Armidale musician and Dunghutti elder Uncle Cyril Green will be honoured at this year’s Black Gully Festival on Saturday, 7 November. The tribute will reflect on a lifetime in music that began on a guitar in Walcha.
Uncle Cyril is unwell and will not perform at the festival, but he very much hopes to be in attendance on the day, and hinted that he may play for a smaller crowd at the Cultural Centre.
“I haven’t played now for over 12 months since I’ve been sick, but I hope I’ll be able to make it… and I don’t know, I might be playing a couple of songs up at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre,” said Uncle Cyril.
The free, family-friendly festival runs from 10 am to 7.30 pm at Black Gully Reserve, behind NERAM. Live music will play on two stages and be livestreamed by 2ARM Community Radio.
Uncle Cyril said the attention and recognition are not things he’s ever sought.
“I don’t look for anything like this,” said Uncle Cyril.
He was born in Walcha on 13 January 1941. His family moved around the district chasing work, first to Aberdeen for road work and then to Woolbrook for the railway, before settling in Armidale.
“Back in those days, you had to work,” said Uncle Cyril.
Music came from watching his older brothers. “I used to watch my brothers play the guitar,” said Uncle Cyril. He copied the way they placed their fingers on the strings, and kept going from there.
Despite his talent, Uncle Cyril says to this day he has never learned to read music. Instead, he prefers to play by ear – an ear that built a career which put him on stage with some of the biggest names in Australian music.
Once in Armidale, he set out to form an Aboriginal band.
“I wanted people to see that Aboriginal people can do exactly the same if they get a chance,” said Uncle Cyril. Detective Sergeant Ken Oleridge became the band’s manager and booked it into local clubs. “He was a man of music, a beautiful man,” said Uncle Cyril.
The big break came when Jimmy Little heard him play. Little sent a telegram inviting him to join an Aboriginal band in Sydney.
Uncle Cyril was driving trucks for the Armidale council at the time. “I had a good job here in the council and living here with my family,” said Uncle Cyril. He joined Little in 1962.
Sydney was lonely at first. “I got lonely from back home,” said Uncle Cyril. He said Little and his wife made him welcome. “They treated me like one of their own,” said Uncle Cyril.
Uncle Cyril played lead guitar in the Jimmy Little Trio. He worked alongside Doug Peters, the late Neville Thorne and Max Kim, providing a highly professional backing band for Little from the early 1960s.
In comments published by the Country Music Bulletin in January 2011, country music industry veteran Max Ellis stated that the band played country in a popular, straightforward and traditional way, which set it apart from other bands of the time.
“Cyril Green was one of the first country musicians in Australia to popularise the so-called ‘thumb style’ of guitar picking, which was also utilised by Chet Atkins in Nashville,” said Mr Ellis.
The Trio featured on Jimmy Little Sings The Country & Western Greats, released by Festival Records in 1963. It made them the first Aboriginal country band to record.
They also appeared on national television in 1963 and 1964, another first. “We were the first Aboriginal band to record at festival studios,” said Uncle Cyril.
The band later played the Sydney Opera House. “We done six shows in the opera house down there,” said Uncle Cyril.
“It was just amazing,” said Uncle Cyril.
“Over the decades, they toured constantly, playing in hundreds of venues including town halls, clubs of all kinds, theatres and even the Sydney Opera House as well as countless remote outback communities all over the nation,” Mr Ellis stated.
Uncle Cyril later returned to Armidale to raise his family with his wife Hazel. They have five children, Tony, Kevin, Marlene, Cyril and David.
He kept performing with Little for the next four decades.
“I’ve ended up playing for a lot of big names,” said Uncle Cyril. They include Warren H Williams, Lonnie Lee, Noeleen Batley and Troy Cassar-Daley.
The people are what he treasures most.
“You met a lot of friends, a lot of fantastic people through music,” said Uncle Cyril.
Many of those he worked with, including Little, have since passed away.
“It makes it sad sometimes because they’re all good people,” said Uncle Cyril. “But we had a good life”
After Little’s death, he played for older people in hospitals and nursing homes in Uralla, Walcha and Armidale.
“They’d just give me $20 or something for petrol,” said Uncle Cyril. “They just loved it, which made it worthwhile for me”
His service to music and community has been recognised with the Australia Council’s Red Ochre Award in 2005 and, with Mr Peters, the Order of Australia Medal in 2011. He is also a respected elder who has raised funds for charities, hospitals and the elderly.
“I just do it because I just love the music,” said Uncle Cyril.
In 2020, he recorded the album Inheritance featuring four generations of Indigenous musicians: his son Tony, grandson Antony and great-grandson Antwone.
When asked how it felt to record with four generations of his own family, he said, “It’s a thing going through your head that you never ever thought would happen.”
He said his family looks to him for guidance.
“They sort of looked up to me to probably show the way I suppose,” said Uncle Cyril.
Tony and Antony play in Terra Firma, a band that has taken them to Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. Uncle Cyril would like to see more success for them.
“They’re fantastic musicians,” he said.
Now 85, Uncle Cyril hopes to see the next generation carry the music on. “I’d like to leave it all for the young people,” said Uncle Cyril.
His advice to young players is to put in the hours.
“You’ve got to practice the guitar and learn the chords on the guitar,” said Uncle Cyril.
“But wherever I can encourage young people to play, I will,” said Uncle Cyril.
“I’m going to help the young people to keep going – it’s so important.”
Got something you want to say about this story? Have your say on our opinion and comment hub, New England Times Engage