Canberra musician CJ Shaw has done it again - capturing a slice of Australian history and serving it up in the most whimsical, delightful way.
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His new song Ain't Many Like Lennie tells the true story of Lennie Gwyther, a nine-year-old boy who travelled 1000km on his horse Ginger Mick from Leongatha in Victoria to witness the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932. Along the way he became an unlikely Australian hero.
The song is accompanied by the most gorgeous video by Canberra stop-action animators and musicians Eleanor Evans and Giovanni Aguilar, who took almost four months to make the heartfelt piece.
The video lovingly recreates Lennie's journey, allowing primary-aged students to imagine this remarkable undertaking, done without parents or the modern-day conveniences of cars or mobile phones.
The video clip has already been accepted into the 2022 Munich Music Video Awards.
CJ, a teacher at Palmerston District Primary who was a finalist in last year's ARIA Music Teacher Award, has written many songs including the poignant ANZAC Biscuits, capturing the humanity of big historical events.
"Earlier this year, I received an artsACT grant to create a follow up song to ANZAC Biscuits that continues to use the art of lyrics and storytelling through music to engage students in the classroom," CJ said.
He was fascinated by the story of young Lennie, who even stopped in Canberra during his journey to Sydney to take tea with the prime minister Joseph Lyons.
"I heard an interview on the radio of a biographer of Lennie who told the story and I was due to a meeting or something and I remember being 20 minutes late because I wanted to hear how the story ended and just kept driving around," he said.
"I found it so intriguing and thought straight away, 'I could transpose this into a song and let kids see someone their age or even younger do something remarkable'."
The Canberra Times reported that Lennie arrived in the national capital on February 29, 1932. He was a little ahead of schedule for the bridge opening on March 19 so stayed a few days in the national capital and also learnt how to "spin a top with the boys at Canberra Grammar School".
A "small, sturdy figure on a bay pony", Lennie arrived in Canberra "at Brodie's Service Station yesterday afternoon about 2.30, where he was met by two boys from the Canberra Grammar School," the paper reported.
"At Manuka he was met by one of the masters, Mr. Needham, who took him to Parliament House."
The storytelling of Ain't Many by Lennie is amplified by the video created by Eleanor Evans and Giovanni Aguilar.
They not only spent months painstakingly moving the felt models bit by bit to bring them to life, but also made all the characters and props for the video, apart from the jumpers, hand-knitted by Eleanor's mum Rowena in Cooma. The result is stunning.
"We're really proud of the final result and really enjoyed working with a local musician," Eleanor said.
"We really wanted to focus on the relationships. It's often about the ride but we wanted to show the relationships between Lennie and his horse and his parents and the community."
CJ is passionate about creating songs that the children can relate to and feel a connection towards.
He says Lennie's story of resilience and dream-chasing still resonates nearly 90 years later. He hopes more children get to hear it through his song.
"Ideally, I'd like it to be part of the tool belt of teachers across Australia," he said.
- CJ Shaw is performing on Saturday at the Belconnen Markets from 11am.