Introduction

The spirit of Henry Lawson and John Dengate form the backbone of this album - no other two writers have given us sharper tools. In particular, we'd like to dedicate this album to our mate, the late John Dengate, whose words make up a third of the record. The album is part of our ongoing effort to catch and carry forward what has been passed to us.  We have attempted to make John's words our own, and also sink his work into the wider tradition. The Lawson / Dengate and Paterson / Dengate medleys came instinctively and quickly - one in performance, and one in a dream - and they are distillations of our intention for the wider album.  

The words of Lawson and Dengate capture an Australia that’s now seldom explored on radio or television, and largely ignored by the major newspapers as it flies counter to the mysterious world of our elected "representatives". While this has no doubt been the case for generations, it seems to us that this other republic of Australia fades from the public consciousness by the year.  Yet it is there still - in our home, village, and wherever our wide Australian travels take us. It is in the open hearts and hands of our mates. 

This album is part celebration of this hidden republic, and part call to action on its behalf. It is our personal statement against what seems to us a catastrophic failure of leadership in this country, offered up in the never ending struggle for social justice. The songs show that particularly Australian combination of humour, anger and a sense of bush justice that is not perfect, but ideal in our hearts. Importantly, the next biggest contributor to the record is the great Anon. These are the songs of the front bar, the kitchen, the football teams, the shearers' huts, the rail and road, the campfires of the bolters and bushrangers, the trenches... It is corrugated iron music - music with the hair still on it! This is campfire sedition.