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Bush Music Club

January 01, 1970

Sydney's Bush Music Club is the oldest and longest running folk music performance and education organisation in Australia, and is believed to be the second oldest such club still in existence in the English speaking world.[1] Founded in 1954, and still extant as at 2022, it exists to further "the collection and research of folklore traditions and folk music and to encourage the performance of traditional bush music, song and dance, spoken word, bush poetry and yarns".[2] It hosts regular events and has published a range of folklore related materials, including the magazine "Singabout" from 1956 to 1967, which continues as a section within a subsequent publication "Mulga Wire" (1977-current).

Bush Music Club Inc.
Formation1954; 70 years ago (1954)
TypeNonprofit organization
PurposePromotion of Australian folk music and folk dance; publishing of folk music related materials, including "Singabout" magazine (1956-1967) and "Mulga Wire" (1977-current).
HeadquartersSydney, Australia
Region served
Australia
Websitehttp://www.bushmusic.org.au/
Original Bushwhacker Alex Hood, age 19 when the Club opened in 1954, performs at the Bush Music Club in 2014, in his 79th year.

History edit

The club was founded in October 1954 by the Australian folklorist and performer John Meredith, together with colleagues from Australia's first revivalist "bush band" The Bushwhackers, as a social and teaching club with the aim of popularising the style of bush singing and dancing promoted by the band and encouraging others to form their own performing groups; the band would participate by teaching up-and-coming members songs and giving them instruction on playing bush instruments.[3][4] An announcement of the proposed formation of the club, in the form of a leaflet available to interested parties, ran as follows:

THE BUSH MUSIC CLUB

We have been approached by many singers and instrumentalists who wished to join the "Bushwhackers", but we consider that the optimum number for an ensemble such as ours is six. We have been refusing engagements at the rate of three or four a week for several months, not because we want to, but simply for the reasons that we need time to rehearse, we have to work for our living and because we have to get some sleep occasionally.

We don’t like disappointing people so we have decided to form a club, where in return for a nominal membership fee we will give away our secrets. The "Bushwhackers" will help you to learn the accordeon, harmonica, bones, bush bass, lager phone and lots more. We will provide the words and music of our songs and show you how we sing them.

The inaugural meeting and first rehearsal of the BUSH MUSIC CLUB will take place at the Realist Theatrette, 1st Floor, 188 George Street, on Thursday October 14th, at 7 p.m. sharp.

Further details may be had from John Meredith, 5 Henry Street, Lewisham, or from any of the "Bushwhackers".[5]

Initial office bearers (all members of the original Bushwhackers band) were Brian Loughlin as chair, Alan Scott as secretary/treasurer, Harry Kay as master of ceremonies and Meredith as "publicity officer" and future editor of the club's planned publications.[6]

 
List of Life Members of the Bush Music Club as at 2014 (detail of Alex Hood photograph above)

With Meredith's interest in collecting Australian folksongs, the club's journal "Singabout" was started in 1956 as a route to publish and promote a selection of these songs for singing by others, in addition to being an outlet for newly composed songs on Australian themes. (A Club newsletter, also including song transcriptions, etc., had already started in 1955). While Meredith and his colleagues had Australian Communist Party affiliations, in reality this manifested itself as a general predisposition to sympathy to the concerns of the Australian working class and not to specific furtherance of official Communist Party objectives, although the American folklorist John Greenway, reviewing "Singabout" in 1958, lamented that "folksong collecting and publishing [in Australia] today is in the hands of the Communists".[7][a] Meredith's involvement as an office bearer with the club lasted until at least 1968, where he is listed as assistant editor, having previously been president for 1961 and vice president for 1966.[6]

Life members included the Australian traditional singers Sally Sloane and Duke Tritton; the latter assisted Meredith with his song collecting and also served as club vice president for several terms. Other persons awarded life membership included founder members and original Bushwhackers John Meredith, Jack Barrie, Alan Scott, Brian Loughlin and Harry Kay, resident topical/humorous songwriter John Dengate, and more (refer board illustrated at right).

