The band played on: Miners and families, Lower Hunter, 1888. By 1888, brass bands were a central feature of life in many communities. This is the first in a new series on the New England folk tradition
The
European settlers who came to Australia
These
traditions were not uniform across England ,
let alone Great Britain Australia
Bush dancing: The European settlers brought a number of dance forms with them. In a male dominated society with few women, dancing was individual, competitive
These
regional variations are poorly understood, partly because regional as opposed
to local history has suffered from neglect over many decades. This neglect
compounds a bigger problem, one inherent in the nature of folk traditions
themselves.
Today we
live in a world saturated with recording devices of all types, with media of
all types, with multiple forms of entertainment. There is constant competition
to get just a slice of our eyeballs, just a bit of our ears, just a bit of our
already overcrowded hours.
The folk
tradition is very different because it is an oral and demonstration tradition,
one in which knowledge and skills in things such as song, dance, music or
children’s games pass directly from person to person.
This makes it
hard for folk traditions to grow or even survive. Around the world languages
are in decline, entire cultures are being lost. In Australia
In the US Australia
The popular
Australian bluegrass festivals such the Byron Bay
Bluesfest sit there like blobs upon the landscape with almost no
interconnection with the surrounding area beyond the economic.
I am not knocking them I value their
contribution, they are part of modern New England .
But I do wonder listening to the many Radio National programs about these
festivals why it is that I now know more about the music of Northern
Appalachia than I do about any Australian region?!
I have obviously opened up a very large
topic. It is also one that I am especially ill-equipped to deal with given that
I am not musical, while my attempts at dancing can best be described as
catastrophic. In fact, I make British Prime Minister May look positively
professional!
Still, over the next few columns I thought
that I might share with you a little about New England ’s
folk culture just to open the topic up. You might be surprised at just how much
there is.
Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 6 November 2018. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here 2017, here 2018
5 comments:
Some wonderful quotables in this article Jim that really hit nails on the head.. The Americanisation of the Australian genre causes me angst as well, they are so different. I have always described the American version as sad songs for sad people whereas the Australian is lively and very often cheeky or carries a joke written into the lyric, basically it is happy music for folk out to enjoy themselves. The dairy farms and timber workers of the Northern Rivers made a huge contribution to the genre. Somehow the legacy of the Federation poets and writers seems to have stuck there and resurfaced in that later generation producing distinctively Australian country music and lyrics. Listening now it obviously comes from a much simpler age, you wonder where the next iteration will come from but then a younger generation than mine will no doubt say it is already out there if you listen.i do hope so.
Morning, John. And thanks :) You may be able to help me.
You wrote: "The dairy farms and timber workers of the Northern Rivers made a huge contribution to the genre." I'm sure that you are right, but can you give me more information as to why you say this. In opening up a new front I have discovered yet again gaps in my knowledge base. What do you think are the features of the Northern Rivers tradition? I am presently too Tablelands focused!
I only saw the tail end of a long tradition Jim, one centred around the Community Hall. A combination of dairy farming and Timber mills generated a dense rural settlement pattern outside local towns and regional centres and those communities worked hard by definition of their livelihoods but also enjoyed socialising when opportunity or design presented itself..my personal experience relates to the Bellinger and Macleay Rivers, i’m Sure you will have correspondents that can broaden that geography and experience. Thora Hall at the foot of the Dorrigo Mountainn Road was my local Hall on the Bellinger and Turners Flat Hall on the Macleay. Different people but exactly the same format. The music for the dancing was provided by locals with that ability, fuelled by byo grog, an always hot tea urn and a groaning table filled from the products of numerous busy kitchens. Our music was provided by a trio playing piano accordion, drum kit and fiddle. At some point when the dancers need a break one or two of our number would give a song. The musicians only played at Thora Hall and I don’t remember any other musicians visiting. We didn’t travel to other local halls when they held their does either so all very self contained but it did mean if you were musically or lyrically inclined, wherever the community you were brought up in was you had a performance platform to practise and develop your talents. The local towns were the next stage up as they had organised dances and concert performances with paid musicians and singers so the more talented could graduate upwards. Local radio was still a force in a different way to now as it ran live studios and was always on the lookout for local interest. Slim Dusty and Gordon Parsons par example were simply the 1% who went on to significant commercial success. The Pub with no Beer is still a Country Pub out at Taylor’s Arm and some of us still remember the Bruce Pottie’s (Kalang) of this world who wrote lyrics and made their music but were only memorable within a river’s catchment area. To my knowledge this all came to an end when dairying folded to a shadow of its former self and many of the timber mills closed and the few that remain no longer sustained their workforce in mill housing adjacent to the mill. Even though many of those dairy farms have subsequently been subdivided into residential acreages and there is in fact more houses and families than previous the residents of those house are well to do retired, travel to work in the neighbouring urban areas or even fly in fly out to more distant pastures. They tend to socialise in the coffee bars of the local town or stream their entertainment via FOXTEL.
That's very interesting, John. My thanks. I will bring it up in the background past.
Hello Jim,
I was delighted to find a picture of step dancing in your post. It's certainly an element of our folk culture which has been lost and an area I spend a great deal of time researching. Can you tell me the source of the picture? I've used it myself, but don't have a reference to the original. Would be great to know where it came from.
Cheers,
Heather
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