DAVE'S DIARY - 10 SEPTEMBER 2003
JIMMY LITTLE SEEKS KIDNEY TRANSPLANT
When Jimmy Little launches his 30th album 'Down The Road' at the Corner
Hotel in Richmond on Sunday he anxiously awaits a good tidings phone call.
News - a compatible kidney has been found for a transplant.
"I'm waiting patiently for a kidney transplant," Little, 66,
told Nu Country on the eve of the launch.
"I've got to be at the ready. In the mean time I'm doing well with
self dialysing 4 times a day. I know the hospital method is good for many
patients but because of my work style and life style, self dialysis is
better for me. I can't afford to have 3 days off in hospital. It interrupts
my voice so the doctors gave me this alternative to which I have become
accustomed."
Little and Slim Dusty, who has had a kidney removed because of cancer,
have continued recording despite serious kidney ailments.
"The transplant waiting list is long," Little revealed, "it's
almost like a lottery because my blood type is the most common and most
in demand. We don't have a nation of donors like we do in other countries.
It's a long list and matter of good fortune. But we're surrounded my miracles
every day in life. Once it was a straight forward death sentence.
Now we can alleviate that and hang in there."
JIMMY DOWN THE ROAD AT 15
Little, grandson of a violinist and son of a harmonica playing story teller
father, was the first of seven children born at Cumarengunga on the Murray
near Barmah.
He left home at 15, won his radio break and wed wife Marj whom he met
at 17 at a footy club dance at Alexandria Town Hall in Sydney.
Marj and daughter Frances have stood by their man who takes grandson James
Henry on the road in his band.
Henry also performed in the studio on Eric Bogle tune 'A Reason For It
All' to complete the fifth generation musical cycle.
And Jimmy, who arrived in Sydney in 1952 - the same year as yodeller Mary
Schneider - duets with Mary's daughter Melinda on his new album.
JIMMY AND MELINDA REACH OUT
Little and Schneider, 32, perform her song 'Reach Out.'
"Reach Out seemed a natural song for us," Little says of the
song he recorded with the singer who also performs in Melbourne on September
28 and 29 with the Dixie Chicks after a Victorian regional tour including
Hallam Hotel with Michael Carr and Brendon Walmsley on September 23.
"I felt like I could handle the story line and key range. We both
did our parts in an hour and It just seemed the right time and place for
the song, and we had a wonderful time recording it together."
Little also teamed with award winning Grafton singer-songwriter Troy Cassar-Daley
on the Cassar-Daley-Don Walker album title track 'Down The Road.'
"They sent me a song for previous album 'Resonate' and Troy said
'this will suit you Jimmy, he played it on the piano," Little recalled,
"we put that down in 10 minutes. He was comfortable with his part.
We did two or three takes and used the first one. It was spontaneous,
a great sense of humour shared by two indigenous artists. When we teamed
up together for the first time we were in my element with that spiritual
image, old fashioned Jimmy Little."
Although there's a brace of Australian tunes on the new album including
John and Genni Kane's 'Pearls Of Wisdom' performed with Brooke, Samantha
and Mollie McClymont.
SMOOTH SAILING WITH CONNIE
Jimmy reached back for the Sonny Throckmorton-Curly Putman tune 'Smooth
Sailing.'
Doris Day also cut the song but it was a version by Connie Smith - singing
spouse of Mississippi born star Marty Stuart - that caught Little's ear.
"There's a country singer I like, Connie Smith," Little confided,
"I bought an album of Connie singing it a couple of years ago. I
like a lot of her work. I finally got my voice around it.'
When Little first left home at 15 he was prepared to chance his voice
on a career and then return to the clan if it didn't work.
But after 47 years of recording and 51 of marriage the singer is making
the most of every mile.
"It's great to have a partner who grew up with me in the industry,"
says Little, "she's my stabilising influence. We grew up together
from 17 and are still on one long honeymoon. We are blessed with one daughter."
Serendipity has been a bonus for Little who performed with the late Marty
Robbins in Mooroopna in 1976.
MAJOR MOVIE ROLES
And more importantly scored major roles in the Billy Graham fifties movie
'Shadow Of The Boomerang' and much later Wim Wenders movie 'Until The
End Of The World.'
Little played head stockman on a cattle station in the Graham movie -
a film about culture clashes.
"There was an audition for another young man but I was in the right
place at the right time,' Little revealed.
"I already had a profile, had the right features and could handle
the dialogue. It has now come out on video."
Little debuted on Regal Zonophone in 1956, recorded for Columbia before
signing to Festival in 1959.
But it was much later in a musical career punctuated with stage roles,
that Little was chosen for Wenders movie.
"Once again I was in the right place at right time," says Little,
'I played the elder statesman of the clan. We filmed for four weeks in
Alice Springs and five weeks on the Gold Coast in the Warner Bros studio."
Little performs a free show at the Last Record Store at 304 Smith St,
Collingwood, on Saturday as a preview of his launch at the Corner Hotel,
Swan St, Richmond, on Sunday.
Bookings Phone 94279198 - $18 cover or www.cornerhotel.com