Steve Wilson
-
Posts
321 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Steve Wilson
-
-
Hi Jody,
Have you managed to listen to Dave's version with anglo and banjo? You could knock this one up in no time. I myself have to work pretty hard at getting songs to a performance level. I don't regard myself as a natural born muso but I am working at it a lot and will post more eventually.
I do enjoy very much what I've heard of yours, snippets here and there. And I've always intended to purchase a CD or two but haven't gotten round to it. But I will, soon.
If you respond to this be careful what you say, don't want to be accused of blowing trumpets. Cheers now.
-
I managed to contact Dave de Hugard and have had a response regarding the origin of The Man with the Concertina.
He writes:-
If you get hold of a copy of Stewart & Keesing's 'Old Bush Songs' the
verses are contained therein under the title 'The Man with the
Concertina'. The verses there are incomplete. They were written by
Robert Stewart (b.1838)who also wrote the verse for 'One of the
Has-beens'. I adapted what Stewart wrote where I felt inclined and
added some verses of my own own - as well as using and partly adapting
the 2nd half of Lawson's 2nd verse in his poem 'The Good Old
Concertina'. Hope this helps. Dave de Hugard -
I've been working on a couple of Aussie classics for a while now. My versions on concer are... well, quite different you might say but they actually stand up on their own. Haven't recorded yet. Here are the originals.
Working Class Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erSJGrpfnOI
Dumb Things
-
Proof, if proof were needed, that Simon Thoumire for one is way out of any concertina rut!
I've linked to his blog post rather than straight to the Soundcloud file as the context is (IMHO) interesting.
Wow! Love it. This bloke's a freak. A leader and inovator in the concertina world.
Simon Thoumire for one is way out of any concertina rut!
Way out, he's flying!
-
Here's a turn up for me, posting a folk song.
A while back Geoff Lakeman posted a nice version of Jim Jones but I've always known it by a tune that's a bit different.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry3anj9zVLg
I've attempted to create a bit of tension by empolying a pulsating drone, a contradiction of terms I know but I'm not sure how else to describe it. It's on the B, don't be confused, this video is a mirror image, something I'll avoid in future.
-
G'day Wolf, thanks for the photos, lucky you. It seems to have a very nice tone.
-
G'day Stuart, very nice and really interestin. I enjoyed it, not too many ruts to get stuck in around here.
Having now listened to quite a few songs accompanied by duet, I'm beginning to feel the accompaniment is usually a bit heavy. I prefer the usually lighter touch of the EC, as in Wolf's recording of Piper to the End. But that's just my personal preference and in no way a critism of your style, please carry on. Of course I'm an english player.
-
Very nice Wolf. I do enjoy your playing and I'm astounded you can get these songs up so quickly. I would take weeks. Just wondering what kind of EC do you have?
-
It's a bit of a mouthful but what about......a contingentina.
I think that might be contingent on a vote from the residents of the Falklands.
Nah... they'd only have to worry if there was a bandit affray on.
-
It's a bit of a mouthful but what about......a contingentina. Just watch the enemy scatter, those accordians and banjos, when they raise the cry.
"look out....there's a contingentina coming over the hill!"
-
A rut can be quite comfortable. You can take your hands off the steering wheel and just bowl along. Most in the concertina world are very happy with just playing their preferred type of music and that's fine.
But there is a bigger music world out there to explore. I'm doing my bit, trying in a small way to raise consciousness and sometimes raise eyebrows too.
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO39EOc_UVf728cjv8zl-9Q/videos
This quest of mine is just beginning. As my ability improves a dabble in jazz and blues might be interesting.
Certainly some in the concertina world do perhaps need a bit of a poke. The other day I was very surprised when one had never heard a well known song I did from a popular Australian singer, Paul Kelly.
Ruts are comfortable and the road outside them can be bumpy. So easy to steer back into the rut.
-
my style of self-accompaniment which is (as the interested of you might know by this time) mainly playing melody with chords in a sort of dense, rhythmic and repetetive manner.
I for one find your accompaniment style interesting and as I've said before I'll have to try to analyse it when I've more time. I may talk more with you about this later. As for your singing ,I found your accent a little un-nerving at first listen, but that's the listeners problem. Well it never was a "problem" as such and now that I'm used to it it's fine. Very nice, interesting and rather unique. Go Wolf.
Cheers Steve.
-
Very nice Robert. Any chance you might make it to Cobargo this weekend?
Cheers Steve.
-
Curious: Just noticed that the words:
I light me pipe and puff a cloud
You’d think it was a steamerAnd an old bush tune I’ll finger outUpon the concertina.are sung to the "C" music when they conclude the first verse, but when they return at the end, they're the bridge ("B" music).
