"15 Australian Christmas Carols" LP 1960s

I have had a few requests here and elsewhere to post some genuine Australian Carols.  I'm not really into carols (my favourite Christmas song is Eric Bogle's "Santa Bloody Claus").  However, a friend had previously asked me to get him a rip of this album so I've finished it off for him and I'm posting it here as well for anyone interested.

We "down under" tend to occasionally have problems with northern hemisphere carols especially when they talk about cold and snow.  You feel pretty silly singing them in the middle of a heat wave with the sweat streaming off your brow. The one exception I recall was the one about Santa Claus riding a strawberry roan when he goes to Texas because they don't have snow but I have not heard that one since the late 1950s.  Many have attempted to rectify the problem usually with little success - "Six White Boomers" still does well though.

In terms of a serious effort, this LP is probably the best known and even then it is fairly obscure although you will often encounter some of the carols sung by choirs at Xmas.  It covers the Australian Christmas time environment while maintaining a dignified respect for the religious aspects.

The pedigree of these tracks is excellent.  Words by John Wheeler, music by William G James, Sir Bernard Heinze conducting the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the New South Wales Conservatorium Choir.  I tend to find it a bit too stuffy but I'm sure it will delight those who are into carols and there are really a couple of worthy carols here.  But do listen to Bogle's "Santa Bloody Claus" as well.

I have included the lyrics for all the tracks as well as there is little point in carols if you can't sing along.

Song List (as per request in December 2011)

1. Merry Christmas

2. The Three Drovers

3. Christmas Night - Cradle Song

4. Christmas Day

5. Carol of the Birds (aka Orana)

6. Our Lady of December

7. The Little Town where Christ was born

8. Noel Time

9. Christmas Bush for his Adorning

10. The Silver Stars are in the Sky

11. The Christmas Tree

12. The Day that Christ was Born on

13, Country Carol - The Oxen

14. Golden Day

15. Sing Gloria

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1967 Film - "The Restless Years" and Best Wishes

For those interested in a video version of the original award-winning 1967 TV show "The Restless Years", The blogsite Folk for All has a copy available for download.

Make sure you all have a great holiday (or that work is not too hard).  Many thanks to all those who kindly contributed during the year.  We all hope that we have done a little to preserve some of this great music and that you enjoy listening to our offerings.

John Greenway "Australian Folksongs and Ballads" LP 1959

John Greenway was born in England in 1919.  As a young man, he went to the USA where after serving in the US Army in the Second World War, he furthered his tertiary education eventually becoming an English teacher and subsequently an anthropologist. Early on, he was strongly leftist with an interest in songs of protest and labour songs reflected in his records and publications.  In 1956, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarshop to study Australian labour movement songs.  He also undertook field work with traditional aboriginals.  He viewed the aboriginal research very positively but he "became so disgusted with the abuses and power of the Australian labor movement" that he became a "rightist" which well accounts for why, when he put out this album of Australian folksongs in 1959, not one union or protest song was included.
He has a fairly easygoing singing style and the American accent and the occasional mispronounciation of "Gundagai" gets a bit in the way but at least he had the dog sitting in the tucker box rather than on it but then in 1959 he'd have had his LP banned if he'd have sung "shat in the tucker box".
Unsurprisingly, most of the songs are in the usual top thirty of Australian folksongs. The tracks are:-
Botany Bay, Old Bullock Dray, Dying Stockman, One of the Has-Beens, Brisbane Ladies, Castlereagh River, Click go the Shears, Bold Jack Donahue, Wild Colonial Boy, Waltzing Matilda (original), The Dog sat on the Tuckerbox, Lazy Harry's, Ben Hall, Wallaby Stew, Les Darcy, Stockman's Last Bed, Peter Clarke, Cockies of Bungaree, and Wild Rover No More.

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By courtesy of the combined efforts of Donnatv and cianfulli (see comments) a PDF of the original LP graphics can be obtained here.  Thanks very much.

Various Artists "Great Australian Legend" LP 1971

This LP was lovingly ripped by my associate Gonzo several years ago (please see his detailed comment).  It was retailed in the UK by Topic Records and in Australia by Score Records.  The three singers performing on the LP were:

A.L. Lloyd, commonly known as "Bert" Lloyd, was one of the recently popularised "forgotten generation" sent out to Australia at the age of 15 and he worked on stations in the Lachlan River area of New South Wales for six years before returning to England.  He is said to have collected folk songs from the locals.  He certainly was a fervent folk music performer with a significant role in promoting traditional English language folk music especially of the British Isles.

