I heard about this piece of New Hampshire folklore from my Mum, who heard about it from my grandmother- then last year I found an online story that verified it all. Near this little town there was a boulder where someone had pained “I love you chicken farmer” back in the 70s. Then new owners moved it and the writing got removed…until someone snuck over in the middle of the night to write “chicken farmer, I still love you,” and I thought, that’s terrific.
Composed in 2014.
Melbourne Tune Collection records and publishes original folk tunes and songs from around Australia.
I started this project after realising that I barely knew any Australian folk tunes, even though I’ve been playing the fiddle for almost two decades. It wasn’t that Australians weren’t writing tunes, it’s just that there was limited publishing opportunities for them.
I thought maybe if I collect these tunes and put them together, they would have a better chance of getting played. So in early 2019 I set off with my camera and recorder, first around Melbourne, then across Australia.
This site is the result of these travels. Its purpose is to make Australian folk music as accessible as possible and promote the incredible music that’s being written today. I genuinely believe that there’s something special happening in the Melbourne and Australian folk music scenes right now.
I hope you enjoy playing through these tunes as much as I have!
Katherine Oleinikov
Melbourne Tune Collection 
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