That’s a heck of a name for a tall lean half Irish half aboriginal, northern territory entertainer.
I did not realize what I was getting myself into, the primary time I met Valentine McGinnis. I’d never met anybody like him before, and I’ve never met any individual like him since.
Val was a real black fella whitefella mix. He was evenly at home amid the black and the white. He could talk white fella language with eloquence and charm and astounding humor. But amazingly he could also talk fluently in the language of his black ancestors in tongues dating back to when Australia was altogether an aboriginal domain.
Now the typical aboriginal is a rather timid reserved type of person. A bit quiet when there’s white fellas around. Perhaps out of necessity, not wishing to succumb to a lot of Anglo Saxon deviousness. But of course, any person who has been around aboriginals a lot [as I have over the last 40 years wandering the Australian outback], knows that beneath their reserved aspect lies a lot of distinctive personality traits.
So, perchance it was the Irish in him that brought out the loud, outlandish, sense of humor that held no respect for person or privilege. He could laugh at himself and his race. He could laugh at the white fella too, and neither group could become trouble because he had a generous volume of both cultures coursing through his veins.
“Once I knew a very lazy aboriginal” he chortled with a grin almost as wide as the face that kept it, ” this fella was so lazy that one day when he was asked directions, he didn’t so much as raise a finger to say which way to go.. he just pointed with his lips” Now this doesn’t seem so funny when you read it like this but to see those huge pouted lips screwed up and pointing like a finger adjacent to his face, bestirs hilarity in the most sombre individual.
Val had a little islander wife called Jane. Now Jane was the quiet one. She would just sit next to the big fellow and look adoringly into his face as he pleasantly occupied the crowd. Every time you saw Val, there would be a crowd.. I mean a BIG crowd just sitting fascinated by this lanky entertainer with his bush yarns. Then, just when it seemed he had run out of jokes, out would come the little mandolin. His huge bulky fingers would dance back and forth all over the strings while Jane accompanied him on the guitar. His booming voice rang out:
‘Old Darwin town is in the boom
For laborers hard there’s a great deal of room
But when you go to get your pay
You’ll ofttimes listen the huge boss say’
He didn’t know what the juice to do
Well he didn’t recognise what to do
With beer and gin and whiskey too
He’d jump around like a kangaroo
He had liquid on the knee, so he drank that too
Caus’ he didn’t know what to do!
I lost track of the old timer back in the late 60′s but then out of the blue, I got a phone call from him In the 80′s just before he died. Eh Pete! He said. Remember the parties we had up on the top end? Remember that you played the piano at my wedding? Remember the wedding reception when all our mob turned up. I think you were one of when it comes to three white fellas there!
How could I forget? There was no one to play the piano and I could only play with two fingers but I bumped out a couple of tunes and then sat back and watched while all these aboriginal artists got up there with their guitars and didgeridoos and pleasantly occupied us with songs and stories for the rest of the evening. What a show it was!
Guess what? That was the last time I talked to old Val. He passed away not long after, but he sent me a tape recording of all his old songs and memories which I still have someplace among the old cassettes. What a sudden intense feeling it was to fetch back the past so vividly!! And as an extra bonus, I have come to recognise his son John McGinnis in truth well and not long back I had the privilege of meeting up with him at a Christian convention in Brisbane with John, Gladys, and a whole bunch of other aborigines from as far away as WA, NT, North Queensland. Some of those WA Noongars were sons of the old persons my father grew up with in Pingelly north east of Perth regarding 60 years ago.
And now, I am astounded at another aspect of Australian aboriginality! Their amazing gift of art. Totally distinguishable in the world. I am in neverending amazement at the potpourri and endless designs they come up with, just like the designs of the snowflake. I call it aboriginal originality.
I never did talk to Val in regards to their art. He in all likelihood would have made a good deal of flippant comment and turned it into another joke. And with a name like Val, it is no wonder be had a sense of humor.
Australian Aborigin Didgeridoo Pic
Australian Aborigin Didgeridoo Photo
Australian Aborigin Didgeridoo Picture
Australian Aborigin Didgeridoo Picture
Most helpful client reviews
9 of 10 humans found the following review helpful.
