Coral Dasey "Listen To A Country Song" (CM Records, 19--?) (LP)
The lone album by songwriter/poet Coral Dasey (1940-2017), who grew up in the Surry Hills suburb of Sydney, near where the Opera House now stands. She was the daughter of Australian film composer George Dasey, some of whose own compositions were included here. This album showcases four of her songs, four of his, and one song they wrote together, an homage to a fellow Aussie country singer, "Buddy Williams At The Opera House." The album rounds out its all-Australian content with additional offerings by Johnny Ashcroft, Mack Cormack and Eric Watson... Musically, this sounds surprisingly haphazard, or at least somewhat chaotically produced. Dasey's folkie, somewhat Baez-like vocals have a halting, uneven feel, and the band is mixed in pretty hot, which accentuates the note-happy quality of some of the accompaniment. She also seems to be double-tracked on some songs, although she doesn't keep in very tight harmony with herself, adding another layer to the amateurishness of the production. Nonetheless, this is a very sincere and traditionally-oriented country set, and in a sense the rough feel on the technical end adds to its authenticity. Backing Coral Dasey are Ray Campbell on bass, John Bliss (drums), Doug Hall (lead guitar), Lindsay Butler (lead guitar), Ken Kitching (pedal steel), and additional steel work from Lance Clarke.

Smoky Dawson - see artist discography

Trevor Day "Strummin' This Old Guitar" (Columbia Records, 1961) (LP)
Starting his career about a decade after Australia's first wave of country stars, singer Trevor Day (1931-2019) began playing music in his early twenties and moved from New South Wales to Sydney in the early 1950s to pursue a musical career. He soon landed spots on package tours criss-crossing Australia and New Zealand, and started his recording career at decade's end. His first session, in 1959, yielded one of his best-known songs, "The Boy Soldier," which oddly enough due the conventions of the time was not included here, on his first full album. The songs on this sparsely-arranged record are almost entirely his own originals, with the addition of an obscure Hank Williams song ("The Funeral") and some traditional material such as "By The Eumerella Shore." Day recorded only sparingly after this, cutting a handful of songs for Columbia before switching to the fledging Hadley label in 1968. Even then, he stuck to releasing extended play singles for over a decade before releasing his first album for Hadley in '79.

Trevor Day "Boy Soldier" (Hadley Records, 1979) (LP)
(Produced by Eric W. Scott)

Trevor Day "On The Road Of Life: Stories Of People And Places" (Hadley Records, 1981) (LP)
(Produced by Eric W. Scott)
This album was a tribute to Australian country singer Buddy Williams... The band seems to have drawn on the studio crew at Hadley records, with Norm Bodkin on pedal steel, Bob Clark (bass), Lawrence Minson (dobro), Peter Groth (bass), Glenn Green (bass), and Bruce Field playing drums...

Trevor Day "My Country Song" (Hadley Records, 1982) (LP)
(Produced by Eric W. Scott)

Trevor Day "Wisdom, Wit And Wiles" (Hadley Records, 1995)
(Produced by Eric W. Scott)

Denva "Livin' In The West" (Nationwide Records, 1977-?) (LP)
(Produced by Malcolm Hay)
A longhaired country band from Melbourne, with a largely American-covers repertoire... The group included drummer Nigel Atkins, Bill Epema on pedal steel, Karan Johns (bass), Susan Johns (lead vocals), and Kerran Keats (guitar), with all the bandmembers chiming in on vocals. I'm not sure when this album came out -- there's no date on the album -- but they appeared on the 1979 live compilation album WANDONG COUNTRY, so this probably was released shortly before or after the Wandong concert... which is also consistent with their vaguely Fleetwood Mac-ish look. (Also, the nearest catalog number I could find from the Nationwide label was from 1977...)

