John Meredith (folklorist)

John Stanley Raymond Meredith (17 January 1920 – 18 February 2006) was an Australian pioneer folklorist from Holbrook, New South Wales whose work influenced the Australian folk music revival of the 1950s.

Career

The Bushwhackers and Reedy River

In 1952, John Meredith formed the first Australian bush band with Jack Barrie and Brian Loughlan. Originally known as The Heathcote Bushwhackers, they were later simply known as the Bushwhackers. In December 1953 the band performed in the Sydney New Theatre amateur production of Reedy River, an Australian musical play featuring bush and Australian folk music. The success of Reedy River primarily inspired the Australian folk music revival of the 1950s. In 1954 Meredith was one of the founding members of the first club set up to cater to this interest, the Bush Music Club of Sydney.

Original works

Meredith also wrote unpublished ballad opera and rock opera. He wrote several plays, including The Wild Colonial Boy with Joan Clarke, first produced by Brisbane New Theatre in 1955, and How Many Miles from Gundagai performed by the Bushwhackers.

Song collecting

Some of the songs and music featured in the production of Reedy River had been collected by Meredith himself. He collected a wide variety of folk music, including Sally Sloane, a traditional singer with a large repertoire of songs many of which had not been collected previously. Meredith also collected songs by Duke Tritton, a poet and songwriter whose work reflected his experiences as a shearer and as an unemployed itinerant worker during the Great Depression. Both song books and non-fiction works on the folklore of Australia were published by Meredith over the course of his career.

Meredith continued to collect field recordings of traditional songs and music throughout his life. His recordings are housed in the Meredith Collection at the National Library of Australia.^[1]

Publications

• Bushwhacker Songs: Old and New Sydney: John Meredith, ca.1955
• Songs From Lawson By Henry Lawson, edited by John Meredith. Woollomooloo, N.S.W.: Bush Music Club, 1956, 1957
• Reedy River: The Songs from the Australian Musical Drama By Dick Diamond. Sydney: New Theatre, 1960
• The Wild Colonial Boy: The Life and Times of Jack Donahoe 1808(?)-1830 Sydney, N.S.W.: Wentworth Press, 1960
• Folk Songs of Australia and the Men and Women Who Sang Them By John Meredith and Hugh Anderson. Sydney: Ure Smith, ca.1967, 1968, 1973
• Folk Songs of Australia and the Men and Women Who Sang Them By John Meredith and Hugh Anderson. Dee Why West, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, 1979
• Frank, The Poet: The Life and Works of Francis MacNamara By John Meredith and Rex Whalan. Melbourne: Red Rooster, 1979
• Ned Kelly After A Century of Acrimony By John Meredith and Bill Scott. Sydney: Lansdowne Press, 1980
• The Coo-ee March: Gilgandra-Sydney 1915 Dubbo, N.S.W.: Macquarie Publications, 1981
• The Donahoe Ballads Ascot Vale, Vic.: Red Rooster Press, ca.1982
• The Wild Colonial Boy: Bushranger Jack Donahoe, 1806-1830 Ascot Vale, Vic.: Red Rooster Press, 1982
• Duke of the Outback: The Adventures of "A Shearer Named Tritton" Vale, Vic.: Red Rooster Press, 1983
• Learn To Talk Old Jack Lang: A Handbook of Australian Rhyming Slang By John Meredith, drawings by George Sprod. Kenthurst, N.S.W.: Kangaroo Press, 1984
• Folk Songs of Australia and the Men and Women Who Sang Them By John Meredith and Hugh Anderson. Kensington, N.S.W: New South Wales University Press, 1985-1987
• The Householders' Compendium Shepparton, Vic.: Night Owl, 1986
• The Coo-ee March: Gilgandra-Sydney, 1915 Kenthurst, N.S.W.: Kangaroo Press, 1986
• King of the Dance Hall: The Story of Fifty Years of Ballroom Music with Frank Bourke and the White Rose Orchestra Kenthurst, N.S.W.: Kangaroo Press, c1986
• Folk Songs of Australia and the Men and Women Who Sang Them: Volume 2 By John Meredith, Roger Covell and Patricia Brown. Kensington, N.S.W.: New South Wales University Press, 1987
• Gallant Peter Clark Woden, A.C.T.: Popinjay, 1988
• The Last Kooradgie: Moyengully, Chief Man of the Gundungurra People Kenthurst, N.S.W.: Kangaroo Press, 1989
• Real Folk Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1995
• Breaker's Mate : Will Ogilvie in Australia By Will Henry Ogilvie, compiled and edited by John Meredith. Kenthurst, N.S.W.: Kangaroo Press, ca.1996

Notes

References

• John Meredith, Austlit (15 September 2006). Retrieved 18 September 2008.
• John Meredith National Library of Australia Retrieved 18 September 2008.