G'day,

From the other side of the world, to most of you, I'm always interested in origins. We pallid European types have only staked a claim on this dry continent for a little over two centuries ... and we don't pay enough attention to the original inhabitants or their lore, religion. music and song. Almost everything we sing or play has its roots in the northern hemisphere - as do we - but the popular belief that "it's all Irish!" (or: "it's all English!" ... rarely "~... Scottish - or Welsh ... !") is a narrow and uniformed view of our far more intersting origins.

I always want to know how we got hold of any part of our folklore ... and, increasingly, find European ( lots of ~"Germanic" ... mostly refugees from Bismarck's mob) ... smaller amounts of middle Eastern and, in the north, interplay of Lascar & Malay influences on our music - and even that of the original Australians.

Knowing the background of a piece helps understand its individual character and may save you from just squeezing it into spme other style and thus losing its own charm. That doesn't mean you have to lecture an audience on the origins ... as long as you know that you are being fathful and attentive to the material you are closer to doing it justice.

National ownership isn't too big an issue in Australia (except for the most Xenophobic). We know we borrowed the originals ... and we can be proud of how we have moulded them to suit a very different place and time. Sometimes a bit of knowledge can break down silly prejudices!

When I started to take an interest in our folklore about (.. cough, cough ...) years ago many people argued they were searching back for older music and song that wasn't "commercial, American junk" (read: "Good English stuff") - well, a lot of those people might be chastened to realise just how much of our influences came from Americans ... often directly, not via the printed book but through a lot of cross-movement ... Aussies to the California gold rush ... Yanks to the Australian gold rushes of a few years after ... American performers and minstrel troupes.

A fine single example would be the Aussie shearing song Click Go the Shears. It's directly based on the American song Ring The Bell Watchman, written by Henry Clay Work to celebrate the end of the American Civil War, which - unlike his Marching Through Georgia was largely forgotten as it ceased to be topical. However, it was heard in Australia at he time ... and refashioned to a completely different use by some anonymous mob of shearer's. (Interestingly, a similar reshaping also occurred about the same time among British sailors, who recycled the same song as Ring The Bell Second Mate). Knowing its American origins doesn't stop me singing it (although vast overuse will keep me from doing it often!), rather it helps me to see our background as something that is wide and inclusive ... not the exclusive practice of one single source country.

OK ... ramble over!

Regards,

Bob