Bush band
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A bush band is a group of musicians that play traditional Australian folk music or contemporary folk music played in a traditional style. Instruments featured in bush bands may include fiddle, concertina, accordion, banjo, guitar, mandolin, piano, tin whistle, bones, spoons, musical saw, harmonica, the barcoo dog (a sheep herding tool used as a sistrum), lagerphone, and bush bass (tea chest bass).
Bush bands play music for bush dance, in which the dance program is usually based on dances known to have been danced in Australia from colonial times to the folk revival in the 1950s. Contemporary dances, composed in the traditional style, are also featured at bush dances.
Some popular traditional bush dances are Stockyards, Haymaker's Jig, Galopede, Brown Jug Polka, Virginia Reel and Barn Dance. Popular contemporary bush dances include Blackwattle Reel, Jubilee Jig, CHOGM Pentrille, Knocking Down His Cheque and Midnight Schottische.
Bush bands also play "bush ballads," many of which date to the 19th century. Among the most notable bush lyricists was the poet Banjo Paterson.
The Bush Music Club, based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, hold regular bush dances and Colonial Balls where bush bands perform.
Bush bands, as currently formulated, experienced a revival in the 1953 with the musical play Reedy River, which was first produced by the New Theatre in the Sydney suburb of Newtown. Written by Dick Diamond, the musical featured twelve or so Australian songs, which included Doreen Jacobs' setting of Helen Palmer's "Ballad of 1891," as well as the title song, Chris Kempster's setting of Lawson's "Reedy River." The backing band for this popular stage production was "The Bushwhackers." As the musical was performed in Brisbane and other Australian cities, local "bush bands" modeled on the Sydney group, such as Brisbane's "The Moreton Bay Bushwhackers" sprang up in each place; many of these remained together following the closing of the musical, and spawned other, similar groups.
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[edit] List of bush bands
[edit] In Australia
- Ants Bush Band (Victoria)
- Aussie Mossie Bush Band (Ivanhoe, Victoria [9 km NE of Melbourne])
- Beat Around the Bush Band (Melbourne, Victoria)
- Bell Bird Bush Band (Sydney, New South Wales)
- Billabong Band (Melbourne, Victoria)
- Blackberry Jam Bush Band (Upwey, Victoria [34 km east-southeast of Melbourne and 2 km west of Belgrave])
- Blackboy Jam Bush Band (Sorrento [Perth], Western Australia)
- Bloodwood (Alice Springs, Northern Territory)
- Blue Gum (Kensington [Sydney], New South Wales)
- Bluey Humpers Bush Band (Melbourne, Victoria)
- Briagolong Bush Band (Victoria)
- Bullamakanka (Burleigh Heads, Queensland)
- Bullamakanka (another site)
- Bunyip Bush Band, The (Sydney area, New South Wales)
- Bushland Boogie (Eurobodalla, New South Wales)
- Bushrangers Bush Band (Sydney's western suburbs)
- Bush Remnants, The (Melbourne, Victoria)
- Bush Remnants, The (another site)
- Bush Remnants, The (yet another site)
- Bushwackers (Melbourne, Victoria)
- Bushwahzee (Mitcham [Melbourne], Victoria)
- Bushwahzee (another site)
- Caddam Wood Bush Band (Bunbury, Western Australia)
- Celtic Fire (Sydney, New South Wales)
- Dave Clark (Adelaide Hills, South Australia)
- Coachwood Bush Band (Razorback, New South Wales)
- Crossfire Bush Band (Narangba, Queensland [30 km north of Brisbane])
- Currawong Bush Band (Sydney area, New South Wales)
- Currency Lads (Earlwood [Sydney], New South Wales)