A selection of performers from the club, including Meredith and several other of the original Bushwhackers in the early years, performed at festivals and public gatherings as the "Bush Music Club Concert Party" and made a number of appearances on record between the mid 1950s and 1960s (see "Recordings" section); for David Jones "Wool Week" in 1959 they also appeared as "The Shearer's Band". Members of these bands, who tended to vary, were amateur performers who performed for the love of the music, with proceeds of performances going back to support the club and its other activities. From the 1970s and onwards, many performers who had received their "apprenticeships" with the Concert Party went on to form bands of their own, examples being "The Rouseabouts", "Ryebuck", "Pinchgut", "Selectors", "Southern Cross", "Sydney Coves", "Currawong" and "Barangaroo".[8]

The club rode out the downturn in popular interest in folk music in the 1980s and 1990s; a 1987 review noted that the club at that time had over 400 members.[9] In 2014 the club celebrated its 60th birthday with a series of concerts, new publications and festival performances,[10] and in 2020 was still offering a regular program of bush dances, dance and music workshops, and Irish traditional music, singing, and poetry sessions at a range of Sydney venues.[11]

Influence edit

Similar clubs began to appear in the other Australian States, notably the Victorian Bush Music Club (established 1959)[12] and the Queensland Bush Music Club (also the Queensland Federation of Bush Music groups). Especially in its early years, the club acted as a catalyst for the formation of "bush bands" in other Australian cities and towns, while its Concert Party trained a number of musicians who subsequently went on to form their own bands in the 1970s and beyond (see above).

Publications edit

[preliminary listing, probably some missed]

  • 1954-1956 Bushwacker Broadsides: 1) The Old Man. Kangaroo; (2) The Old Bark Hut; (3) Jim Jones at Botany Bay; 4) The Rabbiter's Song; (5) Ho, Give a Fair Go; (6) Hungry Jim the Miner; 7) Wally the Weatherman; (8) The Black Velvet Band; (9) The Bold Kelly Gang; 10) Bound for Darling Harbour; (11) Farewell to Greta; (12) Kelly was their Captain; (13) The Kellys, Byrne and Hart; (14) Stringybark Creek; (15) Ye Sons of Australia; (16) ??
  • 1955 John Meredith: Six authentic Songs from the Kelly Country
  • 1956 onwards: "Singabout" Magazine (ceased 1967)
  • 1956 John Meredith (editor): Songs from Lawson
  • 1968 John Meredith, Alan Scott & Eric Bolton (editors): Singabout songster. Number 1
  • 1970 Alan Scott: A collector's song book: words and music of thirty-one traditional songs collected in Australia
  • 1970 R. D. Dengate and J. Carlin (editors): Songs of the shearer
  • 1977-current "Mulga Wire" Magazine
  • 1979 Bush Music Club: Six new dances, composed for the Bush Music Club's Silver Jubilee
  • 1982 John Dengate: My shout!: songs and poems (reprinted 2012)
  • 1984 David Johnson: Bush dance: a collection of traditional tunes arranged in sets for bush bands
  • 1985 Bob Bolton (editor): Singabout, selected reprints from Singabout, journal of Australian folksong, 1956-1967: an anthology
  • 1986 Lance Green: Bush dance: instructions
  • 2004 Scott, Gay (editor) The Sally Sloane Songbook: Australian traditional singer
  • 2007 Mike Waters: One hundred Dances
  • 2010 Australian Railway Songs
  • 2012 John Dengate: Songs, Poems, Satire and Shouts all the way
  • 2013 Helen Romeo (compiler): Family bush dance: instructions for simple bush dances, suitable for children & family groups

Recordings edit

The following list of recordings by the Bush Music Club Concert Party (aka "The Shearer's Band") was put together by Bob Bolton in 1983 (dates added for this article):[13]

  • 1959: Bush Music Club: Songs from the Shearing Sheds. Festival FL-7116; Calendar R66-433. Reissued as Bush Ballads, Festival FL3I-336
  • 1959: The Shearer's Band: Harmony (Waltzing Matilda/Nine Miles From Gundagai/Botany Bay/Click Go The Shears). Issued by David Jones for "Wool Week", 1959.
  • 1964: Dinki! Di! We (do) love singing Fair Dinkum Aussie Songs / (The Best): 10th Anniversary Album. Festival FL31'526 / Calendar R66l96 (Title depends on which side of the jacket you read!)
  • 1966?: Poems in Music, Henry Lawson Poems set to music by the Bush Music Club. Festival: Mono; FL32—282; Stereo, SFL932-282 Calendar R66-587 (Stereo) SR66-9,587
  • 1969: Songs And Poems of Australia (with various other artists). Calendar R66-577
  • 1974: True Blue Songs of the Outback. Festival L4552314 (repackaging of Songs From The Shearing Shed & Dinki Di!, as double LP)
  • 1980: 20 Golden Hits. Festival L-25365 (re-mastering of twenty tracks from earlier B.M.C. LPs)
  • The Bush Music Club (7" 45 rpm). Festival FX 10-163
  • 16,000 miles from Home. Festival FX 10-459
  • Nine Miles from Gundagai. Festival FX 100-464 (contains previously issued material)

