Margaret Walters -
'For The Future And The Past'

CD from Australia - NSW

$A25.00 (plus packing & postage)
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For this album Margaret has selected little known Australian folk songs - some old some new but all imbued with strength and vigour. Margaret's first solo CD, released in 1990.

Guitar: Martin Carthy, Bob Fagan, Andrew Knight, Graham McDonald, Gill Rees
Fiddle: Martyn Oram
Whistles/Flute: Peter Woodley
Keyboards: Trish McFarlane, James Fagan, Andrew Knight, Graham McDonald
Bass: Peter Bennett
Bush Band: Backblocks: Dave Johnson, Anne Pidcock, Bob Foggin, Bob Bolton and Pat Bolton
Singers: Margaret Walters, Tony Cochrane, Robin Connaughton, Bob Fagan, Margaret Fagan, Tom Hanson, Paul Hemphill, Adele Hugill, Graham McDonald, Len Neary, Robert Walters

l. OF TREES AND HUMANKIND Words and music; Wendy Joseph (1982)
Wendy wrote this song in the International Year of the Tree. In ancient Britain harsh penalties (including death) were imposed for the unlawful felling of trees, and the song traces the effects of civilization from the Romanisation of Britain to the coming of the Europeans to Australia. The growing environmental movement is a sign that people are getting in touch with their ancient tribal heritage and re-establishing a relationship with the earth and the trees.
Vocals: Margaret Walters, Guitar: Bob Fagan, Keyboards: James Fagan, Harmony vocals: Margaret Fagan
2. SAILOR HOME FROM THE SEA Words: Dorothy Hewett (c. 1960) Music: Chris Kempster (c.1967)
Dorothy wrote this poem when she was living in Perth, Western Australia and her husband, Merv Lilley, also a poet, was away at sea for lengthy periods. The songs on this album all happen to have been written before 1922, or after 1980 - except this one: a combination of the fine poetry of Dorothy Hewett and the inimitable music of Chris Kempster.
Vocals: Margaret Walters, Guitar: Graham McDonald, Electric Guitar: Andrew Knight, Keyboard: Trish McFarlane
3. CYPRUS BRIG or: Seizure of the Cyprus Brig in Recherche Bay, 1829-Words: Frank the Poet (Francis MacNamara) Music: traditional arranged Margaret Walters/Martin Carthy
The Cyprus left Hobart Town on 28th July 1829 to take thirty-one prisoners and their guards to the dreaded penal colony at Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania. This song tells just a few chapters of an epic yarn. The continuing adventures and tribulations of the mutineers and those they left behind leave scope for many more songs. Marcus Clarke included some parts of the story in For The Term of His Natural Life. Frank the Poet was an extraordinary fellow, and his verse spread throughout the penal colonies. For more information about him, read John Meredith and Rex Whalan's Frank the Poet (Red Rooster, 1979).
Vocals: Margaret Walters, Guitar: Martin Carthy
4. THE SECRET ROOM Words and music: Mary-Jane Field (1985)
In 1984 Sydney song-writer, Mary-Jane Field visited Argentina and met a woman whose brief experience as a political prisoner in the 1970s had made an indelible impression.
Vocals: Margaret Walters
5a. WIFE TO A COCKY FARMER Words and music: Richard Keam (1983)
5b. Ernie Goodman's Waltz Traditional, arranged Backblocks
Richard wrote this song "based on individuals known personally and through research - one of them quoted almost verbatim". I learned the song after hearing Judy Small sing it at a Newcastle Folk Festival in 1987. The Waltz that follows the song was collected from Ernie Goodman, a button accordion player born in the Mudgee district of NSW in 1890. It has been published in Folk Songs of Australia Vol II by John Meredith et al (NSW University Press, 1987). The Backblocks are a group of musicians from the Bush Music Club in Sydney who play traditional Australian dance music in the style of, and using instruments appropriate to, a dance band of the turn of the century.
5a. Vocals: Margaret Walters, Keyboard; Trish McFarlane
5b. Concertinas; Pat Bolton, Dave Johnson, Button accordion: Rob Bolton, Fiddle: Bob Foggin, Keyboards: Anne Pidcock
6. NUMBER TWENTY-TWOWords: "Javey" of Murrurundi (1880), adapted Margaret Walters, Music: Margaret Walters (1988)
Brian Dunnett of Sydney unearthed this 110 year old gem from the pages of The Locomotive Journal, and it is included as a recitation on his cassette called Trains nf Treasure. A.L.Lloyd provided the version that appears in Ron Edwards' Big Book of Australian Folksongs. Whatever the song's origins, it captures the pride of an enginedriver who loves his work, the affection he has for his machine, and the friendly rivalry between him and his peers.
