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

UPDATE ON HUGHIE, THE RAIN GOD

Following on from our earlier posts on weather lore, David Howard has an interesting variation of the origins of 'Hughey' (Huie, Hughie, etc):

Regarding the origins of the saying ‘send it down Hughey’. Years ago (and there are getting to be too many of them at my age) I think I was told and didn’t read it somewhere that - a farmer in the Victorian mallee had lost a son in WW 1. In the hope that the son, named Hugh, had gone to heaven on his demise, dad was influenced to ask his son up there to send ‘it’ - rain, down from wherever up there the rain comes. How the saying escaped to the outside world is not part of the story. 

VERANDAH MUSIC – APPALACHIAN STYLE

Lisa Elmaleh has been making tintype photographs of Appalachian folk musicians since 2012. This old-style photographic technique renders these traditional musicians and their often home-made instruments in a very evocative way. More on Youtube ...

VERANDAH MUSIC GEORGIA (USA) STYLE

These kids are playing the ‘diddley bow’ (various spellings), made by stretching a wire across a board and plucking it rhythmically while running a bottle or piece of metal up and down for the melody. The wire could also be stretched across a wooden wall on a porch (American for verandah). One of the forerunner instruments of blues, diddley bows are said to still be used in African American blues in the South.

These diddley bows were played in 1943 at the Fort Valley Music Festival, Georgia. (Photo from The Peachite, Vol 11, No 2, March 1944, p. 8 at the Library of Congress.

You can hear the diddley bow, and various modern adaptations, on Youtube and the Wikipedia entry has some useful links and references.

x

Verandah Music at the 2019 National Folk Festival

We’ll be back in Canberra at the National this year with a couple of shows:

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose its Flavour?

Skiffle and other homemade music, Australian style. 

With a cast of thousands (well, about ten or so), we investigate and play some of the rhythmic classics from various dodgy musical genres. We’ll need a lot of help, so come along and join in. Sunday April 21, Trocadero 3.30-4.30.

Pointed Parodies and Dreadful Ditties 

Parodies, squibs and satires from childhood to politics and everything in between. (How did Wonder Woman lose her bosom? 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. Monday April 22, Trocadero 12.30-1.30

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

Cigar-box uke - from Aldi!

Eaerliest image of cigar-box instrument, American Civil War

Couldn’t believe my eyes. A classic cigar-box ukulele on sale at Aldi for $29.99. True. And it has a pickup! All you do is string it up, stick the bridge into the body then wait six months for the strings to stretch (it is a uke), then play away. Everything supplied, including instructions, songs, chords and a CD. Even a bit of verandah music history on cigar-box instruments. Happy strumming on the very cheap.

Verandah music ‘Gypsy’ style

Gitano family outside their cave, Granada, c 1900-1915

The diverse peoples once widely known as ‘Gypsies’ are now known as Roma, Rom, or Sinti, depending on local, regional and international usages. ‘Gypsy’ is, generally, considered to be derogatory, not surprisingly given their history of global persecution under that name. (I use the term here because it will most readily understood by most readers).

From this maelstrom of experiences, the Rom have evolved a great number of distinctive musical genres, drawing on their own traditions and frequently adapting those of the lands and cultures in which they have travelled and settled. They are still doing so, with various ‘gypsy music’ groups having achieved commercial success and artistic recognition, often through the ‘world music’ category of the modern popular music industry. The many styles and forms of Rom traditional music continue to be played throughout Europe and beyond.

The astonishing riches and varieties of Rom and Sinta music, and its connection to the broader dance, literature, art and culture of these peoples can now be enjoyed and studied online at the RomArchive. This ambitious project is described like this:

‘The RomArchive collection contains items from ten archive sections: Visual Art, Dance, Film, Flamenco, Theatre & Drama, Literature, Music, Romani Civil Rights Movement, Politics of Photography and Voices of the Victims. Focusing on self-representation, the objects have been collected from private collections, museums, archives and libraries around the world.’

The growing archive has some amazing visual and audio resources, as well as informative and accessible articles (‘Is there such a thing as Romani music?’ is brief and excellent), film, etc.