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A bush band is a group of musicians that play Australian bush ballads. A similar bush band tradition is also found in New Zealand.
In addition to vocals, instruments featured in bush bands may include fiddle, accordion, guitar, banjo, mandolin, concertina, harmonica, lagerphone, bush bass (tea chest bass) or double bass, tin whistle, and bodhrán. Less common are the piano, bones, barcoo dog (a sheep herding tool used as a sistrum), spoons, and musical saw. Although not traditional, electric bass guitar or electric guitar have occasionally been used since the 1970s.
Bush bands play music for bush dances, in which the dance program is usually based on dances known to have been danced in Australia from colonial times to the folk revival in the 1950s. Contemporary dances, set in the traditional style, are also featured at bush dances.
Some popular traditional bush dances are Stockyards, Haymaker's Jig, Galopede, Brown Jug Polka, Virginia Reel and barn dance. Popular contemporary bush dances include Blackwattle Reel, Jubilee Jig, CHOGM Pentrille, Knocking Down His Cheque and Midnight Schottische.
Bush bands also play bush ballads, many of which date to the 19th century. Among the most notable bush lyricists was the poet Banjo Paterson (1864–1941).
The Bush Music Club, based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, hold regular bush dances and Colonial Balls where bush bands perform. [1]
Bush bands, as currently formulated, experienced a revival in 1953 with the musical play Reedy River, which was first produced and published by the New Theatre (Sydney) [2] and most recently produced in 2002.[ citation needed ] Written by Dick Diamond, the musical featured twelve or so Australian songs, which included Doreen Jacobs' setting of Helen Palmer's "Ballad of 1891," as well as the title song, Chris Kempster's setting of Lawson's "Reedy River." The backing band for this popular stage production was "The Bushwhackers", who had formed a year earlier in 1952. As the musical was performed in Brisbane and other Australian cities, local "bush bands" modeled on the Sydney group, such as Brisbane's "The Moreton Bay Bushwhackers," sprang up in each place; many of these remained together following the closing of the musical, and spawned other, similar groups.
Perhaps the best known bush band internationally, albeit in their later years with the influence of English folk rock bands like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, was the Bushwackers (spelt without the "h" as in the earlier Bushwhackers Band of the 1950s), who formed in Melbourne and were active from the early 1970s to 1984. The "Wackers," as they are known by their fans, toured around the world and with their larrikin, outgoing style, song books, dance instruction books and records, contributed markedly to the spread of bush music and dancing, especially in Australia. Their style was infused with Celtic music (i.e. reels and jigs) to a greater extent than previous bush bands, and they used an electric bass guitar in place of the more traditional bush bass. The period leading up to and following Australia's Bicentenary, 1988, saw a marked resurgence in bush music and bush dances that lasted for many years.
Many bands also bearing the rock influence and adding original music rode this Australiana wave. Examples are the Ants Bush Band, Eureka!, Skewiff, Rantan Bush Band and Bullamakanka and some bands, including the Bushwackers, still perform on an occasional basis.
In recent years the emergence of bands such as The Currency (Melbourne), The Handsome Young Strangers (Sydney) Jack Flash (South Queensland) [3] and Sydney City Trash (Sydney) has moved bush music into rock and roll venues and major festival stages, with a blended style that includes rock drums and guitars whilst combining with Celtic influences. The Handsome Young Strangers lean more towards the traditional style of bands such as The Bushwackers, whilst The Currency, Jack Flash and Sydney City Trash incorporate both punk and Celtic styles.
The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions of indigenous and Western styles are exemplified in the works of Yothu Yindi, No Fixed Address, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and Christine Anu, and mark distinctly Australian contributions to world music.
