Australian singer Duke Tritton. Songs - Any CDs?

Subject: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Any CDs?
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 06 Nov 13 - 10:36 AM

I've heard a lot about Australian traditional singer Duke Tritton but never heard him sing. Are there any recordings extant?

Subject: RE: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Any CDs?
From: GUEST,bigJ
Date: 06 Nov 13 - 04:14 PM

Roy,
There are just two tracks by him on a double CD that came out in 2004 from the National Museum of Australia. It was called "Sharing the Harvest" and was a compendium of Australian traditional singers recorded by John Meredith.
On CD2 Duke sings "Goorianawa" and "The Great Northern Line" alias (Cruise of the Bigler/ Dogger Bank/ Knickerbocker Line).
I know when I bought my copy I was surprised at how cheaply the Museum was selling them.
Trust you are in good form.
Regards,
John

Subject: RE: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Any CDs?
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Nov 13 - 04:25 PM

Or try the National Library of Australia, I think that they have some of John Meredith's recordings.

Subject: RE: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Any CDs?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 06 Nov 13 - 05:29 PM

KG'day RoyH,

Your best starting point might be:

Rob Willis
National Library of Australia
Oral History and Folklore Collections
http://www.nla.gov.au/what-we-collect/oral-history-and-folklore
0268512687 0427911962

Try the web address to review what the NLA / OH$FC have up front ... and you might then contact Rob ... who worked with John Meredith in his later collecting periods ... post 'Duke' Tritton ... but Rob is a major player in getting out imprtant songs and music to the wider 'folk' world!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Any CDs?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Nov 13 - 05:37 PM

Roy - Sharing the Harvest was released by the National Library & is available from Trad & Now's on-line shop for $AUD20 + postage

Trad&Now is the on-line source for OZ folk music.

sandra

Subject: RE: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Any CDs?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Nov 13 - 05:43 PM

forgot to add, I have albums of Duke & other early members here on the Bush Music Club's photowebsite & articles here on BMC's blog

enjoy!

sandra

Subject: RE: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Any CDs?
From: The Doctor
Date: 07 Nov 13 - 03:59 AM

There is one track, My Shearing Days are Over, written and sung by Duke on the LP Australian Folk Festival. If you like to PM me an email address I'll send you an mp3 copy.

Subject: RE: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Any CDs?
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 07 Nov 13 - 07:56 AM

Many thanks OzCat pals. A lovely set of answers, really useful. I look forward to hearing Duke quite soon. By the way his book 'Time means Tucker' is a terrific read, also 'Duke of the Outback' by John Meredith.

Subject: RE: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Any CDs?
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 07 Nov 13 - 03:22 PM

I can really recommend the double CD set "Sharing the Harvest". In fact, there are three tracks by "Duke" Tritton (although "The Great Northern Line" is only a fragment). There are some wonderful singers on this set, some well-known, others less so. Perhaps the highlight, for me at any rate, are the thirteen tracks from Sally Sloane, a really splendid performer. One pity, though, there are no songs from Simon McDonald, who was another great Australian singer.

Subject: RE: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Any CDs?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jun 20 - 02:36 AM

Also see Shores of Botany Bay, for which Duke Tritton wrote one verse.

Subject: ADD: The Irishman's Song (Duke Tritton)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jun 20 - 02:39 AM

Thread #48568   Message #731842
Posted By: Bob Bolton
17-Jun-02 - 08:56 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE IRISHMAN'S SONG (from HPC Tritton)

G'day again,

Crazy Eddie: That's 'Duke' Tritton's version of Shores of Botany Bay. He wrote the final verse, to stretch out a good, but short, song that he busked with, around Sydney's streets in the late 1890s, when he was 13 or 14. He learned the song from a mate, who busked along with him, Danny Clements. I posted the words and MIDI back in 1999 (as mentioned, way above) but it is not yet in the DT.

Here's another of his songs that is more directly about success in the new country ... and I have given the story of this one in Duke's own words:

THE IRISHMAN'S SONG

Source: H. P. C. 'Duke' Tritton

Sure it's just about ten years ago, as near as I can tell,
Since I packed up my traps and bade my friends farewell;
For I'm off to Australia to see my brother Jack,
And if there's anything out there, then I'll not be coming back.

