Tamworth Country Music Festival - starts this week!

Views in Verse on fun.

Go to Tamworth Country Music Festival if you want to see Australia at play. You will also see the best of Australia's country music talent ...past , present and new! It is held the last two weeks of January each year. In the NSW Hunter Valley ...a great spot to visit too. Beautiful country. Bring a hat - it gets hot!!!

I'll be up there...

My brother Greg is in The Chicken Train Skifflers and my cousin Glen is in Roughstock (both great fun!)

...hope to see you there!


High on the Country

We're setting forth
We're travelling North
It's Tamworth time again
with songs I've chosen for the trip
from Bill, Troy, Beccy and Slim
The road up ahead
It dances and plays as
I shield my eyes from the sun
It's gonna be hot
be it outdoor or not
even when day is done

We'll be high on the country
So high on the country
Our mates all come
Up highway one
With Bill, Troy, Beccy and Slim

The buskers are out
Some need to shout
As they joust out loud to be heard
Give them a grin
They grin right back
In tune to your every word
Each one unique
never coiffured or chic
To themselves
they're gonna be true
Ask for a song...
You can sing right along
Might buy the odd CD too

Cause we're high on the country
So high on the country
There's music galore
in Peel St Mall
in tune with your every word

The pubs are tight
they rock alright
That's another great act to thank
Behind each door
More music plays
Be it rock, roots, skiffle or Hank
This band plays Dwight
Right into the night
We dance and drink till two
On the way back home
You're never alone
They're happy there just like you

And we're high on the country
So high on the country
Top bands all come
Great party fun
Be it rock, roots,skiffle or Hank

A morning scene
Surreal ...a dream?
Bo Jenkins on a wild mouth harp
Wazza's acoustic,
Killer's electric
Its the Albert Pub ten sharp
Gallie arrives
He steps right up
Borrowing a stray guitar
You guess the rest...
Were we impressed?
Something special happened in that bar...

And we're high on the country
So high on the country
A 'Tamworth moment'
Such as this...
The Albert pub ten sharp

Australia Day
They're out to play
Kevin Bennett plays soulfully
A living icon
of country song
as Aussie as you and me
Then the Bushwackers turn
to steal the show
emotion was high just then
Sweaty moonlight
The great outdoors
"we are Os-trale-ien"

And we're high on the country
So high on the country
The legends played
On Australia Day
As Aussie as you-n-me

Well ...there it goes
You've seen the shows
You've had just enough of the sun
Its back to the road
for the long trip home
Say goodbye to everyone
New songs to be sung
For the homeward run
The 'oldies' never far away
just tune your station
to 94 one...
More music gonna fill your day

Cause we're high on the country
So high on the country
More music to play
On 'going home' day
We'll be back same time next year

Yes we'll go...
to where the music flows...
We'll be back same time next year


Grahame Flynn - Sent from my iPhone

Boat people ...where have they all gone?

Views in Verse - on life's little mysteries.

Tony Abbott isn't saying much about how he has managed to turn back the boats and his Minister tells us mid week that we "won't be hearing any more". But yet I must say that I love a good mystery.






What is Tony's secret that he had to first totally offend Indonesia's first family to kick off his strategy? Was it his ex army general moving around the offloading ports with perhaps para-military tactics in the turning tide of persuasion?

Is it maybe the old boats we were buying from the peasants of these ports ...bit of a long shot one. Or indeed maybe the newly commissioned ones he is buying; which are launched at approaching boat people from naval ships much like a 'torpedo being fired'? Perhaps they are hitting their marks???

Or did Tony realize that the biggest issue that led to our glut of arrivals under Julia was indeed that the smugglers were clever enough to give part of their takings to the capricious onshore Indonesian officials? Perhaps Tony (noted counter puncher that he is) has flung some well earned taxpayer dollars at these same ham-fisted trolls.

But whatever be  the strategy that has really quashed the arrivals ...we are never to know or so it seems. And that always intrigues me. Because ...as I said ...I love a good mystery.




The Passing  of Ol' Salt

It was a very long night
at the Drunken Prawn
After the best catch
for many-a-year
They arrived late at the dock that day
to find what only 'fisho's' fear...

Red eyes were agog
in amazement...
to see the olde girl slipping from view
Ol' Salt was 'past her use by date'
But their only real 'earner' too

In the 'fisho's' eyes
She was the 'pride-o-the fleet'
since before my Pop was alive;
the barnacles all got up
and danced that day...
the day that Ol' Salt died"

Oh the barnacles all got up
and danced that day...
the day that Ol' Salt died
And the song they sang
to a cloudless sky could be
Heard for many a mile:

"Ol' Salt she's done her bit...
the catch is in plain sight"
"There's nothing like
some mighty hard work
for building an appetite"
"Heave her to the left"
heave her to the right...."
"We'll bring her back
Full of fish today
so we all eat well tonite!"

It was said:
"She served seven sad masters
...a nastier bunch couldn't be!"
The lads had not a good word
for any-o-them
Except for their skipper - McGee

The barnacles were singing
'Captain's Call'
McGee sang it loud every day
But whatever could inspire
Mere crustaceans
to so warble away?

As she tossed and rolled
The crew were shocked
For what they couldn't ignore
was the barnacle choir
in a fevered pitch
singing Skip's own song once more!

When that was done
They paled as one
with something horrid forming
For the captain it seemed
was last thing seen, below, drunk...
and snoring...?

They found no sign of the Captain that day
They all left that same Fall
But not before each of them telling
different stories one and all
And me...
I stood on the dockside too
But I was way too young to recall

And so
the legend lives on
In story and song
Of whatever happened that day
Was it the whiskey talking,
a crew in mourning...
Or seagulls attempting Bizet?



Sent from my iPad - Grahame J Flynn

Views in verse on teamwork

Why do we try so hard to succeed on our own?