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Clandestine is a Celtic music group from Houston, Texas. Featuring bagpipes, guitar, fiddle, and drums, they play traditional Celtic music as well as some modern tunes in a Celtic style. Some songs include additional instruments like the flute, bombarde and various whistles. They formed in 1991, stabilized as a quartet in 1996, and dissolved for a time in 2003. In their original incarnation, the band made 4 discs and toured heavily around the US and also performed in Europe. They were favorites at McGonigel's Mucky Duck Pub in their hometown of Houston, as well as the Cactus Cafe in nearby Austin.
Celtic music is primarily associated with the folk traditions of Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and Wales, as well as the popular styles derived from folk culture. In addition, a number of other areas of the world are known for the use of Celtic musical styles and techniques, including Newfoundland, and much of the folk music of Canada's Maritimes, especially on Cape Breton Island and Prince Edward Island.
Bush dance is a style of dance from Australia, particularly where the music is provided by a bush band. The dances are mainly based on the traditional folk dances of the UK, Ireland and central Europe.
The Arts in Australia refers to the visual arts, literature, performing arts and music in the area of, on the subject of, or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding Indigenous and colonial societies. Indigenous Australian art, music and story telling attaches to a 40–60,000-year heritage and continues to affect the broader arts and culture of Australia. During its early western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies, therefore, its literary, visual and theatrical traditions began with strong links to the broader traditions of English and Irish literature, British art and English and Celtic music. However, the works of Australian artists – including Indigenous as well as Anglo-Celtic and multicultural migrant Australians – has, since 1788, introduced the character of a new continent to the global arts scene – exploring such themes as Aboriginality, Australian landscape, migrant and national identity, distance from other Western nations and proximity to Asia, the complexities of urban living and the "beauty and the terror" of life in the Australian bush.
The Bushwackers Band, often simply the Bushwackers, is an Australian folk and country music band or Bush band founded at La Trobe University in Melbourne in 1971.
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John Stanley Raymond Meredith OAM was an Australian pioneer folklorist from Holbrook, New South Wales whose work influenced the Australian folk music revival of the 1950s, in particular as a founding member of the Australia's first revivalist bush band The Bushwhackers. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1986 for service to Australian folklore and music, and became a Member of the Order of Australia in 1992 for service to the Arts, particularly in the collection and preservation of Australian folklore.
Australian folk music is the traditional music from the large variety of immigrant cultures and those of the original Australian inhabitants.
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Reedy River is a 1953 Australian folk musical about the 1891 Australian shearers' strike. The libretto was written by Dick Diamond with songs chosen by John Gray. Two new songs were written for the musical by Diamond with music by Miles Maxwell.
The Mucky Duck Bush Band, often called Mucky Duck, is a Western Australian Australian folk and country music band or bush band formed in 1973 and still active today, in Perth and Western Australia. The band was founded by Stan Hastings, who ran the folk club The Stables in Northbridge, and his son Greg Hastings. They turned professional in 1978, touring around Western Australia.
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The Bushwhackers, initially named "The Heathcote Bushwhackers", Australia's first "revival" bush band were arguably the catalyst for Australia's folk revival of the 1950s; prior to that revival, similar bush bands, utilizing a mixture of commercially available and sometimes home-made instruments, had performed a social function in rural areas since the late 19th century. The Bushwhackers performed from 1952 to 1957, when founder John Meredith disbanded the group and its members dispersed into other activities.. Over its relatively brief existence, the group evolved from an initial novelty act to one with a more serious mission of presenting and promoting to Australia its neglected bush song heritage, and laid the foundation for similar groups to follow through the 1960s and to the present. Its members also operated—at least initially—from a Marxist / Australian Communist Party ideology, attempting to embody the struggle of the working class against the ruling classes, although this may have been less than obvious to their audiences under the guise of popular entertainment.
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. 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". 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).
Dobe Newton OAM is an Australian musician and member of folk and country music group the Bushwackers from 1973. He co-wrote the patriotic song "I Am Australian" in 1987 with Bruce Woodley. For his service to the performing arts as an entertainer and advocate he was appointed to the Order of Australia in 2013.
