For Peter Coad, bush ballads have been a big part of his life, since he was a child and first heard Tex Morton sing.
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“Mum and dad had the old 78 record player, and Tex Morton’s Mandrake, Buddy Williams, all those old songs, and then of course Slim Dusty. They were my earliest memories of Australian bush ballads.”
He has spent much of his life, touring and recording songs that follow in the tradition of those artists.
“I first went out on radio 5AU at Port Augusta on a Saturday night program, my brother and I, as Coad Brothers in 1961. That’s a long time,” he said.
These days it’s still a family show, with Peter and his two sisters, Lynette and Virginia performing together and still touring.
While country music has grown, and includes many different sub-genres, the bush ballad has struggled to gain the same exposure as more modern styles of music.
But Peter said the difference with bush ballads was they were often recording history.
“Most of the country music audience tends to be people who are slightly older, and they can relate to the stories told in bush ballads. A lot of them have lived those stories, identify with those stories, and they’re real, about real people, real places and real things.”
He said because so many of the songs were based on true stories and real people, they could educate people about Australian history.
“When I was a kid I used to listen to Slim’s songs, like Ghosts of the Golden Mile, and when I grew up and started travelling I went to the site of the Ghost of the Golden Mile.
“Those songs that Slim wrote, they are history, recording people and places, and I think that’s very important that we have music there that holds our past alive.”
It’s very important to our culture to have our story songs.
- Peter Coad
While Slim Dusty has been the highest profile bush balladeer in Australian country music, there are many still carrying on the story-telling tradition.
Peter said he still saw many bush ballads coming through from writers who were living and working in regional Australia.
“I think that’s why it will continue on, and it’s very important to our culture to have our story songs.”
On Wednesday night, 30 bush balladeers will take to the Bicentennial (Toyota) Park stage where they will sing one song each at the Back to the Bush concert, which starts at 7pm.
Other artists playing include Brian Letton, Jeff Brown and Anne Kirkpatrick.