Chord Req: Anderson's Coast (John Warner)

Subject: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: GUEST,Don Meixner
Date: 30 Mar 06 - 11:33 PM

Would the people that know this song try out these chords and tell me what you think. I know the original is in a non-standard tuning and we've never been able to come up with some definate chords.

I'm liking this set up with a simple 1-3-2-4 arpegiated picking pattern or very basic 1 & 2 & 1 strum.

What do you think?

Don



ANDERSON'S COAST
(John Warner)

(G)Now Bass Strait roars like some great millrace
--And where are you, my Annie?
(G)And the same (D)moon sh(C)ines on this lonely pl(G)ace
As shone one day on my Annie's fa(C)ce.

Cho: But Annie de(G)ar, don't wait for me.
I fear I shall not return to thee.
There's naught to do but endure my fa(C)te,
And watch the mo(G)on, the lonely mo(C)on,
Light the bre(G)akers on wi(D)ld Bass Str(C)ait.(Walk down from c-b-a to(G)

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: Leadfingers
Date: 31 Mar 06 - 07:05 AM

(G)Now Bass Strait roars like some great mill race

And where are you my Annie

And the sa(C)me Mo(D)n shi(G)nes on this lonely pla(C)ce

As sho(G)ne one day on my Annies fa(C)ce

So Annie de(G)ar dont wait for me

I fe(C)ar I(D) sh(G)ll not return to th(C)ee

Theres nau(G)ht to go but endure my fa(C)te

(G)And wa(C)tch th(D)e Mo(G)on the lonely Mo(C)on

Light the bre(G)kers on wi(D)ld Bass Str(G)aight

Is more or less the way I do it Don , the G,C,D,G sequence being a run UP from open G to a Barre F on the third fret , with single notes rather than full chords . -Incidentaly I tend to do it on Banjola tuned to open G rather than guitar with a lot of hammered on single notes .
Theres

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: DonMeixner
Date: 31 Mar 06 - 10:20 AM

Thanks Lead,

I'll try that out when I get home from work. Did you try my chords? How did they work?

Don

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: breezy
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 04:30 AM

theres a chord on the 'me' in the chorus that is interesting, its the relative minor of the dom7th

also use of the sub dom on 'strait' before returning to the tonic can be effective

I use dropped D tuning for a fuller sound

I concentrate on the lyric and tune vocally

I can also make it last a hell of a long time !!!!
10 minutes !!

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 10:14 AM

If you'd like to hear a "lighter" treatment with banjo try the MP3 sample on my website: click here and search for lyrics!

I've also taken the liberty of rearranging John's verses, but one should really buy Warner's CD, PITDHEAD IN THE FERN, and hear how he does it, with his lovely rich guitar work.

Breezy-

Only 10 minutes? One should work with this ballad for hours, to give the audience some sense of outer desolation, of loss and abandonment, of being shipwrecked on that wild coast with no hope of further escape. John does explain in his notes that the convicts actually rescued a government survey team and earned a royal pardon but he's never published a verse about that.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 10:59 AM

Hi Breezy,

Thanks for the in put. I must say that my theory skills aren't up to the Dominant, Dominant7th, Sub-dominant level. But I can ponder that out and learn something in the balance.

I've considered banjo on this Charlie. Thanks for the direction.

Don

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 01:32 PM

Don-

Thanks for the feedback.

I really love the song but I still need to work some more on the banjo arrangement, or bring in a supporting guitar.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: breezy
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 05:15 PM

then again asprint at 4mins 35 including the verse J W omits

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 05:19 PM

Mick Pearce (a formidable guitarist) sings this unaccompanied. Just thought you might be interested in that.

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: Declan
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 08:04 PM

This is trhe way I play it. Its in a different key than the one given above. Also I have only heard the version done by Nancy Kerr and James Fagan. I am not familiar with John Warner's original. To my mind it is the minor chard that makes the melody, so its worth the trouble to figure out where the relevant minor fits in in the key you're playing it in.

ANDERSON'S COAST
(John Warner)

Now Bass Strait (D) roars like some (A) great mill (Bm) race
--And where are (D)you, my (A) Annie?
And the same moon (Bm) shines on this lonely (G) place
As (A) shone one (D)day on my Annie's (G) face

Cho: But (A)Annie (D) dear, don't wait for (A) me.
I fear I (Bm)shall not return to (A) thee.
There's naught to (D) do but endure my (G) fate,
And watch the (Bm) moon, the lonely (G) moon,
(A) Light the (D) breakers on (A) wild Bass (G) Strait.(A)

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 08:50 PM

Thanks Declan,

I'll give this a try as well.

I can play this song a bunch of ways and they all sound pretty good.
I've played it with just two chords and been pleased with the outcome
I've tried it with a relative minor as you suggest and it works fine.
The problem is no matter how I play it there is something in the melody that pulls me toward a chord I have never used in the spot I want to put it. Then the next time around it doesn't fit.

Maybe that is why this song is so universally captivating.

