Australian Country Music Hall of Fame, Tamworth

From 2-4 August, Alison made a return visit to Tamworth, NSW, this time to talk to the small team of dedicated folks who work at the Australian Country Music Hall of Fame.  Like the Victorian Jazz Archive she visited back in May, the Hall of Fame is an institution dedicated to preserving an aspect of Australia's music heritage which runs entirely on donations, grant funding, and the tireless work of its volunteers.  The Hall of Fame building (Tamworth's former Mechanics' Institute) houses a public museum space featuring changing displays about some of the many stars of Australia's country music scene, as well as an extensive closed archive of material artefacts related to country music and its cultural heritage.  Sound and visual recordings, costumes, instruments, photographs, magazines, posters -- and even a piece of historic railway track which is the subject of a country music song -- all have a home in the archive.  Alison was treated to the staff's kind hospitality during her visit, and was able to find out lots of detail about the work being done behind the scenes to preserve and display Australia's country music's past.  The archival collection has been recognised as being one of 'national and international signficance', following a Community Heritage Grant from the National Library of Australia in 2006, which enabled a significance assessment.

The Hall of Fame is located at 93 Brisbane Street, Tamworth.  For more information, visit their website, http://www.countrymusichalloffame.com.au

Big things, wax things, bronze things

Over the last few days in Tamworth we have visited yet more of the Country Music Capital's historical sites, including the Big Golden Guitar, the Country Music Gallery of Stars Wax Museum, the bronze busts in Bicentennial Park, the Hands of Fame, Lindsay Butler Studio's Wall of Fame and memorabilia collection, and the Australian Country Music Foundation's Country Music Hall of Fame.  We were also very lucky to be invited to the Australian Bush Laureate Awards held at the beautiful Town Hall, where we were seated right next to country music's matriarch, Ms Joy McKean!  Throw in a couple of concerts, a few talks by Australian pioneers of country music, a lot of buskers, and the unveiling ceremony of this year's plaque commemorating this year's inductees into the Roll of Renown (Tommy and Phil Emmanuel), and you could say we have been rather busy...