We have met Martyn Wyndham-Read before on this blog.  He too, is English, and spent most of the "sixties" in Australia and has often visited since including this year.  He also, has produced several English language folk albums.

Trevor Lucas, the third artist, was Australian born but he spent considerable time in the UK.  One of his LPs has been previously posted on this blog.

Tracks are:

1. Waltzing Matilda (original version)  - Lloyd and Chorus

2. Jim Jones at Botany Bay - Lloyd and Chorus

3. The Wild Colonial Boy - Lloyd and Chorus

4. The Streets of Forbes - Trevor Lucas

5. The Hold-Up at Eugowra Rocks - Lloyd and Chorus
6. The Flash Stockman - Martyn Wyndham-Read
7. Five Miles from Gundagai - Trevor Lucas
8. The Lime-Juice Tub - Lloyd, Wyndham-Read and Chorus
9. Euabalong Ball - "Bert" Lloyd
10. Banks of the Condamine - Trevor Lucas
11. Click Go the Shears - Martyn Wyndham-Read
12. Flash Jack from Gundagai - Martyn Wyndham-Read
13. Hard Tack - Martyn Wyndham-Read
14. On the Road with Liddy - "Bert" Lloyd

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NEW

Peter, a NSW country visitor, has passed through and provided some additional material for the blog. This included another copy of the above UK issue of the LP, i.e. on the UK Topic label. Included was the original fold-out insert featuring notes and lyrics for all tracks and I took the opportunity to scan the rear of the LP also. The fold-out print was fairly small and indistinct so I have scanned at 300dpi which makes for large files - all up 14.07mb.

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New Folk Blogsite

Sorry for the lack of postings but I have been very busy lately and I hope to rectify my absence soon. In the meantime, there is a rip of the 1982 Larrikin LP "Bushwackers and City Slickers" available from Folk For All Blog.

The Bushwackers Band - And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda - LP Graphics ONLY

This download is LP Graphics only

I recently obtained a very good LP of this album but there seems to be little point in ripping it. The ten tracks are:-
1. To the Shores of Botany Bay
2. Wooloomooloo Lair
3. Clancy of the Overflow
4. Overlanders
5. And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
6. Waltzing Matilda
7. Theme from 'Ben Hall'
8. One of the Has Beens
9. Jog Along Till Shearing
10. New Broom

If you take a look at the earlier posting of their CD compilation here, you will notice that the first ten tracks on CD1 correspond completely with this LPs tracks.

Accordingly, I am simply posting the LP front, inner and rear graphics here for those who may be interested having this cover.

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William Clauson "Click go the Shears" LP Mono c1960

I know some of you are going to shudder when you see this one on the blog.

William Clauson was born to Swedish parents in the USA an awfully long time ago and is known to have made his home in the USA, Sweden and currently Mexico. He has over 40 albums to his credit and has performed virtually everywhere and I notice that he had gigs in Sweden earlier this year.

He has always had a strong interest in folk songs as reflected in many of his albums but he is certainly not what many of us would term a "folk singer". His delivery is usually quite formal tending toward classical. I think the proper term is "Lieder voice". However, do not be put off too much by that as some of the songs on this album do benefit from this treatment, especially "Moreton Bay".

I believe this album was produced somewhere between 1958 and 1962 (perhaps someone know precisely when). Due to the style of singing, it was originally very popular with the Australian Broadcasting Commission (as it was then named) and also at schools. I understand that he followed in the footsteps of Burl Ives, and as the album notes strongly indicate, Dr. Percy Jones had a strong influence on Clauson as well.

I am aware that there are a couple of rips of this album doing the rounds but they are of low quality due to record damage. I have taken this rip from an LP I found at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago. At $1, I reckoned that I could afford to be disappointed with the quality. It turns out that this is a World Record Club re-issue which has probably had little, if any, play so it has ripped as well as could be expected for an LP of this vintage.

Incidentally, he also visited, and recorded songs of and in, New Zealand. Has anyone got the LP/s? I have desperately been seeking his version of Peter Cape's "Black Matai" aka "The Deer Culler's Lament" (gone to the station, gone to the town) or anyone else's version for that matter.

