Reviews

Artist:Slim Dusty and Joy McKean
Album: Slim & I
Label: Back Beats
Tracks: DVD
Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_McKean

When you think about it the Australian outback was a place made for Country Music. The themes that work in the rural USA are just as relevant there, but with a twist. Slim Dusty was a cultural icon in Australia. A singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer he released over a hundred albums in his seven decade career. Outside his homeland, he is perhaps only really known for the song 'A Pub With No Beer'. This film is as much about his wife, Joy McKean, herself a noted singer both solo and in a duo with her sister Heather.

'Slim and I' follows the standard pattern for this sort of music documentary with friends, family and colleagues talking over archive footage. Much of this was collected by Slim and Joy's grandson and is a fascinating glimpse into a world that has probably been gone for decades. Having Joy McKean still around to tell the story of their years trekking across Australia with their family in tow paints a vivid picture of a life that seems to have been particularly hard on their children who were eventually shipped off to boarding school. Their daughter Anne Kirkpatrick eventually joined the show in her teens as did her brother David. Both a now well respected singer songwriters in their own right.

This film was written with an Australian audience in mind and some of the references to people and events need some looking up to get the context. McKean comes out as the power behind the songs. One of the things that comes as a surprise is how good her song writing is. Sentimental in the way of a lot of traditional country music, but she has a perceptive way with an observational song. She was clearly the business brain behind the Slim Dusty show and comes across as a tough customer. Having clearly put up with some of Slim's wanderings she seems to have been all about protecting her family first regardless of her own feelings.

There is a warning at the start of the film about the depiction of some of Australia's native peoples. Justifiably as while Slim has an obvious sympathy and love for the Aboriginal people, there is a rather patronising and colonial feel to his interactions with them. Slim spent a lot of time recounting bush life through the work of renowned Australian bush poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson that represented the lifestyle. The music genre was coined the "bush ballad" in the thirties and remains a popular part of the Australian music tradition.

Slim and I is an engaging film. While not a style of music I would listen to in depth, the way of life is fascinating. The mix of American country music and the more British oriented background to Australia in the fifties and sixties seems to blend better than you might expect. The star of the show is Joy McKean, maybe because she is here to tell her story where Slim passed away in 2003, but also because she is an engaging story teller and a respected songwriter. Key members of Australia's Country Music community like Keith Urban, Missy Higgins and Kasey Chambers pay tribute, and Slim and Joy's contemporaries reminisce about the good old days, although as someone not bound up the legend you do feel there may some things left unsaid. Few of the names being interviewed mean much outside Australia but as a record of a past time and way of life it is well worth watching for the archive film alone.

Tim Martin

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