Resting on our laurels: Our Australian Song and Dance Man

An article about David was featured in the December 2011 edition of the Jordan's Crossing Gazette, a glossy local magazine produced in Bundanoon. The text of the article is reproduced below.

Our Australian song and dance man
Penrose Musician David Johnson is passionate about "bush music" - our rollicking Australian bush songs and dance tunes. Singing with guitar or banjo and taking up the fiddle or concertina for dance tunes, he presents a diversity of material from the Australian repertoire: from convict ballads to contemporary songs about environmental issues: from colonial dance to newly composed dances and tunes. He shares this passion by organising events. In just three years the Bundanoon DanceFest, run by Bush Traditions Inc. and held on the June Long Weekend, has become a major item in the folk dancing calendar, bringing over two hundred keen dancers into the town, and filling all the available accommodation. David explains, "It is based on my main interest, Australian bush dancing, with the added flavours of English, Scottish, Irish, American, Ballroom and European dance." There is a full programme of day-time dance workshops followed by an evening dance or ball. This "dancing nirvana" (to quote one of the regulars) is matched by the enthusiasm of the 30 or so musicians involved.
David acknowledges the debt we owe the folklore collectors, such as John Meredith OAM, who interviewed and recorded the older performers including Stan Treacy from Crookwell and accordion legend Pearly Watling from Goulburn. "If it weren't for the work of dedicated collectors, we'd have lost the old songs about shearers, bushrangers, drovers, cane-cutters, gold diggers, bullock drivers, and our pioneer women, and our uniquely Australian style of dance music." He encourages younger performers to explore and extend the older repertoire, and especially to sing with an unaffected natural Australian voice. David is known in Australian musicial circles as the bloke who compiled The Blue Book, the folio of music for bush dances simply called Bush Dance. For its 25th anniversary in 2008 some 20 musicians played the book from cover to cover at the National Folk Festival in Canberra. An updated version with a thousand tunes is currently in preparation.
In the context of bands, David's associations read like a Who's Who of bush music - The Rouseabouts, Reedy River Bushmen, Pinchgut, and Southern Cross Bush Band. As Musical Director of the Sydney-based Heritage Ensemble, he has conducted the music for over 20 colonial-style balls in grand historic venues such as Sydney Town Hall.
Since moving to the Southern Highlands about 20 years ago David and his wife Anne and their three sons have performed together as Paddy's River Band. They have played for many functions - dances, parties, schools, weddings, festivals and markets. They boys no longer live at home so Anne and David now perform as a duo or bring in other musicians for larger functions. Occasionally, James their eldest, returns to perform with them, bringing the magical fullness of his accordion playing.
During 2005 David recorded his settings of some bush poems, playing on fiddle, concertina, banjo, viola, banjo-mandolin and guitar and vocals. The resultant CD "Rough Sawn" has won acclaim in folk music circles and can be sampled and purchased securely from the website: http://www.davidjohnson.id.au/.
With a new line-up, FolkLines, David has been performing recently at bush dancers in Canberra and Sydney and leading sessions and dances at the National Folk Festival. He says, "There is currently a huge resurgence of interest in Australian folk music and dance music, with local musical groups flourishing in Goulburn, Kiama and of course the bigger cities - Wollongong, Newcastle, Sydney and Canberra. If there are any local musicians and singers who would like to have a session in Bundanoon they are welcome to call me on 4884-4214 and perhaps we can make it happen."