Fairfarren is open!

This arvo Barry Ferrier aka Doctor Baz will open the show at 4pm playing a selection of Old Man Crow’s songs with backing by Pierre Luniere on bass & John Kaldor on pedal steel
See you there!
Artsite Contemporary

Fairfarren

my magical man

a friend just sent this photo of Roderick from back in about 1976 at Julie’s place in Nimbin
Missing my magical man so much but as Oscar Wilde said “They were built out of music and so not built at all and therefore built forever”
The illustrated lyrics of Old Man Crow
listen to all 4 CDS on YouTube
Pt1
Pt2
Pt3
Pt4
& videos at rodshedmusic

Vale Roderick Wyn Morgan aka Old Man Crow 1947-2022

Vale Roderick Wyn Morgan aka Old Man Crow
1947-2022

The cremation is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 7:30am Tuesday January 25th
I will make little bundles of Rod’s ashes to be scattered in the gardens we have known over the years
fly free magical man
carry my heart to the stars

a beautiful tribute to Old Man Crow by Barry Ferrier

On the day Roderick left the stage Barry Ferrier aka Dr Baz wrote this beautiful tribute

“I woke knowing my dear, life long friend Roderick Morgan was close to the abyss and news has now come through that he left the stage peacefully at 4:44 am this morning with Mo at his side. I feel so deeply for Roderick who has been an inspiration and such a constant in my life since I met him in the gothic halls of Sydney Uni cafeteria when I was 18. I am proud to be shedding real heartfelt tears for him now. I feel privileged to have shared so many tiny magic moments of hilarity, deep conversation, and music over the decades since we were naive uni students doubling around Glebe and Paddo on his Bultaco motorbike, him with big pink plastic ears glued to his bike helmet. That image still cracks me up. He always had such a wicked sense of humour. I smoked my first joint with Roderick under a palm tree in Bondi and dropped my first acid trip with him and a bunch of friends in the beautiful Blue Gum forest at the bottom of Govetts leap near Blackheath. All the crazy, deep and meaningful, silly times. Our shared house in Glebe when I first moved out of my parents home. Learning to sing in harmony with Roderick and my late wife Cammie when she was still at school. The mad trip to Melbourne to perform ‘the Milky Way Cabaret’ with Chris Clark and Cammie at the wonderful ‘Flying Trapeze Cafe’ and Roderick singing Alice Cooper’s ‘Cold Ethyl’ in a long red velvet coat, posturing hilariously with his red Les Paul guitar, on that tiny stage, with Lo-fi backing by Ernie Thud, the primitive drum machine, with only two beats. I remember the joy he radiated when he came up and stayed with me in Bangalow and we made some of the first recordings of his quirky, brilliant songs – must have been late 80s. I always felt he was an undiscovered genius with his songwriting. He had a unique voice. It was quite unexpected to me, after our glorious misspent arty youth, and his maths background, that he was to develop a love for and deep knowledge of plants and spent his life as a gardener. And his surprising mid-life passion for wind surfing, which inspired me to take that up too… and so many all night, drunken sessions, singing and laughing and raving on in your kitchen in Leichhardt, with our special close friends. It is so surreal when someone who is a rock in your life leaves you. I can only imagine the emotions his lifelong partner Mo is feeling though she is wise and strong, these are the hardest times, facing loss of someone so dear. It’s such a mystery. I only wish I could have been close at the end. Vale Roderick my true magical man. I am so grateful for the time we had together – Old Man Crow there will never be another like you.”

Everything’s alright

Old Man Crow found a recording he made in 2004 of another song that our friend Chris Clarke wrote, sang and played. At the time they were playing in a trio called CPR with Pete Cox. In this recording: – Chris sings the melody and plays acoustic guitar. – Pete sings harmony in the chorus and plays acoustic guitar. – Rod sings harmony in the verse and chorus and plays electric guitar.

Sleepwalking

Old Man Crow just put this old recording of Chris Clarke’s Sleepwalking up on youtube, here’s what he wrote;
“In 2004 I recorded my friend Chris Clarke singing and playing a song he wrote called Sleepwalking. I added some guitar, bass and harmony, Pete Cox added some harmony, and Dave Hatch added some drums. Soon after that Chris moved out of Sydney and the project came to a halt.
I was recently going through some dusty old hard drives and came across the recording. I like it! So I asked Chris if I could put it on YouTube, he said yes and so here it is. I hope you like it too. The photo is probably from about 1980. Look at that wallpaper! Here’s the link:”

Democracy

this song gives me hope that sanity will prevail for Biden/Harris to take the reins of power in 2021 & that the ridiculous reality TV show of the past 4 years will be finished with no sequels

Too dark?

Too dark? a new song by Old Man Crow © Rod Morgan 2019
artwork by Mo Orkiszewski 2020

Gotta get back to your arms tonight with drums

Isn’t technology amazing?

My friend Dave Hatch is a drummer who has played on 50 or so of my recordings. He used to be my neighbour but now he lives in Melbourne.

I was talking to him the other day and said I wished he was still in Sydney so I could get him to play drums on my new songs. He said he had built a studio in his garage for teaching, recording, drinking beer etc. and if I sent him a song he’d record drums to it and send me back the drum tracks. Thanks Dave! I had a song I wrote and recorded a year or so ago that I always wanted to put drums on but never got it together.

So I emailed him an mp3 of the song and he recorded drums to it and dropboxed me the .wav files! I could then mix it and put it on YouTube.

It’s a virtual band consisting of me, me, me, me and my mate Dave in Melbourne. All done with social distancing (except me, me, me and me were often in the same room together).

Old Man Crow