Season 310: Discovery and Exploration

I was at one of my two monthly open mics this Tuesday and I did this song which just happened to fit this season's theme (can't possibly have been a coincidence :biglaugh: especially as all the songs at this open mic are recorded and put on You Tube.) I just downloaded it from the Open Mic YT channel, added credits and re-uploaded on my own channel.
Traditional song about Sir John Franklin's unsuccessful attempt to find the North West Passage. There were a couple of songs published as Broadsides about two years after he disappeared and these got cut down to the basic story in the oral tradition to give the song I sing here.


In case you're wondering about the banter at the beginning of the video. When I started singing initally there was no sound from the mic. That was the MC checking the mic was properly plugged in.
 
SOTU 310: HE WANTED TO WANDER - Original Song by Dennis & Evelyn Danner

I love all the different opportunities this week's theme offers us. I always want to try for another original composition each week, but sometimes things just don't click. The theme of "Discovery and Exploration" immediately brought a subject to mind. My grandfather always wanted to search for treasures with his travels and solo vacations away from home. He provided a respectable income for his family, but because of life's early experiences, he was always a dreamer of seeking lost treasures, or prospecting for riches. Evelyn and I both remember his fortune hunting stories with great fondness. I hope this song will serve as a fitting tribute:

 
I don't normally do uplifting, motivational songs, either to play or listen to. But this one sucked me in the moment I heard it and got me hooked on Ben Howard.

Hope you all like it. It's a song about finding oneself. Perhaps the most important discovery a person can make.

 
Ashley was asked to sing this song at her grandfather’s funeral this coming weekend. She was nervous about it and hates singing with a track, so she asked if I would play it with her. (A ukulele at a funeral?!) Well, as we were
practicing it, I realized that it fits this season of discovering and exploring new places very well. To quote Peter Pan, “To die will be an awfully big adventure...”

 
On Australia Day today, this is a song about William Lane and his eventually ill-fated expedition in the 1893 when he took two shiploads of Australians off to find a New Australia, because he felt the workers were being exploited in Australia, and it would never change.
Eventually Paraguay was decided upon, and Lane and his family and hundreds of acolytes (238 total) from New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia departed Mort Bay in Sydney in the ship Royal Tar on 1 July 1893
New Australia soon had its crisis, brought on by the issues of interracial relationships and alcohol. Lane's dictatorial manner soon alienated many in the community, and by the time the second boatload of utopians arrived from Adelaide in 1894, Lane had left with a core of devotees to form a new colony nearby named Cosme. He eventually became disillusioned and returned to Australia in 1899

 
This Neil Young song encourages us to try to understand the perspectives of the people who were "discovered."

 
Here's a song written by my friend Doctor Sparkles. This guy, who's actually a real MD, happens to be from my hometown, and whereas we never met while growing up, we had mutual friends. Years later, in the age of MySpace, I came across his music and was hooked. Dr Sparkles was the guy who inspired me to pick up the ukulele in the first place. I'll post the original version over on the island.

I did this song at an open mic a few years back, and was discussing with another musician how this song uses "Canadian tuning", an older style of tuning in the key of D instead of C. Another musician walked by and added, "Canadian tuning? You'd think in Canada they'd tune in the key of 'Eh'"

 
Here's one by John Denver. I switched up the time signatures to make it easier. It goes from 6/8 to 3/8 and back all over the place. I stuck with 3/4. :)

 
cua94 said:
Here's one by John Denver. I switched up the time signatures to make it easier. It goes from 6/8 to 3/8 and back all over the place. I stuck with 3/4. :)
Click to expand...

A wonderful bring Liz.

We know almost nothing about the ocean depths and Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a true pioneer and explorer. With no dispossession or hostile takeovers.
The little we do know is substantially down to him.
Of course we are now over exploiting the ocean and filling it up with junk... sigh.....
 
Greetings,

Late to the vids. Will check them out in the weekend. Received nice comments for my entries and they were much appreciated as I needed the lift and smiles you all bring me.


Ciao
 
Thanks for hosting Rick! I'd hoped to be more active, but this may be all I can get in this week. . .

I recently discovered that what I thought was a Billy Bragg composition was actually a collaboration with Woody Guthrie (his lyrics) It turns out Woody had near a thousand lyrical compositions that he never got around to putting down to music. If I understand his words here, this one may have been too racy for his time :)

 
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Happy birthday week Rick! I hope the Season is living up to your expectations.

My offering mentions a train, an interstate, and has a few other Seasonally appropriate (I hope) tidbits. I spent the last couple of days working on a paper, so I have been very much relating to the "hunched over a typewriter" couplet here.

 
Going Up The Country , by Canned Heat ..
Originally released in 1968 , this song is 50 years old this year if I'm not mistaken .. It's not only been up the country, but around the world many times over and will undoubtedly do a few more journeys yet ..
Performed a little differently using my Electric Soprano scale Uke aka the Ukebird, Roland Cube 15X Amp with Overdrive , and Ditto Looper.
There's some comments underneath the video on YT if anyone is interested.



Happy Ukeing :)
 
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Here's my third. My take on my favourite song from ELO's excellent 1981 album Time which had a Sci Fi theme about someone who had somehow woken up to find himself mysteriously transported through time to the end of the 21st century.
 
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