I tripped over the cat and fell into the bath, at least that's my excuse anyway.

Goldfish Box

01 The Spirit of The Land

Ewan McColl classic interpreted by Hugh McDonald from Spirit of The Land CD

02 Dirty Old Town

04 Fields of Athenry

07 Fields of Gold

08 I'll See You In My Dreams

12 I Was Only Nineteen

I wrote this song as part of a school songwriting project at Kerang Primary School. I came up with the Moon over Water title which I remembered as being the aboriginal meaning of the word "Kerang" then wrote the music . The Kerang primary students contributed to the lyrics and we cobbled it together. I have added a bridge section . It is about growing up in a small town. Leaving in body but not in spirit.

Moon Over Water

Hugh has enjoyed a successful career as a singer, guitarist and violinist touring Australia and the world with one of Australia’s leading bands of the 1980’s, Redgum. Before joining Redgum in 1981, he played and recorded with The Bushwackers Band, The Sundowners, Moving Cloud and The Colonials .
Hugh currently performs solo or with an acoustic trio or with his long time friend John Schumann in The Vagabond Crew. He has a vast knowledge of Irish song and dance tunes and plays fiddle, guitar, mandolin and mandocello.
Hugh wrote some of Redgum's most popular songs, notably The Diamantina Drover, which has been recorded by a variety artists including Lee Kernigan, John Williamson and Christy Moore, Ireland's most popular singer and songwriter.
Hugh is a skilled performer who loves to involve the audience in his shows. His extensive repertoire includes Redgum's number-one hit 
I Was Only 19 and other Redgum successes and classics from the '60s, '70s and '80s and up to the '90s. He also plays Jazz Standards, Irish Ballads and Australian Folk. 
Hugh has released  three solo albums: Where's the Party, a collection of  cover versions of popular jazz standards, Irish songs and an acoustic version of The Diamantina Drover; The Lawson Album, a collection of Henry Lawson poems set to music by Hugh and Garth Porter, released by ABC Music; and The Spirit of The Land, a collection of Irish folk songs and tunes with James Clark on double bass and Michael McClintock on violin.
Hugh continues to perform throughout Australia, currently with John Schumann and the Vagabond Crew, and enjoyed a number of trips to the U.S.A. where he performed in Delaware, New York and Nantucket at folk clubs, bars and uni's.

Hugh McDonald

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