Dudley Higgs and Ron Crane interviewed by Rob Willis in Rob and Olya Willis folklore collection [sound recording]
- Bib ID:
- 173555
- Format:
- Audio
- Author:
- Higgs, Dudley, 1929-, interviewee
- Access Conditions:
- Access open for research, personal copies and public use.
- Description:
-
- 1999 May 20
- 3 digital audio tapes (ca. 169 min.)
- Series:
- Rob and Olya Willis folklore collection.
- Summary:
-
Folkloric recording.
Higgs recalls the social life and well known characters of early days in the Western Creek,Tas. community; the games & dances held in the community hall; listening to the wireless, remembering artists on the old style country programs; music as part of family life and learning from records.Crane recalls the tune on a record (unidentified) and recalls the dances; Higgs comments on the lap steel guitar.
Higgs recalls life in the bush; a story about bullocks; how his interest in music developed, listening to the gramophone; selecting a guitar from a catalogue; Tex Morton's influence on his music; writing his own songs; from where the inspiration came to write a monologue which was recorded by Buddy Williams.
- Partial contents:
-
- TUNES: Ron Crane on mandolin and Dudley Higgs on guitar: unidentified tune
- medley of tunes
- CONVERSATION: background to Midnight waltz
- TUNES: Midnight waltz
- Hawaiian tune
- SINGING: Dudley sings the Hawaiian tune (fragment)
- TUNES: unidentified tune
- Ron plays a fragment of a tune
- unidentified tune
- Ron plays Granny's tune to which she used to sing the words Tie me to your apron strings again
- Hawaiian tune (unidentified)
- CONVERSATION: background to songs
- TUNES: Waltz around Tassie.
- TUNE: Dudley Higgs on guitar: Waltz around Tassie
- CONVERSATION: background to song Van Diemen's Land
- SINGING: Dudley sings song Van Diemen's Land (repeated)
- TUNES: Ron on mandolin and Dudley on the guitar: Sweet bunch of daisies
- Hawaiian tune
- another Hawaiian tune
- a schottische
- CONVERSATION: Ron describes the music played in the family, tunes played for the dances, playing mandolin with the orchestra
- TUNES: Stone outside Dan Murphy's door
- CONVERSATION: Ron recalls Granny's song called Two little orphans, relates what the song is about
- SINGING: I met her in the garden where the pratties grew (fragment)
- Ron attempts to recall Seamus O'Brien
- Ron sings Kevin Barry as learnt from Granny
- Loch Lomond (fragment)
- CONVERSATION: background to a song called For sale a baby
- SINGING: For sale a baby (fragment)
- CONVERSATION: more on the Kevin Barry song
- Tex Morton expressing interest in the Kevin Barry song
- SINGING: fragments of the different versions of Irish washerwoman
- CONVERSATION: story about Eileen McCoy?
- SINGING: Golden slippers
- CONVERSATION: more about Granny
- reads lists of names of waltzes
- comment on the language of Tasmania
- TUNE: Dudley and Ron on guitar: Van Diemen's Land (repeated)
- CONVERSATION: introduces Summertime
- SINGING: Summertime
- TUNE: Cambridge rag
- SINGING: song about his mum
- TUNE: Blaze away.
- Biography/History:
-
Higgs was born in Deloraine, Tas. 1929. He recalls his family background; life on a homestead at Western Creek; schooling at Western Creek and Mole Creek; stories about bullock drivers; as a young boy working on a farm trapping & shooting rabbits; Higg's Track being put through to the Western Tiers; going to Devonport, working at the tomato factory, sawmill; going to Launceston, being auditioned for a competition at a radio station; learning to play guitar; leaving for Queenstown and getting a job on radio.
- Notes:
-
- Recorded by Olya Willis.
- Recorded on May 20, 1999 at Wynyard, Tasmania.
- Digital master available National Library of Australia
- Related Material:
- Related video recording with Dudley Higgs and Ron Crane: located at; National Library of Australia Oral History & Indigenous Programs collection at ORAL TRC 6936/43.
- Index/Finding Aid Note:
-
- No transcript available.
- Timed summary (2 p.)
- Subject:
- Other authors/contributors:
- Related Records:
-
This belongs to the Rob and Olya Willis folklore collection.
This collection contains 1,003 records. - Copyright:
-
In Copyright
Contact us for information about copying. For access conditions return to the record display above.
- Reason for copyright status:
- Until 2069 [Created/Published Date + 70 Years]
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Sound Recording
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 1999
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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