Paul Taylor's 20-year walkabout has taken him across oceans and continents, building bridges of cultural understanding each step of the way. With songs and tales about Aborigines in Australia and cowboys in the Wild West of the United States, Taylor's work helps children and adults worldwide feel part of the same great story. Now Cooee, Taylor's fourth album, brings the troubadour's work back home to Aussie audiences.

With Cooee, Taylor creates a true Australia/U.S. collaboration. Rich with songs and stories from both cultures, the album features celebrated Aussie children's musician Don Spencer, and the artful production of Russ Hopkins and Steve Eulberg of Kiva Records in Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S. “I am really excited to announce the release of Cooee,” Taylor says. “This work reflects over ten years of creative process, traveling throughout the United States, articulating and celebrating my culture to international audiences, listening to their thoughts and feelings about the wonderful Aussie character, and then returning home each year on sabbatical to reflect and complete the study.”

Coo-ee CD cover

Yidumduma Bill Harney photo courtesy Alex Gillen

The lanky Taylor, nicknamed “Walking Stick” by native friends, is a long way from his roots in suburban Adelaide. Now based in Laramie, Wyoming, U.S., a rural high plains city nestled between two mountain ranges, Taylor started his walkabout after graduating from Adelaide University with a degree in social work in 1980. Working as a social worker among Aboriginal people in the outback of the Northern Territory, Taylor was introduced to the music of the didjeridoo and the tradition of storytelling. He's been hooked ever since, and shares his passion with everyone he meets. “I met Yidumduma Bill Harney, custodian of the Wardaman people,” Taylor recalls, describing the beginning of an extensive mentorship that continues to this day. “Each year I return home on sabbatical to spend time with Bill and document Wardaman culture for future generations. I am currently applying for foundation assistance to continue this work, with support from the University of Wyoming. It is with Bill's permission I bring the culture to U.S. audiences”.

In the 80s, Taylor's walkabout included activism and clowning around. In the Philippines he became involved in the solidarity movement to educate the world about the abuses of the Marcos regime—the same movement that eventually lead to the dictator's removal. Traveling on to the United Kingdom, Taylor joined a circus show as a clown and performed throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

Bobby Bridger who is presently writing a book about the tour of Australia in 1986. photo courtesy Bobby Bridger

Earning an Actors Equity card, Taylor then trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Actor's Centre in London. So began a new career as an actor, performing artist and stage manager. Back home Down Under, he worked professionally for the Adelaide Festival Fringe and in regional theaters throughout Australia. In 1986 he made another life-changing friendship. As stage manager and guide, Taylor accompanied Bobby Bridger as the Austin-based American performed his acclaimed one-man show “The Ballad of the West” on an extensive tour of South Australia that took the men to the outback and the Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal community in the red heart of the country. “Bridger's work highlighted a close cultural affinity between Aboriginal and Native American peoples and also a parallel of European settlement in both countries,” Taylor says.

“I was transfixed by his performances. I was totally fascinated by the revelations of the communality of our human condition.” Those connections and commonalities permeate Taylor's work to this day.

Upon Bridger's invitation, Taylor joined Bridger's band at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Austin, Texas, where the didjeridoo had never graced the historic festival stage. “The reception was overwhelming,” Taylor said. “I woke up the next morning to find my picture in the Washington Post.” Traveling to Wyoming to act as a mountain man in Bridger's company version of “Ballad of the West,” Taylor met the Black Elk family of the Lakota people. Bridger reciprocated his Aussie tour by taking Taylor on an extensive historical tour of the American West.

“Everywhere I travelled I was honored for simply being Australian in a way I had never experienced in any of my travels all over the world,” Taylor says. “People were absolutely fascinated with the didjeridoo and with Aboriginal culture.” 

He constantly was asked about the Dreamtime, and he discovered how much Americans love the Aussie accent.

 “Our sense of humor and use of the English language is adored,” he says. “It seemed that every American kid could sing Kookaburra, but didn't know what one was.” 

Taylor met World War II veterans who simply wanted to shake his hand because of the camaraderie they shared with their Aussie mates during that intense period.

“I met a professional boomerang maker in Austin who taught me all about boomerangs, something I never learnt growing up in the suburbs of Adelaide. I met cowboys who saw Banjo Paterson, our famous poet, as a god. They insisted I recite his poetry. I was constantly asked to sing 'Waltzing Matilda' and asked what is it all about.” 

But, the fact was, Taylor didn't know. He realized the next part of his journey had to be back to his roots. “I listened, researched and learned heaps about who we are as Australians and how we are perceived as a people and culture by those from abroad,” Taylor said. “I returned home to reflect, further research, and take a fresh look at my homeland.”  So began a new walkabout and the process absorbed in Cooee. In 1992, Taylor returned to the outback and visited with Bill Harney.  “It was at this time he gave me permission to share his wonderful Aboriginal heritage with U.S. audiences,” Taylor says, honoring his mentor. “I re-entered the U.S., this time to begin my current walkabout of over 10 years, performing, teaching, researching and celebrating our wonderful cultural heritage to all ages, in particular the children.”

Paul Taylor Photo by Russ Hopkins

Taylor developed Arts in Education school residencies, spending a week in a school teaching about Australia. He actively applies Aboriginal ways of teaching through story, song, dancing and painting. Taylor helps kids make didjeridoos, boomerangs and lagerphones (rhythm sticks). They learn traditional folk dances and games like cricket and “Aussie rules” football. They create stories and permanent murals based on their school totems or emblems. They dress up and perform to the community in an Australian Festival. 

“Some of the children I've worked with in Colorado appear on Cooee as special guests,” Taylor notes.

“In this process, I introduced the music of Don Spencer, one of Australia's most loved children's performers, to American kids and music teachers. They adored his songs.” Taylor says with pride. “In 2000, I met with Don in Sydney and we conceived Cooee.”

Spencer, also an adult pop singer and television personality, is perhaps best known in Australia for hosting the children's program Play School. In a star studded career, Spencer has enjoyed great success in the UK and more recently the US. The New York Times dubbed him “the Crocodile Dundee of kids' music.” Over the next three years the musicians embarked on a cross-oceanic collaboration. Taylor worked on the storytelling and didjeridoo at Kiva Records in Fort Collins, Colorado. At the same time, Spencer developed the songs with his band at the Beezneez Studio in Sydney with John Bee and sent the masters to Kiva Records. “ Under the wonderful production supervision of Russ Hopkins, we added further musical and sound enhancement and combined all the elements together,” Taylor says. “Celebrated Colorado singer song-writer Steve Eulberg provided great production support.”

Don Spencer

With one foot on each side of the Pacific, Cooee is studded with traditional and original stories and songs. The album already has garnered praise. Linda Spitzer of Storytell calls it “a whole hour of enchanting entertainment from Down Under,” while Alicia Karen Elkins of Rambles tells audiences to “prepare yourself for just over an hour of the finest entertainment to be found.”

As follow-ups to Taylor's albums Walkabout, Matilda & the Dreamtime and Doo Bee Doo, Cooee continues Taylor's tradition of bridging cultures.

Cooee is available through CD Baby and Amazon.com. The album is also available on Taylor's Web site, as is photos of Taylor working with children, sample tracks from his album and information for booking his performances. For details, see http://www.paultaylor.ws.