More than a life : John Meredith and the fight for Australian tradition / Keith McKenry
- Bib ID:
- 6446358
- Format:
- Book
- Author:
- McKenry, Keith, 1948-, author
- Description:
-
- Dural Delivery Centre NSW : Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd, 2014
- ©2014
- 488 pages : illustrations, portraits (some colour) ; 24 cm + 1 audio disc (approximately 1 hr. and 30 min.) ; 12 cm
- ISBN:
- 9781925078145 (hardback)
- Technical Details:
- System requirements: Computer with CD-ROM drive using media player or CD player.
- Summary:
-
More than a life: John Meredith and the Fight for Australian Tradition Keith McKenry. John Meredith (1920-2001) was for decades the leading warrior in the fight to preserve and celebrate Australia's unique folk heritage. Between 1953 and 1994 he recorded from ordinary Australians thousands of songs, tunes, recitations, folk medicines, superstitions, sayings and yarns, documenting a rich canon of traditional lore which at the time few believed-and many denied-existed. He was also a key pioneer in folk song performance, establishing in 1952 the original Bushwhackers Band and performing in the landmark Australian musical Reedy River. A political radical throughout the Cold War years, he fought all his life against poverty, cultural toadyism and official indifference. Writing or co-authoring many books on Australian tradition and history including the classic Folk Songs of Australia and the Men and Women Who Sang Them, still easily the most important single volume in the field, he achieved official recognition late in life, his original field recordings becoming an acknowledged national treasure. Unlike however the great song collectors in other English-speaking countries he did not have the benefit of a good education let alone formal musical training for he was forced by poverty to leave school at age fourteen at the height of the Great Depression. In 1944, having neither qualifications nor prospects, he mounted his pushbike and left the New South Wales township of Holbrook where he was born and rode into the sunrise, determined to make his fortune.
- Notes:
-
- "This biography includes a CD containing the cream of Meredith's field recordings together with classic performances by leading Australian and international folk artists"--Dust cover.
- Library's N copy signed by the author.
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 442-481) and index.
- Digital content preserved
- Subject:
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
You may copy under some circumstances, for example you may copy a portion for research or study. Order a copy through Copies Direct to the extent allowed under fair dealing. Contact us for further information about copying.
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 2014
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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