Gary Shearston, folk singer and Anglican priest, spent his early years on his grandparents' farm at Tenterfield after his father went on active service. Drought forced the family to move to Sydney in 1950. Shearston left school at sixteen, the year he got his first guitar. He trained as a staff correspondent with United Press and got his start in show business working for a year with the Tintookies, the Australian travelling puppet show. Returning to Sydney, Shearston continued working puppets on children's televesion shows and joined the Hayes Gordon Ensemble Theatre as an actor and later, a stage manager.
Shearston had learnt a repertoire of English, Australian and American folk songs; from 1958 he became a professional singer working hotels and clubs. He sang at Sydney's first folk club, The Folksinger, and with American gospel and blues singer, Brother John Sellers Gary. In 1962 Shearston signed with the Leedon label, releasing singles and an EP. In late 1963 he joined CBS which was building a strong Australian jazz and folk lineup. In 1965 his single 'Sydney Town' from the album, 'Australian Broadside' made the top ten in Sydney and sold well across Australia. Shearston became Australia's most popular folksinger in 1966-67 with his distinctive Australian voice, selling more records than any other folk artist at the time.
After the less successful Abreaction album in 1967, Shearston took the advice of Australian folk group Peter, Paul and Mary to go to America. Unfortunately difficulties with US Immigration over his opposition to the Vietnam War and involvement with the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islanders meant he could not perform in public in the United States and his Warner Brothers album was never released. Shearston returned to England in 1972 and performed throughout Europe. He had two successful albums and a hit with Cole Porter's 'I Get A Kick Out of You'. In the succeeding years Shearston continued to perform, write songs, write for music magazines and do research for the film industry.
In 1989 Shearston returned to Australia and an album of new material, Aussie Blue, won critical acclaim. One of its songs, 'Shoppin' On A Saturday' won the Bush Ballad of the Year award at the 1990 Tamworth Awards..His song, 'The Newcastle Earthquake', was used nationally to promote the Lord Mayor's Appeal for earthquake victims. Shortly thereafter Shearston began studies to enter the Anglican priesthood and was ordained in July 1992. His first congregation was in Hay, New South Wales and then the north coast of that state. He continued to write songs and occasionally perform.
