1901 "An Old Fashioned Way Of Country Singing" (Nationwide Records, 1979) (LP)
1901 "Memories" (Bullet Records, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by Bruce Adderly & Doug Surman)
1901 "A Tribute To Smoky Dawson" (Omega Records, 1981) (LP)
(Produced by Bruce Adderly)
Acuff's Rose "Never Coming Down" (Torn And Frayed Records, 1992)
(Produced by David McCluney, Graeme Thomas, Jeff Williams, & Julian Wu)
Acuff's Rose "Son Of The North Wind" (Last Call Records, 1995)
(Produced by Conway Savage & Julian Wu)
Auriel Andrew "Chocolate Princess" (Opal Records, 1982) (LP)
(Produced by Geoff Clapson and Ross Murphy)
Ms. Andrew was a country performer from Tamworth, New South Wales, where she performed on the Tamworth Town Hall show and at other venues... This also was recorded years later, in two sessions from 1981 and '82, with a whole host of Aussie session players
Johnny Ashcroft "Johnny Ashcroft Now! Sixteen Big Hits" (EMI/Columbia Records, 1969-?) (LP)
(Produced by Eric Dunn)
A remarkably bland set of country covers by a goateed crooner from Sydney... Actually, "crooner" is a term that implies a level of commitment and intensity that seems almost entirely absent here, as Ashcroft plods his way through one inert performance after another, with his band sounding equally blase and unengaged. (Indeed, the band can barely be heard behind Ashcroft's sub-Burl Ives-ish vocals; there's a pedal steel in the credits, but it only comes to the fore for a few seconds, total. The band included guitars by Dave Bridge, Lennie Hutchinson and Kevin King; Ron Martin on bass; Ken Kitching playing pedal steel; some piano and organ by Bryce Rhode or Mike Tseng... and a couple of drummers who I'm ignoring. Sorry, mates!) Anyway, this is a very low-energy set, with hits by Don Gibson, Ned Miller, Merle Kilgore and other early-to-mid-'60s standards. A few more-contemporary numbers help date this disc somewhere perhaps around 1968 or '69, notably Tom T. Hall's "Harper Valley PTA" (a hit for Jeannie C. Reilly in '68), "Gentle On My Mind," and "Little Green Apples," which was also a hit in '68. There are two originals credited to Johnny Ashcroft (co-composed with Joe Halford): "I Can't Get Her Out Of My Mind" and "I'm Gonna Have To Get Used To Losing You Again." He sounds slightly more alive singing his own material, but only slightly.
Johnny Ashcroft "Songs Of The Western Trail" (Philips Records, 1956)
Johnny Ashcroft "One More Time Around" (EMI/Columbia Records, 1966) (LP)
Johnny Ashcroft "Johnny Ashcroft Unlimited" (Columbia Records, 1970) (LP)
Johnny Ashcroft "They All Died Game" (Music For Pleasure, 1971) (LP)
Johnny Ashcroft "Requests" (Axis Records, 1972) (LP)
Johnny Ashcroft & Gay Kaylor "Faces Of Love" (1973) (LP)
Johnny Ashcroft "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (RCA Records, 1977) (LP)
Johnny Ashcroft "Streetsinger" (RCA Records, 1981) (LP)
Johnny Ashcroft/Various Artists "The Cross Of The Five Silver Stars" (Jade Records, 1989) (LP)
Johnny Ashcroft & Kathleen McCormack "You And I -- Country Style" (Columbia Records, 197--?) (LP)
Johnny Ashcroft "Little Boy Lost" (Columbia Records, 1966-?) (LP)
Johnny Ashcroft "Live At Wentworthville Leagues Club" EMI Records, 19--?) (LP)
Sherrie Austin "Words" (Arista Records, 1997)
At first glance, the chirpy, vivacious, Australian-born Sherrie Austin seems like a breath of fresh air, but the thrill doesn't last. Her debut album opens with a twisting, Tanya Tucker-ish rebel-rock snarl ("Lucky In Love"), a mood that's somewhat sustained on the next track... And then it all goes to pot when the overly-obvious, issue-y, femme-oriented ballads kick in. Too many of those, and too many useless, distracting production touches slathered atop the uptempo tunes, which is where Austin may be at her best. Of her albums, this is probably the best, but still there's nothing on here that I'd need to come back to.
Sherrie Austin "Love In The Real World" (Arista Records, 1999)
Austin has a reedy, thin voice, which I guess could pass for a young Tanya Tucker or Rachel Sweet, if it weren't for her lack of ooompf in the clinch, and the generic sexy/come-on quality of the lyrics. The phony virginal lure of "Never Been Kissed" is kinda icky (and the song is really just teenieboppish bubblegum pop, worthy of Debbie Gibson, Pebbles and their ilk... ) Even a song like "Little Bird," which starts off with a promising Texas shuffle backbeat, devolves into hackneyed, blaring rock guitar riffs. And then those damn power ballads kick in! (Including one recycled from the last album... yeesh.) Austin's marginally cute, but definitely a second stringer.
Sherrie Austin "Followin' A Feelin' " (Madacy Records, 2001)
(Produced by Will Rambeaux)
This disc opens with a bland cover of Dolly Parton's classic, "Jolene," then slides sideways from there. When Austin just sings, it's okay, but as soon as the songs get high-concept or take on an overly-obvious "common touch" (playing up to the harried, late-for-the-bus, working class hero inside us all...) things get kinda yawnsville. For the most part, this album just seems overly intellectualized, overly calculated and tres formulaic. Songs like "In Our Own Sweet Time" and "Back Where I Belong" function okay as glitzy '80s-ish pop, but as country...? Nope. I can't think of a single song on here, really, that caught my sincere interest.
Sherrie Austin "Streets Of Heaven" (Broken Bow Records, 2003)
The title track -- a shameless weeper about a little girl dying and going to heaven -- is the album's highlight. The rest of this album is pretty vapid... Embarrassingly so, actually. It's like hearing the daily diary of some would-be poet in junior high put to music, with appallingly blunt, simplistic lyrics and lame turns of phrase that I'm sure she thought were the bee's knees when she first wrote 'em. And, yes, Austin (co)wrote all but one of the songs on here. So she's prolific... good for her. Too bad she's not also a little more skillful. Poppy, formulaic rock-drenched Nashville nothingness.
Unless there's some researcher in Antarctica who put out an album I don't know about, Australian country music is literally the type of twang most distant from where I live, and among the hardest to track down. I am not an expert on the genre, but I'm learning. Australian country has a long pedigree, spanning back to the Great Depression, and was largely dominated by the "bush ballad" genre, a resolutely old-fashioned style that emphasized local and regional themes, and shares a common musical structure to pre-honkytonk American country. Although it has changed over the years, Australian country music was remarkably parochial and resistant to change, and shrugged off outside influences for much of the 1950s, '60s and to a lesser degree, the '70s and '80s. This included the gritty dynamism of honkytonk and the swank pop excesses of the Nashville Sound, though by the 'Seventies many Aussie artists made a concerted effort to keep more up to date. At any rate, the Australian country scene is pretty huge, and certainly deserves to be celebrated in its own right. I'm pretty sure I'm only scratching the surface here, and welcome any recommendations, additions or corrections.
