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| Kerryn
Tolhurst - Biography |
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 A formidable presence in Australian folk, rock and roots music
since the late 1960s, Kerryn Tolhurst has earned a reputation
in his homeland and in North America as a distinctive and eloquent
musician, a chart-topping songwriter, and a producer of note.
With a solid grounding in country music, blues and folk acquired
from stints in Melbourne during the late 1960s with The Adderly
Smith Blues Band and Keith Glass And Sundown, Kerryn
sprang to national attention in the 1970s as a defining member
of Country
Radio and The
Dingoes, the two bands credited with pioneering the
unique fusion of Australian bush balladry, folk, country and
rhythm 'n' blues that is an enduring force in the nation's cultural
legacy.
With Greg Quill in Country Radio Kerryn co-wrote "Gypsy
Queen" and "Wintersong", hits that are part of the
national repertoire, that have been recorded and performed by
several artists in subsequent years and are still consistently
played on radio. Their musical collaboration continued with
Quill's acclaimed solo album, The
Outlaw's Reply.
To the songs Kerryn wrote for The Dingoes, who toured
North America in the late 1970s after being signed to an international
management company and a deal with A&M Records, Tolhurst's characteristically
lyrical contributions on resonator guitar, lap steel, mandolin
and guitar added a profound and colourful emotional texture
that helped make memorable hits of "Way Out West", "Smooth
Sailin' " and "The Last Place I Want To Be", among
others, on the albums The Dingoes, Five Times The Sun
and Orphans Of The Storm.
When The Dingoes split in 1979, Kerryn stayed on in America, first in Woodstock, NY, then in New York City, writing songs for other artists (the Billboard Top 20 hits "All Fired Up"
for Pat
Benatar and "Man In The Middle" for The
Little River Band), where he has become a sought-after session musician and a respected independent producer, with albums by New York songwriters Jimmy Norman, Bruce Henderson, and Australia's Cyndi Boste, Jeff Lang, Paul Kelly, The Black Sorrows, Russell Crowe and The Pigram Brothers to his credit.
Creative head and producer at Stalking Horse Records in Manhattan, Kerryn plays regularly in and around New York, and travels frequently to Austin, Nashville and Australia to produce, record and perform.
In 2004 he performed with R&B legend Jimmy Norman at Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater, on a New York Jazz Foundation concert bill that also featured Quincy Jones, Cassandra Wilson and Branford Marsalis, and at Carnegie Hall with Jimmy Norman in a concert hosted by veteran American folk music star Judy Collins.
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November 3, 2004
PUBLIC LIVES
The Songs (With a Bumpy Detour) Never End
By BEN SISARIO
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Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
Jimmy Norman played with Jimmy Hendrix,
helped Bob Marley with his songwriting
and wrote songs for the Rolling Stones. |
Jimmy Norman has trouble remembering when he had his first heart attack. Nor can he recall exactly how many songs he has written, or how many times he visited the music publishers and record companies in Midtown and sold his songs - and his publishing rights - to pay the rent.
But two years ago, while volunteers from the Jazz Foundation of America, a music charity, were going through piles of junk in his Upper West Side apartment that had been bagged and boxed up by a landlord seeking to evict Mr. Norman, he instantly recognized a collection of notebooks and sheets of paper that had been rescued from the debris: song lyrics, many written decades ago. He still knew the melodies and the chords.
"Most of them I had forgotten about, basically," Mr. Norman said, sitting on a half-made bed that is the central piece of furniture in his cramped but now orderly room. "But they're now just the way they were then."
The songs were the abandoned pieces of a largely abandoned solo career as a singer and songwriter. Mr. Norman, 67, was born in Nashville and grew up with a passion for R & B and country, the mix that propelled the careers of Otis Blackwell and other black songwriters in the 50's. He started his career at 14 singing on the "chitlin circuit" of black nightclubs, working his way up to songwriter, sideman, producer and hired gun. It took two heart attacks and a pile of garbage for him to revisit his old songs, but with help from some sympathetic fellow sidemen, Mr. Norman has released "Little Pieces," his first album in more than a decade, and the first to have wide distribution.
His career has taken him close to stardom. In 1964, he was called to a session with the singer Irma Thomas to add lyrics to "Time Is on My Side," a song that had been first recorded as an instrumental with just a couple of lines ("Time is on my side" and "You'll come runnin' back"). When the Rolling Stones recorded it later that year, Mr. Norman received partial credit on the label, but in later releases of the song that credit disappeared. (He received a letter from the song's publishers 10 years ago saying the initial credit was due to clerical error and was not binding.)
Mr. Norman played with Jimi Hendrix during his early years in New York clubs and he taught Bob Marley the tricks of the songwriting trade when Mr. Marley came to New York to learn how to sing R & B.
Then Mr. Norman found himself with a new gig: singing with the Coasters on a grueling tour, doing the same oldies over and over.
"In 30 years we did maybe 10 songs," he said." 'Yakety Yak,' 'Charlie Brown,' 'Poison Ivy.' That's all they wanted to hear."
He started to crack when he realized that time was leaving him behind.
"The guys would say, 'Hey man, remember that one chick, so-and-so?' " he said. "And I would say, 'Man, that was 20 years ago.' I got scared. I had always had a solo career, but I found myself involved in somebody else's dream."
When Mr. Norman found his lost songs something clicked. Word of the discovery got around at Penang, a restaurant at Columbus Avenue and 71st Street around the corner from his apartment that is a hangout for musicians. One regular, a producer named Kerryn Tolhurst, was curious enough to go to Mr. Norman's apartment with a tape recorder.
"I went over to record these songs for posterity, basically," Mr. Tolhurst said. "And the songs really started to shape up well. Jimmy seemed to remember all the melodies, every detail."
They recorded the vocals in his apartment during the summer, and to eliminate noise, they turned off the air-conditioner, aggravating Mr. Norman's asthma. But he could still nail the songs in a couple of takes.
Then they took the tapes to a studio and added parts from other Penang regulars. One was Tony Beard, a drummer who also plays with Judy Collins. When Ms. Collins heard the tapes, she was impressed and, moved by his story, signed him to her record label, Wildflower, which released "Little Pieces" in September.
"Every artist, from cave dwellers painting the hunt on the walls of the cave, needs to be appreciated and needs dinner," Ms. Collins said.
At his album release party last month at Le Jazz au Bar, a cabaret on East 58th Street, Mr. Norman strutted through the room dressed in a black suit and black knit cap, swirling a glass of brandy while strutting to the stage. He sang two songs, "Time Is on My Side" and another that he wrote around the same era, a wistful number called "Only Time Will Tell."
Newly energized, Mr. Norman is back to peddling songs. He has a new Mac computer and uses software called GarageBand to compose songs that he hopes others will record - and this time he plans to keep the publishing rights.
He has a handful of gigs scheduled, including a concert with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall on Monday.
"I know that eventually something good has got to happen if you just keep throwing it out there to people," he said. "I could have gone off the deep end. But I know that as long as I'm living and I want to be writing and singing and doing something, getting music out to the people, then hopefully they'll agree with me that it's a good song. That's all I need."
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Albums
Produced by Kerryn Tolhurst
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Jimmy Norman (2002-2004)
Little Pieces
(Stalking Horse Records/Wildflower Records)
New York
Quill • Tolhurst, 2002-03
so rudely interrupted
New York/Toronto
(True North Records Canada, IRD Italy, MGM Distribution Australia)
Chris Wilson, 2002
King For A Day
Melbourne
Available through Phantom/MGM
Cyndi Boste, 2001
Push Comes to Shove
Melbourne
Available through Blackmarket
The Pigram Bros., 2001
Jiir
Broome
Available through Phantom/MGM
Russell Crowe, 2000
Bastard Life or Clarity
Austin
Available through Artemis
Freyja, 2000
The Siren's Odyssey
Sydney
Available through MGM
Jeff Lang, 2000
Everything Is Still
Melbourne
Available through Shock Records
Skip Sail, 2000
Skip Sail
Melbourne
Available through Blackmarket
Cyndi Boste, 1999
Home Truths
Melbourne
Available through MRA
Goanna, 1999
Spirit Returns
New York
Co-produced with Shane Howard.
Available through ABC
Bruce Henderson, 1999
Beyond the Pale
New York
Available through Valley Records USA.
Recently featured on David Letterman
House of Circles, 1999
Swell
Melbourne
Available through Laughing Outlaw.
Featured in series, The Secret Life of Us
Steak, 1999
Feasting on Famine
New York
Songs included in film Supertroopers
Steve Boyd & the Preachers, 1998
Shroud of Treason
Melbourne
Available through Marconi, USA
Jeff Lang, 1998
Cedar Grove
Melbourne
Available through Black Market
The Pigrim Brothers, 1998
Didj'un
Broome
"From the Kimberly" co-produced with Alan Pigram.
Available through Goolarri Music
Bruce Henderson, 1997
Wheels Roll
New York
Available through Paradigm/Omad.
"Swimming through the Ashes" co-written with Robert Altman
Paul Kelly, 1997
Deeper Water
New York
Available through Mushroom
Jeff Lang, 1996
Native Dog Creek
Melbourne
Available through Black Market
The Black Sorrows, 1995
Lucky Charm
New York
Co-produced with Joe Camilleri.
Available through SONY |
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Film
Score
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No
Exit (New York,1994)
Composed, performed, and recorded
score & soundtrack for independent film
Directors: The DiCerto Brothers. |
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Songwriting
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"All
Fired Up"
Recorded by Pat Benatar, 1988
#18 Billboard, USA
"Man on Your Mind"
Recorded by The Little River Band, 1983
#12 Billboard, USA
Songs recorded on albums by The Dingoes:
The Dingoes (Mushroom Records, Australia) 1974
Five Times the Sun (A&M Records, USA) 1976
Orphans of the Storm (A&M Records, USA) 1978
*"Way out West"
"Smooth Sailing"
"Going Down Again"
"The Last Place I Want To Be"
"Singing Your Song"
"Starting Today"
"Waiting for the Tide to Turn"
"Child in the Middle"
"Since You Been Gone"
"Outside Man"
"Sometime Lady"
"Aaron"
*"Way Out West",
APRA award, best country song 1993
*"Way Out West",
recorded by James Reyne/Blundell 1992, #1 Hit in
Australia
*"Way Out West",
recorded by Wylie & the Wild West Show, USA, 1996
"Wintersong"
Recorded by Country Radio 1972, co-written w/Greg Quill
"Gypsy Queen"
Recorded by Country Radio 1971, co-written w/Greg Quill
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Performances
and Session Work
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Country
Radio
The Dingoes
Paul Kelly
Little River Band
Ellen Foley (with Mick Ronson & Ian Hunter)
Ross Wilson
Eddie Kirkland Blues Band
Carlene Carter
Sherry Rich & Wilco
Bruce Henderson
G.E. Smith Band (recently featured on Conan O'Brien)
Jimmy Norman at Apollo Theatre, Harlem,
Carnegie Hall, New York
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Instruments
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Guitar
Lap Steel
Mandolin
Tiple
Dobro
Banjo
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