DOUG ASHDOWN

Doug Ashdown was born in Surrey England in 1942 a descendant of the famed Church musician/composer John Wesley. At the age of seven Doug and his family migrated to Australia. Doug came to folk music after several years in the local rock’n’roll scene. Given a ukelele at age 10 by his father (a George Formby fan), he progressed to the guitar and formed his own skiffle band, The Sapphires, in 1958. When his father transplanted the family back to England for nine months in 1960-1, the youthful Ashdown played electric guitar with an ensemble called Rommel and the Desert Rats. On return to Adelaide, he spent time (1961-4) as one of The Beaumen along with Bobby Bright who went on to make his name (with Laurie Allen) on the Melbourne pop scene.

Ashdown started listening more and more to Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary, etc; in the process, “I discovered Dylan and that was it”. An important local influence was Dick Bond who played one of the few 12 string guitars around. Bond's was a distinctive instrument, imported from Britain, with a V-shaped sound-hole (like the legendary Peter Seeger). Ashdown traded in his Fender electric on one of the first 12-string guitars made by Melbourne company Maton, and he quickly earned a reputation for his instrumental dexterity.

Ashdown debuted as a folksinger at Adelaide's Purple Cow, late in 1964, and he had his first big break when Tina Lawton asked him to substitute for her at a Town Hall concert. His rendition of ''Ella Speed'' brought the house down. Working during the day for the Post Office, he quickly became a fixture on the coffee lounge circuit. “Those days were the halcyon days of folk”, he recalls. Saturday nights frequently found him performing five gigs, usually starting off at the Sunset, then on to the Purple Onion, the Folk Hut and the Catacombs, and finishing up at the Nissen Hut.

It was as the Folk Hut’s chief drawcard that Ashdown came to the attention of CBS’s Sven Libaek, then in Adelaide scouting for new talent. He was offered a recording contract and his first LP, 'This is Doug Ashdown', was recorded – “straight down with a couple of overdubs” – on a 2-track machine in Sydney in mid 1965. Patsy Biscoe, with whom Ashdown was romantically involved at the time, recorded her first LP to his guitar backings, during the same two-day session. In September 1965 he supported blues duo Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee on their Australian tour. Ashdown subsequently recorded two further LPs for CBS, 'The Real Thing' (1966) and 'Source' (1968).

Almost from the beginning, Ashdown objected to being categorised, insisting that he never thought of himself as a folksinger, and that he found the whole folk thing too restrictive. Counting Nina Simone, Richie Havens and Fred Neil among his diverse musical influences, he once declared: ''I’ve always tried to emphasise the fact that I don’t believe there’s any real difference between folkmusic and any other kind of music. But because I get up on a stage with an acoustic instrument, it puts me at a disadvantage right away''.

Unsurprisingly, this lack of commitment to the folk scene earned Ashdown the disdain of the folk establishment – as did the commercial success and orientation of his recordings, or his willingness to record Lennon-McCartney’s ''Hide Your Love Away'' and the jazz standard ''Till the Real Thing Comes Along''. (On one occasion, a number of audience members walked out of a folk concert in Sydney when he attempted to perform an electrified version of Dylan’s ''I Shall Be Released''). Ashdown, in turn, once confessed to interviewer Greg Quill that his third album, the ground-breaking 1968 LP 'Source ' reflected his dissatisfaction with both the folk and mainstream music scenes.

Intensely critical of the pop scene’s preoccupation with drugs, doom and destruction, he teamed up with Jimmy Stewart in 1968, creating a solid body of self-composed material about “real things” – small portraits and studies of individual lonelinesses and the patterns of particular loves, recounted (he maintained) without either judgment or world-shattering conclusions. The material was preserved on a ground-breaking double LP, (the first double album recorded in Australia) 'The Age of Mouse', for Sweet Peach Records (a now-legendary label which, in its heyday, embraced Kevin Johnson, Irene Petrie, Lee Conway and Levi Smith’s Clefs). He tried out the new material extensively on audiences at PACT Folk, the singer-songwriters’ nirvana in Sydney. According to Go-Set, “his Saturday night concerts in Sydney … built the PACT Folk thing into a ‘happening’. A ‘happening’ devoid of any stimulus other than that of experiencing a true artist”. Highlights of 'The Age of Mouse' included ''Georgetown'' (a tribute to Ashdown’s good friend John Stevens), the powerful ''Saddest Song of All'' and the elegant ''Antique Annie’s Magic Lantern Show'' (the last covered by Marian Henderson on Cameo). It was followed by the LP 'Doug Ashdown Live!'

