the time we spent on the road we did not have one argument. He had a broad knowledge on many subjects including botany, photography, history, Australian literature, herbalism and others too numerous to mention and yet would impart this knowledge in a very interesting and inspiring way. So often I would return from a lengthy field trip and tell my wife Olya that my head was just about to explode with all the information that Merro had passed on. He was never restrictive or closed about his work and gladly passed on tunes, songs and information from his personal collection. It was very important to John that his work be spread to as wide an audience as possible.

The other important lesson that I learnt during this time was our ongoing relationship with the people we interviewed. We were never short of a bed in a town where Merro had been previously, as the people he had spoken with became friends. They were never just numbers on a Library catalogue. We had musical sessions all over the country with the traditional players and singers, each of us contributing and learning from the other. Following in John’s footsteps I have continued to do this and look forward to the ongoing contact with performers.

John was meticulous and very professional with his work, contacting his informants and making sure they understood what we required. In the days before mobile phones and emails we spent more time in telephone boxes than Clark Kent.

Accommodation was also very interesting in those early days as we were on a very limited budget for fuel and other expenses, which we shared. A tent was the usual format and we would camp in National Parks or on the side of the road. John had a love of the rivers and many a campsite was set up on the banks of the Murray. I think we both ended up with a dose of Ross River virus after camping in a mosquito-infested forest on the river near Swan Hill. In later years we shared on site vans and basic cabins in camping grounds.

The National Library of Australia were, and still are, most supportive with the supply of equipment and allocation of funds from their limited budget. John and I both agreed however that if we scrimped a bit on each individual journey we might be able to get many more field trips out of the available funding. There was and still is so much to be done.

To be in close contact for long periods of time and often under quite stressful circumstances requires a good rapport between people. John and I both shared a similar sense of humour and a love of music. Many an hour was spent around a campfire yarning and playing the two identical small Busilacchio button accordions we both took with us on trips. I still have memories of learning tunes from him whilst we were camped on the Devils Pinch near Nerriga while searching for stories of Frank the Poet.

Also, the morning it was discovered that I had forgotten to pack the food after a freezing night camped near Wilkerboon station near Mt Hope in NSW. The photo on this page shows Merro cooking an apple over the fire, we also had some soymilk thank goodness – John is still smiling, I don’t know why.

We also would take early morning walks (John was not one to stay in bed) where we would traipse along and my head would again be filled with his knowledge.

The highlights of my years with John were many and we kept in close contact and shared our excitements until his death in 2001. The inability to make a phone call to seek information or share an enthusiasm is to me the hardest part of his not being here in person.

On the track of Australian folksong, 1984

I called him John during our first meeting and I remember him saying a short time later, "My good mates call me Merro, Rob, and I would like you to call me Merro"

Thanks for everything Merro.

*

WHAT BUSH DANCES?

Peter Ellis

Following on our recent dance posts, here’s one to stir the possum a little. We begin with a relevant reminiscence from Rob Willis, with links to a video of John Meredith and Ollie Willis lightfooting some Eureka Youth League dances. 

There is also a link to Rob’s edited version of the late Peter Ellis’s detailed discussion of this issue.  (NB Some issues with these historical file formats).

Comments welcome …

Rob writes:

I was born and raised in Forbes, Central West NSW, and in my youth during the 1960s went to dances in the many country halls that were scattered around the surrounding countryside. We learnt, mainly from the older women, how to waltz and also have fun with such dances as the Barn Dance, Pride of Erin, Jolly Miller and a raft of others.

I was therefore mystified in the late 1970s when becoming involved in the 'folk scene', going to so-called ‘bush dances’ (a term that was never used in the Central West) and being taught dances that I had never heard of in the bush. As time progressed and I started to travel on field recording trips with John Meredith (a good dancer in his own right) I met and formed a very strong friendship with dance historian, the late Peter Ellis. It became clear that ‘bush dance’ was a dance genre that had evolved over recent decades.

In conversations on the track with John and also with the people we were recording then for the National Library, some born in the 1890s, it became clear that the dances of the bush were in reality the Quadrilles, Polkas, Varsoviennas, Mazurkas as well as the later ones I had learnt in the Forbes district.

Over the many hours that Meredith and I had on the track talking about the past he explained how the genre was formed and Peter's article puts it all together as well as John's explanation in a video I shot of him and my wife, Ollie, demonstrating a couple of these dances.

