G'day Foolestoupe/Robin,

There was a recording of the female perspective If I Were a Blackbird on the small Sydney Folk label Wattle Recordings around 1957. I think the singer was Barbara Lysiak (although it could have been Beth Schurmann ... ) and the song was as collected from Sally Sloane of Teralba and Lithgow (various periods) ... a great source of both Australian and British Isles songs and tunes.

I can't imagine that Wattle recording getting high in the pop charts ... although their Alan Scott/Bushwhackers Band recording of The Drover's Dream apparently charted well in country towns in the late '50s ... and even penetrated the city charts. It may be that some singer of the early "Folk Revival" picked up Sally's song and made a more commercial recording - or, perhaps, the Wattle 78rpm disc was popular enough in country areas to register on the local charts.

Where would your mother have heard the song played on radio?

(I have a copy of the original Wattle &8 ... but it is currently with a friend who is doing a meticulous job of capturing the best possible copy onto CD format ... I might get all that back when we meet at the Lithgow Concertina Gathering ... mid-December!

Regards,

Bob Bolton