The Bushwhackers (band)


Australia's first bush band The Bushwhackers, initially named "The Heathcote Bushwhackers", were arguably the catalyst for Australia's folk revival of the 1950s. They performed from 1952 to 1957, when founder John Meredith disbanded the group and its members dispersed into other activities. Over its relatively brief existence, the group evolved from an initial novelty act to one with a more serious mission of presenting and promoting to Australia its neglected bush song heritage, and laid the foundation for similar groups to follow through the 1960s and to the present. Its members also operated⁠—at least initially⁠—from a Marxist / Australian Communist Party ideology, attempting to embody the struggle of the working class against the ruling classes, although this may have been less than obvious to their audiences under the guise of popular entertainment.

Band formation and source of name

The group was originally formed as "The Heathcote Bushwhackers" in the outer Sydney suburb of Heathcote in 1952 by folklorist John Meredith together with his neighbours Jack Barrie and Brian Loughlin, to perform and popularise "bush music" and later, Australian songs that Meredith had started to collect in the field from traditional performers. In Australia, the term "to bushwhack" most commonly means to make one's way through the scrub or forest by "whacking" a trail where none currently exists; a "bushwhacker" therefore means either such a traveller, or more generally, either a person who lives in such country, that is, off the beaten track, or simply a resident of the countryside in general as opposed to a resident of the city or the suburbs. It seems likely that, at least at first, the group name was intended to be ironic, since Heathcote, although indeed a rural / "bush" area at that time, was basically a retreat for escapees from city life in search of a more rural lifestyle, who were attracted by cheap land for sale there while still with regular rail links to Sydney. Meredith resided in Heathcote from 1952 up to mid 1954, when he returned to the inner Sydney suburbs, taking up lodgings in Lewisham in order to avoid the long train commute from Heathcote to his job in the city, in addition to his burgeoning city-based musical activities.
In its initial lineup, the group's instrumentation was button accordion and tin whistle, "bush bass" or tea chest bass played by Barrie, while Loughlin played the lagerphone, a home-made percussion instrument constructed by loosely nailing bottle tops to a broom handle to make a rattling sound when struck upon the floor, this example being constructed and named by Meredith's brother Claude and copied from something he had seen played by "an old rabbitter". Years later, Meredith gave the following account of their formation:
"Botany Bay" and Click Go the Shears" were in fact learned from the repertoire of the American singer Burl Ives, who had toured Australia earlier that year and had included these and some other Australian songs in his performances, having been supplied with them in advance by the Australian collector Dr. Percy Jones. and Australian Folk Songs Of the new recruits to the band, Chris Kempster was known to him via the Sydney based left-wing organisations the Eureka Youth League and the Unity Singers, of which both were members, while Harry Kay, also from the Eureka Youth League, played excellent harmonica.
They group gave its first public performance at the Rivoli Hall in Hurstville in late 1952, deciding to shorten its name to just "The Bushwhackers" at the same time.

"Reedy River"

In 1953 "Reedy River", an Australian musical written by Dick Diamond featuring bush and Australian folk music, opened first in Melbourne and then as an amateur production at the Sydney New Theatre, and the Bushwhackers were engaged to provide the musical accompaniment for the Sydney version, which saw the addition of one song "Widgegoeera Joe" which Meredith had collected earlier that year from a bush singer named Jack "Hoopiron" Lee. The production also included "Click Go the Shears", which although credited in the Reedy River Song Book to versions collected by Meredith in the field, actually derived mostly from the Burl Ives version that the band had originally learned. Performing as singers in the musical were Chris Kempster and Harry Kay, joined later in the season by Cecil Grivas, Alex Hood and Alan Scott, all of whom subsequently became assimilated into the band. Around this time, the group also supplied the songs and music for several historical radio features written for the Australian Broadcasting Commission by Nancy Keesing.