Track List
1. Click go the Shears
2. Waltzing Matilda (Cowan version)
3. The Overlander
4. On the Banks of the Condamine
5. The Old Bark Hut
6. Bold Jack Donahue
7. Botany Bay
8. The Lime Juice Tub
9. Moreton Bay
10. The Wild Colonial Boy
11. My old black Billy
12. Bold Tommy Payne
13. Wild Rover No More
14. The Dying Stockman

MP3 mono 192-224VBR with graphics
Download from MediaFire with both sets of covers


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Leonard Teale and Andy Sundstrom "Travelling down the Castlereagh" 1970 LP

In Australia, Leonard Teale was a very well-known entertainer. He is best remembered, by those old enough, for the many years he spent in the TV show "Homicide". Second, he was almost infamous for reciting "The Man from Snowy River" at just about every opportunity. Very few, however, realise that he was a significant contributor, along with Andy Sundstrom, to the Australian folk scene in the early 1960s. As well as various live performances, they put out two albums, the other being the earlier "Songs the Sundowners Sang". Both are largely forgotten albums never being re-released although some tracks have appeared on compilations.

This is an album which has a lot to recommend it. Not only are they competent performers, but they also perform the better known tracks in a distinctive style all their own. But there are also tracks not previously posted on this blog. The LP has cleaned up nicely.

Track List
1. Travelling down the Castlereagh
2. Maggie May
3. Frank Gardiner
4. The Shearer's Dream
5. Holy Dan
6. Home Brew (modern)
7. Brennan on the Moor
8. The Spider from the Gwydir
9. Brisbane Ladies
10. The Old Lady Skin and Bone
11. Five Miles from Gundagi
12. Bound for Hobart Town (modern)

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Download FLAC (lossless) version - 138MB 
The download file need to be decompressed to extract tracks and graphic files
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Nth. Bulli Bush Band "Denizen" LP 1984

The Nth. Bulli Bush Band appears to have issued only this one LP. Its members were Johnny Spillane, Bruce Gawthorne, Bob Lind, Rob Fletcher and Bob Doyle.
This LP is a real mix of folk songs and instrumentals performed with great enthusiasm. A real touch of the Scottish here. The lead vocals are occasionally a bit thin but a trio, "Calico" (Leanne Robinson, Brenda Parker, and Anna Whelan), provides great backing vocals. Further music backing by Bob Manell on Mandola and Mandolin and Philippa Freitag on fiddle.
Great inner illustrations on the album cover.

Track List
1. Travelling Down the Castlereagh (Paterson's The Bushman's Song)
2. Reels: The Maid behind the Bar and The Escarpment.
3. Red Iron Ore (modern by Alan Musgrove)
4. Instrumentals with bagpipe lead - Gay Gordons, Barren Rocks of Aden, Scotland the Brave, and Campbell's Farewell to the Red Castle
5. Look Out Below (Charles Thatcher on the Goldfields 1850s)
6. Stringy Bark Creek (Australian traditional)
7. Dance Instrumentals - Devil among the Tailors and Drowsy Maggie
8. Bare-Legged Kate (John Dengate's song of his mother as a girl)
9. Polkas - Wombat, and Hawke
10. It's a Long Way to Cunnamulla (John Dengate's 1980s comment on the then Queensland state electoral system)
11. 93rd's Farewell to Gibraltar

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Alex Hood "The Second Hundred Years" LP 1970

I recently stated that I was working on this album but, thankfully, Alan from Sydney has now provided a very good rip of the album; a task I was finding very difficult because of a close-to-death LP. Many thanks Alan.
This album was a follow-up the his "First Hundred Years" LP. Alex did not actually wait out the 200 years (1988) and this LP was released on the 200th anniversary of the discovery of eastern Australia and the claiming of Australia for Britain by Captain James Cook in 1970.
Alex Hood might not be the best of the Australian Folk singers but he is surely one of the most dedicated and prolific. I have always admired his work and enthusiasm. He is still a regular performer today.
This is definitely one of my favourite Australian folk albums which accounts for why my copy was so worn out (I actually bought it in 1970). The songs, of course, supposedly come from the period 1888 to 1970 and are a mix of traditional, oldies and some modern compositions written specifically for the album. Actually, the album notes advise that the song "Just before the Battle, Mother" was collected in Australia near Canberra and was thought to be about the Boer War. Of course, it is the very well-travelled song written during the American Civil War. The notes on Waltzing Matilda completely overlooks that "Banjo" Paterson penned this song in 1895 and it was published as sheet music in 1903. This track is close to the original. Thankfully, our folk singers avoid the later Marie Cowan version which is the one most Australians know.
The track "Dinki Di" is practically identical to the version my grandfather, a First World War veteran of the Western Front, used to sing but Australian Army personnel have continued to adapt this song to subsequent wars and actions.
"Lord Gort" and "How'd Yer Be?" are two well-known recitations (at least to we older ones) very well performed by Alex. Additionally, there are four tracks written by Larry King with some involvement by Alex.
A very enjoyable album.

Download link removed at the request of the copyright holder J. Albert & Son Pty Ltd
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