australian folk music
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Fergal’s Trip to Herschel
by Peter Holmes This tune fell out of my mandolin when I was messing around in a different scale. It is named after my friend Feral who had an eventful night at the Brisbane watch house. Composed in 1992. Continue reading
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Fatty’s Rest
by Andy Rigby A lament for the passing of Neville “Fatty” Wilson, president of the Maldon Folk Festival for many years. The time signature is deliberately fluid on this one. Composed in 1996. Continue reading
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Farewell to Fife / The River Tay
by Sirocha Bruckard My uncle Ron Wood, a proud Scotsman who sadly passed away in 2014, never understood why anyone would want to leave Scotland, believing that it had the very best to offer in terms of scenery, weather, food, music and of course, whisky! I composed these two tunes while remembering the beautiful view out Continue reading
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Eamon’s BnB
by Merran Moir We were staying at Milltown Malbay for Willie Clancy week, and we had a wonderful host, Eamon, who looked after us brilliantly, including bringing our washing in from the line, and finding us another place to stay when we wanted to extend our visit. I wrote the tune as a thank-you to him. Continue reading
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The Demonologist’s Daughter
by Matthew Horsley The title came first on this one. I was amusing myself coming up with ridiculous titles modelled on traditional tunes like ‘The Milliner’s Daughter’ and ‘The Shepherd’s Daughter’. I had to make the tune suitably diabolical… Composed in 2019. Continue reading
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Crack the Top of the Boiled Egg
by Mischa Herman and Lucy Wise This jig Lucy and I wrote in one evening composing a bar each at a time. Was great fun as what came next always surprised us! Composed in 2022. Continue reading
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Cinn Mhara
by Huh Planigale I composed this tune as part of my VCE Music Investigation study in year 12 and played it in my final examination. Composed in 2021. Continue reading
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Chicken in the Kitchen
by Tanya Bradley I needed a name for this tune that was a bit more exciting than ‘G tune’. My husband had a listen and thought it sounded a bit like a chicken. I’m not sure where the kitchen part came from but it had a nice ring to it. Composed in 2019. Continue reading
About Melbourne Tune collection
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 