I can remember being with Meredith and Alan Scott at a Bush Dance at a festival in Newcastle when Merro leaned over to Alan and said "Geez mate, just to think that we were responsible for this".

STEP DANCING IN AUSTRALIA

Paddy Dawson stepping out

A little-known form of traditional dance is step dancing. Here’s a chance to find out more. 

Dance historian Heather Blasdale-Clarke has researched this topic at https://www.colonialdance.com.au/trad-steps   

Rob and Olya Willis have documented step dancing in action and you can watch these people performing it live on our Youtube channel:

Sandra Sturzaker - Tasmania  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NyNpVuuIR4 

Paddy Dawson, Tasmania.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4E8wLazVpY 

Maureen Heazlewood Victoria.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIuyzmmMaeY  

Go on, give it a go, you know you want to.

PERFECT PEARLS – SONGS FROM AUSTRALIA’S PEARLING TRADITION

From the 1860s to the 1970s, Australia’s northern coasts were an empire of pearl shell and pearls. Before colonization, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders used these for cultural and trading purposes. Later, pearls and shell were large global industries, to which Australia contributed significantly.

Ethnographer and performer, Karl Neuenfeldt has produced a cd of traditional and contemporary pearling songs, featuring Seaman Dan, the Pigram Brothers, Ted Egan, Fred and Richard Kiwat, Roger Knox and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, Nikki Doll, Enda Kenny, Karl Erikson, Rubina Kimiia and Stephen ‘Baamba’ Albert. 

As well as the music, there are some informative notes and some great historical photographs that convey the once large-scale pearling culture, as well as its continuing cultural influences.

Here’s an ABC interview with Karl and Baamba

CD available from Broome Museum 

STEP DANCING AND MORE ...

Dance historian, Heather Blasdale-Clarke recently gave a presentation on Australian step dancing at the Stepping On Conference at Cecil Sharp House in London.

Heather has also produced a related video which has now been uploaded to Youtube.

But wait, there's more! Heather has a post about eighteenth-century dance in London, complete with music and instructions, and a link with Captain Cook, on the wonderful Spitalfields Life blog.

And it gets even better for dancers - watch out for our upcoming post on traditional dance in Australia …

A TOUCH OF THE IRISH IN BILPIN

Taia de Burca was recently recorded by Rob and Olya Willis in Bilpin, NSW, singing a few Irish songs from her family tradition. Here she is on Youtube with a good rebel song, ‘The Tri Coloured Ribbon’.

And again, with a lovely version of ‘If I Were a Blackbird’ learned from her mother.

Rob writes:

Taia de Burca learnt many songs from her Irish mother both as a child and in later years. The family were involved in The Irish War of Independence, her Grandfather being one of the railway engine drivers who refused to carry British troops. Singing was important with the family in Ireland and the 'rebel' songs were a strong part of the repertoire. I find it interesting the way Taia sings this song, really putting her heart in to it… I am amazed we are still finding these songs passed down in the family, aural tradition.

Thanks Taia

IT’S OFFICIAL! – AND UNOFFICIAL – MUSIC, THAT IS …

Here’s some interesting research on the universality of music and song. It more or less confirms what most of us probably thought was the case. But it is a very large project that, among other things, notes that there are both official and unofficial forms of music in every culture. Just what we say on Verandah Music!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-11-22/universal-music-culture-language-songs/11726152

AWARD FOR ROB AND OLYA WILLIS

Rob and Ollie have just been awarded the Australasian Sound Recording Association (ASRA) award 

for 2019 for ‘Their Outstanding Contribution to Oral History Collecting and Recording’.

 The Association is made up of private record collectors, professional sound archivists, radio broadcasters and social historians, consisting of individuals and institutions with a strong interest in sound recording history, its development and all related activities.

 Previous winners include academics, June Bronhill, Slim Dusty and John Meredith.

 This is a great recognition of the dedicated work Rob and Ollie have done over many years in documenting and preserving oral history, folklore and the culture of everyday life.

 Congratulations Rob and Ollie and watch out for more of their work on the Verandah Music blog and Youtube channel.

THE WALTZING MATILDA MYSTERIES CONTINUE…

Just when was Australia’s accidental anthem, ‘Waltzing Matilda’, first composed. In what circumstances, and where? 

