The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #98199 Message #1942111
Posted By: Bob Bolton
19-Jan-07 - 08:46 PM
Thread Name: Who invented Folk Clubs?
Subject: RE: Who invented Folk Clubs?
G'day again,
Errrr... I should, of course, have said: "the first Australian band to consciously think of themselves as a "Folk Band" - The Bushwhackers Band ... ".
This band had its origins back in 1952, when John Meredith (later the pioneer folk music collector using tape recorder, in the Australian context) plus a few friends, put together a small group to sing the few Australian folk songs they remembered from their 'Bush' (country area) upbringing ... and they called it The Heathcote Bushwhackers after the outer Sydney suburb (then!) where they practised.
Their involvement with a reasonably popular ... and enduring ... Musical play called Reedy River brought them ... and Australian folk song ... to the notice of a wider public - and fuelled a local "folk song revival" somewhat earlier than the (largely American-driven) commercial "Folk Boom" of the late '50s / early '60s.