Travels With Lind...

[Danny Harris]

Ah...it had to happen...

A semi-trailer ("Long Load") creeping along in front of me, right on the railway level-crossing at Mittyack...

...AND - "I Just Let It Take Me" comes on...

...foot to the floor, (safely, of course!) - rounded up that truck, and Lind sang "Star bright, gypsy night - Spring is on your breezes..."

Hit the cruise-control, hit the volume...

Ouyen, here we come...

[Danny Harris]

"The other evening I was drinking with my friends..."

Is there a friendlier place than Ouyen?! People make smiling eye-contact as I walk into the Victoria Hotel...

The opening of a mine in the area has seen an influx of people, and they are all here on a Wednesday evening, to slake their thirsts, swap yarns and relax in good company...

...order my tea, sink a few pots...

"...then I'll kill my beer and shake your hand and go..."

[Danny Harris]

...around about Robinvale the other day, Lind , in his best red-neck impression was truculently challenging "Hey - How Can You Go?" to an imagined (?!) relationship-weary lady friend...

Despite a slightly wetter than past 8 years Winter in this area, a dry Spring has the locals glum about rain prospects...

[Danny Harris]

Ah! The Wimmera...!

Great place names here - Galaquil, Lah, Chirrup, Laen, Quantong, Laharum, and...(ahem)...

...Beulah...

Beulah, where the Spring sun is going down in my driver's side window over the stunted wheat-grown paddocks...

"You're primed for The Reptile, Mister", a rueful-sounding Lind is warning all brothers, - "...she'll pick you like pocket and then
send you back to your wife in little pieces
that will never fit together right again."

The infamous undulating road from Lascelles to Horsham has been somewhat ironed-out - that "sea-sickness" feeling is not so noticeable...

Pretty parrots peck the grain from truck spillage at the side of the road, and give me the thumbs-up (feathers-up?) as the strains of Lind's "Waterfall Waltz" drift by...

- wouldn't be dead for quids...!

[Danny Harris]

A beautiful morning by the Wimmera River, parked under a tree, preparing for a mid-morning meeting, windows down...

Rosellas, magpies and corellas vie with Lind for my aural attention...

A walker's subdued radio enters stage right, exits stage left...

As I read, and scribble work notes -

"...sit around remembering the good old days,
life was so much simpler then..."

Lind is chiding one and all that to indulge in self-pity is "How To Get Depressed", then washes it away with some nifty jazzy guitar lick - "..come on in, guitar...)

- a young cyclist, two women on their walk - ducks on the water - the parrots are in full cry now...dashing from tree to tree, outdoing each other with their cries...

[bob_32_116]

A beautiful morning by the Wimmera River, parked under a tree, preparing for a mid-morning meeting, windows down...

... but it wasn't just the morning, it was Lind.

[Danny Harris]

...aye, verily, bob32 etc...

"...unspoken thoughts were left unsaid..."

[Danny Harris]

"Jerry went up on charges
'Sandra went straight downhill.
She bottomed out in treatment with the Jesus People -
Born again, with Jerry in the clink
For her drugs and drink."

I had taken a wrong turn ("shortcut") from Quambatook to Wedderburn ("How the hell can you get lost THERE?", they say), dirt road snaking back on itself, giving me some doubts - then - a mob of kangaroos burst from the bush, shot across in front of me , missing Cheryl by inches...phew!

Got there in time, dusty but fine...

[Danny Harris]

There's something so satisfying in hittin' the cruise control and the Lind CD buttons as I forge southwards from my Sunraysia jaunts, or like last night, a hit'n'run visit to the Big Smoke...

The mixture of "classic" and "noo stuff" (as you Yanks would say) (LOL), particularly in 'random' play mode throws up a delight each kilometre...

The Western Ring Road, at 6.30pm, was surprisingly quiet traffic-wise (school holidays?), and Lind was protesting that...

"It's not that I would want her back
Of course you know it's not like that
It must have been the music or the wine..."

[Danny Harris]

It's a very sad time in Victoria now. Hundreds have lost their lives in the bushfires in the East and North-East of the State,many more horribly injured, thousands of homes completely obliterated...

It's difficult to gee my self up for my travels next week...and Lind comes too, of course...

I will say, though, that whenever I hear that jingle-jangle intro. of "Unlock the Door", as I did today as I guided "Cheryl" through the traffic lanes of the Western Highway around Bacchus Marsh, a smile comes to my lips...

Even in dark times, the familiar sound of my favourite music makes me feel better...

Roll on next week!

[Danny Harris]

Aaah.! Some new demos !

Must download and mix 'em in my Linderesting compilation...

AND the novel's winging it's way to me...

(With apologies to "the artist"...)"How The Miles Will Fly..."

[Danny Harris]

Just back from the Sunraysia area...the heat of Mildura's Tuesday is now Ballarat's Friday - stormy, cool...with the promise of some decent rain...

Cruisin' down the highway, Lind pumped up loud...

Woomelang brought me "Somewhere In This City", so the volume was tested even more so...LOVE this track!

The "listen to this - it's important" guitar intro. of "Let It Go" pierced my senses as I entered Birchip...(I've mixed the new, new stuff with the new stuff and the not so new stuff..) - this one's fast becoming a real favourite...I sense an almost frustrated mind-set from the artist - like he has the door but the wrong key? - or, the key, but the wrong door?

Then, "Dale Anne" - the last line, about roses in the rain - yep, I overlooked this track previously in my haste to hit the up-tempo ones - boy, I like the words, the feel to this...disarming, as Lind is disarmed by sentiment in the delivery...

(This was round about, oh , I think it was Morton Plains - just before the mobile phone said 'Check for service')

Must return to "East of the Holyland" this weekend, too...

Life's a joy...!

[Danny Harris]

...mid-afternoon, weak winter sun and rain-drenched paddocks...pools of water lining the road...yes, it finally rained in Central Victoria, and then some...lots of ongoing showers, most of it sinking in...Wimmera farmers remembered how to smile again...

"I'm Wearing You" was turned up LOUD as I left Dunolly for Moliagul today, and then one of my special faves - "Gravity of the World" followed...

"...tasting the remnants of my kiss - the taste that takes the bitter truth away - neither one of us can carry this..."

"...the necessary lies that keep our loved ones safe from pain"...

...love these songs, what a travel companion!http://boblind.com/board/posting.php?mo ... &f=1&t=679#

[Danny Harris]

Trinita, the sign said..."From the Road" was drawing me homeward, like a
huge magnetic force...

..then, "Go Ask Your Man" (why DOESN'T k.d. lang cover this???) brings a grin, as southerly, ever southerly, the white Ford forged it's way...

"Don't Pretend to Remember" caused some reflection, as the metal steed leaned into a corner coming out of Woomelang before the cruise control was flicked on and full rein was given...

A cocky young Lind was told-you-so in "You Should Have Seen It (Doll)", an example of the bullet-proof demeanour only a youth in his dealing with matters of the heart could exhibit...

The straight run into Birchip matched "Home In Time For Twilight" and it's promise of haven and heart...only a few hours to go

[Danny Harris]

I was listening and singing along to "Up In The Morning, Me" from "Circles" cd passing through Bathica, when it hit me... this is such a great "ukulele song"! I can just picture that slow grin of Lind as he whips out his ukulele on stage and involves the crowd in this one...