 Nothing less than imaginative and super fantastic.
By Peter R.
I took a chance and purchased this cd and was amazed at the sound. The vocals have no words, but sound which blend with the vibrating and always harmonic waves of pulsing “african style” music. The tempo is fast but not sharp. It grows on you. The sounds are distinctive and not found elsewhere by yoga cds or instrumental cds. Somewhat trance like, somewhat hypnotic, yet pleasing. You cannot play this at a party, and think any individual will dance to it. Yet, the pace is very up beat.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
 Good didg playing, songs are too long, necessitated polish
By inayat2012 youtube
Ok, I wanted to like this CD. I’m genuinely into the didg and learning to play it myself. However, in these songs though the didg player(s) show great skill, the composition of these ‘songs’ is more or less arid and unoriginal. Typically in a corroboree there are multiple singers and they are singing much/most of the time. Here you have a single singer and they are singing only part of the time. There are clap sticks going on which is good. And you likewise have in these tracks birds singing in the background which is interesting but does not add anything. The songs go on and on when you ‘get’ what they are when it comes to in 1/3 or 1/2 the time. They just go on too long.
This CD just does not pull it off as being that authentic or supporting your capacity to trance out on it. It leaves you a bit frustrated because you recognise these gents could have done a much better occupation given better direction. So in the end this does not sound like the way you would suppose conventional songs to be done. It likewise does not sound like a great deal of of the better more innovative renditions of didg music such as from the Whaledreamers Soundtrack like on track 05 Prophecy Medicine Wheel which is one power-rocking song in any culture. You may in general listen much better didg music on youtube from a number of buskers (street musicians). So sorry, these songs just don’t do it for me.
0 of 0 persons found the following review helpful.
 Deep meditation
By Irish
I had never heard this type of Didgeridoo music before. The energy was unbelievable and I am well pleased with my purchase!
See all 4 client reviews…
|
Australian Aborigin Didgeridoo
Find Similar Products Like Australian Aborigin Didgeridoo at Amazon
That’s a heck of a name for a tall lean half Irish half aboriginal, northern territory entertainer.
I did not realize what I was getting myself into, the primary time I met Valentine McGinnis. I’d never met anybody like him before, and I’ve never met any individual like him since.
Val was a real black fella whitefella mix. He was evenly at home amid the black and the white. He could talk white fella language with eloquence and charm and astounding humor. But amazingly he could also talk fluently in the language of his black ancestors in tongues dating back to when Australia was altogether an aboriginal domain.
Now the typical aboriginal is a rather timid reserved type of person. A bit quiet when there’s white fellas around. Perhaps out of necessity, not wishing to succumb to a lot of Anglo Saxon deviousness. But of course, any person who has been around aboriginals a lot [as I have over the last 40 years wandering the Australian outback], knows that beneath their reserved aspect lies a lot of distinctive personality traits.
So, perchance it was the Irish in him that brought out the loud, outlandish, sense of humor that held no respect for person or privilege. He could laugh at himself and his race. He could laugh at the white fella too, and neither group could become trouble because he had a generous volume of both cultures coursing through his veins.
“Once I knew a very lazy aboriginal” he chortled with a grin almost as wide as the face that kept it, ” this fella was so lazy that one day when he was asked directions, he didn’t so much as raise a finger to say which way to go.. he just pointed with his lips” Now this doesn’t seem so funny when you read it like this but to see those huge pouted lips screwed up and pointing like a finger adjacent to his face, bestirs hilarity in the most sombre individual.
Val had a little islander wife called Jane. Now Jane was the quiet one. She would just sit next to the big fellow and look adoringly into his face as he pleasantly occupied the crowd. Every time you saw Val, there would be a crowd.. I mean a BIG crowd just sitting fascinated by this lanky entertainer with his bush yarns. Then, just when it seemed he had run out of jokes, out would come the little mandolin. His huge bulky fingers would dance back and forth all over the strings while Jane accompanied him on the guitar. His booming voice rang out:
‘Old Darwin town is in the boom
For laborers hard there’s a great deal of room
But when you go to get your pay
You’ll ofttimes listen the huge boss say’
He didn’t know what the juice to do
Well he didn’t recognise what to do
With beer and gin and whiskey too
He’d jump around like a kangaroo
He had liquid on the knee, so he drank that too
Caus’ he didn’t know what to do!
