WARREN FAHEY’S AUSTRALIAN BUSH ORCHESTRA
- Author:
- Ben Montague
- Posted:
- Sunday, 27 May 2012
Warren Fahey is a multi-skilled purveyor of all things Australiana. He is an authur of such titles as Classic Bush Yarns, Eureka, and While The Billy Boils. He was a founding member of the bush folk band The Larrikins and established the Larrikin Records label. This album sounds exactly like what you’d hear at a primary school barn dance or a Boy Scouts/Girl Guides social. It’s predominently instrumental. When there is singing it’s simple and repetitive, similar to that of a barn dance caller. The sounds come from fiddles, mandolins, accordions, double bass, both bowed and plucked, along with a lot of upright piano. It’s a well-played, well-produced recording with Warren Fahey taking advantage of the broad base of musicians he has built up into a network over the decades. Despite all this, the album is quite limited in its versatility, variety and unfortunately its appeal. It might be the kind of thing you could buy for a old bushy uncle or father-in-law, but the Gen Y and Gen Xers might think it’s a bit drab and old hat.
**1/2
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June 20th, 2012 @ 10:30 am
By cripes it’s hard to knock some sense into you Gen Y andX folks. The music on the album has been hailed around the world as a great attempt to revive a disappeared Australian sound. Of course all music is personal but to degrade it as Bog Scout type music is simply an expression of ignorance. ABC Classic Fm has been playing it – hope they don’t think it is underwhelming. I know this is not the usual music your age hears but if you ‘try’ you might learn a bit about how Australia developed its owns ensue of identity and why we all need to be reminded of our pioneering culture – otherwise we will continue to sound and (strut!) think like Americans and Brits.