All I possessed was ninepence and a dirty one pound note,
When I paid my fare and wrote to Jack to meet me at the boat;
And when I got there my brother Jack and half a dozen more
Were waving hats and handkerchieves before I got on shore.

Sure I got a hearty welcome from the moment I did land,
Saying 'God bless you Barney', with *outstretched hand,
And then to make me welcome, for the remainder of the day,
We sampled Irish whisky in a pub across the way.

We soon knocked all the stuffing out of my dirty one pound note,
And Sullivan, to keep it up, went out and pawned his coat.
We swallowed that and other things till ten o'clock that night,
And every mother's son of us got roaring blessed tight.

Next day I put the plug in, I went a job to seek,
I got work at the gasworks at thirty bob a week;
In a month they made me ganger, but now I'm overseer,
And I think I'll own the gasworks in about another year.

Now Jack and all the other boys are working under me,
So now it doesn't become me to go with them and spree;
So I go to private bars where I can quench my thirst,
But I'll never forget the fun we had, the day I landed first.

And now I've settled down, and taken myself a wife,
I have a little family, so I'll be here for life;
But when I think of that meeting, with pleasure I recall,
That Irish boys throughout the world, are brothers after all.


* I insert "... many an ..." to make the line scan better (for me).
Duke Tritton wrote (c. 1955?): 'I was droving sheep about 1910. There were five in the party, Billy McBeth, the Boss drover; Jim and Tiger Schurr; Joe Goodman and myself. All five were good mates and all could sing a fair song. Billy McBeth, who would be well into his sixties, used to sing the above song; said he learned it from his father, so it would seem to be fairly ancient. We all would beef it out round the campfire, but over the course of the years it had gone clean out of my mind. Then three years ago I met Joe Goodman again; he had not forgotten, and in memory of our three mates, who have all gone on, we bellowed it out again.'

'Duke' sang this song to much the same tune he used for a couple of others, including Shearing at Castlereagh and his version of Henry Lawson's The Lights of Cobb and Co ... a different setting of which I posted a week or two back in Alison's "Songs about Cobb and Co" thread.

I have the tune (more or less) in my music program at home. I will nudge it into the correct form for this song and post it from home ... when I get a chance.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Any CDs?
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 30 Jun 20 - 06:58 PM

Just ordered a copy on eBay (from Oz, of course!) Warren Fahey's on-line collection may contain further examples? I believe he recorded Duke Tritton.

http://www.warrenfahey.com.au/index.php?s=duke+tritton

Ross

Subject: RE: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Songs - Any CDs?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Jul 20 - 05:38 AM

I recently found 2 handwritten songs by Duke in BMC archives & co-incidentally yesterday I was listening to Sharing the Harvest & today to a CD made from a LP of the Australian Folk Festival Brisbane 1964 where Duke sung Shearing in a Bar, with a preamble. My copy comes from a remastered cassette.

From the Archives - 2 handwritten songs by Duke Tritton - The Fossickers Return & The Irishman's Song.

I'm not aware that Warren collected Duke, Duke died in 1965 & as far as I know Warren started collecting in the 70s. All the interviews in the Warren Fahey Collection, National Library of Australia are from the 70s.

Warren recorded John Dengate singing one of Duke's songs (Wikipedia on Duke)

sandra

Subject: RE: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Songs - Any CDs?
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 01 Jul 20 - 08:54 AM

Hi, Sandra
Hope all is well with you.
I can't remember where I found (or mistook!) the Warren Fahey/Duke Tritton connection.
I do remember you found me some articles about Duke Tritton in your archives - one about an encounter with Pete Seeger.

Ross

Subject: RE: Australian singer Duke Tritton. Songs - Any CDs?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Jul 20 - 10:11 AM

must have been this quote - Warren recorded John Dengate singing one of Duke's songs

updates here Pete Seeger and The Bush Music Club, 1963 (extracts from Newsletters, 1963 poster, & letter to Janet Wakefield.)

best way to search BMC blog is via the normal google page. The google search on the blog is only useful for very specific words, popular topics like Duke (subject of 13 blogs, & referred to in a zillion articles) are easier to scroll thru on a google page.

sandra