Who I Am
Kelly Skinner
August 28, 1951
I would like to acknowledge the help of Russell McKenzie with audio recording and editing. Any bass you hear is also by Russell, most of the guitar is his, and the occasional harmonica.
Music has been a vital part of my life, starting with the pianola in my father's family home, the French songs my mother's father sang and the songs the family sang in the car to pass the time. I started learning classical flute the summer I turned 9 and took up guitar as a teenager.
I was never going to make a living as a musician, although there were a few good years when the bush music scene was going strong. Instead, I studied linguistics at uni and went on to qualify as an adult migrant English teacher. When I moved to the country, I worked with unemployed adults, teaching computer and job search skills. I learned some computer programming and had fun with that for a while.
Along the way, there were five children, half a dozen significant relationships and two teen romance novels.
In 1999, my beautiful but troubled son, Dion, took his own life. He had just turned 28.
Three of my children live in Melbourne. One lives in New York City. I have eleven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Through all this, the music has been with me. That's what these pages are about. Over time, you will get to know more of my music and my story.
Currently, I live in Newstead, a small town in Central Victoria. I am Festival Director of the Newstead Live Music Festival.
Kelly Skinner, Newstead, May 2020
About the Songs
On this site, I will be posting the words to songs that are or have been in my own repertoire, or songs that I remember and want to share for whatever reason. Some are beautifully crafted, some are evocative of particular people and times, some have just been there forever.
Some of the songs I learned from albums we had - The Clancy Brothers, Bonny Dobson, Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio. From the age of 13, I had part-time jobs that gave me a bit of pocket money. I often used this money to buy books. In particular, I bought collections of songs. There was the Joan Baez Songbook and her Vanguard recordings of traditional songs. The Clancy Brothers Songbook of Irish songs. Tom Paxton’s Ramblin’ Boy and Other Songs. Pete Seeger’s American traditional songs. I learned many songs never having heard anyone sing them.
My silver-headed flute and Martin guitar
When we came to Australia, bush ballads were widely sung. Much of my knowledge of Australian culture and history comes from these. I had to figure out what things meant, what they referred to, songs like Travelling Down the Castlereagh, Another Fall of Rain, Flash Jack from Gundagai. It leads me to reflect on the fact that my familiarity with American folk songs makes me feel connected to the whole of the USA even though I have seen only a fraction of it.
I have recorded the songs I do sing, sometimes solo, sometimes with Russell helping me out on guitar or bass. Imagine you are in the kitchen with me, as you might have been when I was a 15 year old, sitting cross-legged on the kitchen table while Mum prepared dinner.
The story that appears alongside a song may be only loosely related, or there may be a strong connection between them.
These are anecdotes from my experiences. Memories, and, as such, fallible but, I hope, entertaining or thought-provoking.
The intention is not to write about everything and anyone. And it will never be finished. Think of it like this:
When a family or a group of friends gets together and conversation runs to storytelling, one story leads to another, with everyone taking turns. Sometimes, when it's your turn, you may not have a story that is directly relevant but inside your head is a hat full of little pieces of paper with prompts on them, eg 'the broken toaster' or 'Alan's scar' or 'the little house in the woods'. So you tell that story just because it's your turn.
Most of these are my stories but I encourage others of my family and friends, and friends of family and friends, to submit their anecdotes.
About the Stories
