Australia's greatest country singer-songwriter Slim Dusty's own story, written with Joy McKean, his wife for 50 years - now updated. 'It seems I've done most things I wanted to do, but of all things, I think I most enjoy finding good songs and recording them. There are so many songs I want to record that I will be kept busy for as long as I can keep it up ... It is the people you meet along the road of life who make the travelling easier. No wonder I loved it all.' - Slim Dusty Slim Dusty was Australia's most well-loved and best known country music performer. A legend in the bush, his famous hit 'A Pub With No Beer' made him a household name in the towns and cities too. This is the story of the life that Slim Dusty and Joy McKean shared for their fifty years of marriage and touring together - their love for each other, their family and their music - and their determination to bring country music to the whole of Australia. Slim died in 2003, but throughout Australia, and around the world, people are still playing his songs and passing them on to new generations of fans. In this updated edition of the classic autobiography, Joy McKean writes about her family's commitment to honouring his memory and their work to keep his name alive. If you love today's Australian country music, this is the story of where it all started. '... just like his lyrics, the prose is perfect. Here he is talking about the early Dusty days. It's just like listening to a bright spark in the bush.' - The Age 'Slim blazed the red-dirt trail for Australian singer/songwriters, allowing us to remain unashamedly ourselves.' - Missy Higgins

This landmark book tells the story of one of the most enduring forms of popular culture in Australia. Prior to the 1950s, country music was called hillbilly music. Hillbilly was the rock ‘n’ roll of its day. The latest craze, straight from America, it was young, exciting and glamorous. This book traces the journey hillbilly took to become country: the rural nationalistic form it is known as today. Yodelling Boundary Riders is the first book to contextualise country music into a broader story about Australian history. Not just concerned with the development of music itself, it is also a history of the ways in which Australians have responded to the rapid rate of change in the twentieth century and the global fascination with “authenticity”. True to its subject matter, the writing is colourful and entertaining. Along the way Martin introduces some wonderful characters and events: yodelling stockmen, singing cowgirls, sentimental cowboys, coo-ees in Nashville, hobos on the mail train, the Sheik of Scrubby Creek and Australia’s craziest hillbillies.

"...excellent coverage...essential to worldwide bibliographic coverage."--AMERICAN REFERENCE BOOKS ANNUAL. This comprehensive reference provides current finding & ordering information on more than 75,000 in-print books published in or about Australia, or written by Australian authors, organized by title, author, & keyword. You'll also find brief profiles of more than 7,000 publishers & distributors whose titles are represented, as well as information on trade associations, local agents of overseas publishers, literary awards, & more. From D.W. Thorpe.