Sally Sloane
Sally Sloane (1894-1982) Lithgow, NSW provided details of some of the Australian tunes in this archive, as described by John Meredith, and also collected by Jacko Kevansl, Norm O'Connor & others.
Sally was one of the most important Australian traditional singers and musicians recorded by John Meredith, beginning in 1955, when she was aged in her sixties. Sally lived in NSW all her life. She was a gifted singer and played the one row button accordion, violin and mouth organ.
"Sally Sloane was born in Parkes in 1894. Her grandmother, Sarah Alexander, came from County Kerry, Ireland ... (Sally) inherited the family gift of singing and learning songs easily. All her mother's instruments plus the fiddle, mouth organ and tin whistle were mastered by her. Sally and her husband, Fred Sloane, were living at Lithgow when John Meredith first met them, but later moved to Teralba, on the short of Lake Macquarie ... Sally kept remembering further items; in fact there seemed no end to the songs and tunes she knew. The bulk of these were learned from her mother, but several came from her step-father, William Clegg, and other bush workers." -- J Meredith, H Anderson, Folk Songs of Australia Vol 1, UNSW Press, 1967, p161-162.
Sally was recorded by several folklorists, and there are photos and recordings available at the National Library of Australia in Canberra, search the NLA catalog for "Sally Sloane".
"Mrs Gibbons appears to have been Sally Sloane's twin sister, Bertha".
Wikipedia contains a lengthy article on Sally Sloane.
Ian Hayden has built a list of her recordings and links to them at: The music of Sally Sloane.