Vocals: Margaret Walters, Guitar and Bouzouki: Bob Fagan, Fiddle: Martyn Oram, Double Bass: Peter Bennett, Harmonies: Margaret Fagan, Bob Fagan
7. ON THE NIGHT TRAIN Words: Henry Lawson (1922) Music: Ade Monsbourgh (c. 1970)
Henry Lawson wrote these verses in the autograph book of a nurse, Lucy O'Sullivan, when he was in The Coast Hospital in Maroubra early in 1922. He had suffered a stroke and he died later that year. I empathise strongly with experience in the poem of world weariness and angry thoughts crowding in on what should be a peaceful journey, and gradually finding solace in the gentle grey beauty of the bush. This tune appears in Chris Kempster's excellent collection, The Songs of Henry Lawson (Viking O'Neil, 1989).
Vocals: Margaret Walters, Piano: Trish McFarlane
8a. THE NAMELESS CONVICT Words and music: Wendy Joseph (1980)
8b. Raibh Tu ag an gCarraig? (Were you at the Rock?) Traditional arr. Peter Woodley
By 1837 the treadmill, the "everlasting staircase", had become the main form of punishment in the gaols of Britain and Australia. It's effects on the health of women convicts were particularly severe and are described in Who's Master, Who's Man? by Michael Cannon. Mothers of young babies were condemned to the wheel for putting their parishes to expense by their inability to care for their illegitimate offspring. Wendy has released a cassette of her songs, recorded with other South Australian musicians, called Small Talk.
Vocals: Margaret Walters, Whistles: Peter Woodley, Keyboards: Graham McDonald
9. THE FOUR ELEMENTS AND OLLIE BAXTER Words and music: David Small (1985)
The story of Ollie Baxter, and how she coped with fierce bushfires in the Blue Mountains in 1951, was recorded as part of an oral history project of the Community Arts Office of the Blue Mountains City Council. David Small subsequently recounted the story of Ollie Baxter in song and Judy Small (not related - well, not closely) sings it on the cassette (called Them Were The Days) that was produced as one of the results of the project. No one could be indifferent to Ollie's determination to keep things clean and to protect her "piece of paradise".
Vocals: Margaret Walters, Guitar: Gill Rees, Bass: Peter Bennett
10. MORETON BAY or: A Convict's Lament on the Death of Captain Logan Words: attributed to Frank the Poet, Music: Traditional (from the singing of Simon Mc Donald)
Captain Patrick Logan commanded the penal settlement at Moreton Bay from 1825-30. He was an exceptionally cruel man, flogging the prisoners relentlessly and making them work in irons whatever their sentences. There was great rejoicing when he met his fate at the hands of aborigines after being separated from a group exploring the Brisbane Valley. Simon McDonald, of Creswick, Vic. learned songs from his father, also a notable bush musician. His story can be found in Time Out of Mind by Hugh Anderson (National Press, Melbourne 1974).
Vocals: Margaret Walters, Convict Chorus: Tony Cochrane, Bob Fagan, Tom Hanson, Graham McDonald, Bob Walters
11. SECOND CLASS WAIT HERE Words: Henry Lawson (1899) Music: Tony Miles (1981)
Fenced and gardened waiting areas brightened the prospect of rail travel for the first class passengers. Little effort was made to alieviate the discomforts of the lower orders. Tony Miles' tune has been slightly adapted by Andrew Knight.
Vocals: Margaret Walters, Guitar and Keyboard Bass: Andrew Knight, Fiddle: Martyn Oram
12. THE ROUTE MARCH Words: Henry Lawson (1915) Music: Cathie O'Sullivan (1979)
Another Lawson poem, this one written while young Australians were marching off to a war in Europe, feeling "across the mighty main the chains had come to bind" them in loyalty to the mother country. The song is preceded by a traditional Scottish tune: Cumha MhicShimdh (also known as Lord Lovat's March) and followed by a Scottish lament: Archibald MacDonald of Keppoch, written to commemorate his death at Culloden in 1745, Thanks to Roy Harbour for the arrangement.
Vocals: Margaret Walters, Keyboards: Trish McFarlane, Whistles and flute: Peter Woodley, Drum programming: Andrew Knight
13. PEOPLE FOR PEACE Words and music: Leigh Newton (1982)
Graham likes to call this one: Persons for non-violent conflict resolution. While there are many more stirring songs on the issue, I like this one for its simplicity and the way it calls on us all to "bear the burden of setting things right". Leigh has produced song books and cassettes: Just Peace and The Peace Songbook: Sing Your Way to Freedom, the latter containing words and music to 100 mostly Australian peace songs.
Vocals: Margaret Walters, Guitar: Bob Fagan, Bouzouki: Graham McDonald, Fiddle: Martyn Oram, Bass: Peter Bennett, Chorus: everyone!

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