Variety is the spice....
-
I had a little time this morning, so I banged together the notation of what Steve sings, together with the chords he supplied. The rhythm changes verse to verse, so this is just the first verse.
X:1 T:The Man with the Concertina M:C L:1/4 K:D FG|:"D"AA F>G|AAA2|"G"B>c dB|"D"BA2F/F/| "G"GG EG|"D"FF D2|"A"GE A,C|"D"ED3|1z3F:|2z3d|| "G"BB GB|"D"AA FD|"A"GB AG|"D"FA2d| "G"BB GB|"D"AA FE|"E7"EE B>c|"A7"BA3|z3F|| "D"AA AG|F>F FE|"G"Dd dc|cB2B/c/| "G"dd BB|"D"AA FG|"A"AA GE|"D"ED3|z2|]
As always, you can copy the above and paste it into the window at http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html for conversion to gif or pdf (suitable for printing). You used to be able to do midi, too, for listening, but that button seems to have disappeared.
Wow David, that's great. I played through it and there's just a couple of places where I think I play it a bit differently. Counting the bars (measures) without regard to the repeat, in bar 11 I play A not D, in bar 15 it's F# not E. And the G chord moves from bar 21 to 22 as I corrected above. Sorry I'm not sure how to change your code above so I'll leave it to you if you want to.
PS I haven't listened to the video again, your code could be right, but I think the above changes are what I played.
Cheers Steve.
-
Hi, Steve, I mis-spoke again. I didn't mean Lawson's tune but the lyrics, and really only one verse from your song was actually appropriated from Lawson's but I think also there is some connection along the way. I tried the chords that Jim Lucas included but they did not seem to work just right, and I wondered whether the verse and chorus had the same chords. I think the Lawson poem plays well with chords in the key of F which also allows several melody variations. I am going to try to pick out your tune in F. I really do like the swing of it.
Thanks for catching me out. Those chords, mine not Jim's, have one chord that's not needed. In the last part of the verse when you get to the word "steamer" you hold the G and don't go to the D chord. I wasn't paying attention when I knocked up those lyrics/chords.
Oops, I've had another look. It shouldn't actually change to the G until you get to "steamer". I've corrected this here and in my original post above.
-
Hi, Steve, I mis-spoke again. I didn't mean Lawson's tune but the lyrics, and really only one verse from your song was actually appropriated from Lawson's but I think also there is some connection along the way. I tried the chords that Jim Lucas included but they did not seem to work just right, and I wondered whether the verse and chorus had the same chords. I think the Lawson poem plays well with chords in the key of F which also allows several melody variations. I am going to try to pick out your tune in F. I really do like the swing of it.
Thanks for catching me out. Those chords, mine not Jim's, have one chord that's not needed. In the last part of the verse when you get to the word "steamer" you hold the G and don't go to the D chord. I wasn't paying attention when I knocked up those lyrics/chords.
Key of F, OK, whatever suits your range. I find I sing a lot of songs in the key of D.
-
Sorry, Steve, I was not very clear. What I was assuming was that the tune you played was an offshoot from Lawson' s Good Old Concertina, since the tune had incorporated several of the verses. There have been several musical settings of Lawson's tune, but I don't care for any of them. I did like your tune, and I was wondering if you have the actual notes for it.
G'day jg,
However this song that I sing arose, I'm sure it was influenced heavily by Lawson's poem and obviously some of Lawson's lines were borrowed. You use the words "Lawson's tune" but I don't think he would have written it as a song. Someone else has and i'm going to talk to people in Australia who should be able to help with the origin of the song. Sorry I don't have the musical notation. I learnt by ear from Dave's recording.
It's not that hard to figure out, just use the pause button a lot. If you're really stuck I could work it out but I'm pretty busy this coming week.
Cheers Steve.
-
Steve, this song that you sing in an extended and embellished form with added verses was originally a poem by the famous Australian poet Henry Lawson who wrote other poems that have since been favored with a musical setting such as the Outside Track. I really enjoyed your rendition.
Our Henry has had quite a few of his poems set to music. I used to sing "The Shearers Dream" and a couple of others. I could not find anything about a man with a concertina in my collection of Lawson's poetry but an internet search found "The Good Old Concertina" which has some lines the same or similar to the song Dave de Hugard and I now sing. But generally the poem is quite different to the song. I'm going to have pursue this further and perhaps try to contact Dave. He may have adapted the poem himself.
-
Fair enough, do what works for you but don't stop doing it.
Cheers.
