Between the Lines - Issue Fifteen
Carrie Milliner – 1926 -
2005
On the 16th of November 2005 Australian traditional singer Carrie Milliner
passed away.
Carrie (nee Bobbin, born 1926) grew up in the bush of "The Nullica",
eight miles from Eden, on the far south coast of NSW. The large extended
family lived hard-working lives as sleeper cutters. In fertile isolation,
this family of singers aurally maintained a fantastic collection of songs
– traditional ballads, early country, music hall humour, parodies
and poems.
Some of the songs have a traceable history in the family for generations.
Carrie in particular found a passion for remembering the songs and sang
many of them for collectors Rob Willis, John Meredith, John Harpley and
Kevin Bradley.
Beautiful and seemingly forgotten stories and melodies, unified by Carrie's
anecdotes from her early life provide a fascinating glimpse of the Australian
aural tradition at work:
"Dad's place was a meeting place for the songs… they'd
all come to Dad's and sing… that's how I've got hold of so many
of their songs. Mum would have our tea cooked, and after the washing up
was done Dad would get us around the fire and make us sing one song each,
then we were allowed out to play." *
“I used to follow Dad around like a little puppy and every time
he sang, it’d go straight into my brain. I’d go away and sing
it through ‘till I knew I had it right.”
Chloe Roweth and Carrie Milliner at the Jamberoo Festival
Carrie Milliner and the real world of traditional
Australian singing.
After an eye-opening trip to the Woodford festival in 1996, my partner
Chloe and I applied for and were subsequently booked for this new thing
(for us) called a folk festival - it was the National in Canberra. Our
repertoire consisted of original songs in a meld of Australian pop, blues,
rock, folk and country styles, along with some old eccentric bush songs
and American roots material that we’d picked up over the years.
We often performed and recorded using only our voices and acoustic guitar
– maybe that’s what led a few people into describing our music
as folk!? Though we’d been performing separately and together for
many years we had little awareness of the folk scene or of “collected”
music. We had just finished a performance on the Main Marquee stage when
we met the incredible enthusiasm of collector Rob Willis and first heard
him use the words we have come to treasure ever since – “I’ve
got something I think you might be interested in… “. Just
a few days later a tape recording of Carrie Milliner appeared in the mailbox.
Rob drew our attention to one of his favourite collected songs - “Bonnie
Moon” (see below). We not only loved the song but found Carrie’s
delivery an inspiration; clear and concise in the traditional unaccompanied
style - full of power, subtlety and feeling. As Carrie explained:
"...when I sing their songs, I feel they're close...they're there
with me as I sing 'em…I try to sing 'em like Grandfather would,
I try to take all their voices off as much as I can when I sing their
songs...we just naturally followed the way our parents and grandparents
sang. If you don't put feeling into a song, what's the point of singing
it? You've got to sing it from the heart."
In our typical “bower bird” fashion we wanted to add the song
to our repertoire, and so set about writing an accompaniment and arranging
the song for performance. After a few days we finally moved on to listen
to the rest of the tape – many more remarkable songs, more of that
great voice, and fascinating (and often very familiar) life experiences
told in the interview!
"...he'd be singing or humming a tune while he worked, we'd
snig the sleepers and we'd have the times of our lives, never thought
about being tired - only one day Phoebe said to me "I'm terribly
tired" - I said "Well don't tell Dad because he might not let
us go to the next dance"...we used to have the times of our lives!"
I clearly remember wondering how it was that so many of these songs had
escaped my attention individually for all these years, and yet together
they seemed to form a core for my musical instincts. You don’t know
what you’re missing until it appears in the mailbox! Rob called
to ask how we went with the song and of course we enthused over what we
had heard. A couple of days later 5 more tapes of Carrie appeared –
our introduction to “collected” music!
”These songs are for everyone; they’re meant to be shared.”
Our continued enthusiasm for, and terrific audience reactions to Carrie’s
songs has led to a CD, songbook and themed concert on the Bobbin family.
Chloe & I look back at meeting and performing with Carrie as one of
the great joys of our career. Her positive reaction to our CD of her songs
gave us enormous satisfaction (and more than a little relief!). We still
perform songs we’ve learned from the recordings of Carrie regularly;
there’s a song for every occasion! The bigger picture is that these
recordings were the best possible introduction to the idea of “collected”
music. My great thanks go to Rob Willis for introducing us to the recordings
of Carrie Milliner. You can listen too! They are available from the National
Library of Australia (Willis Collection TRC 3042) or try an inter-library
loan at your local library. You won’t regret it!
* Quotes are from Carrie Milliner's memoirs, and from the field recordings.
