1948

Grew up in a house filled with laughter, music and candlelight in Cremorne, Sydney, Australia.

I had a very happy, city childhood. I used to spend a lot of time skipping stones, fishing and sailing toy boats on Middle Harbour.

I had piano lessons from age six to fifteen. Can still play my scales and Heart & Soul, but that's about it!

My grandmother, Dorothy, was one of the Fuller Sisters - a celebrated trio who regularly traveled from England to America to sing folk songs. They sang to President Wilson and his family in the White House. My grandparents emigrated to Australia from London in the 1950's, and I can remember Dorothy's beautiful metzo-contralto voice floating through the garden of their Harbord flat.

Those haunting Celtic melodies are my earliest memories of folk music.

The first of many annual holidays that my family had at the Boathouse ... a boat shed, on the shores of Pittwater just north of Paradise Beach, owned by family friends, Elaine Haxton and Dickie Foot, (no relation). It had a smaIl kitchen and a few bunks, a slipway and a small 'harbour'. (Photographs in the Gallery soon).

I learnt to row early on, and by the time I was twelve my parents would allow me to row right across Pittwater ... once I had shown my Dad that I could get back into the boat if I fell out of it.

On one very glassy morning, about 100 yards from shore, the water erupted not far from the boat and the long tentacles of a huge squid thrashed about. The poor creature was being attacked by what my sister and I can only guess was a shark. I rowed away as hard as I could from the boiling surface until we were gliding across the silken breast of Pittwater once more. I will never forget those long, curled tentacles and their huge suckers.

Fossicking amongst the rocks, rowing about in the boat, and drifting off to sleep in the boathouse, with the sound of the water lapping or sloshing up the slipway, are some of my happiest childhood memories.

I feel really grateful to have had such an 'outdoor' childhood - one that wasn't dominated by TV, computers or GameBoy screens that seem to command so much of our children's attention today.

Having said that, I was mesmerized by the technology of the time ... the radio. I was glued to the radio every night from the age of ten ... made lists of the Top 40 and it's 'Bullet Performers'. The first song that I remember being hooked on was, Purple People Eater which was a hit in 1958.

About this time, my grandfather Jack Odell, who was a great organiser, found that the Sydney Opera Group was in financial trouble, so he organised a series of concerts at our place to help raise funds. My sisters (Belinda and Jessica) and I were allowed to stay up and listen to the musicians play. Those were jam-packed evenings of laughter, loud conversation, candlelight and quiet classical music. All sorts of amazing people - poets, painters, writers, actors and photographers (including Max Dupain), charmed the night as we children carried trays of my mother's savory treats through the crush ... no catering in those days for a middle-class family like ours. There wasn't much money left over after the school fees were paid, so it was driftwood and sea shells and other gifts of nature that decorated our Cremorne home ... which was quite a humble suburb back then. (And even if we had been millionaires, driftwood and shells would still have taken pride of place).

Went to a Peter, Paul & Mary concert at the old Boxing Stadium at Rushcutter's Bay, Sydney. Hooked! Gave up the piano ... fell in love with Mary!

Went to see The Beatles - also at the old Boxing Stadium which had a revolving stage surrounded by five or ten-thousand screaming fans ... mostly girls of course.

My sister Belinda and I, having slept outside Palings Music to get good seats, sat three rows from the stage. Our picture was on the front page of the Daily Mirror the next day under the caption, “Beatle Frenzy!”

Someone threw an apple at Ringo, who saw it coming at the last second and ducked - just missed him!

Paul McCartney winked at Belinda, who was very beautiful - but who to my surprise, screamed like all the other girls.

Left school to work in an advertising agency in George Street, Sydney. (James Green and Assoc').

I had been accepted for the five-year Arts Course at East Sydney Technical College, but I'd had enough of school by then and wanted to buy a car, and so took the job instead ... silly me ... but at least it allowed me to buy a guitar ...

Lived in Victoria Street, Kings Cross in the old Anthony Hordens stables building with actor Leon Gregory. Leon was into photography too, and we had a great time taking photographs and experimenting with different films and developers. (Photographs in gallery soon).

