“The Bush Comes Back” – the new single from Colin Buchanan’s highly anticipated new album Memory Town
The song’s title came from a conversation Colin had during a short cab ride into town from Moree Airport. Much-needed rain had just broken the drought and as Colin looked out on the fresh carpet of green shoots the cabbie reflected, “Yup. The Bush comes back.”
“Once I heard it, I started seeing it everywhere!” Says Colin. “It’s the old patched up junk pile farm truck that just doesn’t give up…it’s the farmer’s morning flick of the barometer, everything gambled on the up or the down of the needle. It’s determination and resourcefulness, but not the tidy sort – it’s got lots of dings and dust and sheared off bolts and bent stuff!”
“The Bush Comes Back” is a collage of rural determination and regeneration. “I’ve seen firsthand the aftermath of fires in Victoria, in southern NSW – and even at our own back fence in Sydney! It’s remarkable to see those scorched and blackened eucalypts sprouting green – they come back!
“And I’ve never forgotten looking through the photo album of a mate’s place in Central Western NSW during the 80’s drought. There wasn’t a blade of grass to be seen. Six months later, the place was looking like the Emerald Isle! It’s as if the perseverance of the people is called forth by the land itself.”
“The more I sing this song,” says Colin, “the more I feel it’s really a song for anyone who finds it tough to just keep going. That’s probably most of us at one stage or another! I’ve heard it said, ‘Life is 80% just turning up.’ That’s really another way of saying that when the going gets tough, be you farmer, builder, teacher, nurse, truck driver, accountant or school kid…Remember the stringybarks after the bushfire. Remember the first shoots rising out of the Moree dirt after drought. Remember the generations who’ve hung in and hung on, patched up but still running, like that old farm truck. It’s not easy, it’s often not pretty, but just keep going and you’ll get to see it for yourself – The Bush Comes Back.”
loved the song. well done yet again colin.