This is a brilliant album demonstrating the fine musical skills of this well respected bush band which, unfortunately, did not have a large commercial output. Thanks Ian for providing this album. I have no doubt that it will prove to be very popular.
I have no idea as to when this album was issued. This Band operated from the '70s originally as the "Fabulous Ants Bush Band". Judging by the album cover, it might be a re-release but that's nothing more than base speculation. I'd love some concrete advice. (Additional - a blog visitor from Ireland has brought my attention to the fact that the identical album was sold as a cassette under the the band name "The Fabulous Ants Band" and the title "Tribute to 150 years Western Australia" and with the massively misleading claim "14 Great Western Australian Songs". The Sesquicentennial of WA was 1979 so that gives us a likely date of 1979 - perhaps 1978).
Sure, you can moderately criticise this album on the basis of some of the vocals but if you do not like this album, you are possibly on the wrong blog. I'd rank this as one of the better Australian folk albums by a bush band.
This album has a strong Western Australian focus which is refreshing (Well now we know why).
Band member Paul Duncan has now commented on this album. Click on the "Comments" tag below to read his interesting information.
Tracklist
1, Lachlan Tigers
2. Western Australia for Me
3. One Thousand Miles Away (Hurrah for the Roma Railway)
4. The Catalpa
5. The Overlanders
6. Augathella Station (Brisbane Ladies)
7. Waves of Tory (dance instrumental)
8. Maggie Maggie May
9. To the West
10. Across the Western Plains
11. Dennis O'Reilly (With my swag all on my shoulder)
12. The Whale (modern Australian folk classic)
13. Struggle in the West
14. Lime Juice Tub
Download with graphics - 64 Mb - MP3 VBR 192-225 Click here
Any problem with this or other links email mr.stockman@gmail.com
G'day all. I appreciate your comments and I'm pleased to provide some further information regarding this album. The band was approached to record the WA album by Graham Morphett, Managing Director of EMS Records in Adelaide, who saw the band performing at the Victorian Country Music Battle of the Bands in 1978. It was recorded in February 1979 at the EMS studios and the re-release (pictured above) for the eastern states and New Zealand resulted later in 1979 due to the immense popularity in WA of the original and quite visually colourful sesquicentennial (I love that word!) album that was entitled "The Fabulous Ants Bush Band - Tribute to 150 Years of Western Australia". To keep the populace happy and considering that we were recording an album to celebrate WA's 150th year of being, we decided that it may be prudent to include a few songs that simply mentioned anything "west"! Hence "Western Australia For Me", "The Catalpa", "To The West", etc, making an appearance. Hope this clarifies any uncertainties. Cheers, PD
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul. That was most informative and entertaining.
Delete