Collector

Roger Hargraves -- Chloe Roweth -- Bill Browne -- Jason Roweth -- Jason Neville -- Jim McWhinnie
vocals, fiddle, bouzouki, banjo, mandolin, tin whistle, kit drums, guitar, electric bass, bodhran


Collector at the National Folk Festival 2008. For a high quality version of this image (3M, 300dpi) click here.


"There are bands that become essential in the labor of keeping the
musical heritage of certain societies alive and in good health, researching
and performing traditional music with acknowledgement and taste, while
making it a lot of fun for the audience at the same time. There is such band in
Australia, and that's Collector."
Igor Medio
FELPEYU

CD Available Now
"Pumpkin and Bear"

15 tracks - Australian traditional songs 'The Great Northern Line', 'New Chum's Lament', 'My Son Ted', 'Inglewood Cocky', 'The Wee One', 'The Morning of the Fray', 'The Seizure of the Cyprus Brig', 'Backblocks Shearer' and 'Rambling Sailor' along with a selection of Australian dance tunes.
New vibrant and dynamic arrangements - hot off the press!

Order Here

Background

"Collector is the name of a band of musicians from the Central Western area of New South Wales who are committed to breathing new life into the old songs and dance tunes of their native culture. From lively tunes to heartfelt ballads to a capella singing, with well thought out and tasteful arrangements, Collector wins all my plaudits for playing and re-creating the grand old music of the Australian Bush." - Andy Irvine

"Collector has sounded the death knell of the bush band. Finally someone has shown that real Australian music can be as interesting as any other. Played with verve, imagination and passion. Book them, I did."
- Graham McDonald, Programme Director, National Folk Festival

Collector combine traditional and modern instruments, with a range of strong lead vocalists, all fine interpreters of our collected songs. The members of Collector are united by their long love of seeking out and playing traditional Australian music. Some have played together for years in various combinations including Cocky’s Joy, Jindi, Us Not Them and The Alter Boys. Collector formed in 2001 to explore the idea of a bigger band playing arrangements of collected Australian music.

Performances have included very successful appearances at The National, Blue Mountains, Jamberoo and Albion Park Folk Festivals amongst others. Collector also enjoy taking the music back to some of the small town pubs and halls of NSW – highlights include memorable nights in Sofala, Oberon, Bathurst and of course Collector (the town).

Collector’s debut CD “Coming in from the Old” was released in 2002. Tracks from the CD have been chosen for collections including Folk Alliance Australia’s double CD compilation “Musical Traditions in Australia” and “Trad & Now” magazine’s “Tapestry” release.

Contact Collector: Chloe Roweth
C/O Millthorpe Post Office,
Millthorpe, NSW, 2798, Australia
Email: jason@rowethmusic.com.au




Collector on the Budawang Stage at the 2002 National Folk Festival

The energy and conviction of the band is plain. Whether it’s one of the great old ballads, an unaccompanied song, the sweetest waltz, or a set of tunes with the band in full flight, Collector is heartfelt, entertaining and infectiously irreverent.

This is not traditional music under glass - it's folk music with the hair still on!

The songs reflect Australian history, landscape and place names - Australians will recognise the context as their own. There are distinctive styles to this music, and Collector give full credit and respect to a long lineage of characters, singers and musicians playing for social events, dances or plain entertainment in the Central West of NSW in particular.

Collector draws on a vast corpus of collected material and works dating from the time of European settlement, through the Gold Rush, to recent times, and capturing "real life" issues in Australia depicted from many perspectives. Collector's attention is not focused entirely on the Central West, but also gives voice to other almost-forgotten ghosts from every region of Australia where people once wrote, re-wrote, performed and enjoyed a distinctively Australian style of music.

The real strength of this band is in transforming memories into music into emotion.The combination of band members,each with an individual and distinctive approach, gives life to the music and communicates it to their audience.

Above all else, Collector remains conscious and respectful of the historical context of Australian folk music. Their approach has found favour with traditionalists and contemporary listeners alike, mainly due to the players' ability to allow the material to speak without getting in the way of its true voice. Strongly advised by the tradition but not limited by it, their interpretations capture the essence and power of Australian folk roots, while aiming to carry the tradition forward.

The band derives particular fulfilment and satisfaction from performing collected material from AND FOR the older traditional singers and players who are still with us - a rare opportunity to share such graceful and evocative tune sets and songs as if travelling back in time to the local dance hall on a Saturday night, where music was played for entertainment more than profit.

Newly released from the collectors' archives, we hope to keep this music ALIVE in the Australian Heritage.

 

COLLECTOR CD
Coming in from the Old

Collector's first CD, "Coming in from the Old" (also featuring Alex Hargraves) was released in April 2002. Here's a sample...

Listen to tracks from this CD

Click here to order a copy.

Track Listing and other details.

"Collector" plays the music with gusto and sings the songs with feeling and understanding. Songs of the Bushranging days of Ben Hall, Jack Donoghue and others who, whatever their reasons for becoming outlaws might have been, were held in awe and respect, their passing regretted and their deeds romantically recorded by the old ballad singers of NSW and Victoria.
Songs of mighty shearers who could knock off a century of sheep by 4:30, knock back a skinful of booze by midnight and have their 'cheques knocked down' by morning...!
- Andy Irvine

“Songs beautifully delivered by Chloe Roweth who also plays a deft mandolin on the tunes, trading melodic harmonies with Roger Hargraves the admirable fiddle player. Roger's son Alex may be young but he has a feeling for the music which belies his years. His guitar playing is always tasty and his chords on some of the slower songs are creative and appropriate.
Mike Martin is a restless soul who collected a lot of the dance tune material and plays accordion and concertina with the first hand knowledge of how it should be played and Jim McWhinnie, Jason Roweth and Jason Neville provide bass, guitar, percussion and vocals that glue the band together. Bill Browne on kit drums underpins the rhythm section and gives the band a steady beat to build on.”
- Andy Irvine

RELATED LINKS
Chloe & Jason Roweth Homepage