Ramblin'Pony songs
'ramblinpony
ramblin' ballads, guitar +vocal
stripped back to the bone
acoustic anthems, country
3 albums, "U.S. Angel" (1998), "Australian Songs" (2004) and "The 506" (2012).
X-Distractions "Extra Lover" , 5 songs - "Lay Down Your Arms", "Man to Love", Extra Lover", "Hot Body", "Boy Rider". X-Distractions grew out of The DisTrActions, our Sydney band from mid-to-late 1980's.
MY MAD SISTER (aka MY MAD SISTER AND THE TALLBOYS) from 1982-85:
MY MAD SISTER 1983
MY MAD SISTER - LAMPLIGHT (1985)
R a W (Reichel and Woodley) 1986
'ramblinpony has been writing songs since 1978, which have been performed and recorded by Sydney bands MY MAD SISTER (aka MY MAD SISTER AND THE TALLBOYS) (1982-85, Louise Hing (vocals 1982-1984), Melissa Halliday (vocals 1985) Damian Reichel (gtr + vocals) , Antony Benetatos (bass + vocals) , Michael Priddis (gtr +vocal) with Allan Woodley on occasional sax; "THE DisTrActions" 1986-89, Terri Janke (vocals) D. Reichel (gtr, vocals, trumpet), M. Priddis (gtr +vocals), A. Benetatos (bass + vocals), Chris. Vaughan (bass) , Peter. Price (drums) and me on sax), X- Distractions (Terri Janke vocals, Damian Reichel instruments and vocals) 1989/90); "The Civilians" (co-writing a few songs with D. Reichel and some with Richard Ball) late 1970's/early 1980's); R a W (Reichel and Woodley) recordings arranged, performed and recorded by Damian Reichel (1984/5) ). Some of the songs here are "uplugged" versions of those, including "Racing Car" and " Out of the Blue" on "U.S. Angel" and "Lay Down Your Arms" on "Australian Songs" on which a Buddy Holly style ending was added to the acoustic versiont. "Out of the Blue" and "Lay Down Your Arms" date from 1984/5. Some are waiting for arrangements, plugged in and electric. But on the three 'ramblinpony albums they are acoustic + vocal, stripped right back to the bone.
Rambled to Hong Kong three times, for 9 years or so altogether, wrote songs there and recorded "One Perfect Moment" at a studio in Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui around 2002. (track 10 on "U.S. Angel", added in lieu of original track 3 "Boulder to Birmingham", a cover of the Emmylou Harris song. I've always loved her singing and sent her a copy in 1999, with the hand drawn cover, looking like Picasso with a star across his shoulder). "One Perfect Moment' was one of the songs written in Hong Kong. I played it in London at the wedding of my friends Jay and Wendy in 2000. My colleague Cindy Law did a beautiful translation into Cantonese which is better than the original. She came to the studio when the song was recorded, though we haven't recorded the Cantonese version yet.
Wrote a long poem called "On Hong Kong", with about 90 photos taken in HK and Australia and there are 4 artworks by Noel McKenna done for the poem. It was written between 1999 and September 2001, declared the poem finished the day before 9/11. Its in the STORE section. In October/November 2003 there was a music festival called HarbourFest on the waterfront in Hong Kong, with a great line up including Neil Young and the Rolling Stones, for whom we had tickets. Neil Young was awesome, belting out "Keep On Rocking in the Free World" northwards to Beijing - they could probably hear him. I dropped a copy of the poem "On Hong Kong" for the Rolling Stones at their hotel. There are numerous references to the Stones in the poem and I wanted to give them something to thank them for coming to Hong Kong and just to thank them generally. There are three parts to the poem, the second part sets out a theory of linguistic connection between Chinese and ancient Greek. I'm not sure how the Stones went with that, but there's lots of other stuff they might've liked, about music and life, and the photos and Noel's artworks which are really good.. But I never got to see the Stones at HarbourFest because we got urgent word that my Mum was dying and we flew to Sydney straight away. I gave the tickets to Cindy, she bought me the tour T-shirt.
Back in Austraia in 2004 I recorded the next album of songs, "Australian Songs", including "Maroubra Girl" which is for Mum, who grew up in Maroubra, and for Dad the Fairfield boy. It's actually a duet though sung entirely by me at this stage. It was recorded in Q Studios in Riley Street, Surry Hils, which used to be the INXS studio, Rhinoceros. At the end of "Maroubra Girl" I'm singing as strong as I can, trying to sing right into heaven.
All the songs have a story. "She'll Be Right Flight' on "U.S. Angel" is for my Dad, who passed away in 1994. It includes lines from a Christian Science hymn, "O Gentle Presence", by Mary Baker Eddy, which he loved. I love hymns too and sing them often through the day.. "Full Steam Ahead" on "U.S.Angel" is for my friend from high school, Pickle, who passed away at Christmas 1997. All the songs have a story.
There are also some other photos in the PHOTOS section. More material to be added as we go.
Rambling Pony is the name of a song by Peter Green on the original Fleetwood Mac's album "Pious Bird of Good Omen", still one of the best albums ever made. Many fans of British blues around the world have been deeply touched and influenced by that record. Lord knows I'm one. My older brother Steve played it when we were young, along with John Mayall records, Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Rory Gallagher, U.S. blues boogie rock and soul notably Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, Jimi Hendrix, Canned Heat, Allman Brothers, Janice Joplin, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Frank Zappa, Lou Reed, Australia's Tamam Shud and Company Caine, to name a few. Steve would play acoustic guitar while I was going off to sleep at nights, folk songs, Dylan, pop songs of the day. Steve passed away too young on 28 October 2017 and I dedicate this to him.. Sweet dreams Swood, ramble on.
Allan Woodley
'ramblinpony
Sydney
