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Dengate speaks of working as a busker in Sydney; brief personal history since giving up teaching; takes up tin whistle; begins busking; first tunes played on the whistle; rejects the idea of full-time performance in folk music clubs or on the club performance circuit; songs used in busking; busking: conditions; audiences; sites for performance and audience reactions, his repertoire compared to other buskers; rationale for performing traditional music; how his earnings have improved over the years; ethics in busking; incidents with other buskers; audience/passers by; qualities of buskers; behaviour of audiences/passers by and the tolerance of shopkeepers; attitude of audiences towards Australian music and songs; why JD sings the songs and plays the music he does; unexpected responses among the young; begging in the streets of Sydney; his relations with the beggars; his opinions and experiences of begging; sites for Sydney busking; dealing with authorities and personal attitudes of buskers.
He then talks about the importance of the BMC to shaping his career, his use of traditional models in composing songs; composing parodies; learning songs; his father's interest in this music; his song about his father's work in the orchards; how his father plays mouth organ; his views of the social spirit of the 1950s such as the rise of the Sydney Push; Don Ayrton; people from the Push come to visit Mooney at Menindee; Don Ayrton's singingand his influence on JD; how the Push influenced Australian culture.
How the involvement of the Sydney Bush Music Club in the folk scene lead to a folk revival and the philosophy behind the BMC; his concerns about Americanisation; JD song about folk singers: The Lindfield Fake; the impact of British folk songs and British singers on the Sydney folk scene in 1960s; the Blues scene in Sydney; how he began to play in folk clubs during the 1970s; the changes in folk clubs in Sydney; Alex Hood; the relations of the BMC with 'outsiders'; BMC's 'Bushwackers' band in 1960s; folk clubs in pubs; Gary Shearston; Edinburgh Castle folk club; Declan Affley's performances of Dengate's songs; Dengate's use of Irish models and melodies for his songs and the impact it had on his career; his views of the 1980s, clubs and festivals; audiences, 1970s and 80s; MacColl, Seeger, Behan; influences on JD's songs; Cyril Tawney; Banjo Patterson; Duke Tritton; influences; Frank Povah; his role as singer and songwriter in Australia.
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