I met my future wife, Dawn Egan, in August of that year at Abercrombie House, Bathurst. But we were both entangled in other relationships and weren't destined to be together for another nine years. However, Dawn did stay at my parents family home in Cremorne for a couple of nights ... and of course, I was there at the time ... fireworks happened.

Got ‘called up’ to go to Vietnam but failed the medical due to a history of childhood asthma. Very lucky. I probably would have gone, for like so many other young men I had no idea of what it would mean, nor the emotional maturity to be a conscientious objector.

I have the utmost respect for people like Simon Townsend who took a stand against the war. I also harbour the same respect for the young men who went in the belief that they were doing something for their country. There is no real answer to that dilemma, although the idealist in me is drawn eagerly to the lyrics of The Universal Soldier by Buffy Saint Marie. Hear Donovan sing it now ... http://www.brownielocks.com/universalsoldierWAVE.html

Worked at Ratcliffe & Grinstead, a large commercial, photographic studio near Sydney's Central Station. I did all the colour processing plus alI sorts of things to help the established photographers take the shots. From waving a board so as to make the model's hair move, to loading the cameras with film and holding one of our photographers steady on a ladder to take the shot, after he returned from one of those long business lunches!

We had some big accounts: Coca Cola, Qantas, Volvo, Dunhill. My boss, Ron Ratcliffe, was a great bloke to work for and had the world's most infectious laugh! He was moody though, and either laughing with glee or kicking Hasselblads across the studio floor! He taught me a lot and I probably never should have left, but I wanted to do my own thing ... I've always been a bit of a one-man-band.

Bought a Maton FG 100 steel-string guitar from Palings Music, Sydney. I later sold it in a fit of frustration in 1975, because I couldn't master Doc Watson's, Deep River Blues, even though I had practiced it until one of my fingers actually bled! I could almost play it, but not quite how I wanted to. My teacher, Mike Mclellan was right ... it was too advanced for me at the time. I sold the guitar to my friend Peter Haddock who now lives in Byron Bay, so it's in good hands, bless him ... although he did throw it at one of his girlfriends a few years ago, which put a split in it, but has probably added to the ageing character of the instrument immeasurably.

I lasted four weeks without a guitar and then bought a second-hand, plywood-topped Takamine from Harry Landis in Park Street, which I played for the next nine years until I traded it in on the Takamine 12-string I bought in 1984 ... a guitar that I've played as a 6-string since 1986 because I like the wider neck. (I strung it back up as a 12-string in April 2009)

Had dinner with poet Michael Dransfield and his girlfriend Hillary in their attic flat above a garage in Paddington. Michael had been a friend of the family for some years and was a lovely, gentle, too-sensitive-for-this-world soul and a brilliant poet. He had a number of books of his work published. Little did I know then that many years later I would write a sad song about him ... Dangerous Game. I used one of his lines from his book Drug Poems ... it's the best line in the song.

(I never realised that the first line of Dangerous Game is almost identical to Jackson Browne's, My Only Candle, until it was pointed out to me at a gig at the Alexandra Hotel, Leura in 1986. I haven't changed the line, for it was just a coincidence and a totally innocent piece of plagiarism.

I had a few guitar lessons with Mike McLellan who lived at West Pennant Hills. I didn't have a car so I had to travel by bus from Paddington to Town Hall Station to catch the train to Pennant Hills. Then another bus to West Pennant Hills, after which I had to walk for about fifteen minutes to get to Mike's place, have a half-an-hour guitar lesson, and then do the return walk-bus-train-bus trip home!

I didn't think twice about it ... I wanted him to teach me! Lessons were $3.50 then. (I'm getting there Mike ... still working on St Louis Tickle).

Could've bought his red Gibson Hummingbird acoustic back then for $400. I've got a recording of him playing St Louis Tickle on that guitar on an early TDK tape that still works 38 years later! I still dub it occasionally for my more advanced students.

Lived in the inner-city with various girlfriends ... free-loving, hippy years. Went to my first big rock concerts. Saw the Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Santana, Joe Cocker, John Mayal, America. Hung-out at Martin's Bar down the street in Darlinghurst ... they were great years and hard years all at the same time ... growing-up years.

Shared a stone terrace at 155 Crown Street, East Sydney, with two stoned young Frenchmen, Daniel and Bruno and a willowy French girl, Josette. (I'm sure Josette looks back on that time with one big smile!).