Ashdown married and moved to Sydney in 1970. He and Stewart then spent a couple of years in the USA, contracted to write songs for the giant Nashville-based Tree Corporation and the pair co-wrote "Just Thank Me", for David Rogers, who released it in 1973—it peaked at #17 on the US Country Music Singles Chart. They also co-wrote "Leave Love Enough Alone" which Ashdown released in 1974 upon relocation to Sydney. He had a minor hit with it when it was renamed as "Winter in America" and released in 1976, it peaked at #14 in Melbourne and #30 in Sydney. In the same year he supported English band Supertramp. In 1977, his album, 'Trees' won the TV Week, an Australian television entertainment magazine, King of Pop Award for 'Best Album Cover'.

Ashdown also worked with science fiction writer/songwriter Terry Dowling on recordings of Dowling's song-cycle "Amberjack", about a stranded time traveller. Ashdown contributed lead vocals and guitar to six of the tracks of Dowling's song-cycle which were broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1977. He continued to release singles and albums and had minor chart success into the 1980s. As from April 2010, his most recent album was 'The Folk Centre Concert' in 2007. In 2010 Ashdown received the ''Bronze Troubadour Number One'' from Andrew and Heather Pattison and the Pattison Foundation. In 2014 he was inducted into the South Australian Music Hall of Fame.

SINGLES 
''Guess I'm Doing Fine / Ella Speed'' 1965 CBS
''Something Strange / 5 D'' 1969 CBS
''A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On (#89) / Marcie'' 1969 Philips 
''I've Come To Save Your World (Mother Love) / The Day They Freed The Noise'' (#34) 1969 Sweet Peach
''The Saddest Song Of All (#46) / Georgetown'' 1970 Sweet Peach 
''Susan Of The Straw / And The Lion Roared'' 1971 Sweet Peach 
''They Always Seem To Look Like Marianne / Tomorrow Is The Last Time'' 1974 Billingsgate 
''Winter In America (Leave Love Enough Alone) (#37) / Skid Row'' 1974 Billingsgate 
''You're The Song / Love Ain't Worth The Livin' When It Dies'' 1975 Billingsgate 
''Willie's Shades (I've Seen Enough) / No Other Words'' 1976 Billingsgate 
''Why Don't We Live Together / How Great Thou Art'' Billingsgate 

''You're The Song / You Are All I Need To Know Of Love'' 1976 Infinity
''Throw A Little Sun At The Rain / The Oldest Living Groupie In Chicago'' 1977 Ash 
''Love Will Never Be The Same Again / Places The Trees Should Have Grown'' 1977 Ash 
''And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (#40) / Tell Me Honey, Honey'' 1981 CBS
''A Fraser Of A Day / Promised Land'' 1982 CBS
''The World For The Right Kind Of Man / Mind Like A Highway'' 1983 CBS
''She's Can't Keep Still / Since I Gave My Heart To You'' 1987 Larrikin 
''Love Lives, Love Grows / He Loves The Land'' 1987 Larrikin 

ALBUMS 

'This Is Doug Ashdown' 1966 CBS
'The Real Thing' 1966 CBS
'Source' 1968 CBS
'The Age Of Mouse' 1970 Sweet Peach 
'Live!' 1972 Sweet Peach
'Leave Love Enough Alone' (#38) 1974 Billingsgate 
'Trees' (#98) 1977 Ash 
'Empty Without You' 1977 Festival 
'The World For The Right Kind Of Man' 1983 CBS 
'Love Lives' 1986 Larrikin Records 
 'No Cheap Grace' 1995 Roadshow Music 
'Really And Sincerely: Rare And Unreleased Adelaide 1967-69' 1999
'Homesong' 2000
'The Blues ... And Then Some' 2001 Sleeping Dog Records 

References

http://www.warrenfahey.com.au/early-adelaide-2-2/

http://top100singles.blogspot.com.au/