Martyn Wyndham-Read
Martyn Wyndham-Read (born 23 August 1942 in Sussex) is an English folk singer, notable as a collector and singer of Australian folk songs. He lived and worked in Australia from 1960 to 1967 and has been a regular visitor to the country since then.
Martyn Wyndham-Read has been involved with folk music since he heard singers on an Australian sheep station in the 1960s. In 1960 he moved from Sussex to Australia where he worked on Emu Springs sheep station in South Australia. It was while he was there that he heard, first hand, the old songs sung by some of the station hands at Emu Springs and he became captivated by these songs and decided he needed to know more of them and where they came from grew. He moved to Melbourne and became part of the folk song revival there and throughout Australia during the early 1960s.
Wyndham-Read returned England in 1967 and met up with the renowned singer and song collector Bert Lloyd, who himself had spent time in Australia. Wyndham-Read was asked by Lloyd to contribute to the album ‘Leviathan’ on the Topic label. Soon afterwards he started recording for Bill Leader.
In the early 1970s he started the ‘Maypoles to Mistletoe’ concerts which portray the seasons of the year through song, music, dance and verse. This show has been performed for the last 40 years and has in itself become a tradition at Christmas time in and around the Sussex area. 10 years ago, he brought in one of his granddaughters (Hatti) to perform with him and is still performing in it today.
Wyndham-Read is also the instigator of the Song Links Project, these are 2 book- and- two CD sets which celebrate English traditional songs and their Australian variants, and Song Links 2 compares and contrasts English traditional songs with versions that have travelled over the Atlantic and been sung (and further developed) in North America with a cast of folk performers representing the cream of singers specialising in traditional songs from their own country.
Wyndham-Read is currently working with Shirley Collins and Pip Barnes on a production called ‘Down the Lawson Track’ featuring stories, poems/songs of the Australian poet Henry Lawson.
He has produced over 40 albums and appeared at folk festivals in Australia, and around the world.[1] He and his wife Danni, an artist, have 3 daughters, 1 son and 6 grandchildren.
Discography
- Moreton Bay (1963, Ltd Ed 100 CDs re-issued 1999)
- Ned Kelly & That Gang (1970, Trailer)
- Martyn Wyndham-Read (1971, Trailer)
- Songs & Music of the Redcoats (1971, w/ The Druids, Argo)
- Harry the Hawker is Dead (1973, Argo)
- The Valiant Sailor (1973, with Frankie Armstrong, A.L. Lloyd, Roy Harris)
- Sea Shanties (1974, with A. L. Lloyd, Ian Manuel, Bernard Wrigley, Roy Harris)
- Maypoles to Mistletoe (1975 w/ Geoff & Pennie Harris, Trailer)
- Andy's Gone (1979, Broadside)
- Emu Plains (1981, Fellside)
- A Rose from the Bush (1984, Greenwich Village)
- The Old Songs (1984, Greenwich Village)
- Yule Tracks (1986, Greenwich Village)
- Across the Line (1987, Greenwich Village)
- Mussels on a Tree (1992, Fellside)
- Sunlit Plains (1995, Fellside)
- Beneath a Southern Sky (1997, w/ No Man's Band, Fellside)
- Maypoles to Mistletoe (1998, Country Branch)
- Undiscovered Australia (1996 Music Pangaea) - compilation from Emu Plains, Mussels on a Tree, Sunlit Plains
- Beyond the Red Horizon (1999, w/ No Man's Band, Fellside)
- Where Ravens Feed (2001, Fellside)
- Song Links (2003, Fellside)
- Song Links 2 (2005 Fellside)
- Oceans in the Sky (2005)
- Jackeroo (2008 Wynding Road Music)
- Back to You ( 2010 Wynding Road Music )
- Starlit Skies ( 2012 Wynding Road Music )
- Seasons of the Year (Maypoles to Mistletoe) (2012 Wynding Road Music)