Phyl Lobl has her recording of this song available for free at http://www.phyllobl.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=122&Itemid=135. It's absolutely beautiful. Here are the lyrics from her Website:
PAST CARIN'
(Words: Henry Lawson & Music: Phyl Lobl)
Now up and down the sidling brown the great black crows are flying.
And down below the spur I know another milker's dying.
The crops have withered from the ground the tank's clay bed is glarin',
And from my heart no tear nor sound for I have got Past Carin'.
Past botherin' or carin', past weepin' or despairin'
From my heart no tear nor sound for I have got Past Carin'.
Through death and trouble turn about through hopeless desolation,
Through flood and fever, fire and drought and slavery and starvation,
Through child-birth, sickness, hurt and blight, and nervousness and scarin'
Through being left alone at night, I've come to be Past Carin’
Past botherin' or carin', past weepin' or despairin'
Through being left alone at night I've come to be Past Carin'.
T'was ten years first then came the worst all for a barren clearin'
I swear I thought my heart would burst when first my man went shearin'
He's drovin' in the great North West, I don't know how he's farin'
I the one that loved him best have grown to be Past Carin'.
Past botherin' or carin', past weepin' or despairin'
I the one that loved him best have grown to be Past Carin'.
My eyes are dry, I cannot cry, I've got no heart for breakin'
For where it was in days gone by a dull and empty achin'
My last boy ran away from me I know my temper's wearin'
But now I only wish to be beyond all signs of carin'.
Past botherin' or carin', past weepin' or despairin'
Now I only wish to be beyond all signs of carin'.
Words: Henry Lawson.
Notes: I put the tune to these words circa 1967/8. I first sang it at a folk concert in the Melbourne Town Hall. Lawson uses a different lines in each 'refrain' pair of lines, but I used one repeatedly as a first line in order to make a partial chorus which repeats the last line of each verse.
I also emit one verse. There have been several recordings made using the tune. Several of my tunes for Lawson verses can be found in the 'The Henry Lawson Song Book' compiled by Chris Kempster. I have presented many folk docos titled 'Henry Lawson the Songwriter Without a Guitar' and another called 'Henry & Louisa'.
Martin and Jessica Simpson have a different tune for these lyrics - their haunting recording is on their 2009 True Dare or Promise album.
-Joe-
sj