Lionel O'Keefe

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Lionel O'Keefe
Background information
Died	Brisbane, Qld
Genres	Folk Music
Occupation(s)	Australian Folk Musician
Instruments	Fiddle, Guitar, Vocals, Accordion, Banjo, Bass
Associated acts	Wayfarers (Musical group), Larrikins (Musical Group), Mulga Bill’s Bicycle Band, The Currency Lads, The Horton River Band, The Border Band

Lionel O'Keefe (22 September 1950 – 27 September 2014) was an Australian Folk musician of Australian South Sea Islander descent, known for his contribution to the Australian Folk Music Revival movement.

Career

Lionel Stephen O’Keefe was an Australian folk musician (see Australian Folk Music) and Australian South Sea Islander (see South Sea Islanders). Early in his career, he performed regularly at the Folk Centre in Brisbane, Queensland, and was associated with a number of Australian folk music groups including The Wayfarers, The Larrikins, Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band and The Currency Lads. He also contributed to the establishment of the New England folk music tradition and the collection and performance of the "core repertoire of Australian Traditional music" as a member of the Horton River Band with Chris Sullivan, Dave Game, Mark Rummery and others. Later in his career, Lionel performed in The Border Band, with his wife and fellow folk musician, Cathy Duffy, and well-known performer and teacher of Australian traditional music, Anthony John "Jacko" Kevans.

Lionel had a keen interest in traditional Australian and Irish Music and went on to record and perform on fiddle, button accordion, guitar, bass and vocals. He was known to have learnt “bass on the spot” for the Wafarers band for a performance on ABC Television Around Folk, 1974c. Lionel was also known to have played with and collected tunes from Traditional Folk musician and accordion player, Andy Grant, of Warwick, Queensland.

Recognition

In 2003, Lionel O’Keefe's contribution to Australian folk music history, and his commentary on South Sea Islander history and the political climate of the time – including the Vietnam War and its divisive effect on the folk scene, as well as the impact of the Bjelke-Petersen Government in Queensland (1968-1987) – was captured in an interview with prominent Indigenous Australian Singer Songwriter and musician, Kev Carmody. This work has been included in the National Library of Australia Oral History and Folklore Collection.

Commentary by Lionel O’Keefe and his wife, Cathy Duffy, on Australian folk music, folk dance music, and Australian and Irish fiddle and accordion music, has also been recorded for posterity in the Chris Sullivan Folklore Collection, held by the National Library of Australia.

Recordings

Lionel O'Keefe: Mainly Bush (The album features original songs relating to the Australian South Sea Islander experience and traditional Australian and Irish tunes on fiddle and accordion)

• Released: 2001
• Format: CD
• Producer: Keith Rice, Red Hill, Qld
• Tracks: 11 Tracks

Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band (Box Set Collector's Edition)

• Released: 2001
• Format: CD
• Label: ABC Radio Programs
• Producer: Produced and Digitally Remastered by Karri Golding, 2001. Originally recorded and produced by Lydia Warren, ABC Radio, 1977

The Horton River Band (Featuring Lionel O'Keefe (guitar, vocals, fiddle), Chris Sullivan (A/D Hohner accordion, concertina, fiddle), Mark Rummery (fiddle), and David Game (fiddle))

• Released: June, 1997
• Format: CD
• Producer: Recorded in Canberra, for Music Deli on ABC Radio

Further reading

• Lionel O'Keefe interviewed by Kev Carmody. National Library of Australia. https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1029511. 2003
• Cathy O'Keefe and Lionel O'Keefe interviewed by Chris Sullivan and Rick Wright in the Chris Sullivan folklore collection. National Library of Australia. https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/5300217. 1992
• Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band. https://barrygoanna.com/mulga-bills-bicycle-band/. Written by Barry Golding, et al. 2016
• Wild Colonial Boy who loved a song and dance. Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/national/wild-colonial-boy-who-loved-a-song-and-dance-20050607-gdlgwb.html. Written by Chris Sullivan. 2005
• History Matters: Starting a Musical Tradition. Armidale Express.https://www.armidaleexpress.com.au/story/5797478/starting-a-folk-tradition/ . Written by Jim Belshaw. (2018).
• Horton River Band. History of the Horton River Band, 1980 —. https://sites.google.com/site/thehortonriverband/history]
• Brisbane Folk History Project. Recollections on the Brisbane Folk Scene by Mary Brettell. http://brisbane.folkhistory.org/story_mary-brettell.html
• Charlie Batchelor: An Australian Fiddler. https://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/charlie.htm . Written by Chris Sullivan & Mark Rummery. 2000
• Old Time Musicians. https://sites.google.com/site/walcharoad/oldtimemusicians]. By Walcha Road (Band).

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