Slim Dusty, AO MBE (born David Gordon Kirkpatrick; 13 June 1927 – 19 September 2003) was an Australian country music singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. He was an Australian cultural icon, referred to universally as Australia's King of Country Music and one of the country's most awarded stars, with a career spanning nearly seven decades and producing numerous recordings. He recorded songs in the legacy of Australia genre, particularly of bush life, including works by renowned Australian bush poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson, who represented the lifestyle. The music genre was coined the "bush ballad", a style first made popular by Buddy Williams.
Slim Dusty "released more than a hundred albums, selling more than seven million records and earning over 70 gold and platinum album certifications". He was the first Australian to have a No. 1 international hit song, with a version of Gordon Parsons's "A Pub with No Beer". He received 38 Golden Guitars and an Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) award. He was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and Australian Roll of Renown. At the time of his death, age 76, Dusty had been working on his 106th album for EMI Records. In 2007, his domestic record sales in Australia surpassed seven million. During his lifetime, Dusty was considered an Australian National Treasure. He performed a cover of Banjo Paterson's "Waltzing Matilda" at the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
David Gordon Kirkpatrick was born on 13 June 1927 in Nulla Nulla Creek west of Kempsey, New South Wales, the son of a cattle farmer. His childhood home, "Homewood", survives and is now heritage-listed. He was known by his middle name, Gordon. He wrote his first song, "The Way the Cowboy Dies", in 1937 and adopted the stage name "Slim Dusty" in 1938 at age 11. His earliest musical influences included American Jimmie Rodgers, New Zealander Tex Morton, and Australia's Buddy Williams. In 1945, Dusty wrote "When the Rain Tumbles Down in July" and released his first record that year at age 18. In 1946, he signed his first recording contract with Columbia Graphophone for the Regal Zonophone label.
Influential wife, and children
In 1951, Dusty married singer-songwriter Joy McKean and, with her help, achieved great success around Australia. In 1954, the two launched a full-time business career, including the Slim Dusty Travelling Show. McKean was Dusty's wife and manager for over 50 years.
McKean's sister Heather, half of the McKean Sisters music duo that preceded Joy's association with Dusty, was married to Australian country singer Reg Lindsay, before separating and later divorcing in the 1980s, whereupon the McKean sisters re-started their music duo.
Together Dusty and Joy McKean had two children, Anne Kirkpatrick and David Kirkpatrick, who are also accomplished singer-songwriters.
Dusty hits written by Joy McKean
McKean wrote several of Dusty's most popular songs, including "Lights on the Hill", "Walk a Country Mile", "Indian Pacific", "Kelly's Offsider", "The Angel of Goulburn Hill" and "The Biggest Disappointment".
Other songwriters' contributions
Although himself an accomplished writer of songs, Dusty had a number of other songwriters, including Mack Cormack, Gordon Parsons, Stan Coster, and Kelly Dixon, who were typically short on formal education but big on personal experience of the Australian bush. Drawing on his travels and such writers over a span of decades, Dusty chronicled the story of a rapidly changing postwar Australian nation.
Dusty's 1957 hit "A Pub with No Beer" was the biggest-selling record by an Australian to that time, the first Australian single to go gold and the first and only 78 rpm record to be awarded a gold disc. (The "Pub with No Beer" is a real place, in Ingham, North Queensland].) In 1959 and 1960, Dutch and German cover versions of the song became number one hits (even evergreens) in Belgium, Austria and Germany, brought by the Flemish country singer-guitarist and amusement park founder Bobbejaan Schoepen.
In 1964 the annual Slim Dusty Australia-round tour, a 48,280 kilometres (30,000 mi) journey that went on for ten months, was started. This regular event was the subject of a feature film, The Slim Dusty Movie, in 1984.
Contributions of other songwriters
Dusty recorded not only songs written by himself and other fellow Australian performers but also classic Australian poems by Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson, with new tunes to call attention to the old "bush ballads". An example is "The Man from Snowy River" by Paterson. The 1980 album and songs The Man Who Steadies the Lead and The Pearl of Them All were the works of Paterson's rival for the title of Australia's bush balladeer, Scottish-Australian poet Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963). In 1970, Dusty was made a member of the Order of the British Empire for services to music. In 1989 Slim recorded 'Murray Moon' by fellow Aussie Reg Stoneham with vocals by his daughter Anne Kirkpatrick.
In 1973, Dusty won Best Single at the inaugural Country Music Awards of Australia at the Tamworth Country Music Festival (McKean won Song of the Year as writer of "Lights on the Hill"). By March 1976, Dusty had achieved 37 gold and two platinum records, more than any other Australian artist.
Dusty and his wife were patrons of the National Truck Drivers' Memorial, located in Tarcutta, New South Wales.
The general manager of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, Bob Whitaker, invited Dusty and his wife to perform in 1997, recognising 50 years of contributing to country music.