'Oft-seen faces'

Sitting on this craggy ridge...

Gazing at my fallen bridge...

The weather's hit me hard this year...

Not sure where to go from here?

Take this rambling road, our sole traverse

Has a mind of its own and a devils curse

Some days I have what it takes I'm sure

but others...

Well ...I'm not so sure

When it's not the floods

it's the constant sun

40 plus brings you right undone

Just reaching the cattle's often tough

Priming them ...I can't do well enough

Can I take this another year?

What will the banker say I fear?

These are times that stop you dead

And cop-outs nag 

So deep in your head:

Is there a fortune to be had?

Would my life be rich and glad...?

In shiny cars in far off places?

Save this farm and these 'oft-seen faces'?

(but you know...)

Surrender is for mugs & fools...

What use downing trusted tools

Where barriers may block our way

Belief arrives with the coming day

And although life can torment you

these 'oft-seen faces' see you through

They will always sustain you

The ones you love will see you through

Grahame J Flynn - Sent from my iPhone

New Year's Resolution 3 - seek out the best in every day

Views in Verse - on recharging the batteries.  

It is too easy 'day on day' to see the same things, do the same things, ...and as a result to come home overwhelmed by mediocrity! 

Too often also our search for fulfilment in life can be unintentionally bound by four walls. When in fact our sensory perceptions can be released simply by opening the door and walking outside!

Serendipity

Since going my own way
(I do ok)
but I can at times relapse
Today the crossword I do each morn'
Was the trigger to such a collapse

The early clues began this slide:
'regret,  loss and  ...falling'
No matter
what I did from there
The trend just kept on forming

Words  like 'rejection' and 'scorn'
Provide for further fuel
While...
'promise, growth and ...hope'
Point towards renewal

Progressively though
my eye was drawn
To the 'mystery word of the day'...
An eleven letter teaser...
That steered my thoughts away

After much 'to-ing and fro-ing'
Addressing thoughts absurd
It seemed without question at all
'Serendipity'
was surely that word

I note that this is a term
related to 'sudden joy'
A state of mind
to be sure
not felt since I was a boy

It struck quite a chord
I must admit
In looking beyond the 'mundane'
to truly envisage a richer life
built on a 'serendipitous' plane

The sound of children playing
A reassuring vibe
Suddenly reminding you...
 "yes I am alive!!!"
Life is jellybean colours
Fireworks in the sky
A silvery beam is shining
Out of a wondering eye

They say ...we set our goals
far short of what we presume
Instead if we were to
'shoot for the stars'
We might just
'hit the moon'

Forwarded from my Iphone - Grahame J Flynn

new year's resolution 2 - help to create greater awareness of impacts caused by casual drug use - a coming tsunami

Views in Verse - on addressing priorities


A 2013 report by the Australian Drug & Research Center has again highlighted the growing shift into all areas of society of casual drug use; or as the media likes to call them 'recreational drugs', both very forgiving terms I suggest.

But to downplay this problem is like comparing a breaking wave with a coming tsunami given the information now publicly available beyond this source on the subject. The United Nations in 2012 nominated Australia as the greatest users of recreational drugs in the world!

I have personally seen the sad effects of this in recent years as I have observed several friends become demonized and a few destroyed by these drugs (eg: ecstasy/cocaine). Whilst I still see a few stumbling along in the class often referred to as 'functioning addicts'. This obtuse category suggesting that they are somehow under control on a daily basis. Surely 'dysfunctional' would better apply.

I have also seen and many times discussed with my now grown sons the extent of casual drug use both in a social sense and secondarily in relation to work-life. Their perspectives in particular made me much more aware of how much the real situation has changed in Sydney in the past decade.

Casual drug use has now permeated all areas of society and is freely available on demand. A new equally warm term of 'designer drugs' has been applied to perhaps the most dangerous grouping of all. The Tsunami is just beyond view.

Much of this knowledge has made me acutely aware that this is not only a social crisis. That indeed many casual weekend users may in fact not be fully functional in the workplace until perhaps Wednesday in any given working week. The ramifications of this for workplace productivity (Australia's most challenging frontier) are thereby profound!

The Australian Drug Foundation purports alcohol use to be 85% of the problem and in its many programs is claiming huge success in changing user patterns according to their 2013 online annual report. My view here is that they are not recognizing a far greater problem building in the background with the more refined and dangerous drugs of choice. Treating serious drug use as an 20/80 item cannot be tolerated from an organisation charged with addressing such matters.

Notwithstanding my greatest fear here is that if we continue to downplay the severity of the situation, much as we did with alcohol for so long, in 'softly softly' ways as suggested above, then the consequences may be dire. I say this as reaching out to hardened users of social drugs will in most cases be - 'too late'. The time to create greater awareness and action plans is now. Either that or we will be seen to be 'fostering' an acceptance of this destructive culture and the resulting adoption into mainstream as 'normal'.

We in Australia must first publicly recognize the severity of the problem. The media has a key role to play here. Perhaps the media only find it about as palatable to discuss as they have the subject of mental health in the past. Sydney Uni Paper - http://bit.ly/1a1XMmx   



Subjugation


Draw me in
familiar sin
Take me to the gate
Fold me in hungering
My ways
my days my fate

Don't look down
Or move about
The purchase is so thin
Our time is lent
My lot's near spent
To the edge
I go again

Send me down now
Laughing loud
My pain, my truth
My glee
Ready to go
The clouds are low
My weight
is strangely free

The steps are there
Advice... 'take care'
Ignore another warning
The fog is thick
I go to it
Leave me now
...I'm falling

Learn from me
Transcend me
My story's there to tell
But ...let me be
to find the key
to end
this journey well

Forwarded from my I-pad Grahame J Flynn