Song that soothed farmer’s tears

Michael Waugh was inspired to write a song based on an emotional discussion he had with a man at one of his gigs.

Melbourne singer-songwriter Michael Waugh, who is appearing at the Country Music Festival in Tamworth. Picture: Antony Hands.

In early 2016, Melbourne folk songwriter Michael Waugh had just finished performing a show nearby some howling dingoes when he was approached by a man who had been crying in the front row.

Waugh crafts songs that draw on his personal experience, including growing up as the son of a dairy farmer in East Gippsland. On this hot summer night, his command of language, guitar, voice and melody struck a chord with the man whose twin brother had died by suicide.

“This man in the front row at the dingo society gig was obviously deeply touched by this stuff,” said Waugh at this week’s Country Music Festival in Tamworth, NSW. “He came up, and he was having this beautiful discussion with me about his brother. I expend a lot of emotional energy when I’m playing, and then this man took me through his emotional experience. I don’t know the man’s name, but I was so blown away by it.”

The stranger’s sad story led him to write Baling Twine, a sparsely arranged and affecting song which draws on his father’s ingenuity in fixing broken things with baling twine.

The song’s protagonist later finds himself dwelling on how his twin died, and that the know-how for fixing broken machinery can’t be applied to treating mental illness.

“I’ve been thinking about my brother, and of what I’d leave behind,” Waugh sings. “And I’m tying little nooses with baling twine.”

Waugh has performed at shows in Tamworth this week to support mental health initiatives such as R U OK? Day. He said mental health was a subject close to his heart, as he had experienced bullying as a child.

“There were times in the darkness of year nine, where I was considering not being here anymore,” said Waugh, who later found his connection and purpose in the performing arts.

One of the songs from his debut album, 2016’s What We Might Be, was written in memory of a school friend named Paul, who died by suicide. Baling Twine is on his second album, The Asphalt and the Oval, released next month.

Melbourne singer-songwriter Michael Waugh. Picture: Antony Hands.

Despite the intensity of performing such emotive songs, Waugh said he was always happy to talk when he steps off stage.

“It’s a deep honour,” he said. “For some of these guys, they’re sitting in the audience, and sometimes they let some parts of themselves go, and they find themselves crying in public. But that’s OK, because I created this space for them. And then for someone to go, ‘This is my story, because you told me yours’ — it’s great.”

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