John Williamson - Year by Year

1945 John Williamson was born into a musical family and raised in the Victorian
Mallee.

1965 Family moved to Croppa Creek, near Moree, NSW where John began
performing at a local restaurant.

1970 The first song he wrote, Old Man Emu, went National No 1 and gold!
Then came the clubs, the pubs, and two years of hosting TV's “Travllin' Out West”.

1981 After writing and performing The Breaker John began to realise that
audiences were prepared to hear indigenous stories sung with real Aussie
accents.

1982 True Blue was the real beginning of John's ability to clearly express his
deep passion for Australia, and to feel comfortable with his musical direction. He started working his one-man show in pubs and clubs, performing his own distinctly Aussie material.  Steadily, loyal audiences grew, both in Sydney and the bush. True Blue and Fair Dinkum JW, the first albums of material honed before John's increasing numbers of fans, were both released.

1983     Singin' in the Suburbs, a live album recorded at one of John's pub shows captured the great "vibe" of John's gigs, and was followed by a second live album, The Smell of Gum Leaves.

1985     On a tour through Central Australia and the Northern Territory, John began compiling impressions of our land resulting in Road Thru the Heart.

1986     A compilation album, All the Best, was released, along with his first video, Live at the Longyard. The single, Goodbye Blinky Bill drew attention to the plight of the koala. Through donations of royalties and passing the hat at gigs, John has so far raised over $300,000 to help with their preservation. Over ten years later, the song maintains its impact. The Federal Government requested the use of the song, True Blue, as the theme for its Australian Made campaign.  A re-recording of this now classic song was included on what would become one of John's most enduring albums, Mallee Boy.

1987     Mallee Boy had an immediate impact on the Australian consciousness. John was the first to consistently bring songs of the bush to a city audience as well as the traditional country followers. This album marked his move from being a singer of country songs and amusing ditties to a songwriter of national significance. The public responded and by year's end Mallee Boy had reached triple platinum.

1988 John performed at the opening of Australia's new Parliament House: not among the pomp and ceremony, but on the forecourt with his public. Having been encouraged by the female response to Cootamundra Wattle, John included some more distinctively Australian love songs on Boomerang Cafe. Following a lengthy tour of Western Australia the year before, the rest of the album emphasised his renowned love of the country and concern for conservation.
 

1989     Warragul quickly went to No 1 on the National Charts, cementing John's position as the premiere creator of Australian bush ballads. Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson would be proud. It captured the flavour of this great land like no one had ever done before.

1989 JW's Family Album featured a combination of his best-loved kids' songs together with some new fun material for all the family.

1991     Waratah St went gold before it reached the shops. It contained the song that got John banned from a few country RSL's: A Flag of Our Own.

1992     Australia Calling - All the Best, Vol 2, was a compilation of the best loved tracks from Mallee Boy, Boomerang Cafe, Warragul and Waratah St, plus two new recordings.  One of these was the 1970s Spectrum hit I'll Be Gone.  Royalties from the single release of this track were directed to the Salvation Army, to help homeless kids around Australia.

1993     Love is a Good Woman and Misty Blue were two new tracks added to a compilation album of previously released Aussie love songs called Love is a Good Woman.

1994 Mulga to Mangoes reflected the fact that John had been touring with a band for some time. Tracks such as the surprisingly reggae-flavoured, Tropical Fever could not really be played solo.

John linked up with Landcare; a government sponsored organisation seeking to help groups of people in tackling environmental problems in their local area.

1995     A new film version of the classic Aussie tale “On Our Selection” was released. With a great soundtrack by Peter Best, John's laconic voice is perfect for delivering two tracks, including the title song.

After 25 years in the music industry, 2 CDs seemed barely adequate to contain JW's best tracks - but it would have to do. Co-inciding with this compilation, entitled, True Blue, was a book of the same name featuring John's lyrics together with yarns about how they came to be written.

JW was such a feature of the Aussie entertainment landscape that he was ambushed at the book launch to appear on the TV show, “This is Your Life”.

1996     The True Blue compilation goes platinum and lends its name to a series John does for Foxtel, interviewing prominent Australians. John and band perform for the first time in London and Dublin to an enthusiastic response - not only from expatriots.

Releases second Family album, featuring the irreverant Kitchy Kitchy
Koo.

1997     John's enduring legend is confirmed when he is inducted into the Roll of Renown at the Tamworth, Australian Country Music Awards.

John furthers his television career as one of three presenters on “Bush Telegraph”, a show about unique inland Australians. He discovers a song by the same name while judging a bush band competition and includes the track among a batch of fine JW originals on his next album, Pipe Dream. Going platinum is a formality.
 
 

1998     A concert for the Queensland Olympic Council leads to more Olympic fund-raisers for other states. John is invited to write an article for each issue of the quarterly magazine, the Weekly Times Country.

In England again, this time solo, John treats sell-out audiences to a musical tour of Australia. Although obviously hoping to excite his audience, he is surprised by their unbounded enthusiasm for a culture so alien to their climate.

Releases “For Aussie Kids” album and video, recorded live at Nyngan while travelling on the Variety Club 'Bash'. Recognition for his duet of Raining on the Rock with Warren H Williams gathers momentum. It wins best single at the Deadly Sounds Indigenous Awards and they perform it at the ARIA Awards to considerable acclaim.

1999 “The Way It Is” album released to great acclaim and reaches “gold” status after 8 weeks.  An accompanying TV Special and long-form video, filmed around a campfire in the Northern Territory, were also released with the TV Special in particular receiving international exposure.

Highlights of the year included:

 John being asked to sing True Blue on stage at the welcoming home dinner with the victorious World Cup Cricket Team.

He travelled to New Zealand to sing the Australian National Anthem at the Bledisloe Rugby Test match in Auckland and found that he had an enormous audience of Kiwis.  As a result the “True Blue” album entered the New Zealand Top 50 ‘Pop’ Chart.

John tours the UK playing to growing audiences in the Midlands and London.

He followed the Wallabies through the year proudly performing Waltzing Matilda at various games culminating in performing the National Anthem at the Final, Rugby World Cup in Cardiff.  John wrote a stirring song for the Wallabies titled A Number On My Back which was played while the Wallabies ran their victory lap – a moment to remember.

2000 John wins 3 Golden Guitar Awards at the 28th Tamworth Country Music Awards: Bush Ballad of the Year – Three Sons, Heritage Song of the Year – Campfire on the Road and Best Selling Album of the Year – The Way It Is.

He receives a ‘Gold Award’ for sales of his video “The Way It Is” together with a ‘Platinum Award’ for the album.

John takes his one-man show on his first tour of New Zealand visiting both the South and North Islands to welcoming audiences and plans to visit this beautiful country on a yearly basis.

John’s song This Ancient Land is accepted as the official song for the Aboriginal Reconciliation event “Corroboree 2000” and John records a duet with Jimmy Little which is released as a single and performed during the celebrations.