TINA LAWTON
The so-called 'folk boom' of the 1960s in Australia brought to public notice a number of very fine musicians. One of these was Adelaide singer Tina Lawton who, before her tragic death in 1968 at the age of 24, achieved national attention with three critically acclaimed LPs. She is now largely forgotten and the albums remain unreleased on CD. A singer with a voice of great beauty, she certainly deserves better in my opinion.
 Christine Elizabeth Lawton was born in Adelaide on 23 rd March 1944, the fifth child in a family of five girls and one boy. Nicknamed 'Tina' by her father, she grew up in a musical family in the affluent, middle-class Adelaide suburb of Hawthorn. Her parents became aware of her talent as a singer early, her mother recalling that “her voice was like a bird's from the moment she discovered a tune”. She was undisciplined in her application to piano and violin lessons, but always enjoyed singing both at home with her brothers and sisters and at church. She also showed an early interest and ability in art and would fill page after page of blank notebooks with her drawings.
After attending Walford House Girls Grammar School and later Unley Technical High School, she enrolled at the South Australian School of Arts in 1961. While studying art she continued to sing in the Churches of Christ Youth Choir, enjoying especially their annual light opera performances. She also began singing with a friend at 'The Catacombs', a newly opened jazz and folk venue in Adelaide and it was at this time that her deep interest in traditional folk music blossomed. Her inherent desire to sing had finally found its most appropriate form of expression.
With this commitment her life changed. While holidaying at Victor Harbour she took part in a charity concert and was asked by the compere, Roger Cardwell, to audition for his new television program, The Country and Western Hour. The show went national and she became a popular and regular guest, her classic voice and traditional folk songs an interlude between and somewhat at odds with the dominant country and western.
As her popularity grew she appeared on other television programs including the Marie Tomasetti Show, Adelaide Tonight, In Melbourne Tonight, Bandstand, The Lively Arts, a number of children's programs for the ABC and folk music shows like Just Folk, Jazz Meets Folk and Dave's Place. A journalist of the time wrote about her television appearances: “Tina exploits that forgotten art these days of throwing her mouth wide open and transmitting full voice through it for her own sheer joy of singing.”
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