About Broken Creek
Broken Creek weave compelling musical reimaginings of Australiana for banjo, guitar, fiddle and voice that tell stories of outsiders from Australia’s past and present.
Named for the creek Erin grew up near, ‘Broken Creek’ signals a love of traditional folk music with an adventurous musical bent to “break” with the same old ways of playing folk music.
Broken Creek have spent 2023 setting up a studio in Erin’s grandmother's hundred year old farmhouse near the bush. They are recording their second album ‘Yeah Nah’ which features songs about small-town Australia, original tunes inspired by the land and subversive re-imaginings of traditional Australian songs, folklore and tunes that challenge the narrative of Australian cultural history.
Erin and Lachlan Heycox grew up in regional border towns along the Murray River steeped in bushbands and balladeers. After moving to Melbourne to study music and history, they performed in a melting pot of different musical projects including sea shanties, avant garde orchestras, and improvised theatrical soundtracks.
Broken Creek’s debut album ‘Small Town Anthropologies’ was shortlisted as a finalist for the Australian Folk Music Awards ‘Traditional Album of the Year’ (2022). It launched a national ‘Small Town Tour’ thatincluded pop-up choirs, church halls, folk festivals and recording tunes in gorgeous locations which Broken Creek continue to do to this day.
“Small Town Anthropologies is an impressive debut, drawing on a variety of folk and old-time traditional material, showcasing over the ten tracks a tasteful blend of original material and covers of songs from England, Scotland, Ireland and America...This is not just an orthodox outing though, rather Broken Creek provide some fresh and keen observations and treatment to keep the listener engaged.”
Album Art by Hannigan Heycox
The Making of ‘Small Town Anthropologies’
Broken Creek recorded ten songs for their debut album ‘Small Town Anthropologies’ in their home studio in Footscray during the long lockdowns of 2020-2021. Their album includes original songs connected to their hometowns including a lapsteel version of ‘Picola’, a song that Erin wrote the first time she visited home after moving away and ‘Here is my Home’, a song Broken Creek wrote after evacuating from the Black Summer fires with Lachlan’s family in Corryong.
Alongside these original songs they have recorded their arrangements of folk songs from England, Scotland, Ireland and America which they rework with new lyrics and melodies. These songs include ‘Cutty Wren’, a protest song from the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt, ‘Darlin Kora’ from the Appalachian mountains and the Richard Thompson favourite ‘Black Leg Miner’.
‘Small Town Anthropologies’ is mixed by Mischa Herman (Lucy Wise, The String Contingent) and mastered by Myles Mumford (Xani Kolac, Trouble in the Kitchen, Georgia Fields).
On their album and in their performances you will hear a variety of instruments including a fretless banjo, octave mandolin from England, kanjira drum from India, Bodhran from Ireland and a shruti drone box.