G'day John,

Great to hear of The Cobbers once again. I liked a lot of what you did and always felt that you walked the line between a "traditional" and a "pop" style with more balance than, say The Bushwackers. I loved the instrumental style – particularly on Bushland Dreaming and thought this effectively extended the range of what a "bush band" should be expected to do.

I helped organise the venue when you used the Glebe Town Hall for a Sydney record launch ... back in the '80s. The Bush Music Club was using the Town Hall for its regular bush dance, up to 1984 ( when we moved to the Glebe High School), so this must have been 1983 or earlier.

Bruce Cawthorne was Sydney based in the '70s and early '80s, but he moved south (relative to Sydney, anyway) down the Illawarra, where he played with The Bulli Bush Band for some time. I haven't seen him for a few years now (I bought an old concertina from him at the Illawarra Folk festival, Jamberoo, some years back).

BTW: I'm not too sure Corryong rates as "the high country" ... down there at Murray River level ... but that's from the viewpoint of working on the Snowy Hydro Scheme ... Corryong was when you got down to the bottom of the real mountains. I have a photograph, tucked away somewhere, of me looking at Jack O'Reilly's grave ... in 1966.

I was interested to hear that the recording was sped up on Bushland Dreaming. I guess that, not knowing just what it had really sounded like, we were not to notice ... but it clearly irked you all these years. I will need to take note for when (if ever) I get around to committing my old vinyl to CD ... Is it consistent throughout the double album – and what percentage does it need to be corrected by? So far, I have been concentrating on getting my unique tape archive material digitised and organised on CDs, while I have lent my good separate turntable to a friend that is concentrating on the vinyl. I figure we can share results and avoid doubling up on effort that way.

I would be interested to see the Cobbers history material you have – and tuck a copy away in the Bush Music Club archives. If you have it on MS Publisher, I have this app and can read it. I will send an e-mail to your address and discuss it.

Regards,

Bob Bolton