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Coming Up:

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 17-19 January, 2025

The New Holland Honey Eaters will be performing their themed concert "Got More Trouble Than I Can Stand": The Story of Ragtime, at the Tamar Valley Folk Festival, George Town, TAS.  See the Festival website for more information. 

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 Where We Are

Launceston is a city of about 88,000 people located at the head of the Tamar River about 50km from Bass Strait at the confluence of the North and South Esk Rivers.

© 2020. Stanspage. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

1 November, 2019

 

Curriculum Vitae

 

Band Name:              THE NEW HOLLAND HONEY EATERS                       

Contact Person:        STAN GOTTSCHALK

 Address:                     9 WELMAN STREET

LAUNCESTON

TAS   7250    

 Telephone:               (03) 6331-6728 (home/work)

Mobile:                      0417 519 338                                     

Email:                        stan@stanspage.com

Web:                           http://www.youtube.com/user/NewHollandHoneyEater

                                    https://www.facebook.com/TheNewHollandHoneyEaters?ref=bookmarks

                                    http://www.stanspage.com/music/new-holland-honey-eaters/

 

Biographical:

The New Holland Honey Eaters (Stan Gottschalk, Rebecca Gottschalk, Steve Ray and Jane Ray) have been performing together since 1988. The Band specialises in traditional music from the south eastern United States - including Anglo-Celtic and Afro-American traditional music, minstrelsy, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley tunes and songs, rural hymnody, Cajun music, gospel, jug band music, Hawaiian music, cowboy music, swing and blues. They bring the folk music and folkways of the American southeast alive through the performance of concerts, themed concerts concentrating on aspects of the region’s social and musical history, and through practical teaching workshops. Video examples of their work over the years can be seen on the above web site.

 

Stan Gottschalk has had an interest in the music and the social history of the American south for over 50 years, and has performed at numerous festivals all over Australia. In addition he has published a fiddle instruction manual, Old Time Mountain Fiddle (1977); received an Australia Council grant to research traditional fiddle styles as represented in the US Library of Congress archives (an extensive research paper, Three Traditional Southern Fiddlers: Their Tunes and Their Playing Styles, was produced in 1979). He has been a regular contributor of articles on the physics of music for Mugwumps Instrument Herald, USA (1979-1980); and a contributor of articles, transcriptions, etc. to Cumberland County Rag, Sydney (1975-1990), and more recently to the folk magazine Trad & Now (2013). He performed country blues and old-time southern music as a solo performer during the 1970s and 80s (and continues to do so) before forming The New Holland Honey Eaters in 1988 with his wife Rebecca and their friends Steve and Jane Ray.

 

Steve and Jane Ray were half of The Cockies band, which established itself as one of Tasmania’s premier folk-based concert and dance bands. They produced two CD’s as well as dance instruction material. They have also performed in their Cajun band Good Dog, and in The Crows. In addition, they are both members of The Craggs, and were part of that group’s US tour in 2009.

 

Performances and Festivals:

The New Holland Honey Eaters have been featured at the following Festivals. Their shows have also had strong general audience appeal and have been performed at various theatre venues in Tasmania, at the Brookfield Vineyard (2009, 2011), at Melbourne’s Boite World Music Café (2010, 2011) and as part of the entertainment for John Howie’s international bluegrass cruise (2013).

 National Folk Festival, Canberra (1992, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2010).

  1. Cygnet Folk Festival, Cygnet, Tas. (1988-1990, 1992, 1993, 1995-2004, 2006, 2007, 2009-2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023).
  2. Tamar Valley Folk Festival, George Town, Tas. (1992, 1993, 1995–2003, 2006 - 2020).
  3. Tasmanian Folk Festival, Longford, Tas. (1989).
  4. University of Tasmania Centre for the Performing Arts concert series (1997).
  5. Westbury (Tasmania) St. Patrick’s Day Festival (2008).
  6. University of Tasmania Creative Arts Summer School (2010).
  7. Harrietville Bluegrass and Traditional Country Music Festival (2010, 2011).
  8. Maldon Folk Festival (2015).
  9. Fleurieu Folk Festival (2015).
  10. CluneyTunes Festival of Americana and Celtic Music (2016).
  11. Kelly Country Pick, Beechworth, Vic. (2017).
  12. Mt. Roland Folk festival (2019).
  13. MountainGrass Bluegrass and Traditional Country Music Festival, Beechworth, Vic. (2019).
  14. Mona JAM Concert Series, Harvest Markey, Launceston Tas. (2019).
  15. Taste of Tasmania, Hobart, Tas. (2019).
  16. Cygnet Folk Festival 40th Birthday Celebration (2021)
  17. for Three River Theatre, The Chorus to Stan’s production of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men  (2021)

