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Woodfood Folk Festival will bring a rare opportunity to see a performance of John Warner’s songs from the album, Pithead in the Fern, in which Sydney-siders, Margaret Walters and John Warner are joined by Nancy Kerr and James Fagan. The title Pithead in the Fern refers to of a coal mining region in South Gippsland, Victoria near where the composer, John Warner, grew up. The pithead is a symbol for the development brought by white settlers, and the fern, the beauty and majesty of the natural environment. Themes explored in the songs are: the isolation, marooned convicts, railway construction through swamps, coal mining and industrial strife, the decimation of the native Kurnai people, farming, the pioneering characters. While specific locations and people are mentioned in the songs, the themes have universal appeal. James and Nancy have been mostly UK based in recent years, but last time they were in Australia, they picked up one of the songs in the collection, Anderson’s Coast (Wild Bass Strait) and have been performing it in the UK for more than a year. Wherever Margaret Walters and John Warner went on their UK tour in August October 1998, people would mention James and this song. Many people in England are singing songs Pithead (picked up from Margaret and John’s earlier tour in 1994. A few of the songs (Anderson’s Coast, Dear Diary, Gippsland Schoolhouse) have been recorded by the group, Cockersdale and others. James and Nancy have recorded their stunning arrangement of Anderson’s Coast on their recent album, Steely Water. On the album, Walters & Warner are joined by the group, Taliesin, and the album owes much to the arrangements of Kim Poole (now with the group, Creel). There was only one opportunity to perform the songs live with Taliesin, so it is particularly gratifying that James and Nancy are lending their considerable instrumental and vocal talents to this presentation at Woodford. |