Local news for local people
A day out with some music at the pub
October 24, 2024
Sunday.
October 20, saw the final show of "Brewing Ballads and Being Well"
organised by
RAMHP and
Arts Outwest.
This brought a group of
musicians together to write and
perform their own songs under the guidance of local musician Abby
Smith. Oberon Matters had been to the
final workshop session where a couple of songs were rehearsed and
changes made to make them better, and this was the end result.
The mini concert was held in the beer garden of the Tarana Hotel, and there's really no better place to listen to live music than outdoors with a drink in your hand. The pub provided finger food as well as the venue.
The two songs were performed on the day,
although the words might have changed slightly between rehearsal and
performance, but that's what creativity and improvisation are all
about. The recordings were done with a Zoom H1 recording microphone
on a little tripod on one of the tables in the beer garden. This
mic is really good at what it was designed to do, which is record
interviews, not live music. Still, you have to work with what you've
got and the budget didn't stretch to Abbey Road levels of equipment.
Also, in a situation like this you can't control for extraneous
sound, like conversation around the table or the man who arrived on
a Harley and kept blipping the throttle (the first recording was
about 50 per cent longer before the bike was edited out).
The songs didn't really have titles, so Oberon Matters decided to give them some. The first was The River.
Monika Perry tells us about the river.
It was hard coming back after forty years
Losing track And
losing connection
The click-clack of the tracks is like a
record in my brain
But the train doesn't go in my direction
So I went walking down the road
Headed for the h of town
Where the easy conversation flows freely
Bruce is always here
And if you wait
And lend an ear
The stories will flow
forth Like the river
Oh the river
Flowing through my mind
Oh the river
Bruce sits with beer in hand
Trains and shearing at the
bar
The old days are the visions that he speaks
A heart of
gold
A cheeky grin
He’s holding all our stories deep
within
He’s often out the front
With a smoke in hand
He
welcomes all the people coming in
But his heart is always
standing
On the banks down in the valley
Where the river
is unwinding
Through the times
Oh the river
Flowing through my mind
Oh the river
The other song written by the group was The Mail Train, and followed the sequence of railway stations around Tarana. The words on the day were an approximation of the rehearsed lyrics, but so what? (Something for Trivia Night - the piece named So What? on the Miles Davis recording Kind of Blue was largely made up on the spot. Good enough for Miles, good enough for everyone else.)
Bob Green brings in the mail.
Loaded up the mail
It was half past nine
The conductor
blew the whistle
Everything was going fine
Red light,
yellow light, green light go
In summer the sun shines
In
winter there’s snow
Full head of steam across the countryside
In through the
tunnel and out the other side
Farmers on tractors
Wheat,
oat and sheep
Viaducts, quarries, rivers and creeks
We pull into Brewongle
Loading up geese
Bypass Wambool
We’re building up steam
Over the bridge
Loxley coming into
view
Sound that whistle
We’re coming on through
Fine wool, sheep and trotters too
That’s Gemalla
Move
on forward
Long side the river
It’s looking pretty dry
Out past
the quarry
That’s where someone died
Sound that whistle
Hold the coal
Let the steam go
Slow boys, slow
It wasn't all music, because there was a poetry reading as well.
And if you just happened to be there with a guitar you could end up on stage.
Last act for the day brought out the professionals - Smith and Jones.
The idea of bringing people together to create and perform songs was a great success, and it's hoped that something like this can be done in the other places around regional areas where there is a real need to address mental health issues. A collaborative project adds another dimension to just getting people to talk and communicate.
Sonia Cox from RAMHP, the folk at Arts Outwest who support so much music this side of the mountains and of course Abby Smith must all be thanked and congratulated for making this happen.
Murphy's Law never takes a holiday. There would be photo captions with all the performers' names if the notebook hadn't been on top of the car when setting off to drive home. It was right next to the box of chicken wings that Shelley at the pub had kindly supplied as a "doggy bag". At least the camera and microphone made it back home safely.
Find us on Facebook