CD cover notes: The Campfire Song

 

THE CAMPFIRE SONG                 Ian MacDougall

THE TRACKS we have travelled

 If you have the CD but not the cover notes, well then here they are. If you don’t have the CD, well at least you can get an idea of what you are missing. If you want a copy of the CD to go with these notes, drop me an email at charlie.honk@live.com and we’ll see what we can do. I keep stocks low, so there may be a short wait while new CDs are made.

01. Murrumbidgee Song                                             2:29

02. The Motorcycling Song                                        3:00

03. On the Wallaby (Henry Lawson; trad.)                 4:42

I’ve heard many recorded versions of this, and none of them has been as the immortal Henry Lawson wrote it. This one isn’t either, because I first learned it via a radio broadcast, and had to guess some of the words. That’s what happens in oral transmission. But I’ve been singing it this way ever since, with the spirit still tingling in my toes and my heels.

04. The River Song (instr.)                                         2:50

05. Violet Town                                                           4:24

The people of that small town  on the Sydney-Melbourne line one morning stepped straight through the wreckage of the Southern Aurora, and into the future.

06. Waking Up With You                                            3:30    

07. Seen the Likes of Me                                            3:05

08. The Slow Down Dance                                         4:14

When British and Australian army bands started playing march tunes together in World War 1, it was found that the British played them about ten beats to the minute faster than did the Australians. It seems that this continent takes speedy people and slows them down. If you ask me, it’s aboriginalising the whole lot of us.

09. Look Out Below! (Charles Thatcher; trad.)          4:48

In 1977, while riding on a train through the rainy countryside of Herefordshire, England, I started singing Charles ‘The Inimitable’ Thatcher’s Look Out Below!  I was so moved by it that I decided to record it when I got home. The original LP on which this CD is based was a result of that decision.

(As on other tracks where she plays, Linda Berry wrote the flute parts.)

10. Graffiti                                                                   4:40

To the memory of a man whose work was well known to about three generations of Sydneysiders: the late Mr Arthur Stace.  

11. The Ballad of Lionel Brockman                            5:14

[At the time of writing: 1982] the Koories make up about 2% of the population of Western Australia, but about 36% of that state’s prison inmates. Lionel Brockman was officially in for stealing. His real crime was his attempt to get his family out of the garbage dump, and back into their own land.

12. The Campfire Song                                              5:19

This is my hymn to the Earth, and of all my songs, my special favourite. It’s dedicated to my wife Jenny, with whom I share a love of all it sings about.

THE MUSICIANS           

 Linda Berry, flute; Jenny Catlow, cello; Louise Hildyard, fiddle; Mary Leggett, vocal backing; Ian MacDougall, vocals, guitar, harmonica, mandolin, bass guitar; Bob McInnes, fiddle; Alan Smart, electric guitar.

Originally recorded and mixed at Radio 2XX, Canberra, 1982. Engineers: Brian Buchtmann; Liam Egan; Consultant: Lydia Buchtmann. Remastered by Jeff Evans at Jemusic, Melbourne, 23.12.2007

Flute parts by Linda Berry. Words, music & arrangements © 1982 Ian MacDougall, except where otherwise indicated.