Recordings by Margaret Walters:
Solo and with John Warner and others

Life of Brine

Margaret's latest CD with the the Roaring Forties. Shanties are sailors’ work songs used to synchronise the work of hauling on ropes, heaving capstans, working pumps etc. Forebitters are the songs sailors sang when off watch at the bow (fore of the bitts). The language and the tunes are rough and raw and recall a special era of nautical history. Half the songs on this CD by Sydney‘s foremost shanty group have Australian content/authorship.  ($25).  

1 Wool Fleet Chorus
2 Batavia
3 Johnny, Come Down to Hilo
4 Waterwitch
5 Stormalong
6 Lee Fore Brace
7 Mainsail Haul
8 Cheerily Men
9 Shawneetown
10 Davy Lowston
11 The Day’s Work
12 Ballina Whalers
13 Bound for Darling Harbour
14 A Channel Rhyme
15 Bully in the Alley
16 Yarmouth Town
17 John Cherokee
18 Larry Marr
19 Heave Away (To the South)
20 Marco Polo
21 The Old Moke Pickin’ on a Banjo
22 Randy Dandy O!
  
23 Seamen's Hymn

Yarri of Wiradjuri

John Warner's song and verse cycle, Yarri of Wiradjuri, about a Wiradjuri man who saved the lives of nearly fifty Europeans during the great flood in Gundagai in 1852, features  Margaret  and the rest of the Roaring Forties ($25).   [Lyrics]

  1.  Landpulse  1:42  9.  Yarri's Bark Canoe/Roof Top Shanty 2:20
  2. Murrumbidgee Water 4:13   Sound Sample 10. What Kind of Man (Yarri of the River 2)  1:21
  3.  White Man Fool (Big Water Come Down) 2:18 11. Mother and Daughter 3:00   Sound Sample 
  4.   Yarri of the River 2:24 12. Floodpulse 1:44
  5.  John Spencer's Punt 3:28  Sound Sample 13. Long Tom Lindley 3:31  Sound Sample
  6. Black Sally  4:09   Sound Sample 14.  Reward  2:26  Sound Sample
 7.   Richard and Sarah 6.08 15. Building Bridges (Yarri of the River  3) 2:07
 8.   Richard & Sarah Lament 0:31 16. Yarri's Requiem 1:12

Power in a Song

Margaret's latest solo CD, released in April 2003, contains 14 songs of man's relationship to himself,  the environment, and his fellow men  ($25).    [Lyrics]

1  Windsong (John Warner)  4:01  Sound Sample  8   Faraway Tom (Dave Goulder)  3:28
 2   Trees They Do Grow High (Trad)  5:06  Sound Sample  9   Old Hammerhead (Jez Lowe)  2:57
  3   Llewellyn Walking (John Warner)  4:09  10  Maria's Gone (trad)  3:22
  4   Drover's Sweetheart (Lawson/Kempster) 4:26  11  Van Diemen's Land (Trad)  5:00
 5   Death of Ben Hall (Trad)  4:42  12  Murrumbidgee Water (John Warner)  4:07
 6   When McGuiness Gets a Job (Trad)  4:24  13  Ballad of Many Crows (Burke/Warner) 2:40  Sound Sample 2.5 Mb
 7   Largo (John Warner)  3:30  14  Joe Hill (Alfred Hayes/Earl Robinson  3:26

For the Future and the Past

For the Future and the Past is now out of stock, but authorised copies are available for $20 AUD plus postage.  Margaret's first solo CD, released in 1990,  of lesser known Australian folk songs from a variety of sources: the incorrigible convict, Frank the Poet, to Henry Lawson, Dorothy Hewett, etc.  All imbued with strength and vigour.   [Lyrics]

  1.   Of Trees and Humankind (Wendy Joseph) 4.04   8.   The Nameless Convict (Wendy Joseph) 3.45
  2.   Sailor Home from the Sea (Hewett/Kempster) 2.53   9.   The Four Seasons and Ollie Baxter (David Small) 4.17
  3.   Cyprus Brig (Traditional err. Walters/ Carthy) 6.15   10. Moreton Bay (Traditional) 3.42  Sound Sample
  4.   The Secret Room (Mary Jane Field) 2.33   11. Second Class Wait Here ( Lawson/Tony Miles) 4.54
  5.   Wife to a Cocky Farmer (Richard Keam) 4.52 Sound Sample   12. The Route March (Henry Lawson/Cathy O'Sullivan) 3.59
  6.   Number Twenty-two ("Javey"/Margaret Walters) 3.35   13. People for Peace (Leigh Newton) 2.53
  7.   On the Night Train ( Lawson/Ade Monsbourgh) 3.00 Sound Sample  

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

Pithead in the Fern         

Margaret's  first CD in partnership with John Warner, released in 1994.  A documentary in song of the coal mining region of South Gippsland, Victoria. With the coming of the railways and farms, the isolation of pioneers, the industrial strife, the plight of the Aboriginal people, the effects of civilization on the temperate rain forest region  ($25).    [Lyrics]

  1  Winding Gear (Warner/Poole)  1:30 11   Fires of '98 (Warner)  4:15  Sound Sample
  2  Pithead in the Fern (Warner)  3:10 12   Kurnai lnk 3  0:35
  3  nk 3  0:35
  3  Miner's Washin' (Warner)  3:30 13  Gippsland Mining Man (Warner/Walters)  3:00
 4  Anderson's Coast (Warner)  5:17  Sound Sample 14  Blossom, the Mining Horse (Warner/Walters & Poole)  3:00
 5  Kurnai link 1  0:30 15  Kitty Kane (Warner)  5:15
 6  South Gippsland Mud (Warner)  3:40 16 The Boiler and the Horse (Warner)  2:20
 7  Dear Diary (Warner)  3:30 17  Gippsland Schoolhouse (Warner)/Abide With Me  3:40  Sound Sample
 8  Great Southern Navvy (Warner)   3:01 18  Drunks' Express (Warner/Walters)  2:55
 9  Kurnai link 2  0:31 19  Where have the Kurnai Gone? (Warner/Walters & Poole)  1:50
 10 Devlin's General Store (Warner/Walters)   3:45 20  Trainghosts (Warner)  5:30


Who Was Here?

Margaret's second CD with John Warner, recorded in 1997.  Who was here? Their names are on a memorial stone in an obscure coastal town in New Zealand's south island. Their track is the canal and the railway line; their footprints the rust and ruins of old works, or the lasting brilliance of well-maintained crafts. Not forgetting dinosaurs and other monsters  ($25).   [Lyrics]
 
  1 Newell Highway (John Warner) 2:21  9 Telford's Bridge (John Warner) 4:48  Sound Sample
  2 Kilroy Was Here (Ewan MacColl) 2:56 10 Not Scared (John Warner) 2:49
  3 Harley Dinosaur (John Warner) 3:28 11 Pale Horse/Gold, Gold, Gold! (John Warner) 2:40
  4 Railway Widow's Blues (John Warner) 2:48 12 William Conquest Turland (John Warner) 3:23
  5 Kaikoura Railway Memorial (John Warner) 4:24 13 Empire Hotel (John Warner) 3:23
  6 The Bergen (Jez Lowe) 3:06 14 The Outside Track (Lawson/Hallom) 4:32  Sound Sample
  7 Song of the Sheet Metal Worker (John Dengate) 1:58 15 I Will Stand Fast (Fred Small) 3:32
  8 Piper on the Hilltop (John Warner) 4:37