Bibliography edit

  • McKenry, Keith, 2014. More Than a Life: John Meredith and the Fight for Australian Tradition. Rosenberg Publishing, 488 pp. ISBN 9781925078145

Notes edit

  1. ^ Such a connection was not, of course, without precedent: both the British Workers' Music Association and the U.S. People's Songs had similar interests, that is, the overt use of songs as a vehicle for social change, allied strongly with the labour movement

References edit

  1. ^ According to 2 threads on "mudcat.org" entitled "Long-lived folk clubs? 60yrs?" and "Oldest Folk Club Around?", summarised here, only the San Francisco Folk Music Club (USA, founded 1948) is older.
  2. ^ National Library of Australia: Bush Music Club (Sydney, N.S.W.)
  3. ^ Bolton, Bob. 1999. "The Bush Music Club: A Brief History". Reproduced on the web at http://folkstream.com/reviews/revival/bmclub.html.
  4. ^ McKenry, 2014, p. 136.
  5. ^ Reproduced at https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2017/01/minutes-of-bush-music-club-14th-october.html
  6. ^ a b Bush Music Club: History of the Bush Music Club - The Committee, the first 25 years.
  7. ^ Greenway, John. 1958. "Folklore in Australia: Speewa (etc.)." The Journal of American Folklore, 71: 183-185. doi:10.2307/537710
  8. ^ Bush Music Club Inc.: Concert Party
  9. ^ Anderson, Hugh, et al., 1987. Folklife: Our Living Heritage. Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Folklife in Australia. Australian Government Publishing Service, 306 pp. ISBN 0664067101
  10. ^ Bush Music Club: The Ballad of the Heathcote Bushwhackers
  11. ^ Bush Music Club Inc.: Home Page
  12. ^ Bush Music Club: 60 years of the Victorian Folk Music Club (est 1959 as the Victorian Bush Music Club) as recorded in Singabout.
  13. ^ The Bush Music Club: Getting the Record Straight - The Bush Music Club Discography by Bob Bolton, 1983

External links edit

  • Official website
  • Bush Music Club (Sydney, N.S.W.), 2012: The early years (1954-64). A presentation at the National Folk Festival - Canberra, Australia, Saturday 7th April 2012. 1 x DVD; details here
  • Bush Music Club blog - including a large archive section (scanned documents, photographs, etc.) - e.g. 143 posts in 2018, 99 in 2017

