Arts in Australia country music, which has developed a style quite distinct from its US counterpart, influenced by Celtic folk ballads and the traditions of Australian bush balladeers like Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson. Pioneers of popular country music in Australia included Tex Morton in the 1930s and Smoky Dawson from the 1940s onward. Slim Dusty (1927–2003) was known as the "King of Australian Country Music". His successful career spanned almost six decades and his 1957 hit "A Pub With No Beer" was the biggest-selling record by an Australian to that time, the first Australian single to go gold, and the first and
When the Rain Tumbles Down in July Wales in 1945. In 1947, Dusty signed his first recording contract with the Columbia Graphophone Co. for the Regal Zonophone label and recorded six titles including "When The Rain Tumbles Down In July". The song remained a standard for Dusty until his death in 2003. The song is a bush ballad, evocative of the tradition of Australian bush poetry. It concerns the flood season in the mountainous Macleay Valley where Slim Dusty grew up in the 1930s and early 1940s. When the Rain Tumbles Down in July "When the Rain Tumbles Down in July" is an Australian country music song