Dust Off Your Boots! Called Bush Dances, Barn Dances, Square Dances & Line Dances

Whether you’re after an Australian Bushdance or an American Hoedown, the Swamp Dawkins Hoedown Band is guaranteed to make your themed dancing event a success and a totally unique experience for all your guests.

Kick up your heels with some flying fiddle, chicken pickin’ guitar, madhouse mandolin and kicking drums with Swamp Dawkins, hosting bush dances all over Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Hunter Valley, the Southern Highlands & Illawarra, Central & South Coast and beyond. We’ve travelled as as as central Queensland and central west NSW– so are always happy to make a roadtrip of it.

Seasoned musicians with professional backgrounds playing in leading Australian bands, the Swamp Dawkins Hoedown Band is the only band for anyone looking for a themed Australian Bush Dance or American Hoedown event.

Swamp Dawkins is guaranteed to bring dust busting music, energy and entertainment to your night with our bush band including: dance caller, fiddle/mandolin, electric/acoustic guitar, bass guitar and full drum kit.

On the night, the band typically starts off with lower key country and western music before moving into more uptempo songs, then blending in the organised barn and square dances and continuing with a mix of dances and songs to keep everyone stomping, stamping, swinging and sliding the night away.

The events we do are typically either Australian Themed Bushdances, Barndances & Country Dances or American Styled Hoedowns, Honkytonks & Wild West Nights.

For the Australian flavoured events, we’ll often add harmonica or accordion and the music played alongside the called dances is chosen from iconic Australian artists- Paul Kelly, Hunters & Collectors, Men at Work, Cold Chisel, Powderfinger, Jet, INXS and more. The BBQ’s are fired up and the guests are decked out in their jeans, checked shirts, Akubra’s and RM Williams. It’s Australia all over!

For the American styled events, we’ll often add pedal steel for a distinctly American country music twang and the music alongside the dances is taken straight from an American roadhouse– Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Mellancamp, Tom Petty, Garth Brooks, The Georgia Satellites and even Billy Ray! The pig’s are on the spit and the bucking bull is waiting for the cowboys, cowgirls, Dolly’s and Kenny’s to dust off their boots.

Whatever your theming choice is, we tailor every night to your needs to make sure that the atmosphere is what you want and what works for your guests and we’ll have them swinging their partners all night long, giving them a night of dancing they’ll be talking about for years to come!

There are any number of traditional bushdance bands and also any number of Australian bands who can sing Dolly, Kenny, Johhny and our own Keith all night – but only the Swamp Dawkins Hoedown Band brings both dancing and music together in a hoedown style that you won’t believe until you’re part of it!

Swamp Dawkins is unique in Australia. We seamlessly combine traditional called dances with a wide repertoire of iconic Australian and American roadhouse & country music to create a fantastic night for you and your guests. We also have a collection of party favourites to complete the night and keep everyone on the dance floor till closing time! For our full repertoire, including notes on called dances, click here.

Do you teach the dances?

We often get asked whether we teach and call the dances and the answer is “Yes!” – we most definitely do!

Calling dances is a dark art I’ve been doing it for many many years, playing hundreds of gigs, for crowds as small as 20 and to well over 1,000 people. All the dances are taught & called on the night and are a truckload of fun.

And will people dance?

Yes! Without fail, we get everyone up dancing.

The biggest question I get asked is “Will people dance?” and “How do you get them dancing?”.

How? We’ve got the experience, the energy, the repertoire (and a few trade secrets!) that we use to get people onto the dance floor.

Without fail we get people dancing and after years of experience, working with all kinds of crowds– we just know how to make it happen– and our favourite reviews, which we hear a lot, is “even the people who said they’d never ever dance were dancing!”.

Australian Bush Dances

For an event with a distinctly Australian flavour, a bush dance or country dance is something that will bring every one together for a night to remember.

Swamp Dawkins combines traditional Australian bush dances and barn dances with a repertoire of iconic Australian music that will have you and your guests dancing all night long.

We teach and call all the dances and we mix them seamlessly with our repoertoire of music from iconic Australian artists like Paul Kelly, Cold Chisel, the Hoodoo Gurus, Hunters and Collectors, Jet, INXS, Powerderfinger and more.

