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

Folkloristics

Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics...

 from Holbrook, New South Wales

Holbrook, New South Wales

Holbrook is a small town in Southern New South Wales, Australia. It is on the Hume Highway, 356 km North-East of Melbourne and 491 km south-west of Sydney between Tarcutta and Albury. The town is in the Greater Hume Shire Council area which was established in May 2004 from the merger of...

 whose work influenced the Australian folk music

Australian folk music

Australian folk music is a term which may be applied, relatively narrowly, to traditional folk music of Australia, also called "bush music" or more broadly to traditional music from the large variety of immigrant cultures and those of the original Australian inhabitants.Celtic, English, German and...

 revival of the 1950s.

The Bushwhackers and Reedy River

In 1952, John Meredith formed the first Australian bush band

Bush band

A bush band is a group of musicians that play traditional Australian folk music or contemporary folk music played in a traditional Australian style...

 with Jack Barrie and Brian Loughlan. Originally known as The Heathcote Bushwhackers, they were later simply known as the Bushwhackers. In December 1953 the band performed in the Sydney New Theatre

New Theatre (Newtown)

The New Theatre is an independent theatre company in the inner western Sydney suburb of Newtown, Australia. Established in October 1932, it is the oldest theatre company in continuous production in New South Wales...

 amateur production of Reedy River, an Australian musical play featuring bush and Australian folk music. The success of Reedy River primarily 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 to this interest, the Bush Music Club of Sydney.

Original works

Meredith also wrote unpublished ballad opera

Ballad opera

The term ballad opera is used to refer to a genre of English stage entertainment originating in the 18th century and continuing to develop in the following century and later. There are many types of ballad opera...

 and rock opera

Rock opera

A rock opera is a work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections in the manner of opera. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include...

. He wrote several plays

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

, 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.

Song collecting

Some of the songs and music featured in the production of Reedy River had been collected by Meredith himself. He collected a wide variety of folk music, including Sally Sloane, a traditional singer with a large repertoire of songs many of which had not been collected previously. Meredith also collected songs by Duke Tritton

Duke Tritton

Harold Percival Croydon "Duke" Tritton was an Australian poet and folk singer. His best-known poem, The Sandy Hollow Line, described the hardships of unemployed workers who were given 'sustenance' or 'susso' work construction the Sandy Hollow Maryvale Railway during the Great Depression...

, a poet and songwriter whose work reflected his experiences as a shearer

Sheep shearing

Sheep shearing, shearing or clipping is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a shearer. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year...

 and as an unemployed itinerant worker during the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. Both song books and non-fiction works on the folklore

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

 of Australia were published by Meredith over the course of his career.

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

National Library of Australia

The National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...

.

Publications

• Bushwhacker Songs: Old and New Sydney: John Meredith, ca.1955
• Songs From Lawson By Henry Lawson, edited by John Meredith. Woollomooloo, N.S.W.: Bush Music Club, 1956, 1957
• Reedy River: The Songs from the Australian Musical Drama By Dick Diamond. Sydney: New Theatre, 1960
• The Wild Colonial Boy: The Life and Times of Jack Donahoe 1808(?)-1830 Sydney, N.S.W.: Wentworth Press, 1960
• Folk Songs of Australia and the Men and Women Who Sang Them By John Meredith and Hugh Anderson. Sydney: Ure Smith, ca.1967, 1968, 1973
• Folk Songs of Australia and the Men and Women Who Sang Them By John Meredith and Hugh Anderson. Dee Why West, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, 1979
• Frank, The Poet: The Life and Works of Francis MacNamara By John Meredith and Rex Whalan. Melbourne: Red Rooster, 1979
• Ned Kelly After A Century of Acrimony By John Meredith and Bill Scott. Sydney: Lansdowne Press, 1980
• The Coo-ee March: Gilgandra-Sydney 1915 Dubbo, N.S.W.: Macquarie Publications, 1981
• The Donahoe Ballads Ascot Vale, Vic.: Red Rooster Press, ca.1982
• The Wild Colonial Boy: Bushranger Jack Donahoe, 1806-1830 Ascot Vale, Vic.: Red Rooster Press, 1982
• Duke of the Outback: The Adventures of "A Shearer Named Tritton" Vale, Vic.: Red Rooster Press, 1983
• Learn To Talk Old Jack Lang: A Handbook of Australian Rhyming Slang By John Meredith, drawings by George Sprod. Kenthurst, N.S.W.: Kangaroo Press, 1984
• Folk Songs of Australia and the Men and Women Who Sang Them By John Meredith and Hugh Anderson. Kensington, N.S.W: New South Wales University Press, 1985-1987
• The Householders' Compendium Shepparton, Vic.: Night Owl, 1986
• The Coo-ee March: Gilgandra-Sydney, 1915 Kenthurst, N.S.W.: Kangaroo Press, 1986
• King of the Dance Hall: The Story of Fifty Years of Ballroom Music with Frank Bourke and the White Rose Orchestra Kenthurst, N.S.W.: Kangaroo Press, c1986
• Folk Songs of Australia and the Men and Women Who Sang Them: Volume 2 By John Meredith, Roger Covell and Patricia Brown. Kensington, N.S.W.: New South Wales University Press, 1987
• Gallant Peter Clark Woden, A.C.T.: Popinjay, 1988
• The Last Kooradgie: Moyengully, Chief Man of the Gundungurra People Kenthurst, N.S.W.: Kangaroo Press, 1989
• Real Folk Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1995
• Breaker's Mate : Will Ogilvie in Australia By Will Henry Ogilvie, compiled and edited by John Meredith. Kenthurst, N.S.W.: Kangaroo Press, ca.1996