Saturday, January 24, 2015

Cobbers "Bushdance Party" Cassette c1988

The Cobbers bush band was mainly active in the 1970s and 1980. They had a relatively high output of good quality music. They have a website at http://www.cobbersbushband.com/ from where you can order some of their albums (on CD-R) and also download the individual tracks of their first LP (MP3 @128bps). There have been no changes to this website for many years - the download bit works so I presume that ordering might still be possible. Perhaps query by email first. If you are a fan of this blog you would be sure to enjoy their music.

I found this cassette recently. This album has long been "out-of-print" and is not offered on the website. It was put out by Dino Records on both cassette and vinyl sometime about 1988. Being a Dino release, is is possibly a re-release possibly a condensed version of earlier tape releases of bush dance music. Any information would be very welcome. You will notice that one of the corners of the insert has been clipped indicating that the cassette was sold at a remainder bargain price.

This is a great toe-tapping album but also features lots of vocals. The Cobbers were excellent musicians and singers as this album demonstrates. Most of the tracks have both a traditional instrumental section coupled with a song in the appropriate dance time. The two exception, unsurprisingly, are the "Manchester Gallop" and the Russian "Troika".

Tracklist
1. Polka with "The Lachlan Tigers"
2. Stockyards Jig with Travelling down the Castlereagh
3. Heel and Toe Polka with "Lazy Harrys"
4. The Galopede - "10000 miles away"
5. The flying pieman with "The Old Bullock Dray"
6. Pride of Erin with "Springtime it brings on the Shearing"
7. Strip the Willow with "Stringbark and Greenhide" (a rarely featured song)
8. Barn Dance with "Click go the Shears"
9. Waves of Tory with "The Ryebuck Shearer"
10. Muffin Man Jig (eh!) with "The Drovers Dream"
11. Polka - "Maggie May"
12. Gay Gordons with "Sandy Maranoa"
13. The Oxo Reel (eh! eh!) with "Lime Juice Tub"
14. The Troika (all alone)
15. Waltz Country Dance - "The Reedy Lagoon"
16. The Manchester Gallop (all alone)

Click here to download the album. MP3 @ 224-256 VBR. All graphics included with dance instructions in very minature printing.
Any problems, please let me know on mr.stockman@gmail.com.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Rick & Thel Carey "Best of Buddies" 1973 Cassette issue


"Best of Buddies" is so named because it is a tribute album to the original Australian country and western singer and composer Buddy Williams (he did follow in the footsteps of that other great performer - the New Zealander, Tex Morton).

I have no idea when the album was originally released but the term "tribute album" probably had not been coined then.Rick and Thel Carey, a husband and wife team, were active from 1950 to 1987 and extensively toured during much of that period and had lots of radio and television appearances. They were a class act with a prolific output. Their performance with extensive backing has brought a more modern Country and Western feel to these songs as contrasted to Buddy Williams' hillbilly style where his superb guitar playing was usually his only accompaniment.

Additional: Donnatv has again come to our rescue through identifying that the LP issue of the album was dated 1973. Many thanks!

The album has ripped well and required only basic editing. Thanks very much to the kind contributor who provided this and other cassette tapes. the file is 42Mb with all tracks are MP3 at 192-224kbs. Graphics are included.

Click here to begin download

Please email mr.stockman@gmail.com if the file becomes unavailable for downloading. The file is a zip file which will need to be decompressed before playing.