Chris Duffy "Self Portrait" (Larrikin Records, 1979) (LP)
(Produced by Ross McGregor)
Perhaps the Australian equivalent of Bela Fleck, eclectic banjoist Chris Duffy (1948-2012) was born in Germany but migrated to Australia as a teen and soon established himself as one of the country's top-tier banjo pickers, touring with numerous country artists and playing on countless albums. Duffy was a major promoter of bluegrass music in Australia, touring nationally as well as setting up tours for American pickers such as Dan Crary, Mark O'Connor, and Byron Berline, who he also recorded with... Duffy's career was sidelined by a motorcycle accident in the 1990s - -while healing, he took up an interest in jazz guitar, and as his recovery continued he worked in more and more jazz ideas into his banjo work. On this debut disc, Duffy plays banjo, fiddle, guitar and mandolin, with a little assist from bassist Ralph Graham and second guitar John Kane.

Chris Duffy "Keep On Pickin' " (Larrikin Records, 1977) (LP)

Chris Duffy "Down Yonder" (Larrikin Records, 1980) (LP)

Chris Duffy "Bullants In Bushland" (Larrikin Records, 1982) (LP)

Chris Duffy "Ambidextrous: Bluegrass, Bach And Bebop" (Larrikin Records, 1985) (LP)
(Produced by Chris Duffy & Brian Mawer)
A spacegrass-y collaboration with bassist Dave Clayton and legendary American fiddler Byron Berline, covering folk and bluegrass standards such as "Blackberry Blossom" and "Katy Hill," as well as jazzy stuff by David Grisman, Scott Joplin, Charlie Parker and Fats Waller and a number of baroque pieces by Bach and Mozart, with a cover of Mason Williams' "Classical Gas" to split the difference.

Chris Duffy "Banjo Time" (2011)

Big Mike Durney "Country Style" (Impact Records, 1967) (LP)
(Produced by Gray Bartlett, Garth Benfell & Benny Levin)
A local club singer from Napier, New Zealand, in Hawke Bay, "Big" Mike Durney first paid his dues playing at a local club called the Top Hat Cabaret, before landing a spot on the Maria Dallas television show, as well as touring as a member of her road show. Along with covers of American country hits such as Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me" and "Bye Bye Love" from the Everly Brothers, about half the songs on here were originals written by Durney himself, or other kiwis, including a couple from a fella named Jim Ruane ("Many Yesterdays Ago" and "My Heart's Like A Merry Go Round") and two by Mike Durney ("An Island To Oneself" and "Waves Of Heartbreak"). Though he recorded a string of singles well into the early 'Seventies, I'm not sure if Mr. Durney released any other full albums during his career...

Slim Dusty - see artist discography

Bob Dyer "Pick-A-Box: Hillbilly Heaven" (Larrikin Records, 1997)
Originally from America, Tennessee-born Bob Dyer (aka Robert Neal Dies, 1909-1984) emigrated to Australia in 1937 and soon established himself in the country's lively vaudeville circuit. Billed as "the last of the hillbillies," Dyer was first known as a country musician, working on radio and later TV, shifting in the latter part of his career to his better-known role as the host of the nationally-broadcast quiz show, Pick A Box, which ran from 1948 to 1971. Part of an archival series curated by label founder Warren Fahey, this disc draws on radio transcription recordings made in Sydney, way back in 1939-40. It's pretty much all comedic material, notably drawing on Dyer's American bona fides, in contrast to the rigidly parochial, regional themes of the same era's Australian-born cowboy singers. Most of the songs and routines are fairly obscure (or re-workings of well-known songs) although there are a few readily recognizable chestnuts in the set, such as "She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain" and "I Never See Maggie Alone," a song first recorded in 1926 but perhaps best known from a 1949 country version by yodeler Kenny Roberts. Some of the more esoteric selections include "It Pays To Be Funny," "The Ediket Song," "Cop The Lot," and "The Coat And The Pants Do All The Work." Dyer released several 78rpm singles, many with rural themes, though I'm not sure if he ever made a full album of his country stuff.

Hick Music Index