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 | I have been an amateur folksinger for many years, and play guitar (badly) and fiddle (even more badly). I also enjoy travelling and (occasionally) maintain a website about my travel experiences. I am Australian but currently living and working in Hong Kong as a teacher. I have also taught in Singapore, Brunei Darussalam and, of course, Australia.
Member Since: Apr 27, 07
Last Login: Jul 3, 09 |
| | Subscribers: | 27 | | Comments: | 7 | | Videos: | 101 | | Friends: | 33 |
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| |  | The Well Below the Valley (Child 21)
03:12
This murder ballad is also known as "The Maid and the Palmer". For many years it was not often sung, because of its dark lyrics dealing with murder and more...incest. It was apparently preserved by Tom Munnelly who heard it sung by a member of the travelling community named John Reilly in 1963. This ballad is based on the Biblical stories of the Samaritan woman at the well, and Mary Magdalene. In European versions, the palmer is actually Jesus. There is some similarity between this ballad and The Cruel Mother (Child # 20). Some commentators believe it is related to the American song, "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well". It has been recorded by Planxty (1973) and Christy Moore (1994), among others. less
Added: Jul 2, 09
Views: 15
Category: Music |
|  | A Thousand Miles Away (Traditional Australian)
01:16
Banjo Paterson included this in his Old Bush Songs. It is based on an earlier convict song called "Ten Thousand Miles Away", and uses the same tune, but more...with new lyrics about pastoral Australia. It has been attributed to C. A. Flower, who was the accountant for the company building the railway line between Mitchell and Roma in Queensland.
Notes:
The technique for exporting frozen meat was developed in Australia in the late nineteenth century.
Nardoo (mersilia) is a clover-like fern that is highly drought-resistant. less
Added: May 29, 08
Views: 63
Category: Music |
| |  | Lime Juice Tub (Traditional Australian)
02:52
This is a shearers' song that pokes fun at newcomers who think they know how to shear a sheep, but actually don't have a clue.
The first known print more...version appeared in "The Bulletin" in 1898 using the title, "The Whaler's Rhyme". Collector and singer, A. L. Lloyd, heard it while working on the Lachlan River in the early 1930s. He wrote that "this song was much sung in the woolsheds while the men were actually shearing."
A "lime juice tub" is a British ship. less
Added: May 29, 08
Views: 13
Category: Music |
|  | Bluey Brink (Traditional Australian)
02:32
A tall story from the Australian bush. Shearers had to be tough.
The song is often sung to the tune of "Villikins and His Dinah", a melody which is more...probably used for more songs than any other, though, in the version I know, the tune is barely recognisable as "Villikins".
It has been recorded by Trevor Lucas and A. A. Lloyd (accompanied by Peggy Seeger).
This song is on my first CD: "AXIS OF EVIL and other True Stories." less
Added: May 29, 08
Views: 22
Category: Music |
| |  | Flash Jack from Gundagai (Traditional Australian)
02:15
A popular Australian shearing song, which Banjo Patterson included in his 1905 collection of old bush ballads. There seems to be a tradition in Australian more...songs of listing all the exotic places known to the protagonist. Another example may be seen in the convict ballad, Moreton Bay. less
Added: May 23, 08
Views: 39
Category: Music |
|  | Ballad of the Kelly Gang (Traditional Australian)
04:11
Ned Kelly was Australia's best-known bushranger, and has long been considered a bit of a hero by many, a kind of Australian Robin Hood.
This is one more...of several songs about Ned Kelly and his gang, with particular focus on a famous robbery at Euroa in 1878. It is sung to the tune of "The Wearing of the Green".
Folklorist Warren Fahey collected the song in 1973 from 92-year-old Joe Watson in Caringbah, New South Wales. less
Added: May 23, 08
Views: 58
Category: Music |
| |  | The Wild Colonial Boy (Traditional Australian)
05:35
The origins of this outlaw ballad are obscure, though valiant attempts have been made to find the identity of Australia's second best-known bushranger more...(after Ned Kelly). The first written version of this song dates from 1881, and the main character is known variously as Jack Doolan, Jack Dowling and Jack Duggan.
This song is on my second CD: "Laws of Chance." less
Added: May 23, 08
Views: 51
Category: Music |
|  | Botany Bay (Traditional Australian)
02:53
Ironically, my first exposure to this popular "Australian" ballad is hearing it sung by American folksinger, Burl Ives, on one of my parents' 78 records. more...It was probably one of the first songs I ever learnt.
It is not really an authentic Australian song as it originally came from the English Music Hall tradition. "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (which I've already put on LiveVideo) seems to give a more realistic picture of the convict days. But it's a good song anyway. less
Added: May 23, 08
Views: 120
Category: Music |
| |  | Convict Maid (Traditional Australian)
02:03
Nearly 25,000 women were transported to Australia as convicts, half of them from Ireland. This is one of the few songs about female convicts.
