Hi all,

The primary (elementary?) school music classes for most schools in Australia in the 60's, and possibly still now, to some extent, were based around radio programs broadcast by the Aust. Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). I heard only a few years ago that we owe a lot to Chris Kempster for the Oz folk content. (Chris's name comes up regularly here at Mudcat whenever Henry Lawson, our famous, long-dead bush poet is mentioned because Chris edited/compiled a comprehensive collection of his poems and the various tunes that have been put to these poems.)

We did have to sing what we considered to be *the usual* songs e.g. Lil Liza Jane, some Stephen Foster songs, Jump Down Turn Around Pick a Bale of Cotton, etc but we were treated to a selection of very nice Oz folk songs like Reedy River, and also some good old British and Celtic songs. (Funnily enough, thinking back on the songs we sang, and loking at the ones mentioned in this thread, we tended to sing a lot of southern American songs rather than northern. Wonder why!!)

It depended heavily on people like Chris having the passion for the music, and for passing it on to us, and also having access to the national broadcasting organisation. In Oz then there was a tendency to denigrate anything Oz-tralian as being of lesser cultural value, and as a consequence the publishing & media industries tended to focus on content from Britain, America and Europe before anything Oz was given consideration.

We probably took the radio broadcasts of Oz music for granted then, but it was not something which would have happened without a lot of determination and persuasion by people like Chris Kempster.

As for Stephen Foster, I don't think that you can beat songs like Hard Times - they were good tunes and soul stirring words, and that includes Old Black Joe, which is perhaps not considered PC (politically correct) these days.

Helen