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Australian Songs

Martyn Wyndham-Read: Australian Songs (W&G WG-B-2597)

Australian Songs
Martyn Wyndham-Read

W&G WG-B-2597 (LP, UK, April 1966)

Notes: Ian Turner;
Cover sketch: St. Gill “Spirits in Bond”;
Cover layout: Park Productions

Musicians

Martyn Wyndham-Read: vocals, guitar;
with the Bush Band:
  Jim Buchanan: lagerphone;
  Peter Dickie: guitar;
  Dave Lumsden: banjo;
  Bert Cameron: mouth organ;
and Ade Monsbourgh: recorder

Tracks

Side 1

  1. The Flash Stockman (Roud 22616)
  2. The Convict Maid (Roud 5479)
  3. The Shearer’s Dream
  4. The Inglewood Cocky
  5. The Old Keg of Rum
  6. Flash Jack From Gundagai
  7. O for Me Grog (Across the Western Plains) (Roud 475; G/D 3:580)

Side 2

  1. The Streets of Forbes (Roud 20764)
  2. The Lachlan Tigers
  3. Bold Jack Donahue (Roud 611)
  4. Five and a Zack
  5. Death of Ben Hall (Roud 3352)
  6. The Ryebuck Shearer (Roud 24820)
  7. A Nautical Yarn
  8. The Lime Juice Tub (Roud 22605)

All tracks trad. arr. Martyn Wyndham-Read except
Track 6 Palmer-Sutherland

Sleeve Notes

The traditional Australian ballads on this record, as well as being good songs to sing, offer vivid glimpses of Australia’s past. Scholars argue vigorously over whether these ballads can properly be called folk songs; some say that they are too young, that they still bear marks of the individual who wrote them, that they have not been polished (as true folk songs have) by being handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. But others rate them with folk songs because they are popular in style and sentiment. Whether folk songs or not, the convict, bushranger and bush ballads presented here tell us a great deal about the way that earlier generations of Australians felt about the lives they lived.

Acknowledgements

The album details are from Mark Gregory’s discography of Australian Folk Songs and from Alistair Banfield. Thank you!