One night, I heard someone playing a wonderful sounding guitar at a party we had there ... it was a Martin guitar. I filed that name away in my head under, “best sounding guitar I've ever heard”. I knew that one day I would buy one. (But it would be a long time).

Lived with Jan, a very city-fied American Beauty from Los Angeles. (California Girl). When we were out in the country one day with friends shooting beer cans off a fence post, I saw her rest the muzzle of the loaded .22 on the top of her foot so as not to get it dirty! Taking care not to make her jump, I gently reached over and took the rifle away. We lived together for a couple of years at 2/55 Belmont Rd, Mosman and 118 Glenmore Rd, Paddington. We laughed a lot!

Attended a Guitar Workshop at the Kirk Gallery run by Al Ward and John Summers (who would later become friends in the mountains). They played a guitar instrumental from a Rick Ruskin record called, A Minor Little Incident ... I've been a Ruskin fan ever since!

Some of my other favorite players are Blind Blake, Mississippi John Hurt, Gordon Lightfoot, Leo Kotke, Norman Blake, Mark Knopffler, Paul Simon, Eric Bibb, Chris Smither, Harry Manx, Christina Olsen, JJ Cale, and closer to home, Andrew Knight, Al Ward and John Stuart.

Moved out to Avalon on Sydney's Northern Beaches ... surf culture. I grew up by the water and once the sea is in your soul, you hear it forever more. I hear it in the mountains when the wind blows through the pines, and I lie in bed and listen to the big sets rolling in out there in the dark. Reckon I was a beachcomber or a fish in a previous life. That's the one thing about living in the mountains that I've never really come to terms with ... I ache for the ocean!

Met Paul Butler ... surfer, songwriter, soulmate ... like a brother to me. We never stop laughing! We worked together making candles ... thousands and thousands of them ... supplied David Jones across the country ... wax everywhere!

Paul also happens to be Captain Cook's great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson or nephew or something. He's got the Cook look, no doubt about it.

Lived with Katherine for a couple of years at 15 Awaba Street, Balmoral Beach, and then at 3 Archer Street, Chatswood. (She sadly passed away in 1995 ... bless her).

I decided to leave the candle-making to the others involved in the business at that stage and started driving cabs for ABC Taxis. Off on my own again.

Katherine and I parted and I answered a classified ad in the Sydney Morning Herald - for a house to share with three other blokes at 4b Allen Avenue, Bilgola Beach ... exactly opposite the house that Dawn and I would live in four years later. I moved in on my 30th birthday and immediately clicked with the others ... Eddy, (Richard Roman), Frank and Dick, (who was tragically killed in a car accident a few years later).

We had a great, blokey time there with some unforgettable parties that I can somehow still remember! A real surfer's bungalow with sand all over the house and a permanent mountain of washing up that we hoped the tanned-all-over beach-girls would do.

I was awoken the first night I slept there by a scraping, scrabbling sound coming from the kitchen. I eventually got out of bed to investigate and found the cause of the mysterious sound ... a rat was doing wheelies in a wok which had been washed-up, oiled and placed on top of the oven! I gave stir-fry a miss for a week or two.

Dawn, and her six-year-old son Damien, moved up from Adelaide to be with me. We were finally together, and started looking for a house of our own to rent in Avalon. (We've been together ever since). Damien is now 36, very independent and lives in Brisbane with his lovely wife, Kathryn. He is a Chief Helicopter Pilot ... he always wanted to fly.

We found a brilliant place in Avalon, (111 Riverview Road, on the Pittwater side).

The house had a pathway down to the northern end of Paradise Beach. It was nestled into a shady green hollow in the hillside that abounded with wildlife ... noisy Possums, occasional Koalas, tiny little Bandicoots, countless Parakeets, a huge Diamond Python and the call of seagulls from across the water that sparkled through the gum trees and palms.

I composed Southerly Buster in that house. (Photograph in gallery soon)

I drove a Manly Cab eighty hours a week to pay the rent (which was $75 a week), and make ends meet ... met all kinds of wonderful people and a few lost souls ... taxi-driving is the best education in the world. But I began to feel like a mouse on a wheel, and wondered how I could change things.

