Jamberoo – A Change of Season

A compilation featuring 19 artists from the 17th Illawarra Folk Festival including igzag, Neil Adam and Judy Turner with Felpeyu, John Broomhall, Mattawa, Duncan Chalmers, Jane Brownlee & Saul Richardson, Karen Lynne and Acoustic Shock, Us Not Them, David Hyams, Bloodwood, Blue the Shearer, The Poachers, Alan Musgrove, Helen Rivero, Wongawilli, The Rattlers with Maurie Mulheron, Ted Egan, Neil Murray, Phil Garland.

The Illawarra Folk Festival is now held in January. The Festival is held in the NSW South Coast village of Jamberoo. Jamberoo is situated 10km inland from the seaside town of Kiama. Kiama is situated 130km south of Sydney and 30km south of Wollongong. The Festival is organised by volunteers from the Illawarra Folk Club Inc. The Festival aims to present Australian and world folk music, song, dance, poetry, street theatre and yarnspinning. There is a large emphasis on participatory events such as workshops and theme concerts.
Featuring: Jigzag, Neil Adams and Judy Turner with Felpeyu, John Broomhall, Mattawa, Duncan Chalmers, Jane Brownlee, Karen Lynne and Acoustic Shock, Us Not Them, David Hyams, Bloodwood, Blue The Shearer – AKA Col Wilson, The Poachers, Rivero, Allen Musgrove, Wongawilli, The Rattlers with Maurie Mulheron, Ted Egan, Neil Murray, Phil Garland.

CD Review by Tony Smith

The Illawarra Folk club must be one of the strongest in the country.

Over the years hundreds of performers from Australia and overseas have entertained folkies at the club’s regular meetings in Wollongong, at ‘Slacky Flat’ (Bulli) festival and at Folk by the Sea in Kiama.

Formerly, it had a springtime festival at Jamberoo in the green foothills inland from Kiama.

It also holds an impressive folk school in conjunction with the Bulli weekend in January.

The festival CD for 2001 provides a sample of the performers at that event.

Most were at their peak early in the century, but many are still performing even more skilfully today.

Consider this for part of the line-up: David Hyams, Neil Murray, Ted Egan, The Poachers, John Broomhall, Jigzag and Chloe and Jason Roweth.

The 20 tracks include a huge variety of music and recitation.

You get instrumentals, epic ballads, satire and parody, bush poetry recitation, solo performances and bands.

Alan Musgrave collected the song ‘Pretty Jessie’ and brings it to life here.

Well known vintage New Zealander singer songwriter, Phil Garland, shares ‘Farewell to Geraldine’ which is about a town.

Bloodwood’s ‘Boss Lady’ by Bob Sharp tells the story of Jeannie Gunn who wrote ‘We of the Never Never’.

‘She came from the city in 1902/ called her boss lady/ respected her greatly/ for all the things she went through’.

Maurie Mulheron and the Rattlers do Maurie’s song ‘When the coal blew away’.

It tells a story of a load of coal that went missing during a 1930s strike.in the Illawarra after it had been loaded by scabs.

Questioned about the disappearance, the miners said it must have blown away.

Local bush band, Wongawilli, are well known as ambassadors for traditional dance music and songs.

Here they perform the John O’Brien verse yarn ‘Tangmalangaloo’ in which a bright boy is asked by a visiting bishop if he knows why Christmas is important.

The boy replies that of course he does, ‘It’s the day before the races out at Tangmalangaloo’.

There is humour also in ‘Wingen’ by Blue the Shearer aka Col Wilson.

A more exotic touch is provided by Muttawa and Rivero.

Muttawa’s French Canadian style is unmistakable and typically toe tapping in ‘J’entends le Moulin’.

So too is the Latin American touch in Rivero’s performance which here is a traditional Sephardic song.

The festival organisers note, that while big record labels monopolise music production in Australia, many of the performers here produced their own albums.

So, Jamberoo 2001 represents grass roots action in more ways than one.

Long should it continue.