John Meredith (folklorist)

John Stanley Raymond Meredith (17 January 1920 – 18 February 2006) was an Australian pioneer folklorist.

Biography

Meredith was born in Holbrook, New South Wales. With Jack Barrie and Brian Loughlan, John Meredith formed the first Australian bush band, the Heathcote Bushwhackers, later known as the Bushwhackers, in 1952. In December 1953 the band performed in the Sydney New Theatre amateur production of Reedy River, an Australian musical featuring bush and Australian folk music. Some of the songs and music in the production had been collected by Meredith. The success of Reedy River inspired the Australian folk music revival of the 1950s. In 1954 Meredith was one of the founding members of the first club set up to cater for this interest, the Sydney Bush Music Club.

Meredith published song books and wrote on bush music and the folk tradition in Australia. He also wrote unpublished ballad opera and rock opera and plays including The Wild Colonial Boy (with Joan Clarke) first produced by Brisbane New Theatre in 1955 and How Many Miles from Gundagai performed by the Bushwhackers.

Meredith continued to collect field recordings of traditional songs and music throughout his life. His recordings are housed in the Meredith Collection at the National Library of Australia. [Music Australia website and Information provided by John Meredith held by AustLit at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory]

Writing

*Bushwhacker songs : old and new, Published [Sydney : John Meredith, 1955?]
*Folk songs of Australia and the men and women who sang them / John Meredith and Hugh Anderson Published Kensington, N.S.W. : New South Wales University Press, 1985-<1987>
*The coo-ee march, Gilgandra-Sydney 1915 / by John Meredith by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Dubbo, N.S.W. : Macquarie Publications, 1981

*Folk songs of Australia and the men and women who sang them / John Meredith and Hugh Anderson by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Sydney : Ure Smith, 1968, c1967
*Gallant Peter Clark / by John Meredith by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Woden [A.C.T.] : Popinjay, 1988
*Folk songs of Australia and the men and women who sang them / John Meredith, Roger Covell and Patricia Brown. volume 2 by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Kensington, N.S.W. : New South Wales University Press, 1987
*Folk songs of Australia and the men and women who sang them / John Meredith and Hugh Anderson by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Dee Why West, N.S.W. : Ure Smith, 1979
*The Donahoe ballads / John Meredith by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Ascot Vale [Vic.] : Red Rooster Press, c1982
*The wild colonial boy : bushranger Jack Donahoe, 1806-1830 / by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Ascot Vale [Vic.] : Red Rooster Press, 1982
*The householders' compendium / John Meredith by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Shepparton, Vic. : Night Owl, 1986
*The coo-ee march, Gilgandra-Sydney, 1915 / by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Kenthurst [N.S.W.] : Kangaroo Press, 1986
*Real folk / by John Meredith by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Canberra : National Library of Australia, 1995
*King of the dance hall : the story of fifty years of ballroom music with Frank Bourke and the White Rose Orchestra / by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Kenthurst [N.S.W.] : Kangaroo Press, c1986

*Songs from Lawson / [edited by John Meredith] by Lawson, Henry, 1867-1922 Published Woollomooloo, N.S.W. : Bush Music Club, [1957]
*Duke of the Outback : the adventures of "a shearer named Tritton" / by John Meredith by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Ascot Vale, Vic. : Red Rooster Press, 1983
*The last kooradgie : Moyengully, chief man of the Gundungurra people / John Meredith by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Kenthurst, N.S.W. : Kangaroo Press, 1989

*Reedy river [music] : the songs from the Australian musical drama / by Dick Diamond by Diamond, Dick Published Sydney : New Theatre, 1960

*The wild colonial boy : the life and times of Jack Donahoe 1808(?)-1830 / by John Meredith by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Sydney [N.S.W.] : Wentworth Press, 1960

*Songs from Lawson / [edited by John Meredith] by Lawson, Henry, 1867-1922 Published Sydney : Bush Music Club, 1956

*Folk song of Australia and the men and women who sang them / [by] John Meredith and Hugh Anderson by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Sydney : Ure Smith, [1968]

*Folk songs of Australia and the men and women who sang them / John Meredith and Hugh Anderson by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Sydney : Ure Smith, 1973, c1967
*Breaker's mate : Will Ogilvie in Australia / [compiled and edited by] John Meredith by Ogilvie, Will H. (Will Henry), 1869-1963 Published Kenthurst, NSW : Kangaroo Press, c1996
*Frank, the poet : the life and works of Francis MacNamara / [by] John Meredith [and] Rex Whalan by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Melbourne : Red Rooster, 1979
*Learn to talk old Jack Lang : a handbook of Australian rhyming slang / John Meredith ; [drawings by George Sprod] by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Kenthurst [N.S.W.] : Kangaroo Press, 1984
*Ned Kelly after a century of acrimony / John Meredith and Bill Scott by Meredith, John, 1920-2001 Published Sydney : Lansdowne Press, 1980

Notes

References

* [http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=A%23x%23 "John Meredith"] , Austlit (15 September 2006). Retrieved 18 September 2008.

* [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Author/Home?author=Meredith,%20John,%201920-2001 "John Meredith"] National Library of Australia Retrieved 18 September 2008.