Love this photo Richard Whitfield took at the opening of Fairfarren. Barry is a champion, his 40 minute set of Rod’s songs was magic, the audience was spellbound, it was a fine send off. Here’s Barry’s write up from over on FB;
“I returned home to the North Coast flood disaster a few days ago, driving through the drastic rain bomb that hit Sydney, after performing at the ‘Fairfarren’ exhibition at Artsite Contemporary in Camperdown, which is a celebration of the life and music of my recently departed, life-long friend, Roderick Morgan, aka ‘Old Man Crow’. The show is on at Artsite for two weeks.
Rod and his brilliantly talented partner Mo collaborated through art and music over three decades, and the remaining artworks from these years of fascinating creativity are on display in this very cool gallery space.
I was honoured to be invited by Mo to play a selection of Roderick’s finely crafted songs at the opening, and was grateful to be accompanied by two of Sydney’s finest musicians Pierre Luniere on bass guitar and harmonies, and John Kaldor on pedal steel guitar.
These fine gentlemen, though not knowing Roderick personally, took up the challenge and shared the musical adventure with me, and raised the performance to a sublime level with their skills and sensitivity – because they understand that pure love of the abstract beauty of music, and the camaraderie and mutual trust, which is at the essence of what makes being a musician so exciting.
The fact that Roderick’s songs are superbly crafted little masterpieces made the whole experience magical, and an audience of the people whom Roderick had touched in their lives who had gathered created a sacred celebratory atmosphere that moved us all, and was a fitting send off for Roderick, my great unsung hero.
But there is a very touching story here, behind the scenes. In the mid 70s when Roderick was launching his inner city grunge band ‘Sourpuss’ I made a trade with Roderick.
At the time I owned a powerful 4-way PA system, typical of the time, with huge bass bins and horns, crossovers, mixer – the whole caboodle – and I swapped this van load of electronic boxes and wires for Roderick’s beautiful early 70s, wine coloured, Gibson ‘Les Paul Deluxe’ electric guitar. I cherished this classic instrument when I played with Jeff St John, Skeleton Crew, and various other outfits in the late 70s.
Then, when my late wife, the extraordinary vocalist Cammie Landon, and I separated, I only owned two valuable items – the ‘Les Paul’ and my ‘L series’ Fender Stratocaster (destroyed in my house fire in the 90s). It was a painful parting, but I gave the Les Paul to Cammie, who then ironically sold it back to Roderick!
For decades it was a standing joke between us for Roderick to razz me about getting that unique guitar back, because he, of all people, knew just how majestic an instrument it was.
But such was the poetic nature of this fine human being that he had the final ‘last laugh’ – and just before leaving to play the Gallery opening, Mo told me that Roderick had bequeathed that once cherished Gibson guitar to me in his Will, along with his vintage Fender Blues Junior Amplifier!
I am now in guitar heaven, as the subsequent years of playing have made me appreciate it so much more than I could back then. I am debuting the rig this coming Sunday 13th at my first official gig with ‘Hubcap Stan and the Sidewalk Stompers’ at Eltham Pub.”
It's Crow Time 