Reg Kurtz
Reg Kurtz, collected some of the Australian tunes in this archive.
Portrait 1. of Reg Kurtz [1]. "The son of a fiddler, Reg Kurtz carries on the family tradition of music making at 'Avondale', Stony Creek."
Portrait 2. of Kurtz family, [2], "Rita (nee Holland) and Reg Kurtz with their two sons, Ross & Bruce, and Joy Berger, plus Keith Denny (not present) made up the well-known Stringybark Band in 1980."
Portrait 3. of Lillian Holland, [3], "Years after her husband's death, one day as her grandsons were playing 'I'll Be All Smiles Tonight', Lillian recalled the words and taught them to Bruce Kurtz.
The National Library of Australia holds aural recordings of interviews conducted with Kurtz family. They were interviewed by
- John Meredith in June 1982, [4], Bruce and Reg Kurtz play accordion, fiddle and mandolin. Also available online [5]
"Reg Kurtz is married to Rita Kurtz (nee Holland, daughter of Fred Holland), and was a farmer at Stony Creek near Mudgee. With his brother Les, sons Bruce Kurtz and Ross Kurtz, and Keith Denny, they formed a bush band called 'Stringybark' that played all the old Holland family music." -- (adapted from) J Meredith, R Covell, P Brown, Folk Songs of Australia Vol 2, UNSW Press, 1987, p205-6.