I lost track of the old timer back in the late 60′s but then out of the blue, I got a phone call from him In the 80′s just before he died. Eh Pete! He said. Remember the parties we had up on the top end? Remember that you played the piano at my wedding? Remember the wedding reception when all our mob turned up. I think you were one of when it comes to three white fellas there!
How could I forget? There was no one to play the piano and I could only play with two fingers but I bumped out a couple of tunes and then sat back and watched while all these aboriginal artists got up there with their guitars and didgeridoos and pleasantly occupied us with songs and stories for the rest of the evening. What a show it was!
Guess what? That was the last time I talked to old Val. He passed away not long after, but he sent me a tape recording of all his old songs and memories which I still have someplace among the old cassettes. What a sudden intense feeling it was to fetch back the past so vividly!! And as an extra bonus, I have come to recognise his son John McGinnis in truth well and not long back I had the privilege of meeting up with him at a Christian convention in Brisbane with John, Gladys, and a whole bunch of other aborigines from as far away as WA, NT, North Queensland. Some of those WA Noongars were sons of the old persons my father grew up with in Pingelly north east of Perth regarding 60 years ago.
And now, I am astounded at another aspect of Australian aboriginality! Their amazing gift of art. Totally distinguishable in the world. I am in neverending amazement at the potpourri and endless designs they come up with, just like the designs of the snowflake. I call it aboriginal originality.
I never did talk to Val in regards to their art. He in all likelihood would have made a good deal of flippant comment and turned it into another joke. And with a name like Val, it is no wonder be had a sense of humor.
Australian Aborigin Didgeridoo Pic
Australian Aborigin Didgeridoo Photo
Australian Aborigin Didgeridoo Picture
Australian Aborigin Didgeridoo Picture
Most helpful client reviews
9 of 10 humans found the following review helpful.
Nothing less than imaginative and super fantastic.
By Peter R.
I took a chance and purchased this cd and was amazed at the sound. The vocals have no words, but sound which blend with the vibrating and always harmonic waves of pulsing “african style” music. The tempo is fast but not sharp. It grows on you. The sounds are distinctive and not found elsewhere by yoga cds or instrumental cds. Somewhat trance like, somewhat hypnotic, yet pleasing. You cannot play this at a party, and think any individual will dance to it. Yet, the pace is very up beat.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Good didg playing, songs are too long, necessitated polish
By inayat2012 youtube
Ok, I wanted to like this CD. I’m genuinely into the didg and learning to play it myself. However, in these songs though the didg player(s) show great skill, the composition of these ‘songs’ is more or less arid and unoriginal. Typically in a corroboree there are multiple singers and they are singing much/most of the time. Here you have a single singer and they are singing only part of the time. There are clap sticks going on which is good. And you likewise have in these tracks birds singing in the background which is interesting but does not add anything. The songs go on and on when you ‘get’ what they are when it comes to in 1/3 or 1/2 the time. They just go on too long.
This CD just does not pull it off as being that authentic or supporting your capacity to trance out on it. It leaves you a bit frustrated because you recognise these gents could have done a much better occupation given better direction. So in the end this does not sound like the way you would suppose conventional songs to be done. It likewise does not sound like a great deal of of the better more innovative renditions of didg music such as from the Whaledreamers Soundtrack like on track 05 Prophecy Medicine Wheel which is one power-rocking song in any culture. You may in general listen much better didg music on youtube from a number of buskers (street musicians). So sorry, these songs just don’t do it for me.
0 of 0 persons found the following review helpful.
Deep meditation
By Irish
I had never heard this type of Didgeridoo music before. The energy was unbelievable and I am well pleased with my purchase!
See all 4 client reviews…
Similar Products To Australian Aborigin Didgeridoo
Didgeridoo Dreaming: Spiritual Music of the Australian Aborigines
An Australian Aborigine Playing a Didgeridoo Premium Poster Print, 24×32
An Australian Aborigine Playing a Didgeridoo Giclee Poster Print, 9×12