Judy Kenny "Colonial Australia" LP 1969

Subtitled "A collection of Australian folk songs. The rip and graphics were  provided by the Victorian Bush Folkie to whom we all owe a big vote of thanks.

I know nothing about this Judy Kenny other than the blurb on the rear of the album cover. To quote:-

"Judy Kenny is the daughter of an Anglican Clergyman. Although she was born in Croydon, Victoria, it was whilst living in Geelong that Judy came to the notice of W & G after winning a talent quest at High School which entitled her to an audition. For this, her first recording, we decided to add to our already comprehensive repertoire of Australian Folk Music of the Pioneer and Convict era."

Well, she obviously auditioned well enough to warrant her own album but as far as I know there was no second album.

Her voice demonstrates that she has had formal training as a classical singer and her diction is excellent. W & G demonstrably treated her seriously as evidenced by their providing serious folk music backing with Peter Hayes featuring strongly on banjo (Peter Daniel Hayes; Hayes Brothers, backing for various prominent fol and country singers). Alan Pope on bass, with Doug Wallace and  John Lane on guitars.

The album notes are fairly good with minor exceptions. "Convict Maid" was a London broadside and was also available in Ireland as identified by Ron Edwards. Despite assurances that the version of "The banks of the Condamine" is the rarer horse breaker version, it is most definitely the shearing version - I guess someone had a bad day! Ben Hall died in a battle?? As I understand it he never had the opportunity to fight back - first shot a few times while he was asleep and finished off when he futilely tried to run away despite his injuries.

For its age, the record was in very good condition. Graphics are included.

Tracklist

• 1, Convict maid

• 2, The wild colonial boy

• 3. Eumerella shore

• 4. The overlander

• 5,The banks of Condamine

• 6. Botany Bay

• 7. Click go the shears

• 8. The drover's dream

• 9. The nautical yarn

• 10, The dying stockman

• 11, Andy's gone with cattle

• 12. The death of Ben Hall.

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Country Express (Australian) "Another Lonesome Morning" LP 1985

The rip for this album was provided by the Victorian Bush Folkie and mildly cleaned up by me.

Country Express was a South Australian based group which performed over several years. This album features Brent Miller, John Munro, Mike O'Callaghan and Mike Smith. I do not know who Mike Smith is (although I feel that I should - help please) but the other three are well known in Australian folk circles as both individual performers and as members/backers of other groups and performers. The three have also done a lot of work with Eric Bogle especially John Munro who has featured in other posts on this blog.

Country Express focused on Bluegrass sound and most of the tracks on this album can be readily classified as  bluegrass gospel. Unsurprisingly, the overall performance is very good even though the sound quality is not always the best for some reason - likely wear over the years. Great harmony and great musicianship.

Incidentally, Country Express has been a popular name for bluegrass bands in America so do not be confused.

Tracklist
1. Other side of life
2. Hey boys
3. House of gold
4. Hail to the Redskins
5. Sing me back home
6. Aunt Dinah's quilting party
7. Another lonesome morning
8. Willie Boy
9. Hello stranger
10. Snowball
11. Slow moving freight train
12. Hallelujah, I'm ready

Download includes graphics. (downloads now have the correct track 9)
Click here to commence downloading a Zip file of the MP3 256-320 VBR version 43MB
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If download file not available please email mr.stockman@gmail.com and I will fix it.

The Colonials "Songs from Down Under" LP 1967

As the liner says, The Colonials were "especially brought together for the project of creating this album". The three members were Kathleen McCormack, and the brothers George and Ken Assang.

Kathleen McCormack was the stage name of one Taree-born Alison Brainwood, a popular singer of the 1960s and '70s. The stage name reflected her primary repertoire of Scottish and Irish songs.  She was later a job actor including a stint in the Bill. In her latter years, she became well-known in psychic circles and authored books on Tarot reading and the like. She died in 2013.

George and Ken Assang were from Thursday Island in far north Queensland. They were of Aboriginal, Pacific Islander and Asian heritage. George was a regular on 1960s and '70s shows including "Bandstand". Apparently he was happy in a wide range of styles including folk, gospel, jazz, blues and country. The liner states "his singing is always full of expression, his voice quality and phrasing are excellent" and, on this album, he lives up to that. There is also a claim that, under the name Vic Sabrino , he was the first Australian singer to perform a Rock'n'Roll number, beating Johnny O'Keefe by a year. George also had sevceral acting roles in Australian dramas and soaps.

The tracks mainly feature songs of known authorship but they represent a good mix that most folk music lovers will readily appreciate.

Mr. K L Appo advises as follows:
An interview with the late Ms McCormack appears at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXB9qjlTp90
Also a selection of tracks from her albums, and a series of children's 45s on YouTube by the same poster as part of an archive of material from Community Television at https://www.youtube.com/user/DarrenGrayManagement/videos  Scroll through at your own risk though; there's some shockers on here, but the occasional gem too.... 

Tracklist
1. Bush Fire
2. Botany Bay (claimed as traditional)
3. Little Wild Rose
4. The Colour of my Nation
5. Andy's gone to Cattle (Henry Lawson poem claimed as a traditional song)
6. Never Never
7. Pokare Kare (Pokarekare Ana) (A lovely Maori song originating in WWI to farewell soldiers)
8. Waltzing Matilda (1903 Cowan rewrite)
9. Thunderbolt
10. T.I. My Beautiful Home (T.I. = Thursday Island home of the Assang boys)
11. Wild Colonial Boy
12. In Mulga Town
13. Bonny Jess
14. You A'wantin' me
15. Dust in the Sun
16. Now is the hour (also claimed as traditional)

Graphics are included.
Click here to commence downloading FLAC (lossless) version 177MB
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You will get a compressed file which you will need to decompress to get the tracks and graphic files.
If the download file is not available, please let me know by email - mr.stockman@gmail.com.