The Bobbin Family - Nance, Phoebe, Tom and Carrie
Bonnie Moon – The Banks of Clyde
I have included a couple of songs that we learned from Carrie in previous
instalments of ‘Between the Lines” but never the song that
started it all. ‘Bonnie Moon’ is a song that Carrie held very
dear and has been passed down in the Bobbin family for generations. Carrie
learned it from her great-grandfather. Some of the mysteries around the
song were solved recently when Rob Willis discovered a broadside in the
National Library of Scotland web site.
http://www.nls.uk/broadsides/broadside.cfm/id/16026/criteria/moon
Of course the Bobbin family version may well have been handed down independently
of the broadside. The song certainly shows wonderful signs of being through
the folk process. Along with the expected adaptation away from the Scottish
brogue it is interesting to see “Highland minstrel boy” turn
to “Ireland minstrel boy”. Perhaps there is a workshop in
the contribution dropping aitches has made to the Australian Tradition.
I wandered many a night in June, along the banks of Clyde,
Beneath the bright and bonnie moon, with Mary by my side.
A summer wedding to my eyes, and to my heart of joy;
For well she loved to roam with me, her Ireland minstrel boy.
Her presence stood on every star, two million fields so clear,
I thought the flowers sweeter by far, when they were seen with her.
Although her heart was true to me, her Ireland minstrel boy.
I played to ladies fair and gay, in many a southern hall,
But there is one far, far away, a world above them all.
And though many a weary year has fled, I think with mournful joy,
Upon the day when Mary wed, her Ireland minstrel boy.
From Rob Willis…
Narooma on the South Coast of NSW is a great little spot for a holiday
and that is exactly what the Willises were doing in January 1992. Of course
when I heard of an accordion player by the name of Cecil Summerell at
nearby Dignam’s Creek my recorder and I had to go and pay a visit.
Cecil had arranged for his cousin, country music performer Nance Burton
(nee Bobbin), to come up from Eden for the session and it was there that
the songs and stories of The Nullica and Bobbin family first emerged.
Nance sang us a couple of old songs passed down in the family in a country
music style with guitar accompaniment. All were unique. Nance also invited
us to call on her again and meet her brother and sisters who knew “the
old songs”.
This visit happened a couple of months later and we met Nance’s
brother Tom Bobbin, her sister Phoebe Veness and elder sister Carrie Milliner.
It soon emerged that even though the others had vast repertoires it was
Carrie who remembered the traditional family songs learnt in the sleeper
cutter’s camps.
Over the next few years in company with John Meredith, Kev Bradley and
John Harpley I called on Carrie many times filming and recording her seemingly
inexhaustible repertoire. Once she had reasoned what we were after the
remembrance of the old songs became a passion for Carrie. Notebooks were
filled with words, sleepless nights were quite common where she would
sit up and remember and write down the verses. Luckily all these books
have been copied and deposited with The National Library.
The Bobbins of the Nullica were a large extended family, all musical.
Carrie tapped into her relation’s minds, got the words and then
sang the songs for us to record. Many a night I had another welcome phone
call from Carrie telling me about her latest ‘find’. The other
amazing part of Carrie was her style of singing. When singing the older
songs her voice would be clear and she would often remark that she sounded
just like the older person from whom she had learnt the piece.
I’ll never forget the comment made by John Meredith about Carrie
– “She’s as good as Sally, Rob”. John didn’t
make comments like this lightly, particularly when he was referring to
traditional singer Sally Sloane. John considered Sally the jewel in his
‘collecting’ crown – the best singer he had recorded.
The statement was so profound that I wrote it down on a film box I had
in my hand along with the time and date. 7:10pm – 30-5-1993.
We bought Carrie to The National Folk Festival in 1994 and also took the
opportunity to record and preserve her repertoire of songs in The National
Library studios.
As with the majority of people we record we kept in touch with Carrie
and would visit (and probably record another song) whenever in the area.
Even though she was starting to get a bit weak she came to Jamberoo in
2001 and performed as part of the John Meredith tribute concert “Sharing
the Harvest”.
Like many women of the bush Carrie was very direct and soon let you know
if something was not to her liking, a quality that I admire. If there
was a problem she would soon get over it (once it was fixed) and forget
that anything had happened. Also, as with many bush women she was a loyal
mate and would do anything for you.
Carrie rang us last year and told us that she had leukaemia but not to
worry, she’d beat it – unfortunately she didn’t and
passed away in November 2005.
When the National Library were told of Carrie’s passing we received
many tributes from those who had come in contact with her.
Please accept the sympathy of all here. Occasions like this are sad milestones, but like Sally, Carrie will 'live on' in the Collection.
Mark Cranfield curator of Oral History at NLA
She was indeed a great lady, with an extraordinary love of the music and ability to sing it. I am glad to have met her.
Kevin Bradley Head of Digital Preservation at NLA.
I too am glad that you have all taken such care to capture her and her life. A joyous experience...so thanks in sadness.
Robyn Holmes, curator of Music NLA.
I’m sure that wherever Carrie is now she has her
notebook and pencil out writing down the words to the old songs.
Rob Willis
Jan 2006