Bruce Smith

Bruce Smith (1900-1994), Tenterfield, NSW provided details of some of the Australian tunes in this archive.

The National Library of Australia holds aural recordings of interviews conducted with Bruce Smith. He was interviewed by:

Barry McDonald in December 1985, [1], In the 1985 recording: Bruce Smith and Arthur Davies play the accordion and discuss the music and songs of Tenterfield and Torrington, New England, N.S.W.; Bruce Smith discusses playing backward on an accordion; his uncle's music; the song 'The stone at Dan Murphy's door' arriving in Tenterfield in 1930s (Jim Mullins sang the song 50 years before that); Tommy Pitkin and Sid Taylor; the song St. Patrick's day in the morning; Arthur Davies discusses learning music from his uncle; being born in Sydney and living in Walcha; the instruments he played in his youth; his uncle William Marshall; different dancing styles; playing concertina at the age 5; his Amati violin; bush singers; Doran and the Wall family; the origin of the name of the town Walcha; Alma Chandler; Aboriginal musicians; tells the story of the shooting of Mrs Snow and her daughter; a story of his horse Thunderbolt; discusses bush concertina players; the difference between a mouth organ and a harmonica; and Ernie and Bob Goodwin of Walcha.

Barry McDonald in June 1986; [2]; Folkloric recording: Bruce Smith plays the accordion and discusses his family and other folk musicians in the New England region of New South Wales.

Barry McDonald somewhere between 1970-1989, [3]; Bruce Smith and other contributors interviewed; Contributors included: Mick Pitkin, Alex(?), Hunter Ebert, Petrie brothers, Mona Kelly, Dan Sweeney and Hadley Butcher.

Barry McDonald in January 1989, [6], Mick Pitkin, Bruce Smith and Alec Petrie interviewed

A short audio visual presentation on Bruce Smith can be viewed on Youtube. This presentation was prepared by Jeff Lawrie and Pete McMahon.

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