-
G'day Wolf,
Yay, the new mic is much better and I second Don, great stuff. What you're doing with the EC is fantastic, I wish I had the time right now to analyse how you do it. The accompaniment is still slightly too loud I think. Try having it closer to your voice and the concertina under the table or something like that.
This brings me to the point of criticism. That Don fella is picky isn't he. Just joking Joyce(Don). I have often wondered about the place for constructive criticism in these forums and Don you've broken the ice for me. I have been concerned about causing offence but I guess it depends upon how well one knows the one being criticised. I feel I'm starting to know some of you blokes a little now. I sometimes wish that people would be a bit critical of what I've been doing but I guess I need to invite it as you did Wolf.
So Wolf, I agree with Don that the melody line is not needed when you're singing. But it's your interpretation, do what's best for you. Looking forward to more. This song accompaniment baby is starting to grow in these forums.
Cheers Steve
-
Beyond the playing and singing performance is an art form in it's own right. Some are natural at it. Some, like me, have to work at it and some just don't get it much.
This might be a bit of thread drift, but I think there's a bit of a false dichotomy here, i.e., the natural talent and those who are good because they work at it. Even those who have personality traits that might make it easier for them to perform, still need to work at their art to make it an art, as opposed to, say, a talent. So don't depreciate having "to work at it" as opposed to the folks who supposedly just walk out and perform brilliantly. I suspect there are few, if any, of the latter. Indeed, part of the art is projecting that "confident stage presence" that David attributed to you, even if you don't feel it. I second the others: Good Show!
I know quite a few performers Mike, and some of them just shine. Yes of course they have to work at it but not as much as some of us others. And yes us others do have a bit of shine. It just needs a bit more polishing.
My wife has stopped sending links of my videos to her buddies because they always ask if I ever smile.
Ah, I saw a little smile at the end of Xotis Romanes. I didn't realise you had so many videos up David. I enjoyed them, nice light playing, not too heavy as some tend to be on the duet. You do look fairly serious, a few more of those little smiles throughout the video could be good. Remember it's a video, people are not just listening, they're looking at you. Could be good to look back at them, make eye contact, smile a little as you would in person. It might seem silly doing it to a camera, takes a bit of practice, but the end result is more pleasing for your wife's buddies, and probably yourself.
The total performance has always been important for me. For many years I performed for children and always considered myself an entertainer more than a musician. I learnt a lot back then. In fact 'Bluey Bones-The Jolly Swagman' (see photo) is dusting off his swag for the Cobargo festival coming up. I was never really such a great musician back then but I realised you don't have to be if the performance is entertaining.
Now, since my illness, I'm working hard at being a better musician but I still try to make it entertaining. That's why I do some of the 'pop' stuff, Chim Chim, etc. It goes down much better with general public than obscure folky stuff. Connect with the audience I say.
But oh dear, this has moved away from "The Man with the Concertina". What a nice little song but I know nothing about it. Trad/annon?......composed by....? Can anyone fill in the gaps, come on Aussies.
Now in my original post I forgot to put in the warning so I'll just do it in a moment.
Cheers all.
-
Thank you David, but my stage presence is all a bit of an act. Since they are videos i do make an effort to make them visually appealing and try to make it look like i'm enjoying myself when really I'm concentrating like mad to get it right. Beyond the playing and singing performance is an art form in it's own right. Some are natural at it. Some, like me, have to work at it and some just don't get it much. But that's OK. Pretty much the way of the world in most things, eh.
-
I just thought I'd share this with concertina netters, I suspect it's not widely known.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kRaXAsn-ok
This song is the reason I became a member of Cnet. I was learning it from a recording of Dave de Hugard and couldn't decipher a couple of lines so I thought I'd ask in here. I thought I'd get an answer from Australia but was surprised when Jim Lucas, ever on the ball, came back with the words. Thanks again Jim.
I just play the melody line with a few chords thrown in, pretty much as Dave plays it, but he plays anglo and I can't quite get the bounce. Perhaps some of you anglo-ers might like to try it. There you go Jody or anyone else up for the challenge.
Here are the words attached.
The Man with the Concertina.doc
Enjoy.
PS. Warning. Smoking is a health hazard. It causes cancer!
Hog Wild Contra Dance- Spotted Pony Into Growling Old Man
in Concertina Videos & Music
Posted
Hey Jody,
What fun! Noticed you've got some kind if pick up on the concer. What are you using? Also noticed the foot pedals, you bloody rock star!
What's the go?
Interesting to note the dancers seem fairly oblivious of the energy that's going into the music that's driving them. There's a lot of energy there, well done you guys.
Cheers Steve.