I started teaching guitar there ... gave a few lessons ... feeling my way.

Started trading at the markets, selling candles after Dawn came home and exuberantly threw $114 all over the living-room floor, after selling candles on a friends stall at Paddington. That was the equivalent of over two shifts in the taxi. Suddenly I didn't feel like a mouse on a wheel any longer ... I had a way out. We did Paddy's at Haymarket and Flemington, Paddington, Manly, Showground ... five markets a week for three years ... another wheel really, but another good education.

Moved into beach-front cottage on Bilgola Beach, (9 Allen Avenue) ... paradise! We could actually lie in bed and watch the sun or moon rise out of the ocean.

Over the years, we have lived in two other amazing water-front places in Avalon and Palm Beach, plus a glass-fronted bungalow at Whale Beach set back up the hill a bit - the ocean filled the living room as soon as you opened the front door!

Then, there have been the country homes ... the Old Police Lock-up and residence at 2 Piper Street, Bathurst, and an Arab Horse stud on the Ophir Road. Not to mention the lovely old weatherboards we've enjoyed in the mountains with their rambling gardens and old sheds tucked away in some delightful spot. I much prefer the mountain and country gardens to the coastal vegetation.

But, nevertheless, that Cornish Cottage at Bilgola Beach will take some beating. The back gate actually opened on to the sand. When we left, Mark Hunter from the band, Dragon took over the lease.

And how's this for a coincidence ... the people we moved next door to in Lovell Street, Katoomba had been the tenants at 9 Allen Avenue before we leased it! (Do I hear the Twilight Zone theme?)

Moved to the Blue Mountains, (77 Lovell Street, Katoomba), and became involved with the Blue Mountains folk scene, where I performed for the first time at the age of thirty-five at Katoomba Folk Club

Started teaching guitar at home. (Placed a classified in the Gazette that has run almost continuously for 26 years).

I wrote Dangerous Game, Treasures, Broken Rainbows and Aborigine in that house.

Moved to 1 Darley Street, Katoomba.

Began earning a living from playing and teaching guitar.

Met songwriter and good friend, Pat Drummond and formed folk band Currawong.

Attended Judy Small songwriting workshops. Judy stayed with us for six weeks while she was ‘Songwriter in Residence’ for Blue Mountains City Council.

Dawn took up the Celtic Harp.

I wrote Say No, Say No, Just The Way It Goes, Soldier Boy, Shadows Of The Moon, Shooting-Stars & Wishing-Wells, 83 Ordinary People and The Bushfire Song in that house.

Performed at peace rallies and UNAA functions during the International Year of Peace.
Wrote and recorded award-winning anti-nuclear songs, Say No, Say No and Going Somewhere, released as a single in association with the Greenpeace Organization.

I was honoured to be invited by the Blue Mountains City Council, to put something in the Time Capsule buried at Echo Point, (to be unearthed next time Halley's Comet orbits the Earth). So I included my anti-nuclear record and lyrics, an International Year Of Peace dollar coin and a letter. If I'm still alive when the comet returns I'll be about 112 years old!

Formed independent label, Good Spirit Records to market the single. (Changed company name to Good Spirit Records Pty Ltd)

Entered my first song contest, the inaugural Declan Affley Award with 'Dangerous Game'. Made the finals.

Won the Penrith Community Arts Development Organisation Literature Award, for my anti-nuclear song, ‘Say No, Say No’.

Won two International PATER Awards for songwriting: (for Say No, Say No and Going Somewhere).

Say No, Say No and Soldier Boy published in The Peace Songbook.

Sang 83 Ordinary People at the Bold Street Bridge Memorial Service for the first time.

Performed at folk clubs and on Sydney radio and television.

Moved to 32 Backhouse Street, Wentworth Falls. (Which we bought)

Played to 75,000 people at the Palm Sunday Peace Rally in the Domain.

Played to one person at the Western Suburbs Folk Club! (Having turned down a well-paid gig for a Gough Whitlam dinner at the Grandview Hotel just around the corner from where we lived. After all, a booking is a booking and the club might have done a poster run and written an article for the local paper, right? Wrong ... the woman who booked me for the Western Suburbs Folk Club never even showed up. Why? That's right, you guessed it ... SHE got a gig!

