Henry Lawson poems set to music in live show

COMPOSER John Thorn has set 20 Henry Lawson poems to music in his show, Looking for Lawson, running at Bella Union.

Composer John Thorn has set the poems of Henry Lawson to music in a new show giving an insight into the mind of the man and how his ideas unfolded. Picture Rebecca Michael

HENRY Lawson probably didn’t have the tango in mind when he wrote his poems in the late 1800s.

But composer John Thorn did when creating his new show, Looking For Lawson, which sets 20 Henry Lawson poems to music.

The show guides audiences through Lawson’s life through his poems, and offers a rare insight into the mind of the great poet.

“I’ve tried to stay away from the more traditional bush ballads that many will associate with Henry Lawson,” Thorn says. “There are a few more traditional settings but I’ve also used some tango and songs in other styles.”

The historical poems are set to a range of music styles including marches, tangos, English Music Hall music, European and Irish folk tunes and torch songs to highlight the emotion of the words.

Twenty of Lawson’s 501 poems feature in Looking For Lawson, including the gut-wrenching Past Carin’ and Scots Of the Riverina, the revolutionary Faces In the Street, the melancholic Do You Think That I Do Not Know and the comic When Your Pants Begin To Go .

Looking For Lawson came about after Thorn took a road trip with his father.

“My marriage had broken up and I saw an opportunity to take a road trip to retrace the steps of Henry Lawson through western New South Wales. I had taken a road trip with my father a long time before and thought four or five days away was a good chance to hang out with dad.

“I was familiar with Henry Lawson through The Loaded Dog and a few other poems. The trip was well organised and there were events planned, including a debate between the merits of Lawson and Banjo Paterson. I realised I couldn’t contribute anything so decided to pen a couple of poems to music and present that.”

Those songs were well received, which inspired Thorn to set more to music and look into Lawson’s more introspective poetry.

“I didn’t want to make it a history lesson about Henry Lawson,” he says.

Despite the poems being more than a century old, many of their themes are still relevant today.

“There are universal themes of unrequited love, a lot about shame and trying to change your life and trying to be a better man,” Thorn says.

“Even when he was doing the more pastoral bush ballads, they had a subtext of lost love or something else.

“The reaction has been really great from people who aren’t familiar with Lawson. They find it really amazing these poems written 120 years ago really sink in to them and have an impact.”

Lindsay Field and Emily Taheny join John Thorn and his piano on stage.

Looking for Lawson, Bella Union Bar at Trades Hall, February 24, March 2 and 9. Bookings: bellaunion.com.au or 8650 5699.