G'day Shambles,

The real problem with the name Bush Band is that the special use of the term means nothing much outside Australia - and precious little to the average Aussie. It all arises from the fact that the first stirrings of the folk revival in Australia (especially as a performance event) were when the original 1952 - 1956 Bushwhackers Band ... not the 1970s to present Folk/Rock group ... provided traditional music and songs in a folk musical play Reedy River in 1953.

So many people became interested and wanted to play and sing this music that the band members founded a club - The Bush Music Club. They used the term "Bush" because they felt they were in a tradition that was alive in the bush ... the country areas and extinguished in the cities by recorded music, film, plays and professional music of other cultures.

These days this is not obvious, since the "bush" people all listen to C & W or Rock - while "Bush" traditions are kept alive in the city ... the only place where you can get enough people together to form a club. Not entirely true, since a lot of good festivals happen in the bush. However, these are often driven by newcomers who realise how much there is to be lost - particularly in a push to have folk music become synonymous with a "World Music" that will not allow our own traditions to be heard on the same stage as all the other rich traditions that have made Australia the cosmopolitan place it has always been ... no matter how the past is selectively remembered by people who want to turn the clock (and calendar) back.

Anyway, I guess "Bush Music" could be seen as the music that consciously avoids commercial trappings, but it is very hard to pin it down.

Of course, lately there has been a great interest in the Bush Dancing side - so much so that there are 20 dancers at least for every musician. This leads to some splits - particularly between those that filch everything out of Irish and Scottish tune books and those that play from collected tunes and therefore have much more European music - the music of the European political /religious /economic refugees of the 19th century who flowed to Australia as they did to USA.

A great amount of this material has been slipped under the carpet after two World Wars and much is only recently being recognised ... or admitted to. This is an area where an interesting Australian blend of disparate sources produce our own distinctive sound.

Regards,

Bob Bolton