 

Themed Performances:

The Band offers concert brackets and teaching workshops incorporating singing styles as well as specialist instrumental (fiddle, banjo and guitar) workshops. “Theme concerts” have also been a major part of The New Holland Honey Eaters’ contribution to festivals over the years. These ‘on-stage documentaries’ highlight the diverse styles of southern American music by setting them in their social/historical context. These performances generally incorporate music, slides, field recordings and theatre; the band is costumed appropriately for the subject at hand, and audience members might receive a song booklet including bibliographical and discographical information, or appropriate nibbles (like coffee and corn bread, pecan praline or perhaps a sazerac cocktail) as they enter. Themed concert titles have included:

 

  1. "The Pet Child of Calamity's a-Comin' " - Sudden Death, Family Tragedy and General Desolation in the Southern Tradition (1988)
  2. Bust Skull and Rotgut - the Story of Prohibition (1989)
  3. "I Done Tried to Find My Way, Lord, But I Fell Out the Door" - The Sacred and the Secular in Southern American Music (1990)
  4. The Panic Is On - the Story of the Great Depression  (1992)
  5. Under the Chicken Tree - Early Recorded Traditions in Southern Music (1993)
  6. John Brown's Body - The Story of the American Civil War (1995)
  7. "No Two in the Congregation Quaver Alike" - Learning to Sing in the Extraordinary Southern American Shape-Note Tradition  (1996, rev. 2019)
  8. Going Down the Lee Highway - the Folk Roots of Country Music(1997)
  9. Going Down the River - Music and Tales of the Mississippi (1999)
  10. The Year of 1900 - The American South at the Turn of the Century (2001)
  11. Good Enough for Me – The American South and the 1920s (2003)
  12. Don’t Get Weary – Afro-Americans, Mountaineers and Southern Folk Music (2004)
  13. “A Christ-Haunted Land” – The American South and Fundamentalism (2006)
  14. The Irish in America (2008)
  15. On the Air – The Story of Early Country Radio (2009, rev. 2010)
  16. The WYOY National Hoedown– Radio and the Making of Country Music (2011, rev. 2012)
  17. The Roots of Gospel: The Story of Southern American Quartet Singing (2013)
  18. Linthead Stomp: Cotton Mills, Radios and Old-Time Music (2015)
  19. Fiddle Tunes and a Hard God The Story of Appalachia (2018, rev. 2019)
  20. Station WYOY's  Farm and Fun Time  (2020)
  21. Of Mice and Men  - as the Chorus to Stan’s production of Steinbeck’s classic play (2021)
  22. "Got More Trouble Than I Can Stand": The Story of Ragtime (2024)

Recording:

1)         I Done Tried to Find My Way, Lord, But I Fell Out the Door; The Panic Is On; No Two in the Congregation Quaver Alike; John Brown’s Body and Going Down the River recorded and broadcast in full by ABC Radio National’s Music Deli program.

2)         John Brown's Body and Going Down the Lee Highway recorded and broadcast in full by           Canberra Stereo Public Radio (1995, 1997).

3)         Fiddle Tunes and a Hard God recorded and broadcast in full by Hobart FM radio (2019).

4)         Pick of the Crop- CD9 a compendium released by Ducks Crossing Publications, has the   Band’s performance of Rabbit in the Lowland as its Track 2.

5)         The bands CDs:

 

 

Contact

 You can send a message to us at: stan@stanspage.com