These niggling questions have troubled historians and folklorists for a century or so, with any number of competing and conflicting theories being put forward in what seems to be a never-ending flow of books on the subject. At last, W Benjamin Lindner has come up with the most definitive answer to date. Applying the forensic skills of a criminal barrister and a rigorous historical approach to a decidedly ‘two pipe problem’, as Sherlock Holmes might have put it, Lindner’s detective work has convincingly solved the case. It’s all in his Waltzing Matilda: Australia’s Accidental Anthem. A Forensic History (Boolarong Press, 2019).

Not wanting to spoil the story, I’m not giving away his conclusion, so you’ll need to check out the book to find the answer. Despite its deep engagement with archival records and the other dry-as-dust stuff that historians like to engage with, it is a good read. While it sets out to prove a particular and important chronological point about the composition of the song, it necessarily tells the human stories of the people most closely involved with it, at the time, and later. 

These are, of course, the two main characters, A B ‘Banjo’ Paterson and Christina Macpherson. Paterson thought so little of his dashed-off lyric that he sold the rights to his publisher for five pounds and hardly ever talked about it again. Repurposing a catchy Scots tune, often said to be one of the most recorded songs of all time, Christina Macpherson, mostly got lost in the condescension of posterity.  But now she is confirmed in her proper place as the composer of our national song. 

And there is a supporting cast of often-colourful other characters who were in on the original events behind the song, as well as later writers who put their efforts towards working out exactly what happened when and where. These include Sydney May, the first person to take an interest, starting seriously in the 1940s. He was misled by some of the accounts he collected but gets the credit for setting the Matilda hunt waltzing.

Then there was the no-nonsense bushman, Richard Magoffin, raised near the legendary site of composition, Dagworth Station. With a commendable disdain for academic historians and the complex copyright issues surrounding the song, he doggedly pursued Matilda through Queensland, across Australia and, ultimately, to the USA. Magoffin made a number of important contributions to the song’s history, though as Lindner shows, like most Matilda researchers, he got one or two things wrong as well. Nevertheless, his work has also been the basis of the Waltzing Matilda Centre at Winton, dedicated to preserving and representing the history of the song.

Folkies will be familiar with another important figure in the debate. The late and much missed Dennis O'Keeffe advanced the story by investigating family traditions about the song and linking it closely with violent events of the 1890s shearers’ strike in his Waltzing Matilda: The Secret History of Australia’s Favourite Song (2012). Lindner’s own findings mean he isn’t convinced by that argument but acknowledges the value of O’Keeffe’s contribution to the scholarship of the song. 

Many others have also had a crack at solving the mystery, putting forward various theories and speculations. But Lindner aims to avoid supposition and myth in favour of cold, hard facts.  Not too much escapes his steely eye. He combs old train timetables, ships’ passenger lists, letters, diaries and even considers a skull in the Queensland Police Museum to build his case. From all this evidence, he establishes a chronology for the creation and early diffusion of the lyrically sparse and – let’s be honest – pretty silly ditty about a swaggie knocking off a sheep and throwing himself in the billabong when the squatter and the cops turn up.

The rudimentary lyric of our great song is one of its many intriguing characteristics. I once had a literary colleague who studied the words of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and concluded that it was nearly empty of semantic content. It was such a minimal story, told in so few words, that it was – almost – meaningless. We can take this either to mean that it’s one of the slightest pieces of literature ever scribbled, or that Paterson was a genius of narrative compression. Whatever, in my view, this is the secret of the song’s lyrical success. It is such an empty vessel that, like a cliché, it can be filled with just about any meaning we care to pour in - or out, as many have.

But that’s just my take on the song’s curious appeal. Lindner has nobbled the facts on behalf of us all. Apart from those invested in the tourism appeal of ‘Matilda country’ and a handful of researchers, not many people will give a flying jumbuck about his findings, alas. But anyone with even the faintest interest in the intriguing history of this amazingly durable ditty should ‘grab one with glee’ from any good bookshop or from the publisher.

Even after his research and writing epic, Lindner is still interested in the song, noting that ‘the history of the origins of Waltzing Matilda remains incomplete’, and is keen to hear from anyone with something to contribute to its ever-expanding mythology. He can be contacted at waltzingmatildahistory@gmail.com .You can also follow developments on Facebook at W.Benjamin Lindner, Author .

 Graham Seal