Lionel Long

Lionel Joaquin Paul Long OAM (1937 – 1 January 1998

Long became one of Australia's most successful and popular country and folk artists in the late 1950s and early 1960s, releasing over a dozen albums for EMI. He was also well known for his acting appearances on television programs such as Homicide.

Many of Long's albums featured accompaniment by other musicians, including Dave Guard of the Kingston Trio (who emigrated to Australia in the early 1960s), guitarist and teacher Don Andrews and jazz legend Don Burrows.

Return to music Long Ago: Folk Songs of the British Isles was Lionel Long's 1965 album, and featured him playing a custom-made 6-string lute he purchased in the UK. A photograph of Lionel with his 6-string lute featured on the album cover for this LP and two later ones.

A Sunburnt Country was Lionel's next album, which returned to Australiana, its title taken from Dorothea Mackellar's famous poem My Country which featured on the LP as a spoken track. Banjo Paterson's The Man from Snowy River also featured as a spoken track.

In 1966, Lionel Long's next album was Amberwren and Other Folk Songs. His 1967 release Lionel Long Today included the song Follow the Wind, an unrecorded Bee Gees song.

In 1970, Lionel Long released one more album on the EMI Columbia label, Close Up, before signing with RCA and releasing four folk music albums, The Man From Snowy River, Australia! Australia!, Brandied Plums and The Best of Lionel Long. He also released several singles on RCA.

Lionel Long re-signed with EMI in 1980 and released his final album, High, Wild and Handsome, which featured guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, a version of "Let It Be" by the Beatles and the well-known Kermit the Frog song "Rainbow Connection".

Lionel also displayed visual artistic talents, producing illustrations for several books and guides.

Lionel performed his music well into the 1980s, appearing at the Sydney Opera House in 1987 and travelling to Nashville, Tennessee, to work with the LeGarde Twins on various recording deals.

Television and film During the 1960s, Long's profile was boosted by appearances on multiple TV shows, including the Channel 9 music program Bandstand. In 1962, the rocker Johnny O'Keefe suffered a breakdown after disagreements with the producers of his Johnny O'Keefe Show. While O'Keefe convalesced, Long took over as host of the show for a year which was retitled Sing, Sing, Sing.

Medal of the Order of Australia Lionel Long was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 1993 Australia Day Honours, with the citation, "for service to the performing and visual arts".

Homestead Long's vineyard homestead near Rylstone in the Western highlands of New South Wales was owned and managed for 10 years under the name Stonybrook by Matthew Batten, advertising creative, screenwriter, and author. Batten maintained a collection of Long memorabilia, including a distinctive country-style chair which was hand-painted by Long in a folk art style and was donated by his daughter, Amberwren, at the homestead property when Batten purchased it. Batten sold the property privately in 2014.

Personal life and death Long married Carole Sue Newgrosh in 1964 in Chatswood, New South Wales. Together the couple had two children.

Long died on 1 January 1998, age 60, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Darlinghurst, Sydney. He was cremated after a small service at the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park in Matraville, Sydney.