Brisbane Folk

Brisbane has the most vibrant folk scene in Australia. From humble beginnings in the ‘50s, Queensland has generated a passionate and organised community of singers, dancers, musicians, songwriters, instrument-makers and – yes, historical recreationists. People from many walks of life, countries of birth and shades of political persuasion identify as ‘folkies’, bound together by a common ethos as powerful and enduring as it is hard to define.

Yet folk functions as an underground movement, barely recognised by mainstream culture. Ask someone on the street about ‘folk music’ and they’ll say it wandered into the sunset humming I Shall Be Released around 1975. The folk interviewed for this book, aged 9 to 90, tell a different story – in fact, hundreds of them.

‘Here for the first time the Brisbane folk community reflects on this creative, cohesive, multi-generational sub-culture. How has folk music shaped and been shaped by the state’s political evolution? Where does the Brisbane folk scene intersect with Queensland, Australia, the world? And what’s coming next?

Packed with shenanigans, insight, tragedy, love and phone-tapping, with its blood alcohol content perhaps a little high but its heart firmly in the right place, Brisbane Folk will make you feel the music.