An exploration of the ‘traditional’ songs of Pākehā New Zealand. This session delves into the origins, adaptations, and transmission of these songs, particularly during the New Zealand folk revival from the 1950s onwards. There may be some serious myth-busting as the recent decades are approached.

May include:

Come All You Tonguers

Davy Lowston

(Whalers’ Rhymes) (New Zealand Whales)

(Shore Cry) (the Beautiful Coast of New Zealand)

(A Long Time Ago) (the Voyage of the Buffalo)

Alexander Whisker’s Song

The Nightwatch Song of the Charlotte Jane

Captain Matheson

The Shanty by the Way

Bright Fine Gold

I’m A Young Man (the New Chum)

The Wakamarina

The Dying Bushman

Down In the Brunner Mine

Soon May the Wellerman Come