- Dave's Bush Music Show (David Isom)
- Emu Creek Bush Band (based in the Greater Bendigo district of Central Victoria, c. 150 km northwest of Melbourne, Victoria)
- Emu Creek Bush Band (another site)
- Ewecalyptus Bush Band (Happy Valley, South Australia)
- Warren Fahey (solo artist) (Potts Point, New South Wales)
- Fair Dinkum Bush Band, The (Sydney, New South Wales)
- Flying Wombat Band (Coburg, Victoria [8 km north of Melbourne])
- Flying Wombat Bush Band, The (Brisbane, Queensland)
- Franklyn B Paverty (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory)
- Free Selectors (Melbourne, Victoria)
- Haslam's Creek Bush Band (Sydney, New South Wales)
- Headland (Coffs Harbour, New South Wales)
- Inland Navigators, The (Sydney, New South Wales)
- Lazy Harry (solo artist) (Beechworth, Victoria)
- Mad Hatters Bush Band, The (Turramurra [Sydney], New South Wales)
- Mangrove Jack (Edmonton [just south of Cairns], Queensland)
- Mucky Duck Bush Band (Perth, Western Australia)
- Murrumbidgee Rattlers (Sydney, New South Wales)
- Nodding Thistles (Bathurst, New South Wales)
- Outback (Newcastle, New South Wales [2 hours' drive north of Sydney])
- Outback (another site)
- Paddys River Band (Penrose, New South Wales)
- Paddy's Wombat (Melbourne, Victoria)
- Playing Possum (Murwillumbah, New South Wales)
- Rambling Bilbies, The (Western Australia)
- Rantan Bush Band (Mount Gravatt [Brisbane], Queensland)
- Rantan Bush Band (another site)
- Reel Matilda, The (Sydney, New South Wales)
- Reel Matilda, The (another site)
- Rocky River Bush Band (based in Onkaparinga, 30-40 minutes south of Adelaide, South Australia)
- Royal Bounty Bush Band (Brisbane area, Queensland)
- Rum & Raspberry (Dave Clark and Kathy Townsend) (South Australia)
- Ryebuck Bush Band (Sydney, New South Wales)
- Scrub Turkey (Sunshine Coast [just north of Brisbane], Queensland)
- Shenanigans (Melbourne, Victoria)
- Shenanigans (another site)
- Simply Bushed (Sydney, New South Wales)
- Slapdash (Tasmania)
- Snake Gully (Cairns)
- Snake Gully Bush Band (Sydney area, New South Wales)
- Southern Cross Bush Band (Quakers Hill [Sydney], New South Wales)
- Southern Cross Bush Band (another site)
- Southern Cross Bush Band (Perth City, Western Australia)
- Southern Cross Bush Band (another site)
- Stone the Crows Bushband (Capalaba, Queensland)
- Sunup (Sydney, New South Wales)
- Sydney Coves, The (Chatswood [just north of Sydney], New South Wales)
- Tallowood Band (Coffs Harbour [on the mid-North Coast of New South Wales])
- Terra Australis (New South Wales)
- Tuckitinya Australia (Sydney, New South Wales)
- Tuckitinya Australia (another site)
- Tuckitinya Australia (yet another site)
- Vinegar Hill Bush Band (Carlingford, New South Wales [22 km NW of Sydney])
- Wedderburn Old-Timers (214 km northwest of Melbourne, Victoria)
- Windjammers, The (Western Australia)
- Wongawilli Band (based in the Illawarra region, 130 km south of Sydney, New South Wales)
- Woolies Home Band (dance band in Canberra area)
- Jeanette Wormald Bush Band (from the Northern Mallee region of South Australia, 220 km north east of Adelaide)
- Jeanette Wormald Bush Band (another site)
[edit] In Europe
- Buckley's Chance (London, England, United Kingdom)
- Buckley's Chance (another site)
- Rolf Harris (Thameside, England, United Kingdom)
[edit] In the United States
- River Bottom Bushwhackers (Kent, Ohio)
- Seona McDowell (solo artist) (Cleveland Heights, Ohio)
- Silver Bush Band, The (Santa Rosa [north of San Francisco], California)
- Dave Winstone Aussie Bush Band (Santa Barbara, California)
