Garth Dutton was born in Cheshire, England, and came out to Australia as an eight year old child. Garth went to Africa as a backpacker in 1970, and learnt to write poetry and songs whilst working in Portuguese Mozambique. A workmate thought that to teach him to write and speak in the local dialect of English would be a quick way to learn the diffficult rhythm, phrasing, and intonation of Portuguese. It was.
His poetry was harshly criticised for being in a dialect when he returned to Australia in 1971. So much so, that he gave up writing poetry altogether till he attended a 'Poetry for the Unemployed" course at Plympton Community Centre in 1983. The course included a visit to Friendly Street poetry venue, and he has been a regular attendee there ever since. Read more of Garth's poems on this page at Friendly St Poets.
In the 1990's Garth began writing short stories, and self-published a book of them called "An Olive Tree, A Dictator, And A Letterbox". The theme was environmental, and he sold out the print run of 300 in 18 months. He is currently working on a larger book of environmental short stories which will contain 7 stories, including updated versions of the three from 1992. It will be put out in large print format, as will his new book of poems "The Apricot Tree", which will be launched at the S.A. Writers' Centre on 13th November 2008.
He has also released 2 CD's of his own songs in recent years. "Long Weekend 2" was released in April 2006, and got considerable airplay in country NSW. Very little 'modern country' gets played on air in Adelaide, but it did sell quite well at music venues where he regularly plays. "Sunlight & Shadow" was launched in May 2008, and he has just sold out the first 100 copies. More will be pressed shortly. This album is 14 of Garth's songs performed by other Adelaide artists.
In May 2008, I launched my new CD "Sunlight and Shadow." It consists of 14 of my songs sung by other Adelaide artists. Four were collaborations with the artists who sang them. A lot of the songs I write are non gender specific, and of the 12 artists on the CD, 8 are women. As with my 2006 CD,"Long Weekend 2", it gets regular airplay on the program 'Radio Cool' on Radio Adelaide on a Sunday and on some country community radio stations in NSW, but has so far been ignored by commercial radio here. I hope to have the CD released in England some time in 2009, but for there it will need a more substantial booklet with more information on the artists involved. It would also help if I registered my own record company name for the re-release in the new year. I recently sold out of the first run of 100 copies. Julian Barnett and I co-produced and arranged the CD.
Garth Dutton's Web Site
Click here for a review of "Long Weekend 2" (PDF file).
Garth Dutton "Long Weekend 2" CD 2006 " For further details, contact Garth at:
