Mesa Band - Folk Rock (Songs about Pilbara Region’ of Western Australia and Vietnam)

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Please see below recent Mesa Band press articles which are available to download. Please click the attachments below:

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Am Nhac Cover July 2013	[ ]	3107 kB
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Long Road Album

Mesa Vietnam - Hello Vietnam CD

Mesa Vietnam - Vietnam Media

Nor West Friends Album

Nor West Friends Launch Night

Long Road

There is a stretch of road between Carnarvon and Broome that is called the North West Coastal Highway. This road is one of two roads that link the North West of Western Australia to Perth. The North West Coastal Highway runs west too east and has been the lifeline of the North West coastal towns for over 100 years. Only fully bitumised in the late 1970’s it has been the route for a majority of the materials and structures used to build the many towns and mine sites. Long Road is the story of a truck driver I once met early one morning at Nanutarra Roadhouse he told me about his life and how he had been driving the road for over 40 years.

Going Home

It’s now nearly twenty years since I lived in the Pilbara and in more recent times I have been a frequent visitor. There was a time when I would board a plane in Perth and just about knew everyone on the flight, now I struggle to know one person. Every visit I notice more and more changes and cannot help but think back to how things used to be. My old town has now become multicultural with nationalities represented from all over the world creating a diverse culture that was once very Australian. Regardless of the changes it will always be a special place for me.

Spinifex Child

For thousands of years’ young aboriginal boys have been disappearing into the Spinifex and playing with nature. It has been there, where they have learnt by experimentation how to catch birds, goanna’s, snakes and kangaroos, such learning has helped them to prepare for their tribal initiation - a ritualistic process overseen by their tribal elders that transforms them from a boy to a man. Once the process is completed the young men remain in the outback until the wounds inflicted during the initiation are healed. On their return they can now assume the rights of a man which includes being able to look into the setting sun, something that was not permitted as a boy. This is the story of a Spinifex Child.

Dampier Days

The coastal Dampier township was established by Hamersley Iron in the early 1970’s. It was then a vibrant place where the children of the then Hamersley workers enjoyed playing in an environment that was totally different to the towns they had left elsewhere in Australia. Many people who grew up in Dampier and are now scattered all over Australia will be able to relate to words of this song.

Somebody

Once flying back to Perth from Karratha and I overheard a woman telling another woman that she was leaving her husband. She described in great detail the reasons she was leaving, I listened intently and when I got home I opened my notebook and at the top of a page wrote the words ‘Somebody’s Going Home’ – I did not know her name she was ‘Somebody’. The rest of the words soon followed.

Boom Town Ghost Town

Over the last thirty years the Pilbara region of Western Australia, has experienced the effect of major resource companies to either close their doors overnight or drastically reduce operations. We have seen thriving communities being reduced to turmoil by a decision they had no say in. Some resilient communities manage to survive and experience the good times again but there is always a price to pay. The Pilbara resource industries has for over fifty years offered many West Australians the chance to make good money so they could finance their dreams. For many not fortunate enough to be housed in company camps or accommodation they have to commit to paying high rents or mortgages on basic housing. When the work stops overnight they are left alone with no income and financial commitments that are hard to escape from. Boom Town, Ghost Town sums it all up.

How I Long

Many FIFO workers are employed to work long rosters that can see them being away from their families for extended periods. For many of the workers being away for long periods puts a lot of strain on their relationships and daily communication with loved ones is an important part of their lives. This song shares the thoughts of one such FIFO worker who misses his girlfriend.

Under the Milky Way

For many people who have spent any length of time living in the Pilbara they will always remember the incredible night skies. The experience of camping in a remote creek and sitting back and watching the endless number of stars slowly moving across the sky will remain with me forever. This classic song originally performed by the Church always brings back those memories of the beautiful Pilbara night sky.

Rocking on the ROM

Back in the 1990’s I spent a considerable amount of time working around the many mine sites in Australia and became familiar with the acronym ROM (Run of Mine) which referred to the high part of a mine where ore was put into a crusher. Someone once told me that in the early mining days it was not uncommon for mine workers to have a few beers on the ROM pad at the end of each shift. A few years ago I met up with an old miner who told me how he celebrated his twenty first birthday on a ROM pad in Newman and the words he said to me “We were rocking on the ROM” became the inspiration for this song.

Forever We Will Run

It was in 1967 when Aussie Rules Football was first played in Vung Tau, Vietnam. The Australian forces based outside Vung Tau played games amongst the various units every Sunday afternoon. Between 1967 and 1972 nine premierships were played. Nowadays the legacy of those early games are reflected in an ANZAC Friendship Match, that every year is played in Vung Tau and features the Vietnam Swans playing against another team from the AFL Asia league. The game is growing in importance as the timing allows those visitors who travel to Vietnam for the game to also attend the Long Tan Memorial service. This song is the story of Aussie Rules in Vietnam and also reflects the healing between the nations.

Warlu Way

This Warlu Way was the name given to a tourist route goes from Exmouth via the Karijini National Park to Broome and was represented by the graphic of a snake (Warlu). There are over seventy signs erected in 2008 throughout the North West showing tourist the route. This song was written to promote the ‘Warlu Way’ tourism project and has been added to the ‘Long Road’ CD as many people were not aware of it.

david steve A powerful story-teller and lyrical craftsman, MESA singer/ songwriter David Morgan captured the red-blooded beauty of Western Australia’s Pilbara region in the band’s 2007 release Nor West Friends. Morgan’s intimate and affecting narration took audiences on a drivers-seat journey across the fierce yet fragile land, millions of years in the making.

Together with fellow singer/ songwriter Steve Spouse the pair unwittingly penned the timeless and enduring soundtrack to one of the country’s most remarkable regions. In the song Karijini Morgan painted a stunning vocal canvas of the Pindan paradise located deep in the heart of the Pilbara. Raw, rugged and remote.

The most popular song from Nor West Friends, ‘Fly In, Fly Out’, made it into ABC Radio’s Macca’s Top 100 Tracks – an iconic compilation of audience picks from Australia All Over’s two million-plus listeners.

Spouse’s strong vocals on Kanaji Binbaku saw the song nominated as a 2007 WAMI Regional Song of the Year finalist – and it led to a special, commissioned song Warlu Way. Written for an Australia’s North West tourism international marketing campaign, the Warlu Way CD also featured a swag of MESA’s best-loved songs Karijini, Timeless Land and Pilbara Moon.

In 2008 Morgan went to work in Vietnam and it was not long before he began to experience the same feeling for the culture and environment in Vietnam that he had for the Pilbara. He was inspired to write songs about Vietnam that promoted Vietnam as a tourism destination to the western world.

Hello Vietnam: Volume 1 was recorded in early 2013 at Rocket Studios, Sydney and Soul Entertainment Studio, Saigon where a few traditional Vietnamese instruments were added to the Sydney recordings compelling a fusion of east meets west.

In September 2013 Morgan and Spouse successfully launched Hello Vietnam: Volume 1 at the Sienna Café in Saigon, Vietnam and three of the songs have since been added to Radio FM Saigon’s cultural show play list.

Perhaps the biggest accolade to Morgan was when much respected Vietnam journalist and song writer Ha Quang Minh said after listening to the songs in a Saigon coffee shop, “David you write the words to your songs just like you are Vietnamese. You know my country well”

The ‘Hello Vietnam CD Project’ has certainly taken Mesa in a new direction, and the concept is very unique and will remain a work in progress over the next few years. It has also added a new dimension to the Mesa live performance and the stories of the Vietnam songs interwoven with the stories of the Pilbara songs now provides for a very entertaining experience.

In early 2014 Morgan and Spouse returned to play a few shows in Saigon and Vung Tau, and in the April MESA released ‘Forever We Will Run’ a song that tells the story of how Aussie rules football was played in Vietnam during the war years. Morgan launched the song at the popular ‘Spotted Cow’ pub in Saigon and then attended the ‘Vietnam Swans’ Anzac weekend in Vung Tau where he performed the song at the Imperial Hotel after the traditional ANZAC footy match had been played. Since then the song has become very popular with the Vietnam Vets in Australia.

Following ‘Forever We Will Run’ visits to the Pilbara rekindled Morgan’s love of the region and with Spouse they started writing a bunch of new Pilbara inspired songs. Those new songs plus an interesting rendition of the old Church song ‘Under The Milky Way’ feature on the most recent MESA album called ‘Long Road’ that was released in October 2018. It was most unfortunate that personal commitments after the release of ‘Long Road’ hindered the promotion of the album and then came the COVID pandemic. Finally, 2024 will see Morgan and Spouse hit the road for a number of regional tours and a return to Vietnam is being scheduled to perform at an event in Ba Ria Vung Tau Province.

For more information please see the Mesa Story