Gary Rhett Shearston (9 January 19391 July 2013) was an Australian

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

and Anglican priest. He was a leading figure of the

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

revival of the 1960s and was notable as a performer of Australian traditional folk songs in an authentic style. He scored a Top 10

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in 1974 with his

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the

Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film. Born to ...

song "

I Get a Kick out of You "I Get a Kick Out of You" is a song by Cole Porter, which was first sung in the 1934 Broadway musical ''Anything Goes'', and then in the 1936 film version. Originally sung by Ethel Merman, it has been covered by dozens of prominent performers, in ...

Early life

Shearston was born in

Inverell Inverell is a large town in northern New South Wales, Australia, situated on the Macintyre River, close to the Queensland border. It is also the centre of Inverell Shire. Inverell is located on the Gwydir Highway on the western slopes of the No ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia, the son of Audrey Lilian (née Manchee) and James Barclay Shearston. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

his father was posted on active service and Shearston and his mother lived on his grandparents' property, "Ayrdrie", near

Tenterfield Tenterfield is a regional town in New South Wales, Australia. At the , Tenterfield had a population of 4,066. Tenterfield's proximity to many regional centres and its position on the route between Sydney and Brisbane led to its development as a ...

, New South Wales. At the age of 11 his family moved to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and he attended his father's alma mater,

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

(1950–1955), commencing as a preparatory school student at

Wyvern House , motto_translation = To Our Faith Add Knowledge , established = , type = Independent single-sex primary day school , denomination = Uniting Church in Australia , gender = Boys , educational_authority = NSW Department of Educat ...

Working life

Shearston trained as press correspondent with

United Press United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...

and his first show business job was with

the Tintookies ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

, an Australian travelling puppet show. He joined the

Hayes Gordon Hayes Gordon OBE, AO (February 25, 1920October 19, 1999) was an American actor, stage producer and director and acting teacher with a considerable career in Australia. Early life Gordon was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was mentored by O ...

Ensemble Theatre The Ensemble Theatre is an Australian theatre company and theatre, situated in the Sydney suburb of Kirribilli, New South Wales. History It is Australia's longest continuously running professional theatre group, having given its first performa ...

working as an actor and stage manager.

Music career

Having taken up

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, Shearston learned a repertoire of English,

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

and Australian folk songs and at 19 become a professional singer. He worked in hotels and sang at The Folksinger and with the American

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

singer

Brother John Sellers Brother John Sellers (May 27, 1924, Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States – March 27, 1999, Manhattan) was an American gospel and folk singer. Sellers played in gospel tent shows while young. He was discovered by Mahalia Jackson, who brought hi ...

. In 1962 Shearston signed with

Leedon Records Leedon Records was an Australian record label active from 1958 to 1969. It was founded by American Australian entrepreneur Lee Gordon in early 1958. Establishment and early releases In Australian in the 1950s and early 1960s, locally distribut ...

and the following year was signed to the Australian division of

CBS Records CBS Records may refer to: * CBS Records or CBS/Sony, former name of Sony Music, a global record company * CBS Records International, label for Columbia Records recordings released outside North America from 1962 to 1990 * CBS Records (2006), founde ...

by A&R manager

Sven Libaek Sven Erik Libaek (born 20 September 1938) is a Norwegian-Australian composer, record producer and musician. He composes film and TV soundtrack music and, as the staff producer for the Australian division of CBS Records, influenced the Australia ...

. In March 1965 Sydney radio stations started playing a track from his album ''Australian Broadside''. His single "Sydney Town" (written by the author

Frank Hardy Francis Joseph Hardy (21 March 1917 – 28 January 1994), published as Frank J. Hardy and also under the pseudonym Ross Franklyn, was an Australian novelist and writer. He is best known for his 1950 novel '' Power Without Glory'', and for his ...

) hit the Top 10 in his home city. In 1966 and 1967, he became Australia's biggest record seller of folk music. He had his own national television show called ''Just Folk'' and

Peter Paul and Mary Peter, Paul and Mary was an American folk group formed in New York City in 1961 during the American folk music revival phenomenon. The trio consisted of tenor Peter Yarrow, baritone Paul Stookey, and contralto Mary Travers. The group's reperto ...

recorded a cover of his "Sometime Lovin'". They also invited him to go to the United States. He spent a year in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and then four years on the east coast of the United States. In 1972 he returned to England and rerecorded some songs for the

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

''Dingo''. The song which attracted most attention was his deadpan interpretation of Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick out of You". In 1990 he received the Tamworth Songwriters' Association's Bush Ballad of the Year award for the autobiographical song "Shopping on a Saturday".

Church ministry

Shearston returned to Australia in 1989 and later became a cleric in the

Anglican Church of Australia The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the R ...

in rural New South Wales. He was ordained a deacon in 1991 and a priest in 1992. He served as an assistant in Narrandera (1991) and Deniliquin (1992-1993). He was priest-in-charge in Hay (1993-1998), rector of Bangalow (1998-2003) and a locum in Stanthorpe (2005-2006) and Coleambally-Darlington Point/Deniliquin (2006).

Death

Shearston died on 1 July 2013, aged 74 years, at Armidale Hospital in New South Wales after earlier in the day suffering a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

at his home, "Ayrdrie", near Tenterfield.

Discography

Albums

* ''Folk Songs & Ballads of Australia'' (CBS 1964) * ''Songs of our Time'' (CBS 1964) * ''Australian Broadside'' (CBS 1965) * ''The Springtime It Brings On The Shearing'' (CBS 1965) * ''Bolters, Bushrangers & Duffers'' (CBS 1965) * ''Sings His Songs'' (CBS 1966) * ''Abreaction'' (On a Bitumen Road With Soft Edges) (Festival 1967) * ''Dingo'' (Charisma 1974) AUS #31 * ''The Greatest Stone On Earth and Other Two-Bob Wonders'' (Charisma 1975) * ''Aussie Blue'' (Larrikin 1989) * ''Only Love Survives'' (Rouseabout 2001) * ''Here & There, Now & Then Anthology 1964-2001'' (Rouseabout 2007) * ''Best of all Trades'' (Rouseabout 2009) * ''Renegade'' (Rouseabout 2011) * ''The Great Australian Groove'' (Rouseabout 2012) * ''Reverently'' (Restless Music 2013) * ''Hills of Assisi'' (Restless Music 2013) * ''Pathways of a Celtic Land'' (Restless Music 2013)

Singles

Awards

Tamworth Songwriters Awards

The Tamworth Songwriters Association (TSA) is an annual songwriting contest for original country songs, awarded in January at the

Tamworth Country Music Festival The Tamworth Country Music Festival is an annual Australian music festival held for 10 days from Friday to Sunday in mid to late January each year, sometimes including Australia Day, in Tamworth, New South Wales. The festival is the second bigg ...

. They commenced in 1986. (wins only) , - , 1990 , "Shopping on a Saturday" by Gary Shearston , Traditional Bush Ballad of the Year , , -

References

External links

Official websiteReview of ''Best of All Trades'', double CD set 2009 (Simply Australia)Pop Archives – I Get A Kick Out of You feature

* ttp://www.simplyaustralia.net/synchronicity/ Moments of Synchronicity with Gary Shearston (Jim Low)br>Obituary in ''The Guardian''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shearston, Gary 1939 births 2013 deaths Australian folk singers People educated at Newington College 20th-century Australian musicians Charisma Records artists Transatlantic Records artists