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.

Cobbers Website

As at 15 April 2013 - The intermittent Cobbers website has again apparently disappeared. The band has a facebook identity but with no data or entries but 10 likes - go figure!

Cobbers "Australia: From Celts to Cobbers" 1978 LP

Track List
1. From Celts to Cobbers
2. Moreton Bay
3. South Australia
4. The Catalpa
5. O'Carolan's Concerto
6. The Ballad of Ben Hall
7. The Cross of the South
8. Waltzing Matilda
9. The Ballad of the Kelly Gang
10. Scots of the Riverina
11. Dennis Murphy's/The Forty-Two Pound cheque
12. Stalky's Song



The Cobbers (Australian colloquial for mates, friends - now rarely used) was a very active bush band on-and-off during the 1970s and 1980s putting out over ten LPs most of which are now available from their website (see below) (entry edited following contact from John Armstrong of the band)

On this album, the band has a good, lively bush sound featuring some of the regular ballads performed by bush bands with a few interesting extras including the sea shanty "South Australia" which is often thought to be Australian in origin. It's actually of American origin based on the sea voyages from north-east USA round Cape Horn to Australia in the south (not the State of South Australia). Another variation is the shanty known as "Cape Cod Boys" or "Cape Cod Girls" which also has the refrain "And we're bound for south Australia".
A very nice LP which has ripped well.

The rip of this LP is no longer available for download. All tracks are now available, with many other tracks, on the Cobbers "Australian Legends" CD available for purchase from the Cobbers website:-
HERE.

UPDATE 18 Nov 2010
Previously reported (in June) that the website link was not working (address had been hijacked by the look  of it). Site has now been working properly for some time which I discovered on 22 Sep 2010 and I advised of this elsewhere but failed to do so on this entry.  My apologies to anyone effected. 
Further UPDATE 3 Feb 2012 - This site has been up and down in the interim and is now back up again.
15 April 2013 - no obvious websites for the Cobbers - just an empty facebook identity,