January 01, 1970
bush, music, club, sydney, oldest, longest, running, folk, music, performance, education, organisation, australia, believed, second, oldest, such, club, still, existence, english, speaking, world, founded, 1954, still, extant, 2022, exists, further, collection. Sydney s Bush Music Club is the oldest and longest running folk music performance and education organisation in Australia and is believed to be the second oldest such club still in existence in the English speaking world 1 Founded in 1954 and still extant as at 2022 it exists to further the collection and research of folklore traditions and folk music and to encourage the performance of traditional bush music song and dance spoken word bush poetry and yarns 2 It hosts regular events and has published a range of folklore related materials including the magazine Singabout from 1956 to 1967 which continues as a section within a subsequent publication Mulga Wire 1977 current Bush Music Club Inc Formation1954 70 years ago 1954 TypeNonprofit organizationPurposePromotion of Australian folk music and folk dance publishing of folk music related materials including Singabout magazine 1956 1967 and Mulga Wire 1977 current HeadquartersSydney AustraliaRegion servedAustraliaWebsitehttp www bushmusic org au Original Bushwhacker Alex Hood age 19 when the Club opened in 1954 performs at the Bush Music Club in 2014 in his 79th year Contents 1 History 2 Influence 3 Publications 4 Recordings 5 Bibliography 6 Notes 7 References 8 External linksHistory editThe club was founded in October 1954 by the Australian folklorist and performer John Meredith together with colleagues from Australia s first revivalist bush band The Bushwhackers as a social and teaching club with the aim of popularising the style of bush singing and dancing promoted by the band and encouraging others to form their own performing groups the band would participate by teaching up and coming members songs and giving them instruction on playing bush instruments 3 4 An announcement of the proposed formation of the club in the form of a leaflet available to interested parties ran as follows THE BUSH MUSIC CLUBWe have been approached by many singers and instrumentalists who wished to join the Bushwhackers but we consider that the optimum number for an ensemble such as ours is six We have been refusing engagements at the rate of three or four a week for several months not because we want to but simply for the reasons that we need time to rehearse we have to work for our living and because we have to get some sleep occasionally We don t like disappointing people so we have decided to form a club where in return for a nominal membership fee we will give away our secrets The Bushwhackers will help you to learn the accordeon harmonica bones bush bass lager phone and lots more We will provide the words and music of our songs and show you how we sing them The inaugural meeting and first rehearsal of the BUSH MUSIC CLUB will take place at the Realist Theatrette 1st Floor 188 George Street on Thursday October 14th at 7 p m sharp Further details may be had from John Meredith 5 Henry Street Lewisham or from any of the Bushwhackers 5 Initial office bearers all members of the original Bushwhackers band were Brian Loughlin as chair Alan Scott as secretary treasurer Harry Kay as master of ceremonies and Meredith as publicity officer and future editor of the club s planned publications 6 nbsp List of Life Members of the Bush Music Club as at 2014 detail of Alex Hood photograph above With Meredith s interest in collecting Australian folksongs the club s journal Singabout was started in 1956 as a route to publish and promote a selection of these songs for singing by others in addition to being an outlet for newly composed songs on Australian themes A Club newsletter also including song transcriptions etc had already started in 1955 While Meredith and his colleagues had Australian Communist Party affiliations in reality this manifested itself as a general predisposition to sympathy to the concerns of the Australian working class and not to specific furtherance of official Communist Party objectives although the American folklorist John Greenway reviewing Singabout in 1958 lamented that folksong collecting and publishing in Australia today is in the hands of the Communists 7 a Meredith s involvement as an office bearer with the club lasted until at least 1968 where he is listed as assistant editor having previously been president for 1961 and vice president for 1966 6 Life members included the Australian traditional singers Sally Sloane and Duke Tritton the latter assisted Meredith with his song collecting and also served as club vice president for several terms Other persons awarded life membership included founder members and original Bushwhackers John Meredith Jack Barrie Alan Scott Brian Loughlin and Harry Kay resident topical humorous songwriter John Dengate and more refer board illustrated at right A selection of performers from the club including Meredith and several other of the original Bushwhackers in the early years performed at festivals and public gatherings as the Bush Music Club Concert Party and made a number of appearances on record between the mid 1950s and 1960s see Recordings section for David Jones Wool Week in 1959 they also appeared as The Shearer s Band Members of these bands who tended to vary were amateur performers who performed for the love of the music with proceeds of performances going back to support the club and its other activities From the 1970s and onwards many performers who had received their apprenticeships with the Concert Party went on to form bands of their own examples being The Rouseabouts Ryebuck Pinchgut Selectors Southern Cross Sydney Coves Currawong and Barangaroo 8 The club rode out the downturn in popular interest in folk music