I wrote It's A Sad Song A Broken Heart Sings and composed Bathurst Road here.

Released debut album, Dangerous Game.
Performed 83 Ordinary People, (The Granville Song), at 10th annual memorial service for Blue Mountains train disaster. (I sing the song at the Bold Street Bridge every five years ... it gets harder and harder with the passing of the years. The older I get, the more in tune with life I become.

Resident guitarist at the Grandview Hotel, Wentworth Falls with Dawn Egan (harp).

Resident guitarist at the Fairmont Resort, with harpist Dawn Egan. Played over 600 gigs there! They really looked after us, and we were included in just about everything that happened at the resort ... until the management changed and we were swept out by the new broom overnight to cut down on costs, for we were paid handsomely.

But it was time for a change and we were becoming rather jaded with our wealthy surroundings and would often pass up another five-star meal just to get home, change into our 'roughies', put on the kettle and have a vegemite sandwich on our peeling verandah with our dingo-kelpie cross, Honey.

Passed the 1000 gig mark.

Roy Bailey stayed with us when he played in the mountains - I promoted his concert for Blue Mountains Folk.

President of Blue Mountains Folk, (formed from the old Katoomba Folk Club).

I decided to change the name of the Katoomba Folk Club to Blue Mountains Folk to give it a broader appeal, with the belief that residents from the other mountain towns would feel more included. Stuart Cowell and later Al Ward came on board and with their contacts and Bob and Annette Charter's Clarendon Theatre as our permanent venue, Blue Mountains Folk became a folk club of international standing, attracting many overseas artists. You simply couldn't have a more intimate, charming venue for a folk club.

When Dawn and I moved back to Whale Beach briefly in 1992, the folk club stopped running on a regular basis. (It was a labour of love, and nobody in their right mind would've done the poster runs through the mountain towns that I used to do!)

But by then the seeds were sown, and under the guiding hands of Al and Bob, something magic happened ... in 1996 it grew into the annual Blue Mountains Music Festival. www.bmff.org.au/

Margaret Roadnight stayed with us when she and I played for Community Aid Abroad in the Blue Mountains, Bathurst and Dubbo.

Sang 83 Ordinary People at the Bold Street Bridge Memorial Service. (2nd time)

Played at the Jamberoo Folk Festival - met Peggy Seeger (Pete Seeger's sister)

Son, Martin is born in Bathurst where we moved for a few months. (2 Piper Street). Suddenly, having a baby after fifteen years together came as quite a surprise!

Returned to the mountains, (18 Jersey Road, Leura)

I wrote Shine Like Silver in this house.

Won the Australian Songwriters Association's, Rudi Brandsma Award.

2nd Place in the ASA Song Contest for Dangerous Game

Returned to the mountains ... (3 Holmes Street, Leura). Lived there for ten years ... must be slowing down.

I wrote The Ballad Of C F Martin, Home By Dark, The Water Smoothes The Stones, Dark On The Wind, She Wore No Shoes, Rivers Of My Home, Away In The Distance, Sleeping Like An Angel and In The Shadowland in this house.

Taught guitar for the Mitchell Conservatorium Of Music at Bathurst for six years with plans to move there.

Bought the old Cobb & Co Way Station and three acres of river flats on the Sofala road at Kelso, (96 Gilmore Street). But tiger snakes, drug addicts and crooks washed away the romance of the dream ... it's one thing to have a dream ... it's quite another to live it.

Sang 83 Ordinary People at the Bold Street Bridge Memorial Service. (Third time)

Finally bought a Martin guitar ... a second-hand O16 New Yorker from Jackson's, Sydney. It's simply the most beautiful guitar that I've ever played, and was waiting patiently in that shop for me to buy it. I used to keep it next to the bed when I went to sleep, but I'm over that now ... I think Dawn was getting a little concerned!

I Later wrote and recorded The Ballad Of C F Martin on that guitar.

I was honoured to be presented with The Granville Medal, a medal struck to mark the 25th Anniversary of Australia's worst train disaster.

Sang 83 Ordinary People at the Bold Street Bridge Memorial site. (Fourth time)

2nd Place in the 2003 Musicoz Awards for Martin's Song, (Shine Like Silver).