Subsequent activities

In 1954 the Bushwhackers, along with other folklore enthusiasts, established the Sydney Bush Music Club to encourage members of the Club and the general public to learn about and perform Australian folk and traditional music; an additional reason was to deflect more requests from interested parties to join the band, instead encouraging them to perform at the club and/or form their own groups. The band travelled outside Sydney into rural New South Wales, and Meredith and Scott often used their performances to scout out local bush musicians and singers for field recordings. In 1955 the group played for Dame Mary Gilmore's ninetieth birthday and recorded The Drover's Dream, released as a 78 rpm record on the newly established "Wattle" label, selling thousands of copies, followed by a number of other 78 recordings, as well as two 33 rpm EP releases, Australian Bush Songs and Nine Miles from Gundagai. Other local groups taking inspiration from the Bushwhackers and/or the Bush Music Club around that time, performing similar music, included "The Overlanders", "The Spraggers", "The Rouseabouts", and "The Drovers".
Remembering some of the group's activities some 25 years later, member Alan Scott wrote:
Although happy to commence, and then to continue the existence of the group under the general public perception as popular entertainment, Meredith and the other members were affiliated to the Australian Commununist Party, at that time very much a focal point for idealistic youth, in particular following the end of the second world war, together with its Marxist ideology and various offshoots such as the Eureka Youth League; in this respect, his aims paralleled those of folk-song activists working in America since the 1940s such as the Almanac Singers and The Weavers. As well as representing the struggle of the working class against the capitalist system, Meredith wanted the group to be at the vanguard of a movement to regain a national cultural identity. In his own papers of the time he wrote:
A contemporary account of the band's activities in the respected newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald reads as follows:

Demise of the group

With very little notice to the group members, in 1957 Meredith abruptly decided to disband the group, citing in his personal notes musical and personal differences between the older and younger members of the band: for example Kempster and Hood aspired to harmony singing, occasional solo vocals and more variety in the arrangements, Meredith's conception only involved solo singing in the verses, unison singing in the choruses, plus all the instruments playing all of the time. Various of its members continued to perform in bush bands: Kempster, Hood and Kay initially as "The Three Bushwhackers" and then continuing as "The Rambleers"; Grivas with his brothers Roland and Milton as "The Galahs", already formed post his 1955 departure from the Bushwhackers; while Meredith continued to collect field recordings of Australian traditional and folk music, as well as performing with "The Shearers" and the Bush Music Club's "Concert Party".

Reunions

There were no reunions of the group during Meredith's lifetime; while he remained good friends with Loughlin and the latter's family, and also subsequently occasionally happily performed with Alan Scott, Meredith reportedly never forgave Kempster, Kay and particularly Hood for their attitudes which in his mind precipitated the demise of the Bushwhackers, as well as their later performing careers which included songs learned during their tenure with the Bushwhackers but uncredited as such on later recordings. Nevertheless, the surviving band members - apart from Cec Grivas, who was not in attendance - were present at a celebration of Meredith's life held at Gay Scott's Balmoral property in March 2001, a month after his death, and were persuaded to give a brief impromptu performance. The following year, members of the band played two 50th anniversary reunion concerts at the 2002 Australian National Folk Festival and the National Library in Canberra, plus there was an anniversary performance of Reedy River. Original members Cecil Grivas, Alex Hood, Harry Kay and Chris Kempster all took part, together with Meredith's long time friend and collecting associate Rob Willis who took the musical part of Meredith; Jack Barrie was unable to attend but sent his best wishes, Brian Loughlin having passed away earlier, in 1974. Kempster, Hood and Kay also took part in a Rambleers reunion the same year, along with their later musical associate Barbara Lisyak. Subsequently, Kempster died in January 2004 aged 70, Barrie in August 2015, and Grivas in August 2019 aged 88.

Influence and legacy

Meredith's "Bushwhackers" had a musical influence far greater than their brief, 5-year life span, virtually single-handedly starting the entire Australian "bush music" revival of the 1950s, which still continues today in various forms, as well as starting the wider Australian "folk revival" only a few years following its equivalent in the United States. Meredith's biographer, Keith McKenry, notes that the group
In that mission, the group certainly succeeded, also assisted by the popular success of "Reedy River" which brought its included bush songs to a wide audience as well as introducing the then-novel concept of allowing the accompanying musicians to play their instruments on stage rather than out of sight, a precursor to numerous "folk song" performances that were to follow. Direct successors to the original group, such as "The Rambleers", continued Meredith's vision in both live performances and recorded output.
Writing in 2004, and following the gift of the group's original "lagerphone" to the National Library of Australia after the group's reunion performance at the National Folk Festival in 2002, curator Mark Cranfield wrote:

Unrelated group

An unrelated group with a similar sounding name, "The Bushwackers", initially "The Original Bushwackers and Bullockies Bush Band", formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1971 and continues to the present day.

Discography and filmography

78 and EP releases

"Reedy River" original cast recording: Diaphon presents Selections from "Reedy River". Diaphon DPR-8, 1954. Features Milton Moore, Cecil Grivas and Jack Barrie as soloists, with musical accompaniment by the Bushwhackers band.
Wattle Records "A Series" 78s
"B Series" 7" 33rpm EPs
"The Ballad of 1891" "The Drover's Dream", and "Click Go the Shears" are included on the CD accompanying Keith McKenry's 2014 book "More Than a Life: John Meredith and the Fight for Australian Tradition", CD reference Fanged Wombat Productions FWD 011.

Short films