Full Moon Tonight is an album of new songs and was released in 2012. Some songs co-written with Grant’s old Riverina mate Clem Gooden feature on this album.
* A Farming Man
* The Pub At Pleasant Hills
* Take Me to the Backyard
* Full Moon Tonight
* A Widow’s Son
* Dirty Old Town
* Boree Creek
* Bagtown Ball
* Lockhart – the Verandah Town
* The Brookong Run
* When the Water Came In
* Lost in Love
The title track Full Moon Tonight is a song my mate Peter Knight and I wrote about Pete’s father. He wrote extensively in his diary about his war time experiences as a bomber navigator flying missions over Europe in World War 2. In particular he mentions how much more frightening it was when they flew in moonlight – they became much more visible to enemy fighters. Ian McNamara has been playing Full Moon Tonight extensively on Australia All Over.
Take Me to the Backyard was written after I was involved as an extra in the movie Backyard Ashes. The makers of the film (which was written and shot here in Wagga Wagga) were looking for music for the film and they have decided to use Take Me to the Backyard! As you can probably tell, the song (and the movie) is about backyard cricket. The movie was released in November 2013.
Many of the songs on Full Moon Tonight are about experiences and life in the Riverina. My old mate Clem Gooden and I wrote some sixty songs together over a 10 year period. He was a retired farmer in his 80’s when he started writing! He lived at Lockhart and wrote extensively about the area and the people who lived there. Lockhart – the Verandah Town, Boree Creek and the Brookong Run are three songs on the album that I wrote with Clem.
Actually, A Farming Man is inspired by Clem. He told me many stories of his farming life and his passion for the land was palpable. I never lived on a farm but I remember as a kid going to many farms with my father selling tractors and farm machinery. I also spent my teenage years working casually on farms around the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. A Farming Man is also included on Ian McNamara’s ‘Get On With Macca’ Album. I did a gig at the Pleasant Hills pub in 2010 and was amazed to find out from my father that my Grandfather tried his hand at farming in the early 1900’s. The Pub at Pleasant Hills was written after having a great gig with the locals and finding out a bit of family history.
Ned Kelly made his famous trip to Jerilderie in 1879. He held the town hostage and tried to get the editor of the Newspaper to publish his account of the events of the past eleven years. He referred to himself in the ‘Jerilderie Letter’ as A Widow’s Son – a great title for a song!
Griffith is my hometown. The town was originally a Public Works Department Camp established in 1911. It was called Bagtown in its early days because many of the camps were made up of empty cement bags left over from the construction of the irrigation channels! Bagtown Ball is all about the many dances I played at in my early musical days.
$25 including postage