Chris Kempster, Musician, 1933-2004: A True Native Voice

The words, of course, are Henry Lawson's, but the music and the memories they bring will be forever that of Chris Kempster. He was the youngest of the first Bushwhackers Band that brought the folk-opera Reedy River to the suburbs and community halls of the 1950s, at a time when many thought (not for the last time!) that we were in dire danger of losing our identity to an avalanche of low grade Hollywood sludge. Ten years later, and every school choir in Australia was singing 'Click Go the Shears'. At last count there were 420 Australian folk songs for those choirs to choose from, mostly collected in the years around the folk revival associated with the performances of Reedy River across the nation.