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AUSTRALIAN COUNTRY MUSIC ATTRACTS ACADEMIC INTEREST
Nick Erby
A group of university academics have embraced a move from Gympie to have Australian country music treated as a musical culture worthy of serious study and a place within our higher education system.
It all came together last August during the Toyota Muster at Gympie when the newly formed Australian Institute of Country Music held its first conference. The Institute (AICM) was the brainchild of Gympie High School teacher Geoff Walden who had been associated with the Muster Talent Search for many years, and got support from the Apex Club and others associated with the Muster to pursue his interest in the country culture.
This led to the development of the idea to have a formal course in country music established as part of a university degree. Geoff got big support from the University of Central Queensland and the Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music. The first achievement is the establishment of AICM, and that first conference confirmed that there is already a big interest in the country music culture and a desire to make it a course at university.
In America country music is a very strong part of university studies, with a big number of acclaimed academics and historians who have tracked the various aspects of country music since its beginnings. There are a number of conferences over there, and as a result of the success of last year's Gympie conference several Australians presented papers at the International Country Music Conference in Nashville at the end of May.
Professor Phil Haywood (of Macquarie University Sydney and the CQ Conservatorium of Music, Mackay) was the conference keynote speaker. Dr Shirley Tucker (University of Queensland, Brisbane) spoke on women in Australian country music
Leigh Carriage (Southern Cross University, Lismore) talked about KASEY CHAMBERS and (AICM chairman) Geoff Walden amazed the Americans with his talk on the Gympie Muster.
The subject matter and the depth of knowledge shown by the speakers provides great optimism for the acceptance of country music as an important part of Australia's cultural history.
But the most impressive presentation came from an American named Alice Holtin, who talked about her amazing project - a complete discography of SLIM DUSTY's recordings (compiled in America). Alice stared out as a fan of the STATLER BROTHERS and compiled a discography of their recordings. A Statler Brothers fan in Australia got in touch with Alice and during their correspondence he sent her a cassette of Slim Dusty ballads. Alice became hooked and wanted to know more - and was soon compiling the Slim Dusty discography. Alice's amazing work has been acknowledged by Slim and Joy (whom Alice met on her only Australian trip a couple of years ago).
(Alice's work will be completed next year, and efforts are now underway to find a publisher to put the Slim Dusty discography out as a book.)
A very interesting reminder surfaced during the International Country Music Conference - we let a very important collection of early country recordings go to America some years ago.
An Australian named John Edwards built a very comprehensive collection of country recordings up to the 1950s. It somehow was sold to the University of North Carolina, where it became the centrepiece of the Country Music Studies of that University. The John Edwards Collection is still highly regarded today, and was the subject of a paper at the conference.
Each year the International Country Music Conference presents an award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism. In keeping with the Australian flavour of the conference this year's winner was John Elliott for his recent best seller "On the Road With Slim".
During the conference Nashville's daily paper The Tennessean did an article which began "For a lot of Americans, the link between Australia and Country Music may not stretch beyond shaggy-haired Aussie singer Keith Urban.
But Australia boasts the second-largest market of home grown Country Music, second only to the United States, experts say."
The Australian Institute of Country Music will be holding its second conference at Gympie August 29-31 (the Muster weekend). Keynote speaker will be Professor David Whisnet, well known author of a number of books about the roots of American country music.
Contact: Geoff Walden 07 5482 8644 email: geoff@egympie.com
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