The tune more...is based on "The Croppy Boy", an Irish song from the 1788 rebellion, less
Added: May 23, 08
Views: 33
Category: Music |
|  | Moreton Bay (Traditional Australian)
03:32
Another Australian song about transportation, originally known as "The Convict's Lament on the Death of Captain Logan."
For those who don't know Australia's more...history, it began as a penal settlement for English (and Irish) criminals whose crimes were so petty that they managed to avoid being hanged. For example they may have stolen a loaf of bread to feed their family.
Moreton Bay, in Queensland, was one of the worst penal colonies. Between 1825 and 1830 it was run by Captain Patrick Logan, notorious for his cruel and sadistic treatment of the prisoners. Records kept by one of the prison clerks show that, from February to October in 1828, Logan ordered 200 floggings with over 11,000 lashes. He was killed by Aborigines in 1830 while he was surveying the Upper Brisbane river. When his body was brought back to Moreton Bay, it is reported that the convicts "manifested insane joy at the news of his murder, and sang and hoorayed all night, in defiance of the warders."
The origins of the song are unclear but it may well date back to the time of Logan's death. Bushranger Ned Kelly quoted some of the lines in his "Jerilderie Letter" of 1879. A bushranger, Jack Bradshaw, who wrote a "True History of the Australian Bushrangers" (1911) and "Twenty Years of Prison Life in the Gaols of NSW" attributed the song to Francis MacNamara (Frank the Poet), who spent years in various Australian penal settlements.
Like many Australian songs, this one uses a traditional Irish tune. It is a variation on "Boolavogue", a ballad written by Patrick Joseph McCall (1898) for the centenary of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
This song is on my first CD: "AXIS OF EVIL and other True Stories." less
Added: May 23, 08
Views: 41
Category: Music |
| |  | Jim Jones at Botany Bay (Traditional Australian)
02:38
One of my favourite Australian songs from the convict days. The defiant character portrayed here is far from resigned to his fate, and, as a Victorian, more...I can relate to his comments about New South Wales!
This song is on my first CD: "AXIS OF EVIL and other True Stories." less
Added: May 23, 08
Views: 27
Category: Music |
|  | Twilight Blues (Original)
02:24
We all have to face up to the fact of old age and death. I wrote this rather morbid little song a long time ago when I was young enough not to have to more...think much about this. I suppose the happy ending was more appropriate then.
And, yes, I know it's not really blues! There's no need to explain that to me. :-)
Lyrics:
I saw you sitting in a rocking chair.
You were rocking to and fro.
Wrinkled face and snow-white hair,
Moving around so slow.
...I was dreaming, baby, dreaming,
...The kind of dreams I wouldn't choose.
...Oh, babe, you had me nearly screaming
...I had the twilight blues.
I saw you lying in a coffin, babe.
They put you under the ground,
Stuck a tombstone on your grave
And spread some flowers all around.
I saw you lying, lying in a bed.
Your shining eyes were open wide.
Such lovely hair upon your head,
And I was lying by your side.
...I wasn't dreaming, baby, dreaming
...But that's the kind of dream I'd choose.
...The kind of dream I've just been dreaming
...Gave me the twilight blues. less
Added: May 20, 08
Views: 41
Category: Music |
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| Name: Raymond Crooke | | Age: 61 | | City: Hong Kong | | Country: |  Hong Kong |
| | Gender: Male | | Dating Status: Taken | | Hometown: Melbourne, Australia | | |
| Hobbies: Music, travelling, education | | Movies: Movies by Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Bunuel, Werner Herzog, Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, etc. | | Music: Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, Ewan MaColl, Burl Ives, Lee Hayes, Fred Hellerman, Ed McCurdy, John Jacob Niles, Cisco Houston, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Josh MaCrae, Peter La Farge, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Doc Watson, Scotty Stoneham, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Sleepy John Estes, Josh White, Harry Belafonte, Paul Robeson, Eric Bogle, Brian Mooney, Martin Wyndham-Reade, Ted Egan, A. L. Lloyd, Lionel Long, blandmangopatterson, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Odetta, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jean Ritchie, Mary Black, Jean Redpath, Mahalia Jackson, Terrea Lea, Nancy Ames, Peggy Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Malvina Reynolds, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Bernice Reagon, Judy Jacques, Glen Tomasetti, The Weavers, The New Lost City Ramblers, The Seekers, The Byrds, The Doors, The Limeliters, The Coachmen, The Brothers Four, The Highwaymen, The Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir, Peter Paul and Mary, The Carter Family, The Spence Family, Ian and Sylvia, Bud and Travis, Simon and Garfunkel, T | Books: Changes every week. Lately - Black Swan Green (David Mitchell), Kafka on the Shore (Murakami), Man and Boy (Tony Parsons), A Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snickett)
More permanently: William Shakespeare, William Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, Salman Rushdie, Lewis Carroll, Douglas Adams |
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