Oh, Mac, I am flattered.
Francesca Bussey (singer and daughter of friends of mine) sang that ballad
at my Melbourne launch at Collected Works. (It was originally published in
Beyond City Limits, a limited edition book from ICLL at ECU.)
No more ballads - just a couple of failed pop songs.
Enjoy Seattle.
Handy Andy of the Riverina
On 17 December 2014 at 11:47, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Ah, Andrew, I have long admired the work in Aus folk music of
>
> Margaret Walters
>
> and cannot now remember when I first heard
>
> Ballad of Many Crows,
> words by Andrew Burke.
>
> I find it on her website sounding good:
>
> http://www.margaretwalters.com/
>
> Are there many more where that one comes from?
>
> Max in Seattle
> (listening to Palestrina!)
>
>
> On Dec 17, 2014, at 11:11 AM, Andrew Burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > No, but I have a Bush Balladeer friend who I shall show it to. (Have you
> > heard my Ballad of Many Crows, Max? I'm pickled tink if you have )
> >
> > Andew
> >
> >>
> >> Murray Gunn used to have a tourist camp ('Gunn's Camp') out at the
> start of
> >> the Hollyford Track in Fiordland, and the conservation department (DOC)
> >> hated this and tried to get him moved off for several years. One reason
> was
> >> that he kept an elderly brown horse, whose horse-shit contained oats
> which
> >> then infested the conservation land.
> >>
> >> Gunn became worried that someone would shoot his old horse, so he found
> >> some
> >> white paint and painted, in large capitals, HORSE on one side of the
> beast;
> >> but then he found he was running short of white paint, so on the other
> >> side,
> >> he painted COW with what remained. And all went well for the old horse
> >> until
> >> one year it dropped dead - but unfortunately right on the bank of the
> >> Hollyford River.
> >>
> >> The next flood took the HORSE/COW and floated it downstream until it
> >> fetched
> >> up on a rock, directly under the one bridge over which DOC-sponsored
> >> trampers crossed the river as they followed the track. And in due
> course it
> >> rotted and became (said Ted) a seething mass of maggots - which upset
> the
> >> trampers.
> >>
> >> The DOC people went to Gunn and said, You've got to shift your horse! -
> to
> >> which Gunn said, It's not my horse. Yes it, is, look at what it's got
> >> painted on it - that's your work! Oh no it's not, said he - anybody
> could
> >> have painted that! And stood his ground.
> >>
> >> So the DOC people went to the Ministry of Works gang on the Milford Road
> >> and
> >> offered $100 to anyone who would remove the carcase from the rock; and a
> >> couple of likely lads took up the contract. They nicked a quantity of
> >> Gelignite from the MWD store, placed it under the horse, ran the wires a
> >> safe distance away to the plunger, checked there were no trampers in the
> >> offing, and pressed the plunger. BOOM! - and unfortunately, because the
> >> charge was under the horse and on top of the rock, the explosion threw
> the
> >> horse straight through the bridge, and destroyed it completely. And it
> cost
> >> DOC $100,000 to replace the bridge.
> >>
> >> Don't you agree this cries out to be made over into a bush ballad?
> >>
> >> best from Max in yarn-less Seattle
> >> =
>
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
'Undercover of Lightness'
http://walleahpress.com.au/recent-publications.html
'Shikibu Shuffle'
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/new-from-aboveground-press-shikibu.html
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