Australian Singer Came To N.Z. To Make Record

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31115, 19 July 1966, Page 8

Australian Singer Came To N.Z. To Make Record

Having failed after four years to interest Sydney recording companies, Ken Reynolds, an Australian country and western singer, decided towards the end of last year to try his luck in New Zealand. Within six months after his arrival he had signed a threeyear contract with a Wellington company, and his first records have recently been released—an extended player, and a long-playing album entitled “Oh Well, That’s Life.” Mr Reynolds, who was interviewed in Christchurch recently, composes, sings and accompanies his own songs. His singing career started 10 years ago, when he was 23, and working as a rouseabout on a station in New South Wales. The popular country and western singer Buddy Williams was appearing in a show at a small town nearby, but Mr Reynolds had to get up early next morning for mustering. “If you go, you needn't come back,” the boss told him. Mr Reynolds went, and

some friends persuaded Buddy Williams to let him sing a number in the show. Impressed, Williams advised him to persevere. Once he had taught himself to play the guitar and, at Williams’s suggestion, had thought up some original songs, Mr Reynolds decided to “turn professional.” He asked for a job singing in a hotel in Gilgandra, New South Wales, but the publican refused. Mr Reynolds tramped round the other hotels without success, and then went back to the first one, walked into the lounge, and started singing. Even the cook came out to hear. He accepted the publican’s offer of £lB a week plus free accommodation but eventually moved on to Sydney—and then New Zealand. Mr Reynolds said his second long-playing album would appear in a few weeks. Like the first, it will feature his own songs, which range from bar-room ballads to religious numbers. He hopes to tour the country with a show in September.