Hello & welcome.

I’m  Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky - storyteller, singer, musician.

You may have arrived here to purchase my new book/triple CD package Me & Phar Lap, or the Bushwackers & Bullockies Bush Band album - if so, the images below will go straight to my online store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re a teacher and interested in my school shows/workshops, go to the schools section. Please email or ring me on 0417 332 065 if you want to talk.

Or, maybe you’re here to check out my ‘general stuff’, or from a festival, or from ASIO or maybe plain lost and haven’t got a clue who the hell I am… in that case go to BIOG, but briefly:

As a storyteller, singer and musician I work (at various times) on stage in theatre or music, in schools, writing books and scripts for radio and TV documentaries, broadcasting, production of audio tours and CDs, and other bits and pieces to keep the mind occupied and the wolf from the door. I’ve survived in my version of ‘show business’ for forty years now, and it’s too late to give up.

Philosophically, spiritually and culturally, my patch is Australia. Yes, a big patch, but what I mean is that I stick to Australian material: folk songs, my own songs, and stories I’ve written or stumbled across and researched. Why Australian…with a name like Wositzky? (they always ask). Well,  if your name was Namatjira then McDonough would be just as foreign as Wositzky. And I don’t see any sense in being an Australian that sings in American. But if I look in the rear vision mirror… I came here in 1956, a boy with my Czech father and Scots mother. Both had a great love of the literature, music and history of their homelands. So to make this place home I had to find that same love of the song and story of Australia. And I have. My self-appointed job is to pass it on.

The other possible explanation is that in 1971, with no musical ability whatsoever except that I could keep a beat, I fell into The Bushwackers Band, and have ever since done everything in my power to avoid having a real job. It’s probably both. 

 

News

My new book and triple CD set,Me & Phar Lap: The Remarkable Life of Tommy Woodcock is out. It’s Tommy’s life story – the tale of a boy who loved horses and became the symbiotic other half of the legendary racehorses Phar Lap (1928-32) and Reckless (1972-7). The book is now re-edited and updated, with the most comprehensive information to date on Phar Lap’s mysterious death.  (And no, I haven’t solved it yet…but it wasn’t ‘the Yanks’.)

The book is based on recordings I made of Tommy in 1984, and now at last  The Tommy Woodcock Tapes  are available as a 3 CD set and downloads. Have a listen to Tommy  talking. He’s a beautiful yarn-spinner, and a voice the likes of we’ll never hear again.

You can purchase the book and CDs out in my online store, and for reviews and other information go to www.meandpharlap.com.au.

 

Old News

The recent gigs (July) from the re-formed Bushwackers & Bullockies Bush Band  were a hoot. We had a ball, the audience came primed for a good time, and all the old energy was here. So to anybody who came to Beechworth, the Lomond or Newport – thanks for coming and making it such a good time. Poster below if you want to drag on onto your desktop.

Cheers!

Bushwackers & Bullockies Bush Band posters