John McKinnon
John McKinnon (1923-), Ecklin South, Vic provided details of some of the Australian tunes in this archive.
Portrait [1], "Losing everything he possessed in the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983, John has rebuilt his home and general store, reformed his band and recorded and issued three commercial cassettes. A typical bush battler."
The National Library of Australia holds aural recordings of interviews conducted with John McKinnon. He was interviewed by
- John Meredith in June 1984, [2], "John McKinnon plays accordions, Hohner in D and old Mezon in F sharp. McKinnons biographical memories ; include history of his grandfather, grandmother and father ; the songs he plays ; parent's music ; playing music himself ; playing saxaphone, dances.
- John Meredith in June 1984, [3], "John McKinnon plays accordion and Marie Ewing plays guitar and sings. Throughout recording McKinnon speaks briefly of each tune and where it was learned"
- John Meredith in December 1984, [4], John McKinnon and his old time band play a complete country town dance; in December 1984,
- John Meredith December 1984, [5], John McKinnon plays accordion
- John Meredith in May 1985, [6], John McKinnon plays accordion
- John McKinnon and his band play at a New Vogue dance at Camperdown Victoria, June 1995, [7]
- Chris Sullivan in 1984, [8]
- John McKinnon Dance Band recorded by Kevin Bradley in November 1994,[9], [10], John McKinnon and Maria Ewing recorded.
- Alan Musgrove in April 1997, [11], "John McKinnon, speaks about coming from a family of musicians; his father being a fiddler, who played with the fiddle down on his chest; lists fiddlers that played like his father; style of fiddle played; techniques they used on the fiddle; Ralph Marwood; the local district; Harry Axford's tunes and him playing the mouth organ; how his mother used to play the mouth organ; the tunes learnt from his mother and father; Bill Blane; Bill Stafford, a tin whistle player; how he started playing at dances at the age of 12; dances played and danced; the Jazz era in the 50s; session playing, even to this day; Irish singing; the Italians playing, accordions and mandolins, being good singers; the tone of his new accordion, made in South Australia; teaching himself how to play accordion; sad tunes, how the quiver of an instrument warms him; story about a supper evening at a dance, 'twas an orderly affair, no alcohol'; his own Band in the 1950s, The Merry Max; other Bands around at the time, the Swan Band, Sloans, Cassey's, Revellers, Millionaires; how most of the halls they played in are now gone; learning music by ear; being able to follow the timing of the dancers feet; MC calling of all the Sets at the dances; MC's being in control of the whole dancing."
"John McKinnon was born in the Terang area in 1923, the grandson of a young Scottish migrant. ... His grandmother came from Galway, and most of his tunes came from his father -- some from his mother -- so that he had a mixed inheritance. ... He has been playing for dances since he was twelve and plays mouth organ, accordion, trumpet, bagpipes, whistle, and both alto and soprano saxophones, all very proficiently. ... John McKinnon is by far the best musician I have recorded. He has his own dance band, and the years of discipline necessary to successful team work, plus his unique musical inheritance, make him a musician whom it is a delight to hear play." -- (adapted from) J Meredith, R Covell, P Brown, Folk Songs of Australia Vol 2, UNSW Press, 1987, p302.
See also "Tunes of John McKinnon" [12], transcribed by Alan Musgrove, Pioneer Performer Series, Carrawobitty Press, 2010. "The music in this book has been transcribed by Alan Musgrove from recordings in the John Meredith and Alan Musgrove Collections at the National Library of Australia and from Alan Musgrove's private collection"
