The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #145814   Message #3374177
Posted By: GUEST,Warren Fahey
09-Jul-12 - 07:16 PM
Thread Name: enhanced e-books of Australian folk song
Subject: Folklore: enhanced e-books of Australian folk song
Mudcatters - ABC Books and Harper Collins have finally released the 3 volumes of my book - 'Australia: Its Folk Songs & Bush Ballads' as e-books. They are available on iBook and Kindle and sell for around Aust $14.95 each PLUS you can download a free sample of each volume if you want an idea of the presentation. The three books offer 110 Australian songs with music notation, background notes and some great images plus over a dozen videos. Most importantly there are nearly 100 complete songs taken from the National Library Oral History Collection - the original recordings of each song by collectors including John Meredith, Rob Willis, Norm O'Connor and myself. Some songs have multiple collected versions so as to show variants in folksong. This is obviously a wonderful way to hear/learn bush songs and a terrific resource. If you want to sample one of the volumes I would suggest either vol 2 or 3 because there are a lot more field recordings in them. For Ludites .. the print version is still available and can be ordered from booksellers and the ABC site. I point out that this book, and e-book series is the first collection of Australian song for over 25 years and covers convicts, early settlement, gold, pioneering, bushrangers, shearing, driving, bullocks, Australian romance (a bit rough and tumble!), sport, lean and mean times and songs of celebration, pomp and circumstance.