The Catalpa Singers "Australian Colonial Ballads" LP 1966

Many blog visitors have mentioned this LP and I have finally obtained a reasonable copy. Better late than never I guess.

This album was labelled as Vol. 1 but, as far as I can discern, they never progressed to volume 2.

The Catalpa Singers were
Shirley Jacobs (vocal lead and guitar), Hans Georg (lead vocalist, lute and guitar), Iain Logan (additional vocal, 5 string banjo and guitar), Allan Pope (bass, autoharp and guitar), and Maryjean Officer on concertina. Other than for Shirley and a few references to Maryjean, I know nothing about these performers. Any contributions??. Hans Georg did do a further album with Shirley Jacobs. I presume that he is actually someone with the Germanic language given name Hans-Georg and, as a performer, has dropped his family name. It sounds like his English pronunciation has some Irish influence. Anyway, enough speculation and I eagerly await enlightenment.

There are no surprises in respect of the tracks featured on the LP. They are mostly part of what I call the top 20 Australian folk standards. The auto-harp features strongly on The Black Velvet Band and Hans Georg's lute provides all the accompaniment to Look Out Below.  Bound for South Australia appears to have a variable tempo to an extent that it is not performed as a shanty/chanty. I note that the liner comments for that shanty stick to the assumption that it involves the Colony of South Australia. I have long held the view that
1. the shanty is not Australian in its origin;
2. it refers to south Australia, that is, any port of Australia all of which are way down south of Europe and north America;
3. and it is quite possible that the basic shanty originated in NE USA - see Cape Cod Boys/Girls shanties and such lines as the mother/sweetheart on the quay exhorting the singer to come home from south Australia and "when we're a walloping around Cape Horn - wish to God we'd never been born - bound for south Australia".

Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. OK here is the track list:-

Tracklist:
1. Click go the shears.
2. Black Velvet Band
3. The Old Bark Hut
4. Bold Jack Donahoe (actually an Irish Broadside about a real person but usually spelt Donahue)
5. The Eumerella Shore (duffers are Australian rustlers and the song also refers to stealing calves by putting your brand on them (Australian "poddy dodging" - American "mavericking").
6. Bound for South Australia (?)
7. The Wild Colonial Boy (Frequently stated to also be of Irish origin but evidence for this has never eventuated. My view is that it owes much to Bold Jack Donahoe but it is otherwise Australian in origin. In more recent times many Irish singers have taken it up and have claimed it as their own confusing the issue.
8. The Overlander
9. Look Out Below. (A Charles Thatcher composition)
10. The Death of Ben Hall
11. With a swag all on my shoulder.
12. Botany Bay. English playhouse composition.

Graphics are included in the download files. It is a mono LP so files are smaller than usual.
Click here to download MP3 256VBR version 21MB
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As usual, your download will be just one compressed file. You need to decompress it to extract the folders and the track and graphic files.
Download not available - please tell me by email mr.stockman@gmail.com and I will fix it.

Declan Affley "The Day the Pub Burned Down" LP 1974

Declan Affley has appeared on several albums previously featured on this blog and here is one of his albums.

Declan became a legend in Australian folk circles but sadly died unexpectedly in 1985. He was born in 1939 in Wales to parents of Irish heritage. He took to music early. He joined the British merchant navy at 16 and jumped ship in Sydney in 1960 then becoming involved in the early folk revival movement here.

Google him if you wish to know more - it will be worth the effort.

This album a fairly eclectic mix of tracks but that was typical of his range of music, songs and poetry.

Tracklist:
1. When Jones's Ale was New (first appeared as an English Broadside in the 1590s and many versions in the folk tradition - this one was collected in Australia)
2. Jug of this (an old English drinking song)
3. Shickered as he can be (Australian collected version of Child 274 - Our Goodman, four nights drunk etc)
4. Jog Along Till Shearing (A classic Australian traditional)
5. Carrickfergus (The very popular Ulster traditional)
6. In a white man's shoe (Australian collected dance tune perhaps deriving from Old Dan Tucker)
7. The day the pub burned down, (A New Zealand song written by a Bob Edwards in 1931).
8. John Barleycorn (A traditional song possibly of great antiquity - several versions but no Australian collected ones to my knowledge)
9. Yellow Bittern (An bunnan bui)  (An Irish drinking song og known authorship)
10. Jolly Farmer (Stated to be probably of English origin)
11. Shanties by the Way (collected in both Australia and New Zealand)
12. Whether or No. (Irish traditional).
13. Hard Tack. A collected song about the rigours of shearing sheep for a generous wine grower.
14. The Lush Land (A Don Henderson composition promoting drinking - written for a competition)

Backing music was provided by Jamie Carlin mainly on concertina, Ken Greenhalgh on flute and whistle, and Don Henderson provided 2nd guitar and chorus backup for "The Lush Land".

Graphics are included in the downloads.

Click here to download MP3 256VBR version 46MB
Click here to download FLAC (lossless) version)  143MB
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