in the 1980s and 1990s a 1987 review noted that the club at that time had over 400 members 9 In 2014 the club celebrated its 60th birthday with a series of concerts new publications and festival performances 10 and in 2020 was still offering a regular program of bush dances dance and music workshops and Irish traditional music singing and poetry sessions at a range of Sydney venues 11 Influence editSimilar clubs began to appear in the other Australian States notably the Victorian Bush Music Club established 1959 12 and the Queensland Bush Music Club also the Queensland Federation of Bush Music groups Especially in its early years the club acted as a catalyst for the formation of bush bands in other Australian cities and towns while its Concert Party trained a number of musicians who subsequently went on to form their own bands in the 1970s and beyond see above Publications edit preliminary listing probably some missed 1954 1956 Bushwacker Broadsides 1 The Old Man Kangaroo 2 The Old Bark Hut 3 Jim Jones at Botany Bay 4 The Rabbiter s Song 5 Ho Give a Fair Go 6 Hungry Jim the Miner 7 Wally the Weatherman 8 The Black Velvet Band 9 The Bold Kelly Gang 10 Bound for Darling Harbour 11 Farewell to Greta 12 Kelly was their Captain 13 The Kellys Byrne and Hart 14 Stringybark Creek 15 Ye Sons of Australia 16 1955 John Meredith Six authentic Songs from the Kelly Country 1956 onwards Singabout Magazine ceased 1967 1956 John Meredith editor Songs from Lawson 1968 John Meredith Alan Scott amp Eric Bolton editors Singabout songster Number 1 1970 Alan Scott A collector s song book words and music of thirty one traditional songs collected in Australia 1970 R D Dengate and J Carlin editors Songs of the shearer 1977 current Mulga Wire Magazine 1979 Bush Music Club Six new dances composed for the Bush Music Club s Silver Jubilee 1982 John Dengate My shout songs and poems reprinted 2012 1984 David Johnson Bush dance a collection of traditional tunes arranged in sets for bush bands 1985 Bob Bolton editor Singabout selected reprints from Singabout journal of Australian folksong 1956 1967 an anthology 1986 Lance Green Bush dance instructions 2004 Scott Gay editor The Sally Sloane Songbook Australian traditional singer 2007 Mike Waters One hundred Dances 2010 Australian Railway Songs 2012 John Dengate Songs Poems Satire and Shouts all the way 2013 Helen Romeo compiler Family bush dance instructions for simple bush dances suitable for children amp family groupsRecordings editThe following list of recordings by the Bush Music Club Concert Party aka The Shearer s Band was put together by Bob Bolton in 1983 dates added for this article 13 1959 Bush Music Club Songs from the Shearing Sheds Festival FL 7116 Calendar R66 433 Reissued as Bush Ballads Festival FL3I 336 1959 The Shearer s Band Harmony Waltzing Matilda Nine Miles From Gundagai Botany Bay Click Go The Shears Issued by David Jones for Wool Week 1959 1964 Dinki Di We do love singing Fair Dinkum Aussie Songs The Best 10th Anniversary Album Festival FL31 526 Calendar R66l96 Title depends on which side of the jacket you read 1966 Poems in Music Henry Lawson Poems set to music by the Bush Music Club Festival Mono FL32 282 Stereo SFL932 282 Calendar R66 587 Stereo SR66 9 587 1969 Songs And Poems of Australia with various other artists Calendar R66 577 1974 True Blue Songs of the Outback Festival L4552314 repackaging of Songs From The Shearing Shed amp Dinki Di as double LP 1980 20 Golden Hits Festival L 25365 re mastering of twenty tracks from earlier B M C LPs The Bush Music Club 7 45 rpm Festival FX 10 163 16 000 miles from Home Festival FX 10 459 Nine Miles from Gundagai Festival FX 100 464 contains previously issued material Bibliography editMcKenry Keith 2014 More Than a Life John Meredith and the Fight for Australian Tradition Rosenberg Publishing 488 pp ISBN 9781925078145Notes edit Such a connection was not of course without precedent both the British Workers Music Association and the U S People s Songs had similar interests that is the overt use of songs as a vehicle for social change allied strongly with the labour movementReferences edit According to 2 threads on mudcat org entitled Long lived folk clubs 60yrs and Oldest Folk Club Around summarised here only the San Francisco Folk Music Club USA founded 1948 is older National Library of Australia Bush Music Club Sydney N S W Bolton Bob 1999 The Bush Music Club A Brief History Reproduced on the web at http folkstream com reviews revival bmclub html McKenry 2014 p 136 Reproduced at https blog bushmusic org au 2017 01 minutes of bush music club 14th october html a b Bush Music Club History of the Bush Music Club The Committee the first 25 years Greenway John 1958 Folklore in Australia Speewa etc The Journal of American Folklore 71 183 185 doi 10 2307 537710 Bush Music Club Inc Concert Party Anderson Hugh et al 1987 Folklife Our Living Heritage Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Folklife in Australia Australian Government Publishing Service 306 pp ISBN 0664067101 Bush Music Club The Ballad of the Heathcote Bushwhackers Bush Music Club Inc Home Page Bush Music Club 60 years of the Victorian Folk Music Club est 1959 as the Victorian Bush Music Club as recorded in Singabout The Bush Music Club Getting the Record Straight The Bush Music Club Discography by Bob Bolton 1983External links editOfficial website Bush Music Club Sydney N S W 2012 The early years 1954 64 A presentation at the National Folk Festival Canberra Australia Saturday 7th April 2012 1 x DVD details here Bush Music Club blog including a large archive section scanned documents photographs etc e g 143 posts in 2018 99 in 2017 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Bush Music Club amp oldid 1206155483, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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