Lyr/Chords Req: Across the Warego

Subject: Across the Warego
From:
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 06:38 AM

I just listened to Martyn Wyndham-Read's version of "Across the Warego" for the first time in a long time. I forgot how good it is. I would like the lyrics and chords for it (or to be pointed to where I can find them.)

Thanks,

Murray

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Across the Warego
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 22 Apr 01 - 03:25 AM

G'day Murray,

I have this on Martyn's (re-release) CDUndiscovered Australia, Music Pangaea MP10002. Music Pangaea are are bit lax at credits so I have no idea whether the tune is Martyn's own or from somebody else. I doubt that it is a collected tune, as Martyn describes the (poem) source:
"Across the Warego Grahame): Yet another description of the vast Australian outback, this time by Jim Gordon of Creswick, Victoria who, for reasons unknown, wrote under the name of Jim Grahame. Originally intending to become a jockey, he ended up "jackerooing" (working on sheep & cattle stations) in the far west instead. In the 1890s he made a trip with Henry Lawson around the shearing sheds where, as evidenced by this song, the spirit of the outback certainly rubbed off on him."

Actually, the single credit Grahame) should suggest that the tune is also Gordon/Grahame's, but I can't find any other record of it and suspect that Martyn wrote a tune to a poem that caught his fancy. Certainly, the tune sounds typical of Martyn's style.

If you can't find a site for the lyrics, I can type them out (although your post suggests you may have a recording ...?). I don't think Martyn has a site with words or tunes ... or even writes them down for himself! For one of Monday Night Workshop attendees, I needed his tune for CH Souter's Irish Lords a while back and asked if he had them - and he did not, so I had to transcribe it myself.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Across the Warego
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 22 Apr 01 - 07:59 AM

G'day again Murray,

I did a search for web sites connected with "Martyn Wyndham-Read" and got nil result, so I don't think we are going to find the Lyrics and chords posted anywhere.

Regard(les)s,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Across the Warego
From: Snuffy
Date: 22 Apr 01 - 01:38 PM

Did you check all the possible mis-spellings of all three parts oh his name, Bob? Martin Windham Reid, etc. He must be the most mis-spelled guy on the net.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Across the Warego
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 22 Apr 01 - 11:52 PM

G'day Snuffy,

I think it was just a really bad day for my kludgy ISP ... nothing came up for the correct spellings (and I admit that I didn't try any of the multitude of possible miss-spellings). Anyway, I just threw his name at the same search on my work machine ... and got 209 web site hits ... including one with my own name in front (link to a photograph I took of Martyn with Brian Mooney, back in the '70s)!

I will look through them quickly ... then get back to work.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Across the Warego
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 12:07 AM

G'day again Snuffy (and Murray),

I had a good look at the first 40 hits. None of them look like the sort of site that lists words/chords/tunes - either supplied by Martyn or by a fan group (and, I suspect, such a site would be out of character ... Martyn's art is all about performance and content, good as it is, is secondary).

Looks like I am going to have to spend a moment or two getting words down (unless Murray already has those ... ?). Chords, for guitar anyway, are not my forte.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

BTW: Yes, I did notice that the photo was in fact one I took at the (Australian) National Folk Festival, Sutherland, 1988. I was confusing it with others.

BB

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Across the Warego
From:
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 12:55 AM

Thanks in advance, Bob. If you can figure out the harmonic structure, I think I can turn it into guitar chords. Also, I think I can work out the lyrics from the recording, so just one verse with the chords will do. (I wish I could hear chords myself!)

Speaking of kludgy ISPs. I have been having a hard time getting Mudcat. I don't know if it is the ISP, Mudcat, or the Internet in general.

Murray

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Across the Warego
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 11:58 PM

G'day Murray,

My ISP is nothing to write home about ... sometimes it can't even find its own home site for minutes at end! However, when it is in a good mood, Mudcat provides the acid test ... it is a popular site and takes a lot longer to come up (and to refresh) than a lot of commercial sites which just sit there and hope you will buy something.

Now if if I could just persuade all those other 'catters to stop posting ... it wouldn't be worth bothering with ... but it would pop up straight away ...!

Regards(les)s,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Across the Warego
From: GUEST,Judy Predmore
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 12:28 AM

Martyn's official web site is www.martynwyndhamread.com I don't know of any fan based web site, & I've done a bit of searching, as I'm trying to get some of his out of print LPs from used LP web sites.

His site has no lyrics or chords. He doesn't even know much about his site, I think his wife set most of it up. He's not into the web, & as you've noticed, not into detailed liner notes. But he's definitely into the music. If he didn't write Warego, (which does sound like one of his tunes), he'd know who wrote the tune, or where the tune came from. He's a pretty busy guy, I think he just got back from 2 months in Australia. So he may not have time to write out lyrics or chords if he doesn't alreay have them written. And if he has them written, they'd probably be hand written, so he'd probably have to snail mail you a copy. He's very interested in connecting with people about the music. He has helped me out with words I couldn't understand from his recordings, especially Australian terms. I sing about 10 songs from him, but I sing unaccompanied, so I've never asked him for chords. So if you can get most of the lyrics & some of the chords yourself, he'd probably help you out with the rest. You can email him from the web site. If you don't hear from him, check his tour schedule, he may just be away or have alot of gigs.

Judy, a huge fan of M W-R...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Across the Warego
From:
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 07:09 AM

Thanks for the info Judy. I will contact him.

Unfortunately I was in the US at the same time he was touring Australia.

I am a fan of his also.

Murray

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Across the Warego
From: GUEST,Judy Predmore
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 06:43 PM

I just found my copy of Undiscovered Australia. The tunes Martyn wrote are clearly credited after each title, so it looks like he did not write the tune to Warego... Sometimes the credits are within his liner notes, & those are not always so clear... Very humorous though...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Across the Warego
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 25 Apr 01 - 04:27 AM

G'day Judy,

Like you, I have the CD Undiscovered Australia, Music Pangaea MP10002. I noted that the single credit (Grahame) should suggest that the tune was also by Jim Gordon/Grahame ... but I doubt this, since it does not appear as a song in Ron Edwards's comprehensive 200 Years of Australian Folksong - Index 1788 - 1988, and I suspect that it was found by Martyn as a poem. I seem to remember Martyn singing it a few times when he was out here a few years back ... but I can't recall any reference to the tune he uses.

I don't have the original recording (on CD or LP) and Music Pangaea's notes always seem to be somewhat abbreviated versions of their original sources. I will see if I can find the recording from which Music Pangaea lifted it and check the notes, but that means beating around several other people's LP collections.

Murray, I discussed a few older queries I had on sources and tunes for Martyn's repertoire, when I saw him at times over Easter ... but not this one, as it had not yet arisen.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Across the Warego
From:
Date: 25 Apr 01 - 07:26 AM

Thanks Bob. I would be interested in what the older liner notes say. I myself have the song on "Undiscovered Australia" with its somewhat curt liner notes.

Murray