Les Brown
Les Brown, with Daryl Maynard & Steve & Laurie Lowery, Cape Barren Island, Tasmania provided details of some of the Australian tunes in this archive.
The Brown Boys were descendants of Aboriginals who lived on Cape Barron Island. They were recorded in Launceston by
- Anne Girard in November & December 1974 [1]. Les Brown plays violin and ukulele, Norman Brown plays the spoons, Daryl Maynard plays the guitar and Mike Horn plays the banjo. Recorded at Launceston, Tas.
"Part of the Furneaux group of Islands off Tasmania, Cape Barren was a former sealing colony where Aboriginal women were taken by convicts and sealers for their food gathering skills and watercraft. Despite the history, the island sustained and allowed Indigenous culture to flourish. One tradition that's enjoying resurgence locally and nationally is Cape Barren Island music - similar to Kentucky blue grass developed by the local Aboriginal population in their contact with the Irish, Yorkshire and American sealers who came to the Island. The Brown boys descend from English, Irish, Scottish and American tunes, but their sound has a uniquely Australian flavour as the Islands are also home to the Palawa (one of the indigenous peoples of Tasmania, forcibly resettled on the Bass Strait island), and the Brown boys and other Cape Barren musicians have these dual heritages."
