Thelma Plum has taken on the beloved Australian anthem, offering her take on the foot-stomping singalong “Home Among the Gumtrees”, made famous by John Williamson.
“To me home is my family”, Thelma Plum shared in a behind-the-scenes interview about the rendition, recorded for R.M.Williams’ latest campaign. “I wouldn’t have the relationship that I have with music if I didn’t grow up in the country.”
The song was first written by the musical comedy duo Captain Rock in the 1970s, when the Australian Government held an open competition to find a substitute for “God Save the Queen”. Williamson released his cover in 1986, becoming a country staple about rural Australian life.
Williamson’s singing reminds her of “childhood singalongs with her grandfather when he returned home from long days of farming work”.
“My grandad would play guitar and the harmonica, and I would sit on the piano and I’d try to play along”, Plum said. “It’s really exciting for me that I can record a version of this song that my family loves so much, it felt like this full-circle moment.”
She slows the tempo down a touch in the beginning before picking it back up — an action not unfamiliar in the world of farming and gardening.
Produced by Xavier Dunn, bells, piano, a simple kick drum beat and whistling accompany a soft nylon string guitar “The chh-ka chh-ka chh-ka chh-ka [rhythm in the chorus], that’s not a modern beat,” said Dunn. “We just lean into the cuteness of it, and the naivety and backyard ‘chillness’.”
They kept a humourous worldplay moment in the track: “Give me a home among the gumtrees with lots of –Thelma!--plum trees.”
Last Friday, the award-winning singer performed “(Give Me A) Home Among the Gum Trees” on Bennelong Lawn in Sydney. The video was filmed before the Sydney Harbour.
Paddocks with roaming kangaroos, sagging clotheslines and verandah scenes help to flesh out an Australian family’s afternoon.
Plum features in Rolling Stone AU/NZ‘s December issue, where she chatted to Kasey Chambers as part of the first-ever ANZ Musicians On Musicians series. You can grab a copy at newsstands next week from Thursday, December 12th.
Thelma Plum’s “Give Me A) Home Among The Gum Trees” is out now.
