Cathy Ovenden
Cathy (also known as Cath), when partnered with Mark Rummery, lived in rural New South Wales in 1983-88. At that time they collected, arranged, transcribed and provided details of some of the Australian tunes in this archive.
You can find more details about her by:
- searching for Cathy Ovenden in the National Library of Australia, [1]
- exploring the Mark Rummery and Cathy Rummery collection, 1984-1988, [2], Mark and Cathy Rummery have a deep interest in early Australian music and history. They have been working in this field since 1981. The collection comprises 72 sound tape reels; recorded from 11 August 1984 to 17 May 1988, at various locations throughout Australia.
Cathy and Mark were part of the Horton River Band, which formed around Charlie Batchelor of Bingara, NSW, and which contributed to collections of field-recorded material, to the National Library of Australia Oral History Archives from 1984. They made recordings of folk music, folklore and reminiscences, which may now be found in the in the National Library of Australia, Canberra. The collection contains 40 tape recordings of folk music, folklore and reminiscences. The performers and interviewees lived in Broken Hill, Menindee, Narrandera, Wagga Wagga, Young, Boorowa, Crookwell, Binalong, Bingara, Bungendore and Sofala. Further material from her may be found in the Chris Sullivan Collection in the NLA.
Since 1985 Cathy Ovenden has performed and taught traditional Australian music with various bands at major Australian folk festivals. In 2013 Cathy was the National Folk Fellow, sponsored by the National Library of Australia and the National Folk Festival. Her Fellowship focused on the fiddle music of Joe Yates (1895-1987), bush worker, poet and prolific fiddler from the Sofala/Hill End area. Joe, who was 89 when first recorded, handed over an enormous collection of material between 1983 and 1985. Cathy first met Joe in 1985, one of a few individuals who were lucky enough to learn directly from him. Her Fellowship culminated in the release of a CD "The Fiddle Music of Joe Yates" (on Bandcamp).
While living on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Cathy collaborated with other musicians, Wendy Hodgins & Steve Cook.
