Rob Willis
Robert Willis (b. 1944) grew up in Forbes, New South Wales, where he has lived most of his life. He has worked in the sales and electronics trade and for many years owned and managed an electrical appliances business. He became interested in folk music in 1975 when he was involved in a production of the musical Reedy River. He formed a band called Blackridge (the original name of Forbes) to perform Australian folk songs. A self-taught musician, Willis played the button accordion, guitar, mouth organ, tin whistle, banjo, concertina and also sang. He realized that there were still many traditional performers in the Forbes area and started to record their music and stories in the late 1970s. Some of these recordings were made with John Meredith. The Rob Willis Collection at the National Library of Australia is one of the largest oral history collections in Australia.
Rob recorded some of his observations and experiences in "Verandah Music, Roots of Australian Tradition", Ed. Graham Seal and Rob Willis, Curtin University Books, 2003, ISBN 1 920731 97 0
Rob Willis collected and provided details of some of the Australian tunes in this archive.
