John
Memery
Granite, Guns and Gold
From the heart of Kelly Country comes a CD full
of soul. Actually its a mixture of Irish folk and country
music, with a focus on stories concerning the Kelly
Gang and their kin. All 11 tracks were written and
performed by John Memery A brief description of three
songs lifted from the CD jacket include:
THOSE
DINGO EYES Ned and Joe speak from the grave.
Most of these words are from the Jerilderie and
the Cameron letters with a few of my own thrown
in. These two had a remarkable gift for language;
a very Irish, vituperative gift to be sure but
no less remarkable for that. The more I read about
these two, the more I admire them.
FOUR
BRAVE MEN Bushrangers used to hold people up
for their watches and wallets. Not the Kelly Gang.
Here they took over an entire town. Had the locals
wanted to, they could easily have shot it out with
them. Instead, they joined them for a drink in
the Royal Mail Hotel. The boys actually managed
to impress even the bank manager, the police and
the Reverend Gribble!
KATE
KELLYS FAREWELL A strange farewell
because she is saying, Hello, rather
than Goodbye. The wild-child dead,
aged thirty-nine, found drowned in a billabong
off the Lachlan River. It may well have been
in defending Kate from the attentions of Fitzpatrick
that the real trouble started for the Kellys.
Now here she is by that billabong; she had borne
five children and she drank a lot. There had
indeed been lots of rain.
To
learn more about John Memery look no further than Tamara
Whitsed's report. If you would like to listen
to one of John's tracks Kate Kelly's Farewell click
on the link above to download a .wav file. It is
2.29 meg and worth every k. Granite,
Guns and Gold is available by phoning 03 5728
2032 or via email
at johnmemery@hotmail.com |