NZ FOLK SONG * By The Dry Cardrona

NEW ZEALAND
FOLK^*SONG

By the Dry Cardrona
Jack Winter's Song
lyrics James K Baxter, music James McNeish, Don Toms

Adapted from the opening song of Baxter's radio play Jack Winter's Dream.

 Oh I can tell where the cherries grow,
 By the dry Cardrona
 Where I picked them long ago,
 On a day when I was sober
 On a day when I was sober.
 (Audience repeats the last line of each verse)

 My father wore a parson's coat
 By the dry Cardrona
 He kept a tally of the sheep and the goats,
 And I was never sober.

 My mother sewed her Sunday skirt
 By the dry Cardrona
 They say she died of a broken heart
 'Cause I was never sober. 

 I loved a young miss, and only one
 By the dry Cardrona
 But she up and married the banker's son,
 For I was never sober.

 I courted a widow of forty-nine
 By the dry Cardrona
 She owned a stable and a Scheelite mine,
 But I was never sober.

 Oh lay my bones till the judgement crack
 By the dry Cardrona
 A blanket swag upon my back,
 To pillow me drunk or sober.

 All rivers run to the rimless grave
 Even the wild Cardrona,
 But never a one will come my way
 Till I am stone cold sober.

 But I can tell where the cherries grow,
 By the dry Cardrona
 Where I picked them long ago,
 On a day when I was sober.

She owned a stable and a scheelite mine...

Scheelite, calcium tungstate, is an important source of tungsten, a very hard metal. It is named for the discoverer of tungsten, KW Scheele. The veins of scheelite in the Otago mountains also contained gold.

A folk enthusiast in Maine has transcribed a track of this song erroniously as "She owned a stable and a sheep like mine." Another American has queried the meaning of the exhortation to "buy the dry card-roller."

I first heard 'By The Dry Cardrona' sung on radio 2YA in 1958 as the opening song in Baxter's radio play Jack Winter's Dream.

There were some differences; Heenan's original tune was a little rougher, the cherries were not picked but plucked, and in the final verse Jack Winter told of a bent black cherry tree.

All rivers run to the rimless grave
Even the wild Cardrona
But the black cherry bent my way
On a day when I was sober.

However ballad-lovers have been singing it from memory for several decades now, and have molded it into its present form.

Jack Winter's Dream is set in the depression of the 1930s. Jack Winter still tramps the now worked-out goldfields he knew in his prime, 50 years before.

One bitter night, as Jack Winter sleeps in the ruins of the Drover's Rest, a derelict inn, scenes from the goldrush days come back to life and he has a final dream of gold and murder.

Charley Bird, the sly and greedy inn-keeper, is entertaining the ruffian Ballarat Jack and the effectual Preaching Lowrie.

A callow miner Young Trevelyan arrives with gold from the diggings. He is welcomed, fed, and entertained. He loses his heart to Charlie's seductive daughter Jenny ...and then he loses his gold and his life to Charlie's cut-throat razor.

Jack Winter watches it all, weeps for Young Trevelyan and then dies in his sleep. Years later a cherry tree grows up in the ruins of the inn where he and Young Trevelyan died.

Jack Winter's Dream was filmed in 1979.

James Keir Baxter 1926 - 1972

HEMI
portrait in bronze by Joan Morrell.
For more details, click HERE.

New Zealands best known poet. He was born in Dunedin, to a father who was an objector to the first world war, and a mother who was interested in languages.

He began to write at the age of seven, and spent two years in Britain before returning home during the second world war. After the war he enrolled at Otago University, but quit a short time after.
In 1950 he joined Alcoholics Anonymous and in the mid 1950s he converted to Catholicism.

These facets of his life are reflected in his play, Jack Winter's Dream. "There is one notion that lies behind this play," he said. "The shedding of blood christens a place...the natural world shares in our guilt, our agony, and perhaps our redemption."

In 1966 he devoted his life to the drug addicts and alcoholics of Wellington and Auckland. In 1969 he established a commune at Jerusalem, up the Whanganui River, and three years later he was buried there, to be remembered worldwide for his poetry, and in New Zealand for his support of outcasts from society.

The Ballad Writers' Toolbox

Little Man

Other NZ poets have written ballad-type verse that would make great sung ballads with a little simplification. Like Sam Hunt's lines about running over a possum on the road "Little man, I never meant you any harm"

What can you do with this or another of Hunt's ?

Mail me with your effort.

