Australia: Our Land Our Music
1982 - EMI 2LP
1996 - EMI 814673 CD

Track List:

Botany Bay - Alex Hood

Ballad of Cobb & Co. - Lionel Long

Bold Jack Donohue - Danny Spooner

South Australia - Bushwackers

Moreton Bay - Marion Henderson

Nine Miles From Gundagai - Wild Colonial Boys

Wild Colonial Boy - Smoky Dawson

And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda - Eric Bogle

We'll All Die Game - Johnny Ashcroft

Waltzing Matilda - Adelaide Singers South Australian

Call of the Kookaburra

Kookaburra Laughs - John Ashe

Click Go the Shears

Man From Snowy River - Slim Dusty

Clancy of the Over Flow - Peter Dawson

Flash Jack From Gundagai - Alex Hood

Carra, Carra Wirra Canna - Rolf Harris

Flying Doctor - Buddy Williams

Ballad of Henry Lawson - Slim Dusty

Waltzing Matilda - The Seekers

Didjeridu Solo - Wandjuk Marika

Didjeridu - Rolf Harris

Crow Flying Backwards - Chad Morgan

Pub With No Beer - Slim Dusty

Aussie BBQ - Eric Bogle

Aussie Medley - The Bullant Band

Bobba Wobba Wedding - Chad Moran

Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport - Rolf Harris

Good Australian Beer - Singing Kettles

National Adjective - John Clements

Waltzing Matilda - Peter Clarke-Russell

Swagman's Promenade - Soth Australian Symphony

My Country

Australian Bush Songs - Peter Dawson

Namatjira - Slim Dusty

Along the Road to Gundagai - Jim Davidson Dandies

Australia (So Wide, So Grand) - Tex Morton

Song of Australia - Royal Australian Navy Band

Advance Australia Fair - Sydney Singers

Waltzing Matilda

Balladeers Notes

Warren Fahey: Liner Notes

All Music Guide
This two-hour double CD (originally a triple LP), subtitled "Australiana Collection," isn't limited to folk material, although that makes up the bulk of it. Most dates from the late 1950's on up, and is in stereo, although there are a handful of songs ("Moreton Bay" by Marion Henderson etc.) that are transferred from 78 r.p.m. sources. Lionel Long ("The Ballad of Cobb and Co.), who could be Australia's Marty Robbins, Slim Dusty ("The Man From Snowy River," "The Pub With No Beer," "The Ballad of Henry Lawson"), who could be her Johnny Cash, and Eric Bogle ("And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda," "Aussie Bar-B-Q"), are the most interesting performers, with the best songs and the best musicianship as well as the most expressive voices, but there's a lot to offer throughout. One learns that "We'll All Die Game" was a fatalistic phrase attributed to the Ned Kelly gang in their final shootout, but later adopted by Australian soldiers during WWI and WWII. There are at least six "Waltzing Matilda's" here, no two alike in any way, including one by the Weavers and one played in bluegrass fashion (by Chris Duffy's Bullant Band). Australian country music is represented by Slim Dusty and Buddy Williams, and the ubiquitous Rolf Harris is also present on two songs, along with down-under singing star Peter Dawson, who has an old-style, dramatic approach to folk music — the particular quirks of Australia's populace ("The Bobba Wodda Wedding," "Aussie Bar-B-Q") are celebrated, and, for a tiny bit of balance, there's also a fragment of Aboriginal music, courtesy of Wandjuk Marika ("Didjeridu Solo"), but mostly this is more a major label retrospective than a Folkways-style field recording. There's also a swing-style rendition of "Along the Road to Gundagai" by Jim Davidson's Dandies, and there's some very knowing humor here, as well — Peter Russell-Clarke's explanation-filled rendition of "Waltzing Matilda" and John Clements' "The National Adjective," in which he explains the many down-under permutations of the word "bastard."

Bruce Eder