Don

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 09:35 PM

My pet peeve but I didn't compose the song:

And the same moon shines on this lonely place
As shone one DAY on my Annie's face

Please consider patching in NIGHT.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 03 Apr 06 - 02:38 AM

Don

Don't let Breezy's chord names hold you up. By the relative minor of the dominant 7th, he means the chord we'd normally call (if using this terminology) the mediant ie the chord on the third note of the scale - Bm in the key of G. The sub dominant is the chord on the 4th note of the scale - C in the key of G.

(These are the key-independent names for the scale notes or the chords built on them. In G, the chords go: G-tonic, Am-supertonic, Bm-mediant, C-subdominant, D-dominant, Em-submediant, F#dim-leading note. These are the triads based on each note of the scale using other scale tones. The chords are a bit more of a nuisance in minor keys, but the same principle applies. The dominant 7th in the normal 7th chord that you use on the 5th note of the scale - D7 in the key of G).

Hope that makes things a bit clearer. (And, yes, though I don't sing the song much these days, I don't accompany it when I do; and at a quick look wouldn't play exactly the chords given by anyone if I did!).

Mick

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 03 Apr 06 - 11:51 PM

Thanks for the theory lesson Mark. I appreciate it very much.

Don

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: breezy
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 03:56 AM

you should hear his song intros


Mark ?

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 05:18 AM

Spoken or played, breezy?

One last link I should have mentioned is that the relative minor is the minor on the 6th note of the major scale. So in G the 6th note is E and Em is the relative minor of G. (It's the minor key with the same signature - same number of sharps or flats - as the major key). So to translate the relative minor of the dominant in G: the dominant of G is the 5th note of the scale, ie D, the relative minor of D is the minor on the 6th note of the D major scale, ie Bm. (He could have just said that!)

Mick (or Mark; I still smell as sweet)

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 08:50 AM

Sorry Mick,

I just had in and out surgery to correct some hearing loss and the anesthetic was stick making me real real stupid. Its a suprise to me that I didn't call you Myrna.

And I do appreciate all the advice and help from everyone regards to this song. Its still very new in Upstate New York.

Dan

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: breezy
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 12:59 PM

Merk, Mork, Mack, Muck, Mock as you do ,

Both, the spoken and the played, always fascinating stuff.

Still enjoy Joshua Gone

Mick was a stalwart in the early days of preparing for the legendary folk club that has become known as The Wandering Windward Folk-song club St Albans that was voted best club 2005

Mick then moved away , to avoid having to attend every week for the next 6 years and in order to come back as a guest as he will for the 5th time next winter

www.windwardfc.org.uk

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 02:01 PM

Erm Breezy - you can't count!

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 02:03 PM

It's 3 years 7 months.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: HipflaskAndy
Date: 05 Apr 06 - 01:54 PM

I play this song, but have just realised I have no idea what chords I play for at least half of it - howzat!
Cheers - Duncan (numpty)

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and
From: GUEST,Don Meixner
Date: 05 Apr 06 - 03:18 PM

Well Duncan I'd say thats pretty consistant with everyone else.

Cheers,

Don

Subject: RE: Chord Req: 'Anderson's Coast' Yet again, and agai
From: HipflaskAndy
Date: 06 Apr 06 - 07:30 AM

True, Don.
Interesting how we're all doing it quite differently, isn't it!
I only recently had a PM from a Catter asking me how my version of it (on my 'Bed of Straw' CD) goes and he mentioned this current thread (gosh, there are so many other threads on the same song!)

I'm very impressed with all the technicalities, Mick. Makes me realise how little I know!

I too learnt the song from listening to Nancy and James, then back-tracked from there but only after I'd set an 'own version' in stone for myself.
Oops! I'd changed it just a tiny bit from John's original I fear – tho' his musical partner on 'Pithead', Margaret Walters, sang harmony along with me many times with no problem when I played guitar for her on her mini UK tour a couple of years back.

So….. reading this thread has made me pull a guitar down off the wall here and look at just what it is I play, as was sure it was more involved than the basic three chord 'trick' (in D, in my case) with the addition of Bm, its relative minor.

I have my guitar, for this song, in 'C Modal' tuning (a misnomer for a start!).
I have the capo on second fret – so I'm in D… that much I do know!
Up above, Declan writes out the chord sequence that works for him in D, yet I can see straight away my own 'incomplete' chord sequence (in the same key) differs immediately from his, as mine has, quite definitely, an F#m in the verses - the line that ends 'where are you my Annie' (Is this because I'm singing the tune wrong at that point perhaps?). But my chords are 'incomplete' as I don't always play full chords as the song progresses, but link sections together with runs on the bass strings (presumably as I couldn't find a chord to fit in the first place!).
I'm definitely stumped now as to what should or shouldn't fit in terms of chords in these little sections.
And what matter? It works for me.

All I can say is – I'm glad this cracking song is getting many an airing!
All such variations still help it survive and thrive, each in their own way – and hopefully everyone goes back to its source for a listen, and therefore get to hear some of JW's other masterpieces!
May the same moon shine on all our faces.
Cheers – Duncan      www.duncanmcfarlane.co.uk