Dry Cardrona on Record

1958 NZBC Jack Winter's Dream studio tape
1978 Jack Winter's dream, a New Zealand drama, LP (copied from 1958 tape)
1982 Ed Trickett People Like You, LP
1983 Martin Curtis Gin & Raspberry, LP
1985 Arthur Toms, cassette
1993 Gavin Asher Across the Line, cassette
1993 Mike Harding Songs of Local Folk, cassette
1993 Fear of Drinking (Canadian Group)
1998 Mike Harding Past to the Present, CD

"Landfall" 1956	"Baxter's Collected Poems"	"Shanties by the Way" 1967	Gordon Bok, Maine c.1975	Phil Garland 1983
I can tell where the cherries grow By the dry Cardrona Where I plucked them long ago On a day when I was sober	I can tell where the cherries grow By the dry Cardrona Where I plucked them long ago On a day when I was sober	I can tell where cherries grow By the dry Cardrona Where I plucked them long ago On a day when I was sober	Oh, I have seen the cherries bloom By the dry Cardrona, Where I plucked them long ago On a day when I was sober,	Oh I can tell where cherries grow, By the dry Cardrona Where I picked them long ago, On a day when I was sober
My father wore a parson's coat By the dry Cardrona He kept a tally of the sheep and the goats And I was never sober	My father wore a parson's coat By the dry Cardrona He kept a tally of the sheep and the goats And I was never sober	My father wore a parson's coat By the dry Cardrona He kept a tally of the sheep and goats And I was never sober	My father he wore a parson's coat, By the dry Cardrona, He kept a tally of the sheep and the goat, But I was never sober.	My father wore a parson's coat By the dry Cardrona He kept a tally of the sheep and the goats, And I was never sober.
My mother sewed her Sunday skirt By the dry Cardrona, They said she died of a broken heart For I was never sober.	My mother sewed her Sunday skirt By the dry Cardrona They said she died of a broken heart For I was never sober	My mother sewed her Sunday skirt By the dry Cardrona They said she died of a broken heart 'Cause I was never sober	My mother she sewed her Sunday skirts, By the dry Cardrona, They say she died of a broken heart, For I was never sober..	My mother sewed her Sunday skirt By the dry Cardrona They say she died of a broken heart For I was never sober.
Oh lay my bones till the judgement crack By the wild Cardrona! The blanket swag upon my back, Will pillow me drunk or sober.	O lay my bones till the judgement crack By the wild Cardrona! The blanket swag upon my back Will pillow me drunk or sober	O lay my bones to the judgement crack By the wild Cardrona A blanket swag upon my back Will pillow me drunk or sober
I loved a girl and only one By the dry Cardrona She up and married the banker's son, For I was never sober.	I loved a girl and only one By the dry Cardrona She up and married the banker's son For I was never sober	I loved a young miss and only one By the dry Cardrona But she up and married the banker's son For I was never sober	And I loved a maiden, but only one, By the dry Cardrona. She up and married a banker's son, For I was never sober.	I loved a maid, and only one By the dry Cardrona But she up and married the banker's son, For I was never sober.
I courted a widow of forty-nine By the dry Cardrona, She owned a stable and scheelite mine But I was never sober.	I courted a widow of forty-nine By the dry Cardrona She owned a stable and a sheelite mine But I was never sober	I courted a widow of forty-nine By the dry Cardrona She owned a stable and a scheelite mine But I was never sober	So I married a widow of forty-nine, By the dry Cardrona, She had a stable and scheelite mine, But I was never sober.	I married a widow of forty-nine By the dry Cardrona She owned a stable and a scheelite mine, But I was never sober.
			Oh, bury my bones till the judgement crack, By the dry Cardrona, A blanket swag upon my back To pillow me, drunk or sober.	Oh lay my bones till the judgement crack By the dry Cardrona A blanket swag upon my back, To pillow me drunk or sober.
All rivers run to the rimless grave Even the wild Cardrona, And never a one will look my way When I am bone cold sober.	All rivers run to a rimless grave Even the wild Cardrona But the black cherry bent my way One day when I was sober.	All rivers run to the rimless grave Even the dry Cardrona But ne'er a one will turn my way Till I am bone-cold sober	Oh, the rivers run to a rimless grave, Even the dry Cardrona, But nary a one will turn my way Till I am bone-cold sober.	All rivers run to the rimless grave Even the wild Cardrona, But never a one will come my way Till I am bone cold sober.
But I have seem the cherries grow By the wild Cardrona, Where I plucked them long ago One day when I was sober.		But I have seen the cherries grow By the dry Cardrona Where I plucked them long ago On a day when I was sober	And I have seen the cherries bloom By the dry Cardrona, Where I plucked them long ago On a day when I was sober	But I can tell where the cherries grow, By the dry Cardrona Where I plucked them long ago, On a day when I was sober.

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