Bold Reilly gone away

The cry is, "Let's get down to The Wharf and catch the shanty singing!" and a huge crowd arrives wharf-side at 5pm on Saturday of the Port Fairy Folk Festival. In 1977 Danny Spooner suggested a shanty session down by the river and it has become a festival tradition. Many in the audience wouldn’t miss chips and shanties, and by now they know all the words and have tales and stories to tell as mythical as Woodstock.

The smell of the sea, sand, tea tree, kelp and fish comes on the breezes across the Moyne, from Griffiths Island and the Southern Ocean. With the gentle roar of waves crashing on the rocky shores of the south-west passage, Danny leads his crew as they lean into the wind and run with the rhythm of the shanty. The ballad of Danny Spooner is a magical tale of a thirteen year old who started work on the Thames as an apprentice Waterman and Lighterman. Six years later he earned the Freeman of the Thames. As life becomes art he is truly a renowned troubadour travelling the world on the waves of song. So it is at Port Fairy every March when Danny and "the whalers" sing up a storm wharf-side taking us all on another salty voyage.

This recording complements their 1986 album and is in response to popular acclaim. Hats off to Danny Spooner and his crew for this latest lusty shanty collection in the working song tradition.

Jamie McKew – Founder & Director, Port Fairy Folk Festival

When creating the mysterious link that exists between music and the culture of traditional maritime heritage there is no greater artist than Danny Spooner. Danny’s early teenage years as ‘boy’ on the famous Thames barges began this course in his life and he has spent a lifetime building on his early apprenticeship experiences, maritime and musical.

He brought his passion and vitality to Hobart’s docks for every Australian Wooden Boat Festival. The authenticity of Danny’s songs and shanties resonates with sailors and visitors alike. He helped put Hobart’s festival on the international stage by making a tangible but intimate connection between his music and boats quayside, and transporting us into the age of maritime romance.

Andy Gamlin, Founderof the Australian Wooden Boat Festival, Hobart

Brave Bold Boys

People have always created heroes. Sometimes they are figments of our imaginations, sometimes honourable souls deserving of praise. Often they are class heroes like the bushranger, or the poacher who was seen to be standing up for the rights of ordinary people against an oppressive authority. It might be a great warrior, sporting idol or the defender of an ideal. Whatever the case, the folksong tradition has a record of that person’s place in the minds of the people.

This CD is a small reminder of how important heroes are to us all. We can all recall a role model or someone we wanted to emulate. In this instance they are Brave bold boys (it would be just as easy to record a female equivalent), and songs, all long time friends of mine, which will, I hope, give your imagination a chance to wander.

Danny Spooner January 2008

Towards the end of 1965, after I’d been in Australia for about a year, I was in Traynor’s Folk Club in Melbourne. I’d been listening to the singers and reciting a few verses myself, when a couple of young men walked in and asked if they could sing. One of these young men was Danny Spooner who’d just moved down from Sydney. He sang and won over his audience straight away. Since that time I’ve heard Danny sing songs of the sea, of battles, of love, of sons of the soil; in fact I’ve heard him sing of just about every type of person in all kinds of situations. Most of all he’s encouraged so many other people to sing. I’ve had the great pleasure of working with Danny on several occasions over the years, and he’s been a great mate.

With the theme that Danny has chosen for this selection, Brave, bold boys, I think he could make twenty CDs and still only cover a small number of the songs at his disposal. Like me you may think a couple of them don’t belong for various reasons, but they’re all damn fine songs sung by a “brave, bold boy” himself and I’m sure that not only followers of Danny’s career will enjoy them.

Richard (Skreitch) Leitch January 2008

Noble Lord Hawkins

Timothy Winters

Battle of Alma

I drew my ship

Limbo

The Gaberlunzie Man

Bridges

Hills of Isle au Haut 

Blood Red Roses

Rabbit trapper

The Flighty Tailor

Rambler from Clare

Destitution Road

Wish I could write a love song

Danny Spooner arrived in Australia in 1962, and by the time I first heard and met this charismatic Cockney (at Frank Traynor’s Folk Club in Melbourne in the late 60s) he had established himself in Sydney and especially in the Melbourne Folk Scene.

Even then, Danny sang with passion, humour and conviction; he won the hearts (and more importantly the imagination) of his audiences who hung on every word of a rich variety of songs from the folk traditions of the British Isles, North America and Australia. We were drawn into fascinating narratives couched in potent and beautiful music from medieval times through the Industrial Revolution to modern songs arising from the post-WW2 Folk Revival. We in the audience came back for more, week in, year out. The songs found their place in our inner selves, imparting a sense of cultural connection, following the footsteps of Everyman. As songs unfold about a particular time or event, the listener becomes less aware of historical time and setting and makes a connection to our modern existence. This is a powerful aspect of the folk art of Danny Spooner.

Tony Martin, Melbourne 2007

To say Danny Spooner holds a special place in the popular opinion of folk music lovers in Australia and overseas is like saying Phar Lap could run a bit. To many, he is the premier voice of traditional music in this country, and has been for more years than he and the rest of us care to remember. If there's a song on this planet that Danny doesn't know, that's probably because it hasn't been written yet. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of traditional music, and over the years has been unfailingly patient and generous in sharing that knowledge with anyone who asked him.

And now he's branching out into recording music of a more contemporary nature. My field, in fact. Just what I needed, more competition. And he'll probably do it bloody well.

Eric Bogle, South Australia 2007

His readings of the basic source material for early whaling, combined with his own experiences working at sea, have given him a clear understanding of the conditions endured, and horrors faced, by hunter and quarry alike.

The songs in this collection span the years from the early 17 th to the 20 th centuries and take us from France to South America to the US to Australia, telling us tales of joy and tragedy, and in Danny's remarkable hands they become not merely cherished artefacts, but windows into another time.


When I listen to this set of songs taken as a whole, the ultimate message is abundantly clear - we do not have to do this any more; our hubris can only lead us to the same fate as Melville's Pequod , which 'would not sink to hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven along with her'.

Stan Gottschalk, Launceston, 2006

2002 When a man's in love (love songs from a man's point of view)

2002 We'll either bend or break 'er (shanties)

2002 Launch out on the deep (sea songs) - 4 available from Burke’s Music
PH 5470 6003 or see Links

2004 'ard Tack (traditional Australian songs of work)

1965 A wench and a whale and a pint of good ale, Discurio

1966 Soldiers and sailors, Discurio

1977 Canterbury Fair, Anthology AR 001

1978 Danny Spooner and friends, Anthology AR 002

1978 Limbo, Anthology AR 003

1978 Revived and relieved (with Gordon McIntyre), Larrikin LRF 016

1986 I got this one from..., Sandstock Music SSM 017

1987 When a man's in love, Sandstock Music, SSM 021

1988 We'll either bend or break 'er, Sandstock Music SSM 027

1989 All around down under, Sandstock Music SSM 036
(with Martyn Wyndham-Read)