Fiona Kernaghan: Music
Songwriting Sampler
Higher Ground
This is the title track from my sister, Tania's, fourth album called Higher Ground, released back in 2005. The song is really special to Tania and I as it was inspired by one of our heroes, the famous high country horseman The Man From Snowy River, Jack Riley. Jack lived in isolation in a hut high in the hills at Tom Groggin. He was a good mate of the late Walter Mitchell of Towong Station, who introduced Jack Riley to Banjo Paterson on a camping trip. They too became fast friends, sharing many a campfire and yarn as the story goes. As it turns out, Jack was the inspiration behind Banjo's famous poem that later became the iconic movie, "The Man From Snowy River" starring Tom Burlinson and Sigrid Thornton.
My inspiration to write the song, "Higher Ground", came from a visit to my nan and mum's hometown, Corryong, in the foothills of the Victorian High Country. Corryong was the closest township to Jack so apparently he'd visit three or four times a year for supplies. I read an old newspaper article in the Corryong museum about the night Jack's friends found him very sick and attempted to get him to Corryong Hospital, although he died along the way. I kept thinking about the way that night might have unfolded and what he might have been thinking about as he closed his eyes for the last time. It didn't take long for the song to flow and I'm really proud of the way it turned out and I love the way Tan sings it.
Jack Riley was buried at the Corryong cemetery in 1914. He rests just a few graves away from our beautiful grandmother, Myrtle Alma Annie Roberts - who was herself a fine high country horsewoman. She would have loved to have seen the Man From Snowy River Bush Festival that brings some of Australia's greatest horseman to Corryong this time of year. I wouldn't mind betting there's a feisty auburn haired lady cheering them on from her "higher ground"! Here's to both of them living on through us. Enjoy the song! Fiona. x
HIGHER GROUND
F. Kernaghan (Fiona Kernaghan Music), D. Kresco
The wind whistled colder under the door of his mountain shack
The old man coughed and pulled his blanket up around him
He stared into the fire and let fond memories take him back
To those rough and ready days when you don’t think about the end
And he thought about his young bride, the one love of his life
Her sky blue eyes and gentle ways
He recalled the way her touch could warm the coldest winter nights
Til he fancied he could feel her take his hand and hear him say…
Chorus
My bonny girl, we’ll be together tonight…
The fire’s burnin’ low, I’ll just close my tired eyes
Remember we’d ride double? I loved to feel your arms wrap ‘round
We’d break through the fog and find the mob on higher ground…
The ghost of a smile flickered across his lips
Somewhere a buckskin whinnied at the crack of a stock whip
And all along the moonlit ridge you could hear hoof beats resound
The night Jack Riley rode to higher ground
Chorus
My bonny girl, we’ll be together tonight…
The fire’s burnin’ low, I’ll just close my tired eyes
Remember we’d ride double? I loved to feel your arms wrap ‘round
We’d break through the fog and find the mob on higher ground…