Reg Lindsay - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Reginald John Lindsay OAM (7 July 1929 – 5 August 2008) was an Australian country music

Australian country music

Australian country music is a part of the music of Australia. There is a broad range of styles, from bluegrass, to yodelling to folk to the more popular. The genre has been influenced by Celtic and English folk music, by the traditions of Australian bush balladeers, as well as by popular American...

singer who won three Golden Guitar Awards

Golden Guitar

The Big Golden Guitar is one of the many "big" attractions that can be found around Australia. Located in Tamworth, New South Wales, the monument is one of the best-known points of interest in New England New South Wales...

and wrote more than five hundred songs in his fifty-year music career.

Born in the Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

suburb of Waverley

Waverley, New South Wales

Waverley is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Waverley is located 7 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Waverley Council....

in 1929, Reg was two years of age when his father gave him a harmonica

Harmonica

The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...

which he quickly mastered. He then learned how to play the banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

, mandolin

Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

, guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

and fiddle

Fiddle

The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

. His career ambition was to become a stockman but in 1951 he won a Sydney radio talent quest which launched his career as a singer-songwriter. In a music career of over 50 years he wrote more than 500 songs and hosted various TV shows including The Reg Lindsay Country Hour in 1964 which ran for eight years, followed by his own TV program, Country Homestead, which ran for four years and earned him four Logie Award

Logie Award

The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honours John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...

s.

He became the first Australian to appear at Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

's Grand Ole Opry

Grand Ole Opry

The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...

in 1974 and is officially recognised with a plaque on Nashville's Walkway of Stars. He was winner of three Golden Guitar

Golden Guitar

Awards and was inducted into Australia's Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977.

In 1989 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia

Order of Australia

The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...

for his services to Australian music.

He was best known for his song Armstrong, a tribute to the historic 1969 moon landing

Moon landing

A moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both manned and unmanned missions. The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission on 13 September 1959. The United States's Apollo 11 was the first manned...

by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

astronauts, particularly Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong

Neil Alden Armstrong is an American former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon....

, which is now included in a time capsule

Time capsule

A time capsule is an historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians...

at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The song was written by John Stewart, a member of The Kingston Trio

The Kingston Trio

The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...

, and gave Reg his first major hit, reaching #8 on the Australian Singles Chart

Kent Music Report

The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...

in 1971

1971 in music

-Events:*February 1 – after months of feuding in the press, Ginger Baker and Elvin Jones hold a "drum battle" at The Lyceum.*February 8 – Bob Dylan's hour-long documentary film, Eat the Document, is premièred at New York's Academy of Music...

. Also well known for July You're A Woman, Silence on the Line and Empty Arms Hotel, he recorded over 60 albums, six of which went gold

Music recording sales certification

Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...

.

Reg was well known for his support of numerous charities and appeared on many TV telethons to help raise money for various community organisations. He died of pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

on 5 August 2008 at Newcastle, New South Wales

Newcastle, New South Wales

The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...

. Coincidentally, this date is also the birthday of the subject of his most famous song: Neil Armstrong.

He was married twice. His first wife was Heather McKean, whose sister Joy McKean

Joy McKean

Joy McKean OAM, born 1930, is an Australian country music singer-songwriter and wife of the late Slim Dusty. Known as the "grand lady" of Australian country music, McKean is recognised as one of Australia's leading song writers and bush balladeers and wrote several of Dusty's most popular...

married Slim Dusty

Slim Dusty

David Gordon "Slim Dusty " Kirkpatrick AO, MBE was an Australian country music singer-songwriter and producer, with a career spanning nearly eight decades. He was known to record songs in the legacy of Australian poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson that represented the Australian Bush...

and was the mother of Anne Kirkpatrick

Anne Kirkpatrick

Anne Kirkpatrick is an Australian country music singer. She is the daughter of country singers Slim Dusty and Joy McKean.Kirkpatrick has released thirteen albums. She won Golden Guitar Awards at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in 1979, 1991, and twice in 1992. She also won an ARIA Award for...

. He was survived by his second wife Ros Winfield.

Discography

Secrets Of Life
20 Golden Country Greats
Ten Ten Two And A Quarter
No Slowin' Down
40th Anniversary Album
The Roundup - 50th Anniversary Collection
The Rodeo Years
Down By The Old Slip-Rail
Reasons To Rise

Charting Singles

Year	Title	AUS Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...
1966	They Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Around	#90
1971	Armstrong	#08
1973	Close The Door Lightly	#98
1973	July You're a Woman	#86
1975	Takin' a Chance	#95
1976	Give me Liberty	#91

External links

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