by Steve Gadd

What this blending amounts to is that a tune of Irish origin will be delivered in a more elegant, less driving way than most Irish musicians would render it. At the same time German, Austrian, Polish and French dance tunes pick up something of the Celtic along the way. There are also similarities between some Tasmanian tune styles and the music heard in early recordings of Morris Dance music. Two other influences are significant. The American influence can be traced back to the popularity of black-faced minstrel troupes who visited Australia, and also to the American sealers and whalers who worked the Bass Strait, some of whom waited out the Civil War on the Strait Islands.

Later American country music was heard on radio and sometimes adapted to suit bush music. There are other examples of Tasmanian and American tunes evolving separately from the same British or Irish root tune. Another component of the Tassie mix was the numerous popular tunes from the early twentieth century which were altered and fitted to dance rhythms where they found a place in the set tune lists. Thus a tune might be twisted into a new shape in order to become a set tune, a quickstep or a Scottische. Tunes which began as songs, such as "Who Through The Overalls" and "Where did you get that Hat", pick up new notes and a new lilt and may end up sounding little like their originals.