From the Album:
Athol McCoy - Your Tassie Mate - The Complete Masters
Track 10
1925 -- Born August 16, Sheffield Tasmania.
1930s - Athol achieved the international record for a bargain priced guitar for 5 shillings. Other artists paid 2 pounds 30 shillings. Then again it was not a spruced-backed, maple-necked piece of craftsmanship -- it was a beat up old box!
1935 -- Age 10, Athol was playing piano at local dances. When he left school he worked on his father's farm and then as a farmhand on neighbouring properties. It was the guitar, the Tex Morton and Wilf Carter music that claimed his attention.
1947 -- Age 22, his first break came when he was asked to sing on a radio program on 7AD Devonport. The program was on Tuesday nights and ran for three and a quarter years.
1950 -- Moved to Melbourne to expand his range of opportunities. Won his heat of Australia's Amateur Hour in 1950 and recorded for EMI.
1951 -- Won the novelty section on the 'prestigious' radio show P & A Parade.
This win brought him fairly constant work in radio and live performances but not a great deal of progress.
1951-1958 -- He worked as a barman in Connell's Railway Hotel.
1956 -- He topped the poll on Terry Dear's Australia's Amateur Hour with over 10,000 votes.
On the strength of that success, he went to Sydney for an audition with Regal Zonophone and was accepted. The first track he recorded Wilf Carter's 'Swiss Moonlight Lullaby' and his own composition 'Tassie Tears'. The recordings made him the first Tasmanian to sing from the magic grooves! Sales warranted more records.
1956 & 1958 -- Puts down 4 additional tracks each year.
An outcome of the recording contract was an offer of a promotional tour of eastern states on Noel George's 'Australian Wild West Show'. The show also featured American Indian Wrestler Big Chief Little Wolf. Other tours for Athol at this time were also with the 'Reg Lindsay Show, Chad Morgan and Rick and Thel Shows'.
1961 -- By the time he organised his own travelling show the best days for this type of entertainment had passed on the mainland. They were hard times for travelling shows. Nearly all the shows went bust. Athol headed back to Tasmania.
1966 -- Athol toured full time again. He teamed up with his boyhood idol 'Tex Morton' with a show called The Morton's and McCoy's
The tour started in Morven QLD, through to the Isa, across to Alice Springs, back through the settlements to Darwin where they did a three-week season showing nightly, across the Kimberley's down to Western Australia and across the Nullarbor.
After the Tex shows ended, he toured with Terry Gordon, Ray Haselar Lindsay Butler and others.
Back in Sydney he recorded for RCA with Eileen Wood on fiddle who also toured with him and then became Mrs Ath
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCvx1ssdBos
Songs in Part 4:
13 The Old Dungarvan Oak
14 My Shoes Keep Walking Back To You
15 Medals For Mothers
16 Memory Number One
17 Home Sweet Home
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tUku5X0LS0
Complete CD:
1. The Golden Kangaroo - John Williamson (Vocal Version)
2. The Golden Kangaroo - Garry Steel (Singalong Version)
3. The Golden Kangaroo - Garry Steel On Piano Accordion (Instrumental)
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK--F89hBME
Songs Of a Sunburnt Country
This was the fifth of Lionel Long's albums and it is a mix of Australian country and folk; the latter including a strong component of Australian traditional folk songs which most visitors will immediately recognise.
"The Note on the Woolshed Wall" was penned by Lionel Long about when he was a roustabout at "Tarewinnabar" station in about the late '50s. He did write a composition onto the wall of his room in the station's shearer's quarters but I cannot remember if it was this song but I do recall the phrase about "wild horses". (Certainly, this song was in play long before this LP was released but I cannot find any details of its initial release.) Back then, the station was owned by Sir William Gunn of The Wool Board fame. "Tarewinnabar" is about 40 miles north-west of Goondiwindi and just on the Queensland side of the QLD/NSW border but the album blurb infers Lionel was in North Queensland.
The LP has obviously suffered some wear but has generally cleaned to an acceptable level. The major exception is the recitation of the "Banjo" Paterson poem "The Man from Snowy River" which is highly sibilant. Fortunately, it is not that great a performance (IMO).
Track List:
1 The Shearer's Dream
2 Oh, The Springtime It Brings The Shearing
3 The Dying Stockman
4 The Lime Juice Tub
5 Anzac Cove
6 My Country
7 The Note On The Woolshed Wall
8 Van Diemen's Land
9 Out West
10 Bold Jack Donahue
11 The Man From Snowy River
12 Waltzing Matilda (Queensland Version)
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKaUjhqFkyI