Publications

Links to Magazine Articles, Interviews and Books

The Singing Kiwi Songbook - published by Willie Wag Publications, Australia. Available from www.tradandnow.com (Search music books - music with lyrics - Phil Garland - The Singing Kiwi) price $25AUD plus postage.

Inheritors of a Dream - Online article and interview with Simply Australia
www.simplyaustralia.net

In Search of Native Song - Online article by and interview with Michael Brown. www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/nz_songs.htm

Chasing a Dream - Magazine article by Phil Garland for Journal of Folklore Research published by Indiana University Press (Vol 44 May - Dec 2007)
iuporder@indiana.educ

Faces in the Firelight - book by Phil Garland for Steele Roberts Publishers
Available from the Author or www.steeleroberts.co.nz

Reviews:

“Faces in the Firelight lays out the many and varied circumstances of early New Zealand and how settlers expressed themselves in folksong. Each era – some consecutive, some overlapping, some concurrent – whether it be the early gold miners, gum diggers, saw millers, moonshiners or shearers, created its own culture of bush poetry, music and songs……Retelling the history and tales that went with the tunes paints the panorama of breaking in a land. Folk is history in song and in New Zealand thousands have played their part…..It is a good source book, a good starting place, an inspiration, a taste of what indigenous New Zealand folk music has to offer.” - Geoff Lewis – Hamilton Press.

“Ethnomusicologist, folk historian, a keeper of oral histories. Phil Garland is all of these and now he has finally committed to print his archive of tall tales, ballads, songs, stories and narrative poetry – recording the first stirrings of early New Zealand voices singing of being here……Garland began his “collecting” in Central Otago and like the frontier anthropologists of the late 19th century, he sought out the old hands in pubs and homes throughout these isolated rural margins – places where folk memory was still strong. Always ‘on the lookout for a character’ he began recording their songs and poetry: those unknown or little known beyond the bush, versions of versions, variant readings, building up a huge corpus of New Zealand folk music and balladry…… This is a unique book: scholarly in conception, popular and accessible in execution, it will fill a gap it has all but created for itself……” - Jeffrey Paparoa Holman – Christchurch Press

“Phil is well known for his many CDs and his previous book of collected and original songs, but this book documents some of the stories behind what we have heard. This is a fascinating book, covering stories, poems and songs along with his experiences in collecting them over the past forty years. He gives the historical background to various aspects of NZ history as he covers the gold rushes, the swaggers, gumdiggers, shearing and more; all illustrated with collected verse and story. It’s an entertaining, humorous and diverting look at New Zealand history from a different viewpoint and it was a real joy to dip into over the holiday period. It’s well worth a read” - Sharyn Staley – Wellington Bluegrass News

Phil Garland Songbook - publication by Kiwi Pacific Records pending …….