3rd Place in the 2003 ASA Song Contest for Home By Dark.

Honourable Mention in the John Lennon Song Contest for Just The Way It Goes.

I became an accredited Australian Cricket Coach. Coached the Wentworth Falls Under 10 Cricket Team ... what fun we had!

Company celebrates 30th Anniversary.

Changed the name of the Company to Folksinger Pty Ltd.

Wrote, The Ballad Of C F Martin.

Filmed the 2005 Blue Mountains Music Festival ... good footage of Eric Bibb, The Spooky Men, Sensitive New Age Cowpersons, Jigzag.

Launched album, Home By Dark, at the Clarendon, Katoomba on the 26th November, 2006. Home By Dark is the first release on the Folksinger Label. Cat' Number (F1)

The Ballad Of C F Martin printed in The Sounding Board - the official newsletter of the Martin Guitar Company.

Won the Outstanding Contribution to Folk Music Award at the 2006 Blue Mountains Music Awards for songs entered from Home By Dark album.

Won the Folk Music Award for the second time running at the 2007 Blue Mountains Music Awards for more songs entered from Home By Dark album. The Awards night was held at the Clarendon, Katoomba on Wednesday 21st November, 2007.

Filmed the 2007 Blue Mountains Music Festival ... good footage of Sara Stora, Eric Bibb, Eleanor McEvoy.

Have over 50 guitar students now.

Did a lot of work on my guitar course.

Filmed the 2008 Blue Mountains Music festival ... good footage of Jake Shimabukuro, Shane Howard, Elana James, Ruthie Foster, Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill, Hans Theessink and Louden Wainwright III

Now teaching guitar six days a week and have about 60 students which I think is all I can comfortably manage.

Filmed the 2009 Blue Mountains Music Festival once again ... good footage of Paul Kelly, Mike McLellan, Doug Ashdown, Nano Stern, Chase The Sun, Begley & Murray, the April Verch Band and Old Man Luedecke.

Began work on editing the first of my Folk Festival Films - a series of DVDs that I hope will capture some of the magic of the Blue Mountains Music Festival ... it's just too good to let slip by without someone recording it.

Working on an exciting, new instrumental.

Southerly Buster ... instrumental

Sam's Tune ... instrumental

In Disguise

Aborigine

Treasures

Broken Rainbows

Far Away

Five Years On

Lullaby For My Girl ... instrumental

Blue Mountains Run ... instrumental (12-string guitar)

Dangerous Game

Song For Lovers

Easy Street

For Tomorrow

Going Fishing

Hazy Shades

Going Home

83 Ordinary People

The Bushfire Song

A Long Way From Parramatta Road

Going Somewhere

Bring On The Peaceful Days

Children Of Peace

Good Old Train

Alone With My Guitar ... Music by Barry Henninger

Gypsy Wind ... instrumental

Say No, Say No

Just The Way It Goes

Shooting-Stars & Wishing-Wells

Shadows Of The Moon

Soldier Boy

In The Hills

For The Birds

Good At Pushing Buttons

Don't Stand For The Man With The Gun

Where Do The Years Go?

All Dressed-up In Blue

Just Something I Want You To Know

1987

Soul To Soul

For Danny

White Sails

Half-way Home

It's A Long Way Home

Bathurst Road ... instrumental

It's A Sad Song A Broken Heart Sings

The Healing Song

Home By Dark ... instrumental

Dark On The Wind

Rivers Of My Home

May She Catch The Tide

The Magician's Song ... Children's song for ABC Music Publishing

Birthday's Are Fun ... Children's song for ABC Music Publishing

What's inside The Box! with Dawn Egan ... Children's song for ABC Music Publishing

Spot Says ... Children's song for ABC Music Publishing

Statues In The Park ... Music by Dawn Egan ... for ABC Music Publishing

Juggling Balls ... Children's son For ABC Music Publishing

The Water Smoothes The Stones

She Wore No Shoes

Away In The Distance

In The Shadowland

Sleeping Like An Angel

Began composing an exciting new instrumental in D minor

The computer and film editing has taken over my life and the time I used to spend writing songs is now spent staring at a screen! Stay tuned ...