The Gathering Wool
‘The Gathering Wool’ is the latest single from Broken Creek that tells the tale of Erin’s father who had to shear a thousand sheep before the 2022 Echuca-Moama floods. It re-imagines the traditional Australian shearing song and explores how farmers and country communities have to adapt to ever-changing conditions.
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The Story
Even though she’s the daughter of a sheep farmer, Broken Creek frontwoman Erin Heycox thought she would never write a shearing song. That all changed during the Echuca-Moama floods of 2022.
“We were on tour and I was on the phone to my Mum who was exasperated, ‘Your father can’t find any shearers. He’s over sixty and will have to shear a thousand sheep before the rains come’. As soon as I heard that I knew I had to write a song about Dad. There wasn’t much else I could do being so far away during the floods.”
Both Erin and Lachlan grew up with parents playing in bushbands and are well versed in the traditional Australian shearing songs like ‘Click Go the Shears’ and ‘Ryebuck Shearer.’
“Those old shearing songs can be a bit blokey and full of bravado” says Erin, “but our song explores how traditional farming ways are changing in this age of climate change.”
This kind of re-examination of traditional Australian music is what Lachlan Heycox (guitar/banjo) and Erin Heycox (vocals/fiddle) explore in their ‘old time Australiana’ duo Broken Creek.
Named for the creek Erin grew up near, the name ‘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.
After their three month national ‘Small Town Tour’ across Australia in 2022, Erin and Lachlan moved back to Erin’s family farm in Picola from their inner city apartment to set up a studio in their grandmother’s hundred year old farmhouse to record a follow up to their 2022 album ‘Small Town Anthropologies’.
Alongside the single, Broken Creek are releasing a music video shot on the farm that traces the traditions through in situ historical photographs, footage precariously shot from the back of the ute and Broken Creek performing around the farm. The music video was edited by JC Jacinta Scadden.
Erin’s Mum, award winning mixed media artist Linden Lancaster created the single release image featuring layered artifacts from their farm’s history.
Credits
Written, Recorded and Produced by Erin and Lachlan Heycox
Vocals/Fiddle: Erin Heycox
Guitar/Banjo: Lachlan Heycox
Accordion/Backing Vocals: Emily-Rose Sarkova
Double Bass/Mandolin/Backing Vocals: Nick Henderson
Artwork: Linden Lancaster
Video Editing: JC Jacinta Scadden
Starring: Cameron Lancaster