Tex Morton

Subject: Tex Morton
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 05:58 AM

G'day,

Just heard Tex on the wireless, our best NZ "Hillbilly" from the 1930/69s. There's a few mentions of him here on Mudcat (click here to search). You'll find more about his singing, hypnotysm and wall-of-death motorbike riding here. Here's another link... Awww... shucks... I saw, and heard Tex 50 years back. Can anyone add?

Mumble - San

Subject: RE: Tex Morton
From: GUEST,anonanonanon
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 09:00 AM

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be....

Subject: RE: Tex Morton
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 09:33 AM

Sam, I hadn't realised he was a kiwi. ps. the Mudcat clicky only leads to the Supersearch box, not the results, so I'll have a look asap.

sandra

pps. Phil Garland was at the Dog last month & Bob Bolton wrote the review, if you want it I can pm it)

Subject: RE: Tex Morton
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 10:57 PM

Hey Sandra, I'd love to se what Bob said about Phil... and, yup, Tex was a Kiwi... we've been responsible for a few cray things... ')

What a guy - even apart from his singing, eh?

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: Tex Morton
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 11:04 PM

Holy cow, Sam, THANKS, for posting info on this guy. He was really something, wasn't he?!

luvyakat

Subject: RE: Tex Morton
From: Little Robyn
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 12:14 AM

Hey Sandra post it here please. I'd like to see it too.
Phil should be at the Wellington Folk Festival in a few weeks.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Tex Morton
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 01:47 AM

Kat ---- We're not just pretty faces down under...

Robyn --- give my love to all at the WFF 40th --- methinks my bout of abject ioverty has become terminal, so not a snowball's show in Hell of getting north...

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: Tex Morton
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 08:32 AM

published in the October issue of "Cornstalk" - magazine of the Folk Federation of NSW
............................
Phil Garland - at the Loaded Dog, Saturday 28 August

Phil has been a strong voice for New Zealand's folk heritage around the antipodean folk scene for some decades now. Coming from the rock end of the spectrum he was first charmed by the honesty and relevance of folk music and then took up the task of finding both the old traditions and the continuing tradition of his homeland. His researches have ranged from the dry confines of libraries and archives … to sussing out the 'characters' in little country pubs

I was glad to hear he was coming to perform at the Loaded Dog as I have always seen New Zealand's folk song as the first cousin of our own traditions … frequently sharing people, stories and tunes (and, often enough, appropriating "each other's songs"). I wasn't disappointed.

An earnest ambassador for the songs of New Zealand, Phil always had a story, some background - something to give the song's due 'sense of place' … but this was always brief and tantalising and led straight in to his next song. Like Australia, New Zealand's songs are there to tell you something and Phil always delivered the story the song had to tell, in his warm, friendly voice, nicely supported by his 12-string guitar.

Checking through the songs, poems and yarns Phil presented in his two brackets at the Loaded Dog, I was surprised to realise that the greater proportion of them were "modern". These were mostly by New Zealanders (Phil included) that draw on traditional styles (and, sometimes, tunes) but come across as the honest voice of New Zealand. Phil has done important collecting around New Zealand, especially the South Island, but clearly sees the folklore as firmly engaged with a continuing tradition.

A personal favourite was Phil's setting of Peter Cape's poem The Stable Lad - a tale of young love thwarted by the death of the girl. I knew this song long ago … and town references in the verses have stuck at the back of my mind for decades. They resurfaced when I heard that Stephanie Pride (daughter on my long-time friends Rose & Ralph Pride) was off to Greymouth, on the west coast of NZ's South Island to study jade-carving. The last line (2nd verse): "As Cobb & Co go rolling from Buller to the Grey" rattled around my head for some time before the rest of the song broke cover!

I can recommend Phil Garland to anyone interested in Australian folklore, let alone that of New Zealand. There is so much familiar - yet always the sudden detail that tells us Kiwiland is not quite the same. Phil's presentation is quite like that … friendly, pleasant and informative - but often reminding us that a few of the songs, poems and characters we happily call "Australian" turn out to come from somewhere a bit east of our shores!

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Tex Morton
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 08:50 AM

I forgot to add that Phil almost had a disasterous tour - I had a magnificant case of laryangitis when I met him at the airport. I could barely squeak & naturally the more I tried the worse I sounded. I lived on Fisherman's Friends for the next few days.

We spend the afternoon playing local CDs until I could hand him over to his hosts. Strangely enough at work the next day my colleagues thought I sounded bad, but I was heaps better & even joined in the choruses at the session that night, and the next night at the Dog. Yah to Fisherman's Friends.

sandra

Subject: RE: Tex Morton
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 09:54 PM

Thanks Sandra - cheers Sam