Lyr/Chords Req: The 'Abercrombie Mountains' - Ben

Subject: The 'Abercrombie Mountains' - Ben Hall
From: Percustard
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 03:13 AM

Hi all,

I have extracted this tempting morsal of a song about the Australian Bushranger of 140 years ago Ben Hall.

It was buried in amongst a thread about "Whisky in a Jar".

Anyway...

Does anyone know about the song "The Abercrombie Mountains" lyrics, tune, history, author, myths etc?

Seeya

Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The 'Abercrombie Mountains' - Ben
From: masato sakurai
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 05:42 AM

Possibly not a full version.

"An Australian version [of "Whiskey in the Jar (Kilgary Mountain)"] introduces still another mountain and ties in the story with Australian history. Sir Frederick Pottinger was police inspector for the Lachlan gold field in New South Wales. Because he tried to put down bushranging (outlawry), he became a frequent target for bushrangers and satirists; he died in 1865 when one of his own pistols accidentally exploded."

As I was a-crossin' the Abercrombie Mountains,
I met Sir Frederick Pottinger, and his money he was countin'.
I first drew me blunderbuss and then I drew me sabre,
Sayin', "Stand and deliver-oh! for I'm your bold decayver."
With my mush-a-ring-a-dah,
Ri-tooral-addy-ah
Ri-tooral-addy-ah
There's whiskey in the jar.

I robbed him of his money; it was a pretty penny,
I robbed him of it all and I took it home to Jenny;
I took it home to Jenny and I thought she'd ne're deceive me.
Oh, the divil's in the wimmin for they never can be aisy.

(SOURCE: James F. Leisy, The Folk Song Abecedary, Hawthorn, 1966, p. 355)

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The 'Abercrombie Mountains' - Ben
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 07:00 AM

G'day Mark,

You'll find about as much as you are going to find about that local version on p. 51 of Meredith & Anderson's Folk Songs of Australia and the men and women who sang them, vol. 1, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1967. John collected it from Mary Byrnes, in 1954, Concord, Sydney.

Mary sang one more stanza than Leisy quotes.

Ive got two brothers who are both in the army,
One is in Cork and another in Killarney.
If they were here tonight and all so free and jolly,
Tossing off another glass to my deceitfull Molly.

The tune looks like pretty much the same as you would know from the popular versions recorded back in the "Folk Scare". For comparison you should go back to original material in Colm O'Lochlainn's Irish Street Ballads.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The 'Abercrombie Mountains' -
From: Percustard
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 07:58 PM

HI all,

Abercrombie was a prominant figure in my neck of the 'bush'here is Australia. There's Abercrombie House (very imposing blue stone "castle"), Abercrombie Caves (where Ben Hall hid out for a while), The Abercrombie River (that flows,a few kms downstream, into the Lachlan River named after Governor Lachlan Macquarie and The Lachlan is the river fabled in songs such as The Lachlan Tigers and Streets of Forbes).

So...

I am keen to track down the song, the tune , the history of "The Abercrombie Mountains (Kilgarry Mountains) Sir Fred...etal.

So...

Forgive my ignorance but what was the "Folk Scare" and any leads on O'Lochlainn's works would be appreciated.

Seeya

Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The 'Abercrombie Mountains' - Ben
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 08:18 PM

G'day Mark,

"Folk Scare" is just a wry reference (filched off someone else ... ) for what the record labels saw as the "Folk Boom" - and the folkies saw as the "Folk Revival" in the 1960s/'70s.

Colm O'Lochlain's books (Irish Street Ballads ... and More Irish Street Ballads ...?) were published in the '60s ... at much the same time as Patrick Galvin's Irish Songs of Resistance. I've seen copies of Galvin's book secondhand - but not O'Lochlain's ... I'm after a copy of each myself!

I doubt that they got the same commercial distribution as Irish Songs of Resistance, but Meredith often quotes from them in discussing songs of Irish origin. Mudcat's Master McGrath, with whom I have been discussing his rather more northern-focused book of Irish songs of the rebel times, obviously has a set, as he has sent a few photocopies of appropriate entries.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The 'Abercrombie Mountains' - Ben
From: masato sakurai
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 08:27 PM

"There's Whiskey in the Jar", in Colm O Lochlainn, Irish Street Ballads (Dublin: Three Candles, 1939, 1967, No. 12 [pp. 24-25]). This version is HERE.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The 'Abercrombie Mountains' -
From: Percustard
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 08:36 PM

Thanks Bob and Masato. Great info.

I forgot to mention that there is also the recently gazetted Abercrombie National Park in the Bathurst, Oberon, Trunkey Creek, region NSW Australia.

Whiskey/Abercrombie may be another couple of candidate's for Tursacan's Cheese Factory!

Seeya

Mark