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"Riding, Riding, on a Trail Where Dreams Come True..."
Herbert Henry Dawson was born in Melbourne on 19/3/1913. Growing up in difficult circumstances, he spent time in an orphanage and later, as a teenager, in Victoria's "Kelly Country" where he absorbed the ways of the bush, even meeting Ned's brother, Jim. A youthful and disastrous experiment with an old pipe gave him the nickname that became his famous trademark.
Smoky tried many things before music, farm work, rough riding, a tannery and even cycle racing. His life changed in 1933 when he met Florence Cheers, better known as Dot. Their friendship grew and they married in 1944, two brilliant people working as one, supporting and complementing each other, personally and professionally, together creating the legend that is "Smoky Dawson".
By 1932, Smoky was playing steel guitar in the Coral Island Boys with his brother Ted. He discovered hillbilly music and, by 1937, Smoky Dawson's "Pepsodent Rangers Show" was a hit on 3KZ. By the early '40s, Smoky was writing songs and performing all over Melbourne and Sydney. His first recording, I'm A Happy Go Lucky Cowhand, was made in 1941 with legendary producer Arch Kerr. It became the foundation of an immense repertoire of superb original songs recorded over some seven decades.
After a hard war, Smoky picked up where he left off and success swept him into an incredible life of stardom, recording and touring, sometimes with Stan Gill's Rodeo. Smoky, became a yodelling, whip-cracking, knife-throwing, film-acting, song-writing, singing, radio and TV super star.
Milestones abounded on the Dawson Highway. In 1952 in the USA, Smoky became the first artist on Hickory Records in Nashville, a label owned by Roy Acuff and Wesley Rose. They urged him to stay but by 1953, his Kelloggs radio show had become the biggest networked radio program in Australia. For 10 years, millions of young Australians avidly followed "The Adventures of Smoky Dawson" on radio and later TV.
Then there was Smoky's Ranch at Ingleside bought in 1957, the re-launch of his career in Tamworth in 1970, the Roll of Renown in 1978, a Golden Guitar for ...Khancoban in 1988, Member of the Order of Australia in 1999, his induction into the ARIA Icons Hall of Fame in 2005, and so much more. Smoky continued to compose and record the music he loved. His last recording, Homestead Of My Dreams, was made in 2005 when he was 92.
Smoky was an active member of the Masonic Lodge and Rotary, a patron of Children's Hospital Bear Cottage and the Stockman's Hall of Fame, first Life Member of the Country Music Association of Australia and Founding Patron of the Australian Country Music Foundation.
Countless people, including many young artists, can attest to Smoky and Dot's kindness while their circle of genuine and loving friends encompassed people from the most exulted in the land to the most humble.
Smoky Dawson was a good man, admired for his humility and his infectious good nature. He revelled in the spotlight, sharing his achievements with enthusiasm and joy, spreading laughter and happiness where ever he was.
He was an inspiration to us all.