Click here for information on all our music and what we’re able to do for your event.

Click here for more on our Iconic Australian Music.

American Hoedowns

We’ve created our own country American Hoedown dances inspired by the Honkytonks of Texas, including some traditional line dances, jigs and reels done to modern tunes.

The band mixes country – blues – rock music with dances that have been put together by professional choreographers to design contemporary barn, square and line dances that create a uniquely modern Americana take on many more traditional folk style dances.

Hoedowns and bushdances are indeed closely related with many of the dance steps shared. The big difference is in the rhythms and style of the music that sets the tone of the night. Instead of the jigs and reels with an Irish heritage of the bushdances, the music has the rhythms and sounds of the horses, wagons and trains of the American west. This is not what you did at school that’s all I can say!

Click here for information on all our music and what we’re able to do for your event.

Click here for more on our American Roadhouse & Country Music Repertoire.

Types of Dances

The dances are a mix of traditional Australian Bushdances– with roots in traditional English/Irish/Scottish dancing, Barndances & Square dances which have a more American flavour, and Line Dances which are the embodiment of American Modern Country with the music a mix of polkas, reels, jigs, marches and shuffles.

We have a repertoire of dozens of dances including:

Strip the Willow; Heel and Toe Polka; The Waves of Bondi; Soldiers Joy; Gallopede; The Queensland Backstep; The Drongo; The Flying Doctor; Blondie’s Troika; The Barn Dance and Stockyards.

We have dances especially suited to bridal parties aswell as ones suited for any little ones and some slower tunes for those who like a gentler pace as well as dances especially suited to bridal parties.

For corporates, there is a fantastic team building element to the dances and we have a few tricks in the dances which we bring out especially for corporates wanting to have a strong team building element.

Most of the dances involve dancing with a partner in a larger set of couples with a mix of progressive dances– where you change partners– and others where you stay with the one partner. The dances are simple to start with and as we move from dance to dance, the complexity increases.

Regardless of the origins and styles of the dances, they all get people onto the dance floor, away from the bar & up from the dinner tables.

Something for every part of your event

Although our style is full of energy and very lively while the dancing is on, we also do unplugged acoustic sets to provide entertainment as guests are arriving and mingling and to allow some great conversation over dinner.

In between dances, the band has an extensive repertoire of classic crowd-pleasing rock, country and pop, along with some of their very own original music. Download our Repertoire here!

The dances are a fantastic part of any Honkytonk, Wild West Night, Cowboy & Cowgirl themed party. The transition from playing some Johnny Cash, John Cougar Mellancamp or Garth Brooks, into a called barndance is remarkably seamless and effortless and before people know it, they’ll be boot scootin’, shuffling, twisting and twirling. The dances take people by surprise and make your event highly memorable.

Your guests won’t be focused on watching a band or admiring a DJ’s playlist– they’ll be dancing with each other and that’s what makes the nights so amazing. It’s not about us. It’s about you and your guests.

Unique Blend of Called Dances and Other Music

For most events we’ll do 2-4 called dances mixed in amongst other styles of music to suit the event. Some events, we’ll just do called dancing all night with very little other music, whilst at other events we don’t do any called dances at all.

We’ll work with you in the leadup to the event and on the night to make sure the mix of called dances and other music is tailored to suit your event.

Bush Dancing Experience

Swamp Dawkins has done hundreds of events and every night is different.

We know how to make your event work; we know how to get people dancing; we know how to create the atmosphere that you want and to create a night fro everyone to have an amazing time and we take great care in making sure that we tailor what we do on the night to suit your event.

For weddings we have a particular dance that is perfect for the offical wedding party– where the spotlight is on the happy couple, and then on their immediate party, before the other guests join in. It’s a wonderful addition or alternative to a bridal waltz.

For corporates there is quite an amazing team building aspect to the dances and we build into the dances some subtle changes to the normal called steps that really trigger the need for all the people to work together in sync.

For the many private parties and community events we do, the dances have a wonderful way of bringing together a diverse crowd and involving people who might be a bit shy and conscious of their dance moves!