The Slim
Dusty Story starts back in the 1940s on a remote dairy farm in the
hills behind Kempsey, New South Wales, when a 10-year-old boy dreamed of being
a country music singer. His name was David Gordon Kirkpatrick...
he called himself "Slim Dusty" and began to live that dream.
But even the most optimistic farm boy would never have imagined
the life that was to unfold... a life that would establish Slim as
the voice of the nation, the chronicler of Australian history in
song.
Slim has managed to hold on to those early visions of writing and
singing about the bush because, during his lengthy career, he has
kept in touch with his audience. And he has done this in a very
real and meaningful way, so much so that his fans would feel that
Slim is one of their mates and his songs "just a good yarn you
might hear from a mate at the pub, around a camp fire in the bush
or at a back yard barbie".
He describes his music as "songs about real Australians. I have to
be fair dinkum with my audience. I can't see any other way of
doing it," he says. "You have to believe in what you are singing
about."
To quote a London Country Music People magazine review: "Three
things are certain in this life. Death, Taxes... and Slim Dusty.
This man has been making music and epitomising the spirit of
Australia for 50 years. Although he had a massive worldwide hit
with "A Pub With No Beer" in the late 1950s, few outside his home
country are aware of the continuing popularity and reverence in
which Dusty is held Down Under, not only by the public but by his
fellow musicians and artists, including those who hang their hat
under the New Country sign."
Slim Dusty was the first Australian to receive a Gold Record
(still the only 78 rpm gold record in existence in this country),
the first Australian to have an international record hit, and the
first singer in the world to have his voice beamed to earth from
space (in 1983, astronauts Bob Crippen and John Young played Slim
singing "Waltzing Matilda" from the space shuttle "Columbia" as it
passed over Australia).
His amazing career spans six decades, has him holding 35 Golden
Guitars (an achievement as yet, and unlikely to be, unequalled),
more Gold and Platinum Record Awards than any other Australian
artist, ARIA Awards (Australian Recording Industry Awards)
including induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame, video sales
Platinum and Gold Awards, an MBE and Order of Australia for his
services to entertainment, and he was one